We didn’t set out to build a business. We set out to make a difference.

Jeff and Lyn Priestley founded The ChangeKey Partnership in 1994 — not from a business plan or a market opportunity, but from a shared conviction that had been growing since the day they met.

Both working at the time for a management training and development company, Jeff and Lyn quickly discovered something they had in common that went beyond their professional skills. Despite being highly capable working with teams and groups, they both felt a deeper calling — to work with individuals. One person at a time. At the moments that mattered most.

 

The Philosophy That Drives Everything We Do

At the heart of everything ChangeKey does is a belief that is simple to state and profound in its implications —

“In order for anyone to feel a true sense of happiness in their lives, they need to be free to express who they are.”

Most of us spend around eight hours of every working day at work. That is not a small thing. That is a significant portion of the one life we have. And yet so many people find themselves in roles that don’t fit, careers that have drifted, or jobs that simply don’t allow them to be themselves.

That is the problem Jeff and Lyn have dedicated the last thirty years to solving.

 

Meet Jeff and Lyn

Jeff Priestley

Chartered MCIPD • NLP Master Practitioner • BPS Certificate in Personality and Occupational Testing

Jeff brings over thirty years of experience coaching individuals at every level — from those entering the workplace for the first time to senior executives navigating complex career transitions. A Chartered Member of the CIPD, NLP Master Practitioner, and holder of the British Psychological Society Certificate in Personality and Occupational Testing, Jeff has coached and supported hundreds — if not thousands — of candidates through job searches, interviews and career changes.

He has an equal depth of experience on the other side of the table, having trained interviewers and selection panels to recruit more effectively for some of the UK’s leading organisations across the public, private, commercial and industrial sectors.

Jeff’s particular passion and specialism is interview coaching — helping people understand not just what to say, but how to communicate their experience with confidence, clarity and authenticity. He is the author of An Insider’s View of a Winning Interview, a practical workbook used in his coaching sessions and available to a wider audience through Amazon.

In addition to his coaching work, Jeff has tutored on Postgraduate Certificate in Management programmes at the University of Nottingham, and continues to develop digital learning programmes that bring his proven interview coaching methodology to people wherever they are.

Lyn Priestley

Co-Founder • Highly Experienced Career Coach - A Senior  Guