Safety leadership coaching
You already know what good looks like. So why is the gap still there?
Coaching that follows on from our programmes, for leaders in high-risk work who want what they learned to show up in how they lead, communicate and decide when the pressure is on.
Most coaching clients start with one of our programmes. See the programmes →
- 6 or 12 months
- 90 or 60-minute calls
- Online
- WhatsApp support 5 days a week
Why the gap persists
It isn't a knowledge problem.
Most people who come to coaching already understand what they are trying to change. They have reflected on it, read around it, and often sat through training that named it clearly.
The harder question is why the gap stays open anyway. A leader who can explain psychological safety still closes down a difficult conversation when the pressure is on. A team that has been through a culture programme drifts back to familiar patterns within weeks.
That isn't a lack of willpower. The environment, the incentives and the responses built up over years of high-pressure work all pull people back towards what they did before. Changing that takes sustained work on your own context, with someone who understands the system you operate in.
Training did its job. Now a different kind of work begins.
A good workshop or simulation challenges assumptions and creates the conditions for real reflection. That is valuable, but it works at the level of knowledge and awareness.
Changing how you actually lead, brief, debrief and decide needs someone working with you on your challenges, in your system, over enough time for new behaviours to become your default rather than a conscious effort.
That is what coaching is for.
What the evidence says
Coaching works when the relationship does.
Much of the research used to sell coaching has no control group, so it tells you people felt better, not that anything changed. A stronger picture comes from studies where people are randomly assigned to coaching or to a comparison group. A 2023 meta-analysis brought those studies together.
The relationship is the mechanism
The authors explain the effect through coregulation, the trust and mutual influence between coach and coachee. Without credibility and psychological safety in that relationship, you get sessions rather than development.
Length matters less than focus
The effect did not depend much on how long the coaching ran. Clear goals and a good working relationship drove the results, which is why both packages start by agreeing what you want to be different.
Source: de Haan, E. and Nilsson, V. O. (2023). What can we know about the effectiveness of coaching? A meta-analysis based only on randomized controlled trials. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 22(4).
Is this for you?
For leaders whose decisions have real consequences.
This isn't a general personal development offer. It is for people whose leadership, communication and decision-making under pressure directly affect safety, performance and the people around them. Most clients arrive by one of three routes.
After a HITS programme
You want to turn what you learned in a LAB, a learning review course or a Just Culture workshop into how you operate day to day.
Through a referral
Someone who knows your context thinks this is the right next step, and has suggested you talk to us.
A challenge that won't shift
A team dynamic, a cultural problem or a leadership gap that training hasn't closed, and you have decided to work on it properly.
Packages
Two ways to work together.
Both packages run as online calls, and you choose whether to have fewer 90-minute calls or more 60-minute ones. Between calls, WhatsApp support is available five days a week for the quick questions, sense-checks and nudges that keep momentum going. Gareth works with a small number of coaching clients at a time, which is what allows the work to be shaped around you.
Focused
6 months of one-to-one support
- 6 × 90-minute or 8 × 60-minute calls, you decide
- Goals agreed at the start and progress tracked throughout
- Notes and resources after each session
- WhatsApp support five days a week
Best for a leader with one defined challenge, such as embedding non-technical skills in a team's daily routine or preparing to lead a difficult change.
Book the 6-month packageSustained
12 months of one-to-one support
- 12 × 90-minute or 16 × 60-minute calls, you decide
- Everything in the focused package
- A mid-programme review to recalibrate goals and check progress
- Time to work on change that involves your team, not only yourself
Best for senior leaders and safety professionals working on a cultural shift, for example towards Human and Organisational Performance (HOP), where change moves at the pace of the organisation.
Book the 12-month packageNot sure which fits? Book a curious conversation first. It is a short call to check the coaching is right for you before you commit.
Your coach
Gareth Lock
Gareth is the founder of Human in the System. After 25 years in the Royal Air Force, he has spent more than a decade developing and delivering human factors, leadership and safety culture programmes across defence, construction, energy, aviation and the emergency services.
His coaching draws on the same foundations as his training: systems thinking, psychological safety, Just Culture and the non-technical skills that shape performance when it counts. The conversation stays grounded in how work is actually done, not only in how it is supposed to be done.
- Fatal accident investigationsFor the UK Ministry of Defence and the New Zealand Defence Force.
- MSc Human Factors and System SafetyLund University, researching storytelling and learning in high-risk work.
- Former RAF tactical flight instructorExperience of developing people where mistakes carry real consequences.
Book a call
Start with a curious conversation.
Tell Gareth what you are working on and what you would like to be different. He will be honest about whether coaching is the right fit, and suggest another route if it isn't.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected] and we will reply within two working days.