Testimonials

Fernandes Group valued Richard Black’s practical, hands-on coaching style and his ability to create space for meaningful senior-leadership reflection while keeping the work grounded in real decisions, pressures, and priorities. 

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His senior executive experience and structured sponsor check-ins helped keep the engagement aligned while respecting the privacy of the coaching relationship.​

Richard helped me recognise strengths that I had overlooked, giving me the confidence to pursue opportunities I might previously have ignored. 

His coaching challenged my thinking, broadened my perspective, and helped me lead with greater confidence. 

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I trusted my team more, navigated a difficult business environment with greater clarity, and became a stronger leader both at work and at home.

Working with Richard helped me become more pragmatic in my approach to leadership, improve my decision-making, and strengthen my results orientation.

 

His coaching helped me recognise blind spots, organise my thinking around difficult issues, and stay accountable for the actions I committed to.

 

The structured conversations gave me greater clarity at work and more peace of mind outside work.

I began coaching with Richard feeling skeptical after a previous coaching experience produced little value.

 

He helped me challenge long-standing patterns, understand what was driving my behaviour, and build new habits.

 

I have seen the impact in both my leadership and my personal relationships.

Working with Richard helped me become more reflective, disciplined, and intentional in how I lead.

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The coaching supported me in improving delegation, setting clearer boundaries, saying no without guilt, and creating more space for my direct reports to contribute. I became more aware of my patterns and better able to choose my response rather than simply react.

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Richard’s approach felt safe, practical, and tailored. His conversational tone, lack of judgement, and relevant guidance helped me find my own answers and convert awareness into action.

Working with Richard came at a time of intense pressure, including a company acquisition and the impact of a devastating hurricane on the business.

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Coaching helped me shift from feeling caught in the circumstances to taking charge of my own space and actions. I reconnected with my strengths, restored my confidence, and began showing up more consistently as a leader.

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Richard’s calm presence, careful listening, practical tools, and genuine follow-up made a real difference. He is credible, effective, and reliable, and I would recommend him and work with him again.

Richard helped me move from acting as a ‘referee’ between managers to creating clearer accountability and stronger ownership across my leadership team. 

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The coaching helped me become more strategic, more decisive, and more consistent in how I lead.

Richard helped me become more aware of how I was showing up under pressure. I learned to recognise what was happening, regulate my response, and make more conscious choices rather than reacting emotionally.

 

His questions consistently uncovered the real issues beneath the surface, leading to greater consistency in my leadership, improved wellbeing, and more presence in my personal life.

As I moved from business ownership into a new leadership role, the coaching helped me clarify my direction, recognise strengths I had been overlooking, and stay accountable for the goals that mattered most. 

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I became more confident in my leadership, managed competing priorities more effectively, and approached both my career and personal goals with greater focus and perspective.

During our first meeting, I mentioned that I was not sure about people calling themselves “Coach,” but you changed my perspective.

 

You never said I was wrong in how I saw things, but kept listening and asking questions so I could consider a different perspective and grow professionally, but also personally.