Background	UK. Franchise & restaurant management across UK, US, China. Cruise ships. 20+ years in Asia.
Experience	20+ years working 1:1 with senior professionals in international environments
Clients	Senior managers, directors and technical specialists working in English across Europe
Approach	Applied, situation-specific — no generic frameworks, no language assessments
Format	Online, 1:1, 90 minutes per week
Investment	£1,497 founding rate — closes 31 December 2026. Full rate £1,997 from 1 January 2027.

About Colin Dorman

I became a coach by accident.

I started as a language teacher. Twenty years later I realised I'd quietly become something else entirely.

The students who came to me were not struggling with English. They were fluent. Confident in writing. Comfortable in low-pressure situations. But as their roles grew — more responsibility, more visibility, higher stakes — the conversations we had changed. We stopped talking about language and started talking about what was actually happening in their meetings. Why a point didn't land. Why a decision didn't go their way. Why they held back when they knew exactly what they wanted to say.

I noticed that the most senior, most experienced professionals I worked with were bringing me something that had nothing to do with vocabulary or grammar. They were bringing me the gap between what they thought and what came out — in the moments when it mattered most.

"The better my students became, the more I realised the work had never really been about language at all. It had always been about communication — and communication is about so much more than the words you know."

— Colin Dorman

That realisation is what this programme is built on.

My background

Not a typical coaching background

Most coaches come from an HR or academic background. They understand frameworks and theory. I understand what it actually feels like to be responsible for outcomes.

Commercial

Franchise & restaurant management

Before moving into coaching I spent years in franchise and restaurant management — in the UK, the United States, and China. I hired teams, ran P&Ls, built training systems from scratch. One of those systems was adopted company-wide. I understand what senior managers are actually dealing with, not just the language they need to describe it.

Cross-cultural

Working at sea

I've also worked at sea — on cruise ships — which teaches you more about communication across cultures and under pressure than most classroom environments ever could. Managing diverse teams in confined, high-stakes environments with no margin for misunderstanding.

Coaching

20+ years in Asia and Europe

I've been based in Thailand for many years, working with senior professionals across Europe and internationally. That breadth of experience — commercial, cultural, and coaching — is what I bring into every session. I've worked with people who lead in international, multilingual environments where the stakes are real and the margin for misunderstanding is small.

Why it matters

The combination

That combination — real commercial experience and deep coaching practice — is what makes this programme different from both a leadership course and an English course. I know what it feels like to lead people who don't all share your language or your assumptions, and to have to get your point across when the stakes are real.

Why this matters to me

This is not just what I do. It's what I care about.

I am genuinely, passionately invested in the success of the people I work with. That might sound like something every coach says. But for me it is the reason I do this work.

Watching someone walk into a difficult meeting and hold their ground — clearly, directly, without apology — when six months earlier they would have softened their message or stayed silent. That matters to me.

Every person I work with has something important to say. My job is to make sure it gets heard.

"I don't measure success by how many sessions we complete. I measure it by what changes in the room when you speak."

— Colin Dorman

Who I work best with

The people who get the most from this programme

Over 20 years of working with senior professionals, I've found that the people who get the most from this programme share a few things in common.

They are already good at what they do — the gap is not competence, it's communication
They are self-aware enough to know something isn't working, even if they can't always name it
They want to be more direct, more influential, and more effective — without losing who they are
They are willing to work on real situations, not hypothetical exercises
They understand that this kind of change takes time, honesty, and practice — not a two-day workshop

If that sounds like you, I'd like to have a conversation.

Let's have an honest conversation.

Book a free 30-minute Executive Communication Review. We look at how you currently communicate in the situations that matter — and whether working together would make a difference. If it's not the right fit, I'll tell you.

Book your Executive Communication Review

No obligation. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation.