At Barefoot Coaching we’ve been coaching senior female leaders and high potential women across the globe for over two decades. To mark International Women’s Day 2026, here are five lessons we’ve learned about the challenges women in leadership face today, and how organisations can help women overcome them. Authentic Leadership:

While girls outperform boys at school and college, upon entering the workforce the balance tips against women. This downwards slide continues over a women’s career: for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women (including 77 women of colour) are promoted. Published this year, The Broken Rung delves into

“It is the relationship which heals, the relationship which heals, the relationship which heals.” – (Rogers, 1957) Foundations: Building the Coaching Relationship  When we talk about building the coaching relationship, it can sound deceptively simple: Demonstrate warmth and interest. Listen. Don’t talk too much but do ask thoughtful open questions.

Grief Awareness Week (2–8 December 2025) invites us to recognise something profoundly simple yet often overlooked: grief comes to work with us. Loss, whether personal or professional, affects how we think, feel, connect and perform. Yet many workplaces still lack the language, confidence or structures to acknowledge it. We believe

Power, Presence, and Self-Awareness in Coaching How often do you stop to reflect on the impact you have as a coach? Not just the outcomes or insights your clients gain, but the felt experience of being coached by you. Even with the best of intentions, it’s possible that the way

(A nod to Monty Python – and a considered look at the role of tools in coaching) When we train coaches, we are often asked what coaching tools bring to coaching and whether they exist for the benefit of the coach or the client. There isn’t an easy answer to