BRAVER is a transformational coaching model built for deep awareness and lasting change. It balances deep listening, bold exploration, and practical execution. Developed by Tim Davison, it has shaped the way Fox Hill works with every client.
‘A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a little courage.’ — Sydney Smith
Six Stages. One Coherent Journey.
Each letter in BRAVER represents a stage in the coaching process, from the first moment of trust to the final commitment to lasting change. The model moves through a natural arc while remaining responsive to the client’s needs at every point.
B
STAGE ONE — BEGINNING
Building Space
Every coaching engagement begins by creating trust, psychological safety, and genuine rapport. Clear agreements are made on confidentiality, challenge, and ways of working together. Nothing meaningful can happen until the client feels genuinely safe to think and speak freely.
R
STAGE TWO — BEGINNING
Reducing Noise and Identifying Goals
Leaders often arrive with a great deal on their minds. This stage is about distilling the noise, filtering out distraction and complexity to surface what truly matters. The focus is refined, the core challenge clarified, and a clear success criteria for the session agreed. Clarity at this stage shapes everything that follows.
A
STAGE THREE — MIDDLE
Awareness and Activation of Strengths
The heart of the BRAVER model. Drawing on Gestalt techniques, systemic constellations, deep listening, and strength-based enquiry, this stage helps the client surface what they already know but have not yet seen clearly. Self-limiting beliefs, unhelpful patterns, and untapped strengths come into view. The insight that emerges belongs to the client, not the coach.
V
STAGE FOUR — MIDDLE
Vital Shift
New awareness alone is not enough. The Vital Shift stage asks the client to sit with what they have discovered and test whether it calls for a real change in thinking or behaviour. Rather than rushing to action, the work here is to examine the feasibility, alignment, and sustainability of any shift, making sure what emerges is bold but genuinely owned.
E
STAGE FIVE — END
Evidencing Change
Insight without application is just a good conversation. This stage translates what has emerged into tangible markers of progress, setting success criteria, identifying early proof points, and tracking what real change looks and feels like. Good coaching should leave something undeniably different in the client’s world, not just in their thinking.
R
STAGE SIX — END
Resourcing Action
Change is fragile without the right foundations. The final stage identifies the allies, resources, support structures, and habits that will reinforce and embed what has been discovered. The work moves beyond the session to the systems and relationships that will carry the change forward.
THE PHILOSOPHY
What BRAVER Is and Is Not
BRAVER is client-led
The coach’s role is to walk alongside, not to lead. The answers are always the client’s. BRAVER creates the conditions for insight to emerge — it does not deliver it.
BRAVER is adaptable
Not every stage will be visited in every session. BRAVER is a guide, not a script. If the client needs something different, the model bends to serve them, not the other way around.
BRAVER demands honesty
Shallow agreements and polite non-committals have no place here. BRAVER is built on the belief that a good coach owes their client the truth, not just comfort.
WHO IT IS FOR
The Clients BRAVER Is Designed For
BRAVER goes well beyond goal-setting. It is built for leaders who feel the weight of complexity, transition, or stagnation and want something more than a coaching conversation that leaves them with a to-do list.
C-suite and senior leaders navigating leadership development, career transitions, or the particular complexity of operating at the top of an organisation.
Purpose-driven professionals seeking deeper meaning in their work, where internal alignment matters as much as what they are delivering externally.
High-potential individuals who know they are capable of more but feel stuck, held back by self-doubt or beliefs they have not yet been able to name.
Experience BRAVER for Yourself
The best way to understand what BRAVER does is to experience it. Start with a free 30-minute introductory call and find out what it feels like to think more clearly about what matters most.
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