About Us
We are a coaching firm, with relationships at heart, and organisations in mind.
Led by Jean Balfour who opened the first branch in the United Kingdom in 2001, Bailey Balfour has been inspiring and developing professionals and leaders to make work better for everyone. Currently based in Singapore, we provide accredited coach training programmes, coaching services and leadership solutions to individuals and global organisations in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.
In a world where competition gets stronger, tasks pile up, pace and pressure increase, we create a safe space to pause and seek clarity, and to identify the challenges and opportunities. We believe in the power of meaningful coaching conversations and relationships to maximise human potential and well-being at work.
As a regional leader in online coach certification, we design our coaching programmes to meet the reality of today’s workplace across countries, cultures and time zones.
A virtual classroom provides the flexibility we need in our busy lives. The technology used is smooth enough to make you forget it and feel you really are in a classroom. It makes learning possible from wherever you are. You can also connect with like-minded people from diverse backgrounds across the globe and incorporate ideas from the best practices. The live online interaction with the coach and fellow students offers a rich learning experience and fosters global networking opportunities.
Join us on this enriching coaching journey.
Our Coaching Style
We Value People
The most precious resource in a company is you. Each individual has a wonderful potential waiting to be unlocked and developed. Let us bring out the best version of you.
We Believe in Partenership
We do not think we know it all. We partner with you to match our expertise with the solution that best fits your needs. We listen, reflect, test and revise until we get it right.
We Make it Practical
We love a good theory but practice is what matters. All our sessions are based on learning by doing.
We Build Quality Relationships
Relationships are the key to success and happiness at work. We aim to change the quality of conversations in the workplace and build meaningful relationships.
We are Global
Our programmes allow learning to happen wherever you are. We offer the opportunity to connect with our global network for a rich learning experience.
Our Team
We are an international team of highly qualified coaches with a wealth of experience, happy to share with you what we are so passionate about. We believe in the power of relationships. That is why our coaches and faculty will not teach you coaching in an academic top-to-bottom way, but will journey with you on your path of learning and experimenting coaching. Let us embark on this enriching coaching experience together!
Our Teaching Faculty
Jean Balfour
Founder & Programmes Director (MCC)
Singapore
Imogen Maresch
(PCC)
London, UK
Carole Lewis
(PCC)
Chris Avis
(PCC)
Mylene Baxter
(PCC)
England, UK
Jean Balfour
Founder & Programmes Director (MCC)
Singapore
Born in New Zealand, Jean is an accredited coach with 20 over years of experience in coaching individuals and organisations globally and across a range of sectors, including financial services, engineering, health, IT and professional services. She believes business success is driven by effective leaders who are self-aware and committed to their own growth and behaviour change.
She first founded Bailey Balfour in London, UK, in 2001 to support individuals and organisations in building meaningful relationships and to develop strong and compassionate leaders. Jean believes that coaching changes both work and personal lives. Clients often talk about how listening more both in their professional and personal life was transformative to their relationships and the quality of their work.
Currently based in Singapore, she continues to coach global clients on how to lead in diverse and global markets and across cultures. She is adept at helping her clients connect their personal strengths and leadership style to career success and achieving business goals, drawing on both psychological and organisational theories to help them maximise their potential.
She sees relationships as the key to organisational success. She has a practical, results-oriented approach to coaching and her style is warm and challenging. With a solid reputation for quickly building trust, Jean has a proven track record of helping clients to implement new patterns and behaviours that lead to improved performance and well-being at work.
In her free time, Jean loves to nurture plants and particularly enjoys growing flowers. One of the things she loves about Singapore is being able to grow orchids.
Jean has an MSc in Organisation Consulting from Ashridge Business School, a Post Grad Diploma in Human Resource Development, and is an Ashridge Accredited Executive Coach. She is accredited and experienced in the application of a wide range of psychometric tools, including Hogan and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® step 1 & 2. Jean is a member of the ICF and is MCC accredited.
How did you become a coach?
I was thrown in the deep end and asked to coach a senior leader. I quickly sought some training and first trained with Nancy Kline, followed by doing Masters in Organisational Consulting and then the Ashridge Executive Coach Accreditation process in the UK.
