Meet Holly Vaughan

Holly Vaughan said…

Coming out of Covid and needing to reframe and rebuild the internal team, we were focused on structure from a leadership perspective. We were working on upskilling myself and leaders within the departments that I oversaw. The coaching experience provided dedicated time to have strategic conversations, develop the action plan and the accountability to stick to the plan. I loved bouncing ideas off Genevieve from a leadership perspective as to whether my thinking was correct or needed correcting in relation to developing team members, performance and business growth building strategies.

I had some big overwhelming challenges to overcome like other tourism operators, and particularly in my situation, juggling the balance of being a full time passionate working mum with two young children and managing the demands of a reasonably large team, meeting their needs and the business’ commercial needs. Together throughout the coaching experience, we worked on an action plan, analysis of the sales and event management process and the customer journey, leading to identification of key weaknesses, areas of opportunity and subsequent solutions or action steps. It has strengthened me personally and professionally, so I’m in the best position to do my job and fulfil the needs of staff and business. Our 1-1 sessions were a beneficial pause on the hectic day to day, special time to focus on me, fill up my cup, so that I could continue giving to the team, management and the business.

My big takeaway was the importance of taking time to sit down and discuss things, making the plan and working the plan is paramount. The old adage to have time to “work on the business instead of being too busy working in it” is very important. It was key for our business to have a plan to create and build a sustainable business model and also a working model for me to achieve greater outcomes. This would not have happened if I’d stayed on the treadmill of “busyness” caught up racing along in our hectic day to day of charters, cruising, meetings, problem-solving and of course selling and customer service. The advice provided, looking at scenarios and looking at things differently was a favourite element of working together with Genevieve. The validation of being on the right track and building my confidence was amazing.