Kay Vessey Hello and welcome to this week’s Now…why? This is an opportunity for our wonderful PRINT® coaches to hear how some of our more prolific coaches are using PRINT® in many different ways. And, for anyone who has not come across PRINT® before, it is a chance to hear about the benefits.

Today, Gillian Mason is in the hot seat. Gillian is an accredited PRINT® coach and Master NLP Practitioner who has been coaching and developing leaders for 20 years across a wide range of sectors. With a keen eye on culture and people strategy, she helps clients tackle complex challenges with clarity, creativity and care. Gillian is particularly passionate about championing women, helping them find their spark and sense of purpose. Welcome, Gillian – it is an absolute pleasure to have you here.

Gillian Mason It has been a long time coming, but I am super excited. The sun is out, too, so it is the perfect day to do a podcast in the UK.

Kay My first question for all our guests: tell me about the first time you encountered PRINT® and any moments you had as a result of being PRINTed.

Gillian It is funny to reflect on because we are going back to 2017, and I found PRINT® quite accidentally. On the outside, I was successful. I was in a big job and everything looked fine, but inside I felt disconnected and flat, as if I had drifted away from myself.

H&H suggested I do PRINT®. I had never heard of it, although I had done NLP, Insights Discovery and plenty of other tools. I did PRINT® and it did not just give me insight – it gave me a new language for who I am at my core. Things clicked into place. I remember thinking that everybody needed access to that level of self-awareness. At the time, I was in a leadership development coaching role.

Personally, it changed the direction of my life. Professionally, I became accredited the following year, alongside Kay, and it has been part of my practice ever since. I realised why things felt off: I was not where I should be and I was not doing what I should be doing. I made some big choices and I would say PRINT® was behind them.

Kay That is a huge statement. What were the things that were not aligned for you – the things PRINT® shone a light on?

Gillian Specifically, it was the role I was in and work that did not fulfil my motivations. When you think about career and role alignment, it was very much that. I realised I was so in Shadow, but I had not known what that was until then. The choice was mine: I could make a different choice or decide to think and feel differently about it.

It also changed how I viewed some personal relationships that were no longer serving or fulfilling me. PRINT® was a beacon for obvious things that would not have surfaced if I had not understood my unconscious motivators – what they meant for my productivity and effectiveness, but, more importantly, for how happy or unhappy I was.

Kay That is really interesting. In a discovery session or debrief, we say people can get as much from PRINT® personally as professionally. We are holistic human beings: we are not one person in one context and someone else in another. How our unconscious motivators are satisfied – or not – affects every part of life.

It sounds as though you made big choices after that revelation. What did you do next, and how do you integrate PRINT® now?

Gillian I took my time. I am an A3/8: I want to get things done and I can think I can do it all myself. The thing that helped was asking: what am I genuinely good at, what am I known for, and what do I want to get out of bed and do every day?

I reached out and allowed myself to be vulnerable. I left my corporate career, although I had already dipped my toe into self-employment around the time I got my PRINT® report. Then a dream job came up: a Head of Organisational Development role, where I could get breadth and depth of experience. It changed how I thought about the role. Ultimately, it led me to leave corporate life, stop having a boss and set up my own business five or six years ago.

There are two threads to my work. I do associate work, delivering leadership development, team development, training and culture consultancy within organisations and for other consultancies. That is my engine: I get to experience amazing clients, sectors and industries. I weave PRINT® into leadership programmes and coaching, and once you have PRINTed someone in an organisation, it tends to gather momentum.

The other thread is my own work: coaching, development, workshops and, in future, retreats for women. Sometimes you lose yourself in life. I work with people who are on autopilot and need to reconnect with who they really are. Whether it is energy, values or purpose, I help individuals, leaders and teams reignite so they can lead, live and work in a way that feels aligned. Understanding their unconscious motivators gives them another powerful lens. PRINT® shows up everywhere in what I do because it is simple but impactful.

Kay You integrate it in so many ways, which is something I love about PRINT®. It is flexible: you can connect it to lots of things or use it completely on its own.

