The strategy that didn't change behaviour
The leadership team aligned on the plan. The culture carried on as before.
We work this exact pattern at one of the UK's biggest mutuals.
UK leadership development partner · since 2003
Leadership development for the changebeneath the strategy.
A 23-year UK leadership development partner. Senior facilitators with corporate backgrounds. 19 years inside BNP Paribas CIB, 14 inside EDF.
Trusted by senior leaders inside
Senior leaders inside the businesses below have kept bringing us back. Most of our work comes through referral and long-term relationships.
23years
Since 2003
in the senior room
19years
Since 2007
inside BNP Paribas CIB
30coaches
Bench strength
ICF accredited coaches
If one of these sounds like your week
We know what just happened to you.
Five moments senior HR leaders call us in. If one of these is your week, we should talk.
The training that didn't stick
Six months ago you ran the management training. Behaviour hasn't changed.
The feedback was great. The energy lasted a fortnight. Now nobody can tell you which behaviours moved. We work the environment too. Small numbers, behaviour before models, and a facilitator who stays in the background and lets the room do the work.
The team that's quietly come apart
The exec team isn't failing. It's not working either.
The meetings are polite. The decisions are slow. There are conversations happening in pairs that should be happening in the room. We use systems coaching to help teams see and shift the patterns, relationships, roles and dynamics within the wider system, rather than getting stuck in blame, personalities and emotion.
The CFO who's done with L&D
The CFO asked what changed after last year's leadership programme.
You don't have a clear answer. The feedback scores were strong. People enjoyed it. But six months later, behaviours look much the same. The pressure on L&D isn't just to deliver training anymore, it's to show movement. We help L&D teams turn insight into visible behavioural change.
The promotion that isn't working
There's someone senior in your business who's struggling. They don't know it yet.
They were brilliant before the promotion. Now decisions are slower. The team feels uncertain. Nobody wants to say it directly because they're senior, well-liked, or politically important. We've worked with this exact moment for over 20 years.
Who we are
23 years helping leaders navigate change that doesn't come with a playbook.
Lequin is a UK leadership development partner founded in 2003 by Peter and Marie Willis. When we started, executive coaching was still a relatively unknown industry in the UK. There were only a handful of coaching firms operating at senior level.
We don't run generic leadership programmes or large-scale coaching factories. Our work is senior-level, highly applied and built around real organisational challenges. We work in the conversations organisations often avoid: trust, resistance, politics, team dynamics and what happens under pressure.
Our facilitators come from corporate backgrounds. They've led teams, managed stakeholders, and delivered results under pressure. Practical learning grounded in real leadership experience, not theory alone.
Read about Peter and MarieThe five Russian dolls
Watch
Marie, in her own words.
The Russian doll is how Marie explains what we actually work on: the layers beneath the surface, where leadership behaviour really sits. Short pieces on authenticity, coaching and how Lequin works with senior leaders.
What we do
Three things we do. Each led by a named partner. All underpinned by coaching.
What sets us apart
Why clients stay for decades.
Relationships that last decades
We build relationships that last. Lequin has worked with BNP Paribas CIB for 19 years and EDF for 14. Most of our work comes through referral, repeat business and long-term partnerships.
Behavioural change that lasts
Most leadership development disappears once people return to work. Our approach is practical, applied and designed to translate into day to day leadership behaviour, not just insight in the room.
Comfortable with complexity
We work in the conversations organisations often avoid: trust, politics, resistance, conflict, leadership transition and team dynamics under pressure. The places where leadership behaviour matters most.
Where we work
Five sectors with proven traction. We're not tied to any of them.
The investment we've made in coaching with Lequin has led to a substantial improvement in quality and style of management in the business, and in my opinion, improvement in commercial performance.
Before you hire us
Questions enterprise HR leaders ask before hiring us
For a UK enterprise running a senior leadership programme of 20 to 40 leaders, plan a 12-month engagement to see behaviour change land and stick. Three months of design, baseline and stakeholder interviews. Six months of programme delivery in cohorts of 8 to 12. Three months of follow up coaching, manager check ins and measurement. Most programmes that fail to change behaviour fail at the third stage. We've delivered the full 12-month shape inside BNP Paribas CIB, EDF and others for over 20 years.
Internal L&D teams are excellent at running training operationally. They are usually less effective at running senior leadership conversations because the seniority differential and the political context make safety hard to create. We sit alongside the L&D team rather than replacing them. We bring the room, the methodology and the named senior facilitator. The L&D team owns design, scheduling, measurement and the long term continuity.
We work in leadership development, but the shape of engagement is different. Mind Gym is built around bite-sized workshops at scale. Korn Ferry delivers for large cohorts. BetterUp is a coaching platform. Hult Ashridge is academic education. We're a small senior practice focused on practical behavioural change that translates back into the organisation day to day. We use corporate facilitators, not academic ones. We don't use personality tests.
Three rough shapes. A 90-minute workshop pilot, £1,500. A 6-month team coaching engagement for an exec team, in the tens of thousands. A 12-month leadership development programme for 20 to 40 senior leaders, six figures. We give you a fixed quote within 48 hours of the discovery call. We don't take vendor kickbacks and we don't quote ranges that mean nothing.
Yes, although organisational complexity matters more to us than company size. We typically work with organisations going through growth, change, restructuring, leadership transition or cultural challenge. Most of our clients are large corporates. Others are founder-led or mid-sized businesses scaling quickly. The common factor is not revenue. It's whether the organisation is serious about behavioural change.
Those are two sectors with multi year tenure, not categorical specialisms. We work across financial services, energy and utilities, media, FMCG, retail, and professional services. We don't work with public sector, and we don't work with fund management firms specifically, because the buying patterns don't match how we sell.
We tell you. The named partner running the engagement will surface what isn't working before you have to ask. Most programmes that drift do so because a stakeholder changed, the business context changed, or the cohort isn't who we expected. We rescope mid engagement when this happens. We'd rather rescope or refund than have an unhappy client.
The people you meet are the people who lead the work. Lequin uses a small team of highly experienced senior facilitators, coaches and consultants. Peter and Marie remain closely involved in the design and oversight of engagements, with delivery led either by them or by a named senior associate. We do not operate a leveraged junior consultant model or large delivery pool.
Three things we promise
Honest conversations, handled well
Once we understand your people and culture, we'll tell you as it is, helping you address the conversations and behaviours that matter most.
Peter and Marie are in every engagement
Peter and Marie will be part of every engagement, either delivering or managing your work. Where we use associates, they're named on the SOW and they've been with us for years. The pitch and the work are the same people.
The £1,500 pilot is genuinely a pilot
We don't use the pilot as a foot in the door. About one in four pilots leads to a longer engagement. The rest end in a clean handover. That's working as designed.
From the Lequin LinkedIn
Latest thinking from Peter and Marie
Where to start
Most engagements begin one of two ways. Both are free or fixed price. Neither involves a slide deck.
Option one
The 30-minute discovery call
A 30-minute call with Peter or Marie, depending on whether you're closer to the training or coaching question. We'll ask eight questions about your leadership challenges and what's happened so far, then send a written summary within 48 hours, including whether we think we're the right fit.
Book a 30-minute callOption two
The £1,500 pilot workshop
A 90-minute online workshop for up to 12 of your leaders. Choose one topic from our list. We lead the session, your people take part, you watch the work. If we're the wrong fit, we'll tell you and you keep the materials. Most pilots happen within 6 weeks of booking.
Book the pilot