One belief sits at the heart of everything we do...
The better people are within themselves, the better they are with others. Stronger within, stronger leaders, stronger teams, stronger impact.
Our leadership coaching and development work across Australia helps leaders understand who they are when the pressure is on, strengthen their emotional intelligence and communicate with greater confidence. It builds the self-awareness and resilience needed to lead people well and create stronger teams.
The leaders who get the most out of
this work are the ones who are open to facing
the truth — and taking action on it.
The way you see yourself as a leader and the way your people experience you can be two very different things.
Leadership coaching enables you to build the emotional intelligence and confidence to handle these situations more effectively.
- Difficult conversations being avoided until the problem gets bigger.
- Feedback that leads to defensiveness or resistance.
- Different communication styles creating misunderstanding and friction.
- Managers struggling with confidence, boundaries or difficult people.
- Conflict, frustration or a lack of accountability beginning to affect the wider team.
Emotional intelligence enables you to see what is happening underneath those behaviours — including your own — so you can respond differently.
And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
How our leadership coaching works.
ICG works across four interconnected areas of leadership development: identity, communication, resilience and workplace culture. Most clients find themselves working across all four because the way a leader thinks, communicates and responds directly affects the people around them.
Our approach also brings a neurodiversity-informed lens to leadership development, recognising that people think, process, communicate and respond differently.
Leadership Identity & Confidence
Confidence in leadership comes from one place — internal security. When leaders know who they are, what they stand for, and how they naturally operate, everything changes. The way they communicate. The way they make decisions. The culture they create just by being in the room.
Communication & Emotional Intelligence
The most expensive problems in organisations are communication problems. Not because people can’t talk — but because they don’t understand how differently people think, process, and respond. ICG uses evidence-based behavioural tools to give leaders a clear, honest picture of themselves and the people around them.
Resilient Leadership
Resilience isn’t about being tough. It’s about knowing how to move through pressure, change, and uncertainty without losing yourself — or your people. The leaders who sustain high performance are the ones who understand what depletes them and what restores them.
Workplace Culture & Team Development
A good culture is not a coincidence. It is the direct result of what leaders do — and don’t do — every single day. ICG works with organisations to make culture an intentional act. To close the gap between the values on the wall and the behaviour in the room.
to explore whether ICG and your organisation are aligned.
Leadership coaching grounded in real experience.
25 years of real leadership experience, with emotional intelligence at the heart of the work.
ICG brings leadership experience from the inside, shaped by real roles across recruitment, telecommunications and manufacturing in the UK and Australia, alongside years of working with leaders and teams across a wide range of industries.
That experience is combined with an emotional intelligence lens. Because how you lead is influenced by far more than what you know. It’s also how well you understand yourself, recognise what is happening in others, manage your responses and adapt your communication when the pressure is on.
ICG uses DISC, Driving Forces and Emotional Intelligence assessments through TTI Success Insights to help leaders understand how they communicate, what drives their behaviour, where friction may be occurring and how their impact can differ from their intent.
There is also an understanding that people process information, communicate and respond to their environment differently. This brings a neurodivergent-informed lens to the work without putting people into boxes or assuming one way of thinking, communicating or leading is the right one.
The result is leadership development grounded in self-awareness, emotional intelligence and the realities of leading people.
Gravitas
Because middle management changes what leadership asks of you.
Gravitas is a leadership coaching and development program for middle managers, building the confidence, communication and emotional intelligence needed to lead people effectively.
It gives middle managers space to understand themselves as leaders, work through the friction that comes with different people and communication styles, and become more intentional in how they respond, influence and lead.
What our clients say
Trusted by leaders across Australia's most demanding industries.
Through coaching with Lesley, I gained much more clarity about my leadership style and started embracing the unique traits that make me me. I also got better at communicating with my team both on a spoken level but also setting clear expectations and delivery timeframes. Setting clear goals has really helped me stay focused, and I've been more resilient when faced with challenges. This has been monumental not just in my professional life but at home too, now raising a 2 year old little boy! I started noticing changes pretty quickly—within a few weeks! By the end of the program (about 3 months), I was more confident within myself and felt a big shift in my outlook on life! The biggest change for me was definitely the confidence boost. I got more comfortable in my own skin as a leader and started communicating in a way that feels more natural and authentic. I also got much better at handling tough situations and using setbacks as learning opportunities rather than beating myself up over it and getting stuck in a loop of negative self-talk. Before coaching, I definitely struggled with self-doubt and wasn’t always sure how to communicate my ideas clearly. Now, I feel a lot more confident in my decisions and actions. I’ve got a clearer direction for both my career and personal life, and I’m able to face challenges with a positive mindset rather than feeling overwhelmed. Go for it! Invest in yourself and you will not regret it. Head into each session with an open mind and the results will speak for themselves.
“Through my sessions with inspired coaching, I gained valuable insights and practical strategies that improved many aspects of my personal and work life. I have gained self-confidence, improved productivity and communication skills. Within three months I started to notice real progress. The most evident change I noticed was a shift in my mindset which allowed me to make better communication decisions and feel more self-confident. In my sessions we covered topics that helped me become a better leader within my workplace and give me the ability to better communicate with my peers. Now I feel more confident, empowered, focused and in control. Coaching has given me the tools and perspective to navigate challenges. If you are considering coaching, I highly recommend booking in with Lesley. The experience can truly be life changing, and the guidance you receive will enable you to reach your potential as well. Make the investment in yourself, you will reap the benefits for years to come.”
What I found in Lesley exceeded all expectations. Professional, inspiring, respectful and empathetic were a few of the attributes I was looking for when considering the vast leap to taking on a life coach. Challenging, motivational, transparent, with a no-nonsense attitude to round out an impressive skill set, Lesley provided me with tools and resources to remove self-imposed roadblocks, flip the narrative, and face life with renewed purpose. In a relatively short period following our work together, I successfully negotiated a work promotion. Imposter Syndrome is becoming a thing of the past. Grateful and privileged to have participated in a holistic life-changing few days. Lesley personifies the healthy self-reflection, decision making, and hard work it takes to reach your individual goals. I now continue to follow Lesley's journey as a reminder of what can be achieved if you decide to change and the importance of the follow-through.
I reached out to Lesley at a crucial juncture in my life, feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Despite being familiar with some of the concepts Lesley teaches, my state of overwhelm meant I wasn't applying them effectively. Lesley's expertise was precisely what I needed - someone to slow me down and guide me through the process step-by-step, ensuring clarity even when it seemed elusive. Over the past six months, her methodical approach has been a beacon, helping me to strip back the layers and start anew. Her guidance in leadership and communication, as embodied by Scalable Skills, has been invaluable, providing the tools and support to reset and reignite my passion for both personal and business pursuits. I am immensely grateful for Lesley's support and cannot thank her enough for helping me regain my spark and achieve a balanced lifestyle.
At NQPHN, we are committed to cultivating a culture of continuous learning and professional growth. Recently, our organisation collaborated with Inspired Coaching Group to deliver six days of professional development training to all our employees in Cairns, Townsville, and Mackay. The Human Side of Work: Communication, Productivity & Wellbeing, delivered by Lesley Buckman, strengthened our relationship excellence skills by providing the tools to: ✅ navigate hard conversations with confidence and clarity ✅ describe accountability without judgment by staying "above the line" ✅ manage stress effectively ✅ maintain composure in challenging situations ✅ offer practical ways to dig deeper into issues rather than just tackling symptoms. We're proud to support our people so they can continue making a meaningful impact in the communities we serve.
I worked with Lesley for over four months with the goal of successfully executing an event that meant a great deal to me. What I thought would be coaching just to help me “get it done” turned into a much deeper journey of self-discovery. Through Lesley’s guidance, I overcame personal barriers that had been holding me back — and in the process, I gained clarity on my values, strengthened my self-trust, built confidence, and significantly improved my time management. I not only achieved my goal, but did so in a way that felt aligned and empowered. Before coaching, I felt overwhelmed and unsure. Afterward, I felt clear, capable, and energised — not just about the event, but about what’s possible for me moving forward. I would definitely recommend coaching with Lesley. It’s the best investment I have done to myself, for myself.
We engaged Lesley as a management coach in Cairns following a restructure and fresh management team, knowing that there would be value in a coach assisting us with grounding the new team. COVID challenges within the business were also fatiguing and to improve resilience we sought to build on the efficiency of management and streamline certain tasks. By including Lesley in the restructuring plan it expanded our capacity to deal with personal growth of management whilst internally we focused on the more technical and commercial aspects to be developed. Lesley was easy going and understood the brief. She certainly met our expectations and allowed us to focus on our core business and growth. I highly recommend Lesley.
I recently worked with Lesley to do a business strategy and goal setting session. In our 90 minute session we covered a lot of ground around the things that have been holding me back in my business. Lesley gave me some tools to combat these things and also helped me to develop some biz strategies, goals, and steps to achieving them over the next six months. I felt very comfortable with Lesley and it really was just like having a conversation. I did not feel judged or self-conscious or like I should be better than I am. Lesley was well prepared for our session and followed up on two occasions just as she had committed too. I found the session really helpful and plan to work with Lesley again on the future. This was a great shot in the arm for me.
I attended the Public Speaking workshop on the 22/09/2023 with Lesley. I would highly recommend this workshop for anyone who needs to hone their public speaking skills. Lesley's content and delivery were fabulous, the tools that she gave us to be able to get up and address an audience and deliver the information to we needed to get out was very effective. As well as being very professional, it was very engaging the strongest tool I took away for me personally was how to combat the nerves when up in front of an audience. I give this workshop five stars and will be recommending to my colleagues and clients. Thankyou Lesley, for an outstanding workshop.
I completed leadership communication training with Lesley over a few weeks which was focused on 'finding your voice' and public speaking. I have completed many training courses throughout my career and would rate Lesley's course as the one of the best. Comfort zones were pushed, skills were refined and grown and I walked away from each session feeling accomplished yet still eager to take on the next challenge in order to progress. Thank you Lesley for really peeling back the layers of what it takes to instil successful change in people. I would recommend your courses to anybody looking to develop their middle management skills....in fact anybody at all, the skills learned are definitely transferable to life.
I was referred by Cairns Coaching to Lesley at Inspired Coaching. The brief was to present team cohesion for our organisation. We had come from many different organisations to become one new organisation so trying to find our team culture and identity and who we are. Lesley was fantastic, she had our staff doing group work to find our identity and what and who we want to be. I could not recommend her higher, she is amazing at what she does and is able to tease out what you didn't even know was there. Awesome facilitator!
I recently attended a workshop facilitated by Lesley, and I was truly impressed by her extensive knowledge, experience, and approachable demeanor. Lesley skillfully addressed a range of topics, offering not only solutions for various scenarios but also constructive feedback on how to navigate them effectively. Key takeaways for me included leading conversations with confidence, managing challenging discussions, and gaining insights into different behavior styles. I left the workshop feeling empowered and well-equipped thanks to the valuable knowledge Lesley shared
Coaching with Lesley has been a game-changer for me. I went from struggling to define my goals to having a clear, structured plan that keeps me motivated. Within just two months, I had already achieved some of my smaller goals, and I now feel confident in my ability to reach the rest. One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed is being more present in conversations, giving my full attention, and truly engaging with others. The six months flew by, and having regular check-ins kept me consistent and on track. If you're considering coaching, I highly recommend it!
I was at a stage in my life and I wanted to quickly implement some changes in my life but I realised I was stuck. I knew that without help I couldn’t achieve the big goals I had set for myself. In order to succeed I needed to work through some unresolved and complex issues from my past, reframe some experiences and declutter both emotionally and physically. Lesley worked with me to help me see my worth, remain focused on my goals and now I’m reaching targets I never thought was possible. With a range of tools in her kit and exercises Lesley coaching leads you to success.
Across five interactive sessions, Lesley empowered our diverse group of international students to grow in confidence, leadership, and communication. Her expertise, warmth, and ability to connect with students from diverse backgrounds were instrumental in the success of the program. Her tailored approach empowered our ambassadors to grow in confidence, develop strong leadership capabilities, and refine their communication skills.
Lesley is a fantastic coach, assisting me to identify and work towards my goals both professionally and personally with compassion and accountability. Her visualisation techniques were fantastic and some of the tools she utilised I’ll be putting into practice with my team. If you want to kickstart your 2024, I cannot recommend her enough!
Meet Lesley
25 years of real leadership experience across the UK and Australia.
Lesley Buckman is the Principal Coach and Director of ICG, an ICF Professional Certified Coach and TTI TriMetrix practitioner, with 25 years of leadership experience across the UK and Australia.
Her work centres on emotional intelligence — helping leaders understand themselves, recognise what is happening beneath the surface in their interactions, and become more intentional in how they communicate, respond and lead.
Lesley brings together lived leadership experience, behavioural profiling and coaching to get underneath the patterns that create friction, erode confidence and affect how people work together.
Her approach is direct, practical and deeply human.
Ready to strengthen how you lead?
to explore whether ICG and your organisation are aligned.