What do you enjoy the most about coaching?
I love to see people solving their own challenges, answering their own questions and becoming more resourceful. I often see clients leave a coaching session with clarity, more energy and a focus on what is next and that is very rewarding.
How has coaching benefitted you?
I have worked with a coach, or someone similar all my career. They have helped me to achieve career goals, change direction, resolve internal struggles and build my resilience.
What keeps you inspired?
I read a lot! I read both fiction and non-fiction. I am particularly interested in books which increase self-awareness and self-learning and have a learnt a lot from leadership theories.
What do you think make a good coach?
The most important aspect is to learn to be fully present with a client and to put them in the driving seat. This is much easier said than done! Quickly followed by deep listening and a belief in the capacity of people to be capable and resourceful.
What would you advise someone who is interested to become a coach?
Start practising your listening – it is harder than you think!
Carole is an internationally certified professional coach with over 20 years of experience in coaching, facilitation and consulting. She specialises in supporting senior leaders in developing highly effective interpersonal and communication skills. She has lived in Hong Kong since 1997 where her skills, passion and energy for developing people as well as her experience with local Hong Kong culture make her a sought-after professional. Her coaching work has included working with multi-national corporations and coaching over 40 different globally based nationalities. This has given her a keen understanding of what is required to successfully connect to, communicate with and inspire people in multi-national organisations with diverse teams. Carole helps her clients explore internal blocks to external behaviour change creating a deep level of learning and shifts in behaviour. She uses an Ontological approach to coaching combining an exploration of language, body and emotions as well as a foundation of scientific research into the brain. This supports her clients in developing new default behaviours that enhance their leadership capabilities. This approach provides a solid grounding to the coaching, and particularly supports those who may be more technical or practically inclined, to succeed in transferring knowledge and awareness of internal processes to changes in behaviour.
Carol Lewis
(PCC)
UK
How did you become a coach?
After many years of providing training solutions to corporates, I one day ‘discovered’ coaching through a colleague. Although I loved training, I could see that coaching could be that secret ingredient I had been looking for in order to really make a difference. This was 2006 and coaching was not as well established, particularly in Asia, as it is now. However, I found a training school, went through rigorous training, mentoring and assessments and got myself certified. Till today, I am often amazed by the power that even one coaching conversation can have on someone’s life.
What do you enjoy the most about coaching?
The amazing look on a client’s face when they come to a new awareness. It lights up the room and we both know something special (and valuable) has happened. I also love that coaching helps others to help themselves. It is not about the coach having the answers, but about taking a client through that process of reflection to find their own answers. There is a wonderful satisfaction in being able to help someone find their own way forward and equip them to continue to do so.
How has coaching benefitted you?
It has helped me become who I am today. I have been coaching clients as well as receiving coaching for the past 14 years. It has helped me shape my personal and professional life in countless ways. In that time, I transitioned careers, set up two businesses and created a name for myself in an industry I had not previously known. None of this would have been possible without coaching.
What do you think make a good coach?
Someone who has empathy, compassion, the desire to help others and the willingness to learn. Learning to coach is not a single event, it is a journey and the best coaches enjoy the process of learning and refining their skills on an ongoing basis.
What would you advise someone who is interested to become a coach?
Get proper training! Nothing can replace solid structured training that will help you gain the specific skills required for coaching. Then practice, practice, practice and get feedback so that you can continue to refine your skills.
Chris Avis
(PCC)
Cumbria, UK
Chris is a psychologist by profession and trained as a coach in 2009. She has worked for local government and private business in her varied career. The common strand has always been seeking to support others in their development. Chris recently moved close to the Lake District in the north of the UK to work part time, giving her more time for the things she loves in life, walking, music and coaching. These are all things that fill her with joy and a sense of calm.
How did you become a coach?
I had been offering coaching for some time before taking a formal training programme. What a revelation – I am sure I had done nothing terrible before the programme, but how much more I learned about how to really help my clients get what they want from the time and space coaching provides. I continue to learn and develop as a coach. It is an ongoing and hugely fulfilling journey.
What keeps you inspired?
So many things keep me inspired and most important of all is making sure to make time for those things and the people who are inspirational. It is all too easy to get caught up with the things that cause us stress. Make time to breath in the fresh air.
What do you think make a good coach?
The obvious skills that make a good coach are being able to listen and ask good questions. However, it is so much more than this – keeping an open, curious mind, setting aside any belief that we have all the answers, being comfortable with ambiguity and not knowing all the details, really believing in our client’s ability to answer their own questions and find the best solutions for themselves.
Imogen has over 10 years of experience in learning and development and 1:1 coaching, across a range of settings, sectors and cultures. Having lived in Singapore for 12 years, Imogen has designed and delivered workshops for thousands of participants from across the Asia Pacific region. She has also coached leaders from a range of different organisations, who she has helped to respond to challenges, realise opportunities and raise performance at work.
Imogen has worked in a range of organisational settings, including holding leadership roles in the public and private sectors, in both the UK and Singapore.
Her personal coach training spans many years and includes work-based coaching (with Bailey Balfour), applied neuroscience and developmental coaching. She is committed to life-long learning and self-development and holds an MBA from the University of Leicester and is currently studying a MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology with East London University.
Imogen recently relocated to London with her husband and two children and is enjoying rediscovering the city, but not always the weather!
Imogen Maresch
(PCC)
London, UK
What do you enjoy the most about coaching?
I am grateful to be involved in a profession that makes such a positive difference to people’s lives, at work and beyond. I most enjoy it when people surprise themselves with what they are capable of – which happens often.
What keeps you inspired?
I am a constant learner and believe we are all on an on-going developmental journey. I am currently completing my Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology and am fascinated by how this evolving field can support people to fulfil their potential in a sustainable way.
What do you think make a good coach?
A belief that the person has the ability to find their own path, and a willingness to walk besides them as they discover it.
Mylene Baxter
(PCC)
England, UK
Previously Director of Talent Development and Communications reporting to the CEO, and with 25 years’ experience working at senior level in global commercial organisations, Mylene understands the challenges faced by leaders and senior teams. Her interest is in helping leaders change their own beliefs and behaviours in order to influence change in their teams and the wider organisation. Mylene’s coaching philosophy is that everyone is resourceful and has the answers within themselves – these answers may not be clear at first, but with help and a desire to change, they soon emerge.
“Mylène combines a systemic view of the organisation with the ability to ask challenging questions which have helped me adapt my own leadership style to lead a complex global commercial change.”
– Group CFO, Renewable Energy Organisation
More recently, she has also combined her passion for coaching and for dressage and have started coaching professional riders to prepare mentally to perform at their best in national and international competitions.
How did you become a coach?
I became interested in coaching when I sought the support of a coach to manage my own career transition. With her support I learned so much about myself, my motivation, vulnerabilities, ambitions that I was able to make decisions from a wider range of choices than I would have thought of on my own. One of the decisions I made was to qualify as a coach!
What do you enjoy the most about coaching?
Without a doubt, it is my clients’ realisation that they have found their own solution or answer or even shifted their own belief when they did not think it possible to start with! Supporting clients to get to the point when they find their own answers is truly rewarding.
How has coaching benefitted you?
By far the most powerful support coaching has given me is finding a new way to deal with my own internal demons. Through self-discovery, support and practice, I have turned self-limiting beliefs to constructive dialogues.
What keeps you inspired?
Learning and growth. No coach should ever say that they have stopped learning. I learn from my clients every day and I grow as a result.
What do you think make a good coach?
Stay curious, trust your intuition, be brave and hold your client when they step outside their comfort zone. Above all, always trust your client to find their own answers.
What would you advise someone who is interested to become a coach?
When I was studying to become a coach, I wanted to become the “perfect” coach. I soon realised how vain it was to be perfect when all I bring to coaching is myself. Coaching is fundamentally a human connection. If you are interested in supporting others without advising them, developing them without solving their problems, unlocking new behaviours without judging them, go for it.