Coaching for Impact: Leadership and Growth with Jean Balfour S5 l Ep5

In this heartfelt episode of the Career Transitions Podcast, we reconnect with our very first guest and longtime mentor, Jean Balfour—Master Certified Coach and founder of Bailey Balfour. Jean joins us to reflect on her own remarkable career journey, from her early days in education, to corporate leadership, to founding a global coach training organization.

We have a great conversation about:

• Jean’s evolution from teacher to entrepreneur, and what led her to start her own coaching academy
• The emotional highs and lows of building a business—and the power of staying grounded through transitions
• How coaching unlocks emotional resilience at work and beyond
• Why shared humanity and empathy are essential leadership traits in the future of work
• Jean’s upcoming third act—including the tough decision to transition her coach training program and her exciting new book on emotional agility at work

Jean’s wisdom and warmth are as inspiring as ever. Whether you're navigating a career pivot, growing your leadership practice, or just need a reminder that you’re not alone in change—this one’s for you.

🎧 Listen in as Jean reveals what’s next and shares her biggest lessons from a lifetime of learning, leading, and coaching.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

· Vanessa Iloste (Host)

· Vanessa Teo (Host)

· Aaron Wu (Producer)

Transcript

Vanessa T: [00:00:00] On this week's episode of the Career Transitions Podcast, we speak with Jean Balfour, master certified coach and founder of Bailey Balfour, an accredited coaching organization. Now, Jean was our mentor when we first started our podcasting journey, and in fact, she was our first guest in our debut season. 

Vanessa I: We explored Jean's very own transition.

Starting in education, then transitioning to a corporate career, and finally starting her own coaching academy. She shares about the lesson learned, the highs and the lows of being an entrepreneur, and the passion that continues to drive her. Listen in to the end of the episode where Jean reveals what's next in her life journey.

Vanessa T: Welcome to another episode of the Career Transitions Podcast. This is the podcast where we dive deep into the real stories behind career evolution, leadership, and the future of work. 

Vanessa I: [00:01:00] Today we have an incredibly exciting guest, Jean Balfour, a master certified coach with over 20 years of coaching experience and 30 years of working with leaders globally.

Jean, your journey in coaching and leadership development is truly inspiring. Welcome back to the show. 

Jean B: Thank you Vanessa and Vanessa. It's so lovely to be back with you today and particularly good because we're recording this on International Women's Day and you are both incredible inspiring women, so I'm happy to be sharing some time with you today.

Vanessa I: Thank you for sharing your time with us as well. Jean, your career spans over three decades and you have worked with leader from various sector. Can you take us back to the beginning? What inspire you to pursue a career in coaching and leadership development? 

Jean B: You could say it started in my teenage years because I always knew I wanted to be a teacher.

And I said that was what I was going to do. And then I went to teacher's college, and then I was a teacher. I was a primary school teacher in New Zealand and then in London. During [00:02:00] that time I started to do some teacher training and realized that I loved working with adult, basically, and it appeared I was good at it.

People kept coming back, wanted me to do more of it. So I moved from there. Ended up being in a senior leadership role in an organization development role on the executive team. That was great. I was kind of in my perfect role, but in that role I had kind of two jobs. One was to lead a big team, to be part of the executive, to be doing all the organizational stuff.

And also I did a lot of coaching and facilitation and team development and leadership building and facilitating big organizational meetings and things, and that was the piece that I loved. I think I realized over those sort of changes that really what I loved doing and what I still love doing is helping people learn, and grow, and being walking alongside them [00:03:00] while they find a way to be different, to grow, to be successful. It's just what I love and I just keep coming back to it. 

Vanessa I: Do you remember, Jean, the day you realized that how strong you were at coaching and how much you wanted to go further? 

Jean B: It came to me a number of times, I think, 'cause as you were asking that actually, that it's almost been a bit of a cycle.

The very first time I coached is of nearly 25 years ago now. My boss at the time walked into the room and said, we've got a coaching client for you. And I literally said, what is coaching and what do you mean by that? And I'm still in touch with the person I coached there. And together, I can't take any credit for that, we worked out how to help her and she needed to get the next job and she got the next job. 