I am fascinated by your focus on supporting women to be the best they can be. PRINT® is gender-neutral, so what is unique about it in that arena?

Gillian It is a wonderful, accessible and inclusive tool. There is no PRINT® that is better than another and no hierarchy of what is more or less effective. People can access it well and take their time with it.

It is diverse across gender, age, ethnicity and more. It helps people understand why they think and feel as they do, then gives them a chance to get ahead of their behaviour. It does not stop at awareness: you can go much deeper if people want and need to.

It creates better conversations and healthier relationships – first with yourself, then with others: men, women, leaders, parents and partners. After a group debrief, someone will often ask, “Could you PRINT® my partner?” It becomes a language. People come back later and say, “I let my husband read it and he said he could have told me all about my Shadow.” I tell them I am sure they could tell him about his too. It becomes a shared language within organisations, as long as it is used in the right way.

Gillian There is Best Self, Shadow and there are triggers. I am quite clear that nobody else can trigger you: you have chosen to be triggered. The ownership and accountability sit with you. That is why you need to know yourself first and understand how you work.

Kay That self-awareness piece is one of the biggest light-bulb moments. You may already know some of it, but there are hidden things that unlock your ability to move forward, celebrate who you are or develop yourself and your relationships.

What is some of the best feedback you have had from introducing people to their profile and drivers?

Gillian The feedback that stays with me is not about performance – it is personal. People say, “That was life-shifting,” or, “That was a sliding-doors moment.” They say, “I think I already knew that, but I finally understand myself,” or, “I wish I had known this years ago.”

There are funny moments too: “I need to go and apologise to all my team.” People can see when they get in their own way and know how to soften it, or how to dial something else up where it does not feel comfortable. That is the feedback that resonates. It is not just development or performance; it is people reconnecting with themselves.

The other feedback I love is when people begin to see beyond someone else’s behaviour. They say, “I understand why they are behaving that way, and I need to meet them in the middle.” It is not about rubber-stamping people with a result. It is about understanding yourself, then using that to make better choices and create the outcomes you want.

Gillian A lot of the people I work with are already in leadership roles, so you hear, “I wish I had known this earlier. It would have shifted who I am and want to be as a leader.”

Over the last few years, I have been involved in the Top 30 Under 30 programme in Hull and Humber, Leeds and West Yorkshire, and now Sheffield and South Yorkshire. It is one of the things I most love doing. The participants receive their PRINT® report early in the LEAP programme, followed by three coaching sessions. At the awards ceremony and in their videos, you hear them talk about how far they have come and what had the greatest impact. PRINT® comes up a lot.

Kay That is a wonderful example. It does not matter where you are in your career – whether you are an apprentice, new to a role or a highly experienced leader – everyone can benefit from that level of insight. The earlier we give people that experience, the better.

With three cohorts and nearly 90 delegates, the programme is about to launch again and the winners are starting to be announced. What have been the proud moments for you?

Gillian At the awards event, I love hearing their closing thoughts and reflections. They say, “It changed me massively in terms of what I thought I needed to be. Now I am comfortable in my own skin, being exactly who I am at my best.”

Without that insight, there can be a cookie-cutter approach to leadership where people think they have to be X or Y. Instead, they can say, “I just need to be me at my best. If I put that out there, people will choose to follow.” People also say, “I do not get bothered by that anymore. I am more present.”

It would be brilliant to bring this insight even further back, when young people are leaving education and entering employment. It could help them make better-informed choices about what they want to get out of bed and do every day, rather than following a career because it is expected of them or their parents did it.

People do make significant career and life choices. One senior legal professional in an accountancy firm was so in Shadow that, when I caught up with them a couple of years later, they had left and set up a dog-grooming business. They were so happy.

Gillian Knowing you are not productive, effective or happy is within your gift, control and choice to change. That is an extreme example, but it is sad to think how many people go through life without the time, space and opportunity to realise that they could choose differently.

Kay It is easy to get trapped somewhere that is not fulfilling and become so bogged down that you do not see the choices you have.

Do you have a favourite part of the PRINT® report?

