Learning to Lead in the Middle of Change: How 1:1 Coaching with Oxygen Helped one Manager Stop Being the Bottleneck
Manager Success Spotlight: Kate Thomas, Head of Brand at MrQ
Overview
When Kate Thomas started 1:1 coaching with her Oxygen coach, Heather, almost everything around her was in motion. She had recently stepped into a Head of Brand role at MrQ, a move that took her into a brand-new function. At the same time, the company was hiring a new C-level team, restructuring marketing, launching a brand refresh, and building out a brand team she was hiring and standing up from scratch. As she put it, every part of the environment was changing at once.
She had managed people before, but like most managers, she had never actually been taught how to lead. By some estimates, nearly 60% of new managers receive no formal training before stepping into the role. Six months of private coaching, from July through December, gave Kate something different from a playbook: a coach who asked the right questions, the permission to stop and think, and a set of practical tools that changed how she makes decisions and develops her team. Her story complements Oxygen's MrQ case study, showing what the work looks like from inside one leader's day-to-day.
Key Takeaways
Kate started coaching in the middle of a major company transition: a new C-level team, a restructure, a brand refresh, and a brand team she was building and hiring from scratch
She expected a playbook and got something more useful: a coach who asked the right questions and helped her answer them herself
Practical decision-making tools replaced indecision with a bias to act: gather the facts, don't wait for perfect information, and remember that a decision is better than no decision
Coaching her own team rather than handing them answers removed her as the single point of failure and made her team more accountable and empowered
Delegating day-to-day decisions freed Kate to elevate her thinking and take a more strategic, umbrella view of her function
The biggest shift others noticed was her mindset: she stopped feeling she had to prove herself, which showed up as more confidence and ownership
Coaching That Arrived in the Middle of the Storm
Kate had recently moved into the Head of Brand role, about 12 to 18 months earlier, when the coaching began. It was a steep step into an unfamiliar function at a moment when the whole business was shifting.
"It was relatively blind, to be honest. I'd recently moved into a Head of Brand role, and we were going through a lot of change as a company. We were hiring a new C-level team, and as part of that we restructured the marketing team. It was a big step, at a time when the business was changing quite significantly."
The demands were stacking up faster than the hours in the day.
"We were also going through a brand refresh, and I was leading that, building out an entire new brand team, hiring for it, and setting up new processes. There was lots of ambiguity, lots of change. Every part of the environment was changing at once. So the coaching really came in at a good time. When MrQ offered it, I was like, sign me up. I need something like this right now."
The Coach Who Didn't Hand Over the Answers
Kate went in expecting Heather to be a source of answers. What she found instead reshaped how she thinks.
"I think what I expected going into the sessions was that Heather would have all the answers. I'd go to her with all these problems and she'd just say, here's the playbook, this is what you do. I very quickly found that wasn't the case. She didn't tell me what to do and she didn't solve the problems for me. Instead, she knew exactly the right questions to ask, and the way she did it made me answer my own questions. It really gave me the time to think."
That permission to slow down mattered, especially while she was learning the brand craft on top of everything else.
"There was so much going on, and I was learning a new craft on the brand side, so I was being challenged to read books and listen to podcasts. Every time I did that, I felt guilty for not delivering tasks or doing something for the team. Heather gave me permission to stop, think, and take the emotional side out of things, which I think I can be guilty of."
From Giving Answers to Coaching the Team
Kate had managed teams before, but the program reframed the difference between managing and leading. The instinct she had to unlearn was the urge to solve everything herself.
"When I'm thinking about leading my team, the easiest thing is to give them the answers straight away. If someone comes to you with a problem, the easiest thing is to say, the way I do it is this. But the smarter, longer game is to teach them ways they can figure it out themselves, ways to reach the conclusions themselves. So the next time that challenge comes up, they've already been exposed to how I would have thought about it. Heather opened my eyes to the idea that being a good leader, compared to a manager, is giving people that experience too."