As my career's gone on, I've had periods where I've been coaching more or less. I've either been training more or doing more leadership development. I went through a period where I did a lot of large group facilitation, 100, 200, 300 people in the room, and I would be the sort of Emcee for that.

It's really only been in the last [00:04:00] 10 years that coaching has bubbled to the top of the things that I most love to do, and it's hard to know when those moments are, but there are many moments where something will happen. And I think this is why I am sitting in this seat and why I'm doing what I do. Some of it's come after another experience of training that I've done, so I've deepened my knowledge and then I've been able to take that back into the work that I'm doing with clients.

Some of it's been when I've gained more confidence in my ability to sit with people, to hold the space to them, but yeah, I think there's been many moments rather than one. I still go back to that moment where my boss looked into the room and said, here's your coaching client. 

Vanessa I: You were volunteered to be a coach.

Jean B: Yeah. And thank goodness. 

Vanessa T: And it's really those people who really impact your life. Right? Who took the moment to have that conversation with you, who took the moment to have an interest in what you're really good at, and helping you to get onto that path. 

Jean, what impressed upon me is just in those few minutes that we've spoken, you've mentioned [00:05:00] the word love multiple times, and so what really resonated with me is how much passion you have and the love for what you do.

You talked about loving to connect with people, loving to help people learn and grow, and through our interactions with you, it's this love and passion for helping others that has made you such an extraordinary coach in this field. Jean, I wanted to go back to your time at Bailey Balfour, and you founded Bailey Balfour and created the accredited coach training programs.

And over the years, you've done a really impactful work in terms of certifying so many coaches around the world. So what really motivated you to start your own coach practice? Tell us a bit about how it's evolved over the years. 

Jean B: Certainly going out on my own and starting my own company was something I never set out to do.

I founded the company in 2001, so we are 24 years in, and I still think I'm a very unlikely entrepreneur. And it kind of happened to me and it happened to me because, to your point, Vanessa, that [00:06:00] I just wanted to do the work I loved and I found it too hard to do that inside organizations. And so I left. And then there have been different iterations, but I think the biggest change came after coming to Singapore and being engaged in a bit of coach training as a student myself, and seeing that there was an opportunity to create something that built on my experience.

I started my life as an educator. I know how to create instructional design. I know how to design programs. I am also interested in organizational life and work for the most likely question I'm going to ask somebody even on Christmas Day, here's how's work and I'm curious about people's experience of work and you know, my degrees and organizations, and I felt that there was an opportunity to bring together those interests.

And all of my coaching experience to train others to do that. And so I kind of set out on that road, and that really is the moment in a way that [00:07:00] I became an entrepreneur because up to that point, I'd largely been myself, but at this point I needed to hire people and go into that. And anyone who's founded a company will know that it's full of highs and lows.

Vanessa T: What were some of those biggest challenges that you faced? 

Jean B: I think the biggest one has been, and this has been true through the whole of my career, and it's the thing I say to people when they're going out as new coaches, for example. Is to manage the emotions around the peaks and troughs of work, which aren't inevitable.

You know, I've managed a few going through the global financial crisis was for sure harder than Covid, but any business is going to go through peaks and trough, and it's about both having contingencies and plans for that and knowing that when there is a difficult time that you think you'll be able to navigate it.

And also managing our emotions because you know, when you can see that not much work is coming, it's pretty frightening. And I've learned to be less frightened. I've learned to trust that there'll be something on the other side now because it always has been. But it's hard. You know, I try and encourage [00:08:00] people when they're going out and starting their coaching practice, for example, to find a way to live well with that peaks and troughs, the highs and lows of that.

There was one other thing I was going to say about the center of the coach training program, and that's to do with this. Passion I have about helping people grow. I did a lot of work in organizations where I was with people for 1, 2, 3 days and then I never saw them again and I wanted to go on a journey with people.

And training coaches is beautiful 'cause you're with coaches for six months and we get together to go on a journey of really deep learning and to see really significant change. People say when they come out of the end of the program that they learned a lot about themselves that they've not only learned to coach, but they've become different parents or partners, and that's been the most deeply rewarding part of that.

And it was something I was seeking. 