Gillian The part that creates the most momentum is the triggers. Best Self can bring a little discomfort; Shadow can bring a different kind of discomfort, or sometimes people recognise it immediately. But triggers make the shift. That is where change sets in and where the good conversations start.

Best Self and Shadow are the two states we fluctuate between, but the trigger explains why we get nudged into an automatic, unconscious response. It can be uncomfortable, but it gives you a moment of, “That is absolutely why.”

The trigger is also where the choice is. You can put it between the list of possible Best Self and Shadow behaviours and ask: how will you manage yourself to take the high road rather than going into Shadow? That is where the gold is.

Kay As an executive coach with a strong focus on leadership, that is where you can create real transformation for people who want to be their best.

Gillian The triggers worksheet follows that process of connecting mind and body. Your body will probably tell you that you are triggered before your mind catches up, because you feel it. In coaching, you can help people explore the physicality of a trigger and use it as data before the emotion and behaviour kick in. That can create significant change. We all want to be the Best Self we read about in our report – we would all put it on a T-shirt.

Kay In the spirit of sharing best practice, what is your golden nugget for coaches? What would you pass on?

Gillian Let PRINT® do its own thing. As an accredited coach, keep it clean and simple. Create pauses and moments for people to take it in and reflect. The less you put in, the more they can get out. Do not rush it; give them time.

As soon as you say or do something, you can break their processing. Also, be conscious and mindful of your own unconscious motivators.

Kay That is interesting. What is your top tip for being mindful of your own?

Gillian As an 3/8, I can want everybody to love it and for it to be successful. I want everybody to get great results, but that is not for me to decide. It might take time; the discovery can take people longer.

Getting out of the way of that has been a big learning for me. We are all human and things happen in a room that might trigger us, so you have to role-model and put into practice everything you train other people to do with PRINT®. Be aware, conscious and mindful; then get out of your own way.

You also have to be really familiar with all nine unconscious motivators and the relationships between the 72 possible combinations, so you can keep clean. Make sure everybody has the space and time they need – all the things we know as trainers and coaches about learning styles, viewed through a PRINT® lens.

Kay That is a veritable smorgasbord of pearls of wisdom. If people want to find out more about your practice and what you do with PRINT®, where can they get in touch?

Gillian LinkedIn is one of the best places – I am Gillian Mason on LinkedIn. I am also on Instagram, where I talk about the work I do and my mission to reignite women. You can find me there as Gillian Mason / Reignite, or visit my website, Firefly Life Coaching UK. You may also find me walking the dog on Westwood.

Kay For a bit of fun, and because I love metaphor: you have told us you are an A3/8. For people who do not know what that means, describe your unconscious motivators in whatever way you choose.

Gillian It used to be the Nike tagline – other sports brands are available – “Just do it”, with a naughty word between the “just” and the “do”. That was the old me, the old 3/8.

Now, it is a car in second gear. As a 3/8, I am still moving forward and getting places, but I am more conscious and mindful of my Best Self. I am in second gear so I can enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

Kay Do you ever go into third, fourth, fifth or sixth gear?

Gillian Yes, but I have to say, I am enjoying second.

Kay We are big on music and have a playlist. What is your go-to song to put on the speaker, get you going and maybe shift you from second into third, fourth or fifth?

Gillian I am an old-school raver, so I love house and piano music. The song that comes to mind is a remix by Luke Neptune: “Asha’s JJ Tribute”. It gives me the physical response of a time when I had energy, joy and togetherness. It reminds me not to take life too seriously, but it absolutely fires me up.

Kay Wonderful. We will add that to the playlist alongside all our other guests’ choices.

Thank you so much for joining us. I have loved hearing your journey. Watch this space: Gillian has some wonderful things coming up, and keep an eye on the Top 30 Under 30 programme across Hull and Humber, Leeds and West Yorkshire, and Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Watch the winners and the wonderful things they share about PRINT®.

Like and subscribe to hear from more of our brilliant coaches. It has been a pleasure. Thank you, Gillian, and I will see you again soon.

Gillian Thanks, Kay. Take care. Bye-bye.