Coaching

I'm an engineering leader with over 10 years of experience of working with and managing teams of developers & managers. I'm also an international conference speaker, covering topics like good management practices, building internal outreach, evangelism and learning initiatives and becoming a better speaker.

Since 2014, I have been committed to empowering engineers, designers, and product managers to build their personal brand, acquire essential skills, and excel in their roles. I coach people on a variety of topics: helping them improve their public speaking, writing, management and communication skills.

If you're interested in working with me or finding out more about my availability, get in touch at melinda@seckington.com.

Individual Speaker Coaching

Want to become a brilliant speaker, but don’t know where to start? Don’t know what to talk about? Or maybe you’re scared of public speaking? Or maybe you have given talks before but you want to go from good to great? Everyone has a brilliant talk waiting inside of them, you just need some help to make it happen.

I coach, mentor and advise speakers on how to improve their public speaking. Whether you're at the start of your speaker journey, or whether you just want some feedback on your latest talk, I work together with you to explore any areas that you want to work on:

Understand your fears, motivations and challenges with speaking.
Explore techniques to help with your nerves, confidence and anxiety.
Brainstorm talk ideas and explore ways to identify what to talk about.
Give practical advice and hands-on training on slide design, talk outline and story structure.
Provide feedback from an engineering perspective on the content of your talk.
Look at your stage presence, delivery and body language.
Listen to practice runs of your talk and provide feedback.

Our sessions are flexible and tailored to what you need and you get dedicated support and feedback from me. My coaching is a blend of hands-on exercises, personalised training and interactive discussion. If you buy a package deal of multiple sessions in advance, you also can get async feedback on talk outlines, CFPs, bios, slides, etc.

Combining my experience in storytelling and engineering, you’ll learn how to make sure your content resonates effectively with your audience and share engaging stories!

If you're interested in learning more about my coaching sessions, I offer complimentary 15-minute introduction calls to explore how we could work together. Get in touch at melinda@seckington.com to schedule yours today.

Management & Leadership Coaching

I coach, mentor and advise (new) managers on how to improve their management skills. I work together with you to explore any areas that you want to work on:

Conducting effective 1-on-1s and coaching/mentoring/sponsoring conversations
Providing constructive feedback and navigating difficult conversations
Understanding individuals' core needs, emotions, and motivations
Exploring and setting goals with your team members, and supporting their personal development
Examine tools and methods for effective time management, prioritizing tasks, and balancing competing priorities
Making decisions and solving complex problems, including techniques for evaluating options, mitigating risks, and driving consensus within the team.
Appling techniques for navigating organizational change, fostering resilience and adaptability within the team, and effectively communicating and implementing changes to achieve desired outcomes.

If you want to do a 15-minute introduction call to explore how we could work together, get in touch at melinda@seckington.com.

Engineering Coaching

I coach, mentor and advise engineers on how to improve their communication, teamwork and technical skills. I work together with you to explore any areas that you want to work on:

Providing constructive feedback and navigating difficult conversations.
Exploring and setting goals and helping you identify what to focus on.
Examine tools and methods for effective time management, prioritizing tasks, and balancing competing priorities.
Explore how to use active listening in understanding requirements, team feedback, and project expectations.
Conducting effective 1-on-1s with your manager and managing up.
Making decisions and solving complex problems, including techniques for evaluating options, mitigating risks, and driving consensus within the team.
Appling techniques for navigating organizational change, fostering resilience and adaptability within the team, and effectively communicating and implementing changes to achieve desired outcomes.

If you want to do a 15-minute introduction call to explore how we could work together, get in touch at melinda@seckington.com.

Conference Partnerships

I've previously partnered with conferences to provide speaker coaching to their speakers, covering all the above topics. I help speakers create the best version of their talks, helping them with their timing, delivery and content.

I also use my own background as an engineer and manager to provide feedback from an engineering perspective, helping speakers adapt their talk to the level and interests of the target audience.

If you're interested in working with me in this way or finding out more about my availability, get in touch at melinda@seckington.com.

Testimonials

Cat Hicks:

I had the chance to meet and learn from Melinda as a speaker coach as she was generously providing support for speakers in partnership with LeadDev London 2023.

Melinda's coaching session was absolutely one of the highlights of my experience as a speaker. She brings a depth of wisdom across her wide range of experience communicating in many modalities. She provided an empathic audience-centered POV that any speaker would benefit from.

Melinda is a kind and insightful source of expert feedback, and truly knows tech audiences and the skillsets needed for large stages.

Winona Bridgewater:

I had the chance to meet and learn from Melinda when she worked as a coach for speakers with LeadDev London 2023. Melinda took time to meet with me before the conference and at the conference, and each session was crucial for what I needed at that moment.

I first worked with her a few weeks before my talk where I turned up with a pretty unruly blob of ideas. She listened actively and with patience and asked questions and gave insights that helped me shape my content and narrow my message.

On the day of the conference she came backstage before I needed to present, and with unflappable calm she helped me make a few critical decisions that cleared my mind and made me significantly more confident about going up to present in front of 1,000 people. I was incredibly grateful for her time, and I would absolutely work with her again in the future to make sure I present the best version of myself and my ideas.

Alistair Shepherd:

Melinda gave me fantastic 1:1 speaker coaching for my first time public speaking, at a large conference. She gave me lots of invaluable advice on my slides and speaking style, that really helped me come across better than I could have imagined. Most importantly, she helped give me confidence in myself and my speaking ability which I am so, so thankful for!

Blanca Garcia Gil:

I had the pleasure of working with Melinda in the run up to preparing my talk for the LeadDev StaffPlus conference 2023. She was offering speaker coaching for the conference speakers. I took up the opportunity as I was feeling blocked with too many unconnected ideas, I needed someone to share them with and figure out what my next steps were. I also kind of needed a soundboard to reassure me that it made sense and it would be valuable to our audience.

I had seen Melinda speaking at conferences in the past and I loved her speaking style. She is authentic, engaging and kind.

We reviewed the material I had and she gave me constructive feedback to think about later on. She also coached me to distil what was the most important takeaway from my talk, and build the stories I had in mind to support it. Her style of asking open ended questions, listening to understand what I need was crucial to meet me where I needed to.

I came away feeling very motivated and exactly knowing what I needed to focus on. When I presented my talk at the conference I felt like the stories flowed and it was very well received.

I would work again with Melinda and recommend her to aspiring and seasoned speakers, her storytelling experience will bring any talk to the next level.

Dianing Yudono:

I watched Melinda's talks a couple of times and loved them so much that I jumped at the opportunity to have a speaker coaching session with her in 2023 for my 10-minute conference talk.

Her detailed feedback covered both the slides and the talk's storyline, emphasising their impact on the audience. She provided great suggestions for improvement, offering practical action items that helped make my talk successful and garnered positive feedback from the audience.

I highly recommend her coaching for anyone looking to enhance their public speaking skills!