Vanessa I: I know many of your students, including Vanessa T, who actually joined your classes, and they have shared with me the way you have [00:09:00] impacted them, the way you have shown them another side of themselves. I think there is a soul searching moment when you learn about coaching, you need to really understand very well about yourself in order for you to be a good coach.

And it's always something that I found very touching. When people tell me how much they benefited from your classes, you have been working with people from all over the world, and we wanted to know if you can share some insight on navigating cultural differences in coaching and leadership development.

Jean B: As you know, we all see the world through our own lens, through our own cultural lens, personality lens, experience lens, and any shift and change, as I know both of you know, brings about some new learning, some new opportunities for learning. So I think even just in the moves I've made, I moved from New Zealand to London.

Growing up in New Zealand, you might think there wouldn't be a culture shock going to London. It was really big, and then I moved to the countryside in [00:10:00] England, had another culture shock, and then coming to Singapore. I think what I've learned through that experience and what we try and work with in running a program, which is inherently multicultural because it's global, is right at the heart of how we connect with each other, are actually coaching skills.

Essentially, it's about empathy and listening. And our ability to connect with somebody through our shared humanity. We know cultural differences between different countries that people grew up in, different family groups. There are models that can help us to understand these. But within each of those models, we're all still human, so my expression of being a New Zealander will be different to somebody else's expression of being a New Zealander. 

I've come to an understanding that's really the one that I hold. What we need to do, therefore, is to get to know each other, and that's where we begin to see our shared humanity and lose our cultural differences.[00:11:00] 

We've seen this time and time and time again in the coaching program where people coaching both of them, sometimes not in their first language, coaching each other and make a very deep shared connection with each other in that space. And then see each other's similarities rather than differences. Those similarities might be about the food we like or that we both have children, or that was one gorgeous conversation where both people were saying, I'm struggling with my husband too.

It's finding that shared sameness, if you like, for one of a better place whilst celebrating our differences. But it's finding those moments where we can connect that I think are really powerful, and I think this is powerful for all leaders. If we can find a way to connect with people in our team individually, then we go a long way to overcome our inherent bias and the fact that we might not include them.

Vanessa I: I love the idea of using the word shared humanity. I think, you know, very often when we do, um, [00:12:00] classes or training facilitation around conflict management, we talk about helping people to see what they have in common before they see their differences to support them in their alignment. But when you talk about shared humanity, it's very deep.

It's very profound. It's something that really help us to understand how it takes time as well, because it's shared humanity. I mean, this is a very deep concept 

Jean B: 'Cause I've had a very long career, I think through phases of how I've thought about team development or taking time out to connect at the beginning of meetings. When I started, I did a lot of it. I sold a lot of it, and then I was like, well, I'm not sure people are changing in teams all the time. Is it worth it? 

I'm a hundred percent back at we need to take time whenever we can to connect with each other so that when we work together, we have a way of communicating and knowing each other that makes the work easier.

I think it's become much harder, because we're working in organizations at a phenomenal pace. [00:13:00] What we've lost is space to think. We've lost space to connect. I run an online team and I don't think virtual working changes it. I think we still need to connect and get to know each other and it's perhaps even more important, but it's still possible.

You know, we feel very connected and team virtually. I've bond full circle. We need to make time for each other in our teams to get to know each other, and once we get to know each other, it gets easier to work together. 

Vanessa T: I think Jean, making time to make those connections is really this piece that you talked about, sharing a shared humanity, a shared connection, and ultimately that helps you to lose all of those cultural differences that may seem like they stand in your way.

But really when you spend time through coaching as one means to really get to know someone, it can really help to change lives. Jean, I wanted to pivot back to this piece about coaching, and you've been so involved in this space for so long and obviously spent time coaching people through their transitions as well, and I'd love to hear if you have any examples of how some of the coaching work [00:14:00] and the work of coaches can really help to transform and to help people as they transition through different phases and seasons of life.

Jean B: I can certainly talk about that. I will start by saying that I'm incredibly careful not to talk about my clients because of the confidentiality space of coaching. And so when I share examples, I share examples where it's been many clients, and so I tell clients this. First of all, I'm mostly coaching people at work, I'm mostly coaching leaders in organizations. And we are mostly focusing on work. 

What everybody tells me is that the impacts of what happens in coaching goes outside of work. In fact, one example, this is slightly breaking my rule, was one client told me that he'd even become a better driver. It was because my job as a coach is to help the person I'm with, to reflect more deeply, to think more about themselves, to offer and help them have tools so that they can be more, a bit of a psychology word, that's psychologically flexible, more able [00:15:00] to handle things or coaching is a space where they can think things through clearly. In this case, the client said, so by the time I get in the car, I'm actually feeling pretty good, and so I'm less annoyed by the other drivers on the road, and I feel like I'm a better driver. But also that happens for people who tell me that they're better parents. Or sometimes I get a message from a partner via the client saying, thank you. 

But I think this is because the work that I am most interested in in my coaching is helping people explore their emotional life in relation to work. We all know that our emotional life is obviously in the whole of us.

So I see, I mean, I can think of a few clients that I've worked with who've come to me because they've known that there's been very triggered at work and reacting in a way that they weren't proud of. They wanted to stop that happening. 

Often after a short few sessions, they've got strategies. Somebody comes to them in a high pressure moment, they're able to remain calm. Respond in a way that they know [00:16:00] is okay and carry on with the day without reacting, then feeling guilty, then having to go and apologize to people, you know, and losing that space. 

So for me, it's about the impacts that doing some work on ourselves, on our emotional life, has both for us as leaders or colleagues and has in our wider world.

Vanessa I: That's really fascinating to hear you talking about this impact on emotional lives. I think that this is meaningful and especially on a day like this International Women's Day, we need to really claim our fame. When it comes to the future of work, you said something earlier, which I really like because we talk about it almost every time we talk to each other.

The pace of work is now very, very fast. I was wondering what would be the advice that you would give to us in terms of how to prepare ourselves for the future of work? 

Jean B: Well, let me start by saying I'm not a future of work expert by any means, but I guess I've been thinking a bit about it. We've talked a long time about the only constant being change.

I think the [00:17:00] only constant now is that we've got no idea what's coming at us and what's it's gonna look like. I think that's pretty daunting. So there's just so much that we don't know, nevermind the global factors that we're experiencing in the moment. And so I've come to think that there's kind of two key things.

One is I believe that more than ever we all need to hold a growth mindset. And that is that we're not frightened to learn. We are okay to leave things behind if we've learned it and now it's not working for us, and that we are willing to pivot and try something, whatever that looks like. So that's the first thing.

And the second thing, I probably would say this, 'cause I teach coaching. There is a friend of mine that is sort of not quite a measure analysis that looked at lots of the future of work studies and looking at what they were saying about the skills and basically none of them agree with each other except on one thing, and that's empathy.

I believe that in order for us as individuals to succeed in this next piece. We need to get really good at the things only humans can do. [00:18:00] And that's the leadership piece. It's the bringing team together. It's being a colleague who works collaboratively. It's the back to human, if you like. It's a human skill because those are the things that the robots will never be able to do.

They'll never be able to hold quiet presence for somebody so they can think through a challenging problem. You know, there's lots of AI models for coaching, for example, at the moment, and some of them are very good. What they're not able to do is to hold empathy between two people. So I believe that it's actually more important now than ever for people in their careers to be able to develop the skills, what have always been called the soft skills.

I've always had a problem with that 'cause they're the harder skills to learn. I know I'm speaking to you both converted on this, but around empathy, listening, good seems to be curious. 

Vanessa T: You're right, those soft skills are really the hardest skills to adopt. So learning and spending time connecting with individuals, building that empathy muscle, building that is really going to [00:19:00] be irreplaceable by anything technology or AI related.

Jean, so much that we've learned from you today, and you talked a lot about helping others to navigate through the different seasons of life, and you've certainly experienced such a long and successful career and also building a really successful business, and I'm very curious to know what's happening in the next season of your life.

Jean B: This is the first time I'm really talking about this. I've actually come to a point of my own transition, the next transition in my career. I turned 60 last year, and first of all, I can't tell you how many people asked me when I was retiring, which is not something I had any intention to do perhaps at by my father at 92 said to me yesterday, I'm really busy, you know, and I'm very happy.

And so I'm like, okay, I'll be happy if I'm busy when I'm 92 as well. Last year, I listened to a few podcasts and heard a few people speak about their third act. If your first act is growing up to 30, your second act is 30 to 60, what happens [00:20:00] in your third act? And I absolutely resonated with this. So I've been thinking a lot in the last year about what does my third act look like?

I want actually to go back more to my roots, and my roots are coaching and teaching, and I've also got an emerging writing practice happening. I have a book, which is in its first draft and is ready to have an editor to help me. I need some professional help to take it to the next stage, but I want to deepen my coaching practice even further.

So I have made the very difficult decision that it's time for me to stop running our coach training program, which has been running now for eight years, and it's been really hard decision. It's taken me a year to make it, and once I had made it. I knew it was the right decision. Within 24 hours. I had this kind of settling, a little that's right for me.

I've done a lot thinking about why that might be. I think some of it even goes back to, you know, lots of those moments [00:21:00] in my career where I've stepped away. My zone of genius is not day-to-day management of a company. It's really not. I can do it. I'm competent, but it's not the place that I'm absolutely at my best and I want to spend this next third act really sinking into what I'm really good at, which I think is teaching coaching.

That sounds a bit immodest, but I believe that's where my best value is. So I've made a very difficult decision that we will, this will be our last year. We are running some cohorts this year, but they'll be our last cohorts on coach training program. We are very emotional. 

Vanessa T: So Jean, having been one of your students through this program and this incredible coach program that you run, I can tell you it's a world class program and I've personally benefited so much from it, and I know that you've also trained up so many coaches who continue to bring significance and impact in the work that they do. 

So congratulations on your many years of having built up a very successful coaching practice. [00:22:00] But at the same time, we're super excited to hear about this third act. And curious just to know a little bit more when you say that you're gonna deepen your coaching practice even further.

We're very excited also to hear about your new book. How much of that can you share with us right now? 

Jean B: First of all, my book is connected to that. My book is about the relationship between our emotional lives and what happens to us at work. It doesn't have a title yet, but it's really because that's been the whole of my career, is being coaching leaders.

Working with myself, I've worked a lot on myself and looking at this connection between who we are and how that impact us at work. We get in our own way, make things difficult for ourselves, and I've written a book about how we can get out of our own way, really some strategies to do that. It's obviously that is an iterative process for us, for the rest of our lives because new things arise, new challenges arise, but some tools and strategies for that.

And that's the work I want to do more of, and that's the work I do in my coaching [00:23:00] already, and I want to do more of that work. I want to be able to sit with leaders, either in an individuals or in a group setting, and help people to feel more emotionally resilient at work to feel that they're able to deal with these incredible challenges that are coming their way, which just beyond imagination and have that emotional flexibility, resilience, agility, to be well in themselves while they're handling those difficult situations. 

Vanessa T: Jean, I can only imagine the amount of impact that you're gonna continue to have. You and I have also spent many hours in coaching sessions together, and I can attest to the impact.

The work that you've done with me has also impacted the way that I think as a leader and the way that I think about life and this piece about the strategies to get out of your own way, I think is certainly something that many of us can really benefit from. Super excited to hear about your new book.

Super excited to hear about your third act. 

Jean B: Thank you. Scary talking about it, but there you go. That's the [00:24:00] nature of transition. 

Vanessa T: It is. 

Jean B: That always be a bit scary. 

Vanessa I: You won't be alone in this transition. We'll be supporting you the same way you supported us in all these years. Before we wrap up, we wanted to know if there was one final thought that you wanted to share with our listeners about career transition.

Jean B: Yes. We all go through career transition and what makes a career transition better is having people walking alongside you. Like both of you, Vanessa and Vanessa, I'm very grateful for the role you play in my life. And wherever we are, we need people to be with us while we go on that journey. And that can be a work buddy, friends, 'cause it's too hard to do this alone, so let's do it to get that.

Vanessa T: Well, thank you so much, Jean. It has been an incredible pleasure having you back on our show. You helped us to start this entire podcast journey. You've been a mentor, a friend, a coach. In so many ways and we can only wish you the very best in your third act. [00:25:00] And we cannot wait to have your book come out.

Vanessa I: We'll be inviting you back for that book launch. We sure will. So that, uh, so that we can talk about it more in depth. Thank you so much, and talk to you soon. 

Jean B: Thank you guys, very much.