A Practical Cure for Indecision
One of the challenges Kate brought to coaching was a sense that she hesitated on decisions. She expected a pep talk and got a method instead.
"One challenge I brought to Heather was around a lack of assertiveness, or decision-making. I thought she'd just say, come on, be more assertive. But instead she gave me practical ways to think. She said, if you're worrying about a decision, make sure you've gathered the facts, whether that's you getting them or your team pulling the numbers together. And ask yourself, do you really need to make it right there and then, or can you ask for more time? That takes the pressure off."
The reframe that stuck was permission to act before everything is perfect.
"She encouraged me not to wait for perfect information. Get the best facts you can at the time, make a decision, and get on with it. A decision is better than no decision, whether it turns out right or wrong. Once you've made it, you move forward, you learn whether it was a winner or a fail, and then you move on, rather than getting caught in a flurry of not deciding. There are many times now the team have come to me for a decision and I've used that advice to move forward."
Removing Herself as the Bottleneck
Those changes did not stay personal. They changed how Kate's team of eight operates, and how much depends on her.
"It's empowered the team a lot. Otherwise I was the single point of failure, the bottleneck, and that's not good for anyone, not for the team and not for the business. The tips and frameworks Heather gave me to handle these day-to-day challenges have allowed us to make team members more accountable, and given them permission to make decisions on certain things. Before, we'd have been caught in this flurry of non-decision-making."
Freed Up to Think Strategically
Empowering the team did more than lighten Kate's inbox. It changed where she spends her attention. The payoff is significant, given that managers account for roughly 70% of the variance in team engagement.
"It frees me up from the day-to-day. It can be satisfying to get caught up in the weeds, because it feels like you're ticking boxes and moving things along. But ultimately, as the head of a function, you're not taking the business forward if you're signing off on individual emails. Giving the team the accountability and empowerment to make decisions has helped me elevate my thinking, think more strategically, and get more of that umbrella view."
The Shift Other People Noticed
When Kate asked what had changed, the feedback from her manager and her team pointed to something deeper than any single tactic.
"The biggest observation from people has probably been my mindset, and where I'm at. I was in this headspace of having to prove myself all the time. The shift to realising I don't have to prove myself to anyone, that I'm good at my job and I can do it, filtered through to more confidence and more ownership in meetings and in leading the team. That's been recognised by the people I report to and the people on my team."
Why Six Months Was the Right Length
Kate's coaching ran from July to December as a focused, one-to-one engagement, while a handful of other MrQ leaders went through Oxygen's six-month program with their own dedicated coaches. Looking back over her notes, the length proved its value.
"When I was reflecting on this, I looked back at my notes and at the challenges and conversations we were having from July through to December, and it was nice to see how far I'd come. I'd say a minimum of six months, because there are themes the coach starts to see across your conversations, things they bring out and help you with. Honestly, I think it would have been useful to carry on, because the more they get to know you, the more they can draw out the strengths and weaknesses in you."
She has carried the habit forward even without the sessions on the calendar.
"In the moment now, it's more about taking a walk and forcing myself to have that thinking time. With Heather, it was an excuse to have that time to think, or to chat through a problem. Now it's about stepping away from the laptop and going for a walk."
What Kate Tells Anyone on the Fence
Her advice for managers who are skeptical or nervous is direct.
"For anyone who's worried about doing something like this, or doesn't think it would be useful, I'd strongly encourage them to reconsider. Heather helped coach the way I think, which is very different from having your manager coach how you perform. It was a really nice way to change my perception of things. I'd strongly encourage anyone to do it."
And the fact that her employer invested in that growth left a mark. You can see more of those outcomes across Oxygen's programs.
"I'm extremely grateful the company recognised the importance of giving their leaders these skills, because you don't learn them in textbooks, and you don't learn them while you're learning your craft. The better I can be as a leader, the better the team's output, and the better the commercial outcome for the business. It's a win for everyone."
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