My Story

I'm Zoë Thompson, Leadership and Performance Consultant and Coach. I believe self-leadership is where performance starts, whether you're a young person finding your direction, a team learning to work at its best, or a senior leader carrying high-stakes decisions. Same skill, different scale: tactical, operational, strategic.

I help leaders and teams move from reactive to intentional, building the self-leadership and sustainable high performance that delivers better results without the burnout.

I work with senior leaders, emerging leaders, and organisations across the public and private sector, in the UK and internationally, while based in Bristol.

I started my career at 18, in a public-facing, operational role with the police.

By 22, three years in, I'd stepped into my first leadership role, and so began 17 years leading in high-pressure environments where clear decision-making really mattered, inside a 20-year police career overall.

At 30, I moved into my first senior leadership role, Major Crime Logistics Manager, running logistics for murder and major crime investigations across a collaborative unit spanning two forces, Avon and Somerset and Wiltshire Police. In my final role, I worked as Business Change Manager for the force, working between the Programme Management Teams and the business on IT system rollouts, the implementation of bodyworn cameras for officers, and laptop and mobile app technology. I was also part of the team that redesigned and implemented a change in the Force Operating Model, impacting 1 in 3 people within the organisation.

Throughout, I combined operational leadership with developing others, co-delivering leadership programmes and coaching emerging leaders across the organisation.

In 2017, I was told my role would be made redundant. I knew it was the sign I needed: time to step fully into coaching and training. Phoenix Life and Wellbeing Coaching Ltd. was born on 1 August 2017.

Since then, I've trained continuously across diverse disciplines and methodologies, so I can flex my approach to whoever I'm working with. I'm an Accredited Master Coach and Executive Coach with the Association for Coaching, and an NLP Master Practitioner. It's a rare combination: 20 years of high-stakes leadership experience paired with advanced coaching expertise, and it's exactly what lets me help leaders and organisations navigate real transformation with confidence.

When I'm not coaching or training, you'll find me travelling, reading, or supporting Bristol's basketball community, as both volunteer and sponsor.

Picture of Zoe Thompson standing with an electronic notepad black top - burgundy trousers

[Image: Zoë Thompson standing with an electronic notepad, black top, burgundy trousers] [Image: Zoë Thompson in a garden holding her 20 years long service and good conduct award certificate from Avon and Somerset Police]

My Passion Projects

Team photo of group of women in purple and white striped rugby kit.

Beyond client work, I'm committed to helping people build the self-leadership skills that everything else is built on, whatever stage of life they're at. Running a business means more than generating revenue, it's about creating lasting impact and building legacy through the people you help.

My work is grounded in my personal values of continuous improvement, positivity, and making a difference, and that shows up in the projects I choose to support.

I'm a proud sponsor of the Bristol Flyers Men's SBL team, and a supporter of the Women's and BCB teams, alongside ADOB Women's Rugby. These are organisations where I see the same high performance, teamwork, and resilience I help leaders and organisations build.

Most significantly, I support Community of Purpose's Purposeful Pathways programme for Bristol Young Heroes, recognising young people who've achieved amazing things despite personal adversity, and equipping them with tools for their next steps.

Good leadership starts with great self-leadership, and that belief is what drives this work. I bring the same self-leadership principles I use with senior leaders and organisations into this programme, adapted to give young people the knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead themselves, now and into their adult years. It's the legacy piece of what I do: helping people build self-leadership early, so it carries them for life.

As the programme puts it: "We want to recognise and celebrate successes, while equipping them for taking the next steps and building on their early success."

That same focus on self-leadership is what led me to launch Accelerate, 3 events a year bringing young people and adults together to work on the goals that matter to them. Each one blends guest speakers, a panel Q&A, group coaching, and hands-on workbook sessions, built around the same self-leadership principles that run through everything I do, from the tactical starting point with Bristol Young Heroes, right through to the operational and strategic work I do with teams and senior leaders.

This work reinforces what I believe about leadership: it's not just about reaching your goals, it's about who you become in the process, and how you lift others along the way.

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Training
&
Experience

Core Coaching & Leadership Credentials:

Accredited Master Coach, Association for Coaching
ACE (Accelerated Coach Excellence) Certified Executive Coach, WBECS
NLP Master Practitioner (INLPTA)
15+ years of coaching and mentoring experience

Leadership & Management Expertise:

20 years in Police Service, in public-facing, operational, and senior management roles
CMI Level 6 Certificate in Management and Leadership

Specialised Training & Development:

Former Springboard Consultancy self-development trainer, delivered programmes to 300+ women, including bespoke programmes for domestic abuse survivors
Licensed Level 3 AEaT trainer
Mental Health First Aider (MHFA England)

Additional Competencies:

Additional training in CBT, DBT, ACT, sports psychology, weight management and nutrition
DBS checked

About Me

Beyond the client work, I bring the same drive to everything else I do.

In my late thirties, I discovered strongwoman. Within 12 months of starting the sport, I was competing at Europe's Strongest Woman, all while raising my son as a single parent and building a career in the police. Red Bull TV picked up my story in 2016, and I've since spoken on radio, TV, and podcasts about resilience, transformation, and what it actually takes to perform at your best under pressure.

None of that happened by accident. It's the same mindset, strategic planning, and consistent action I bring to every leader and business owner I coach, because I don't teach principles I haven't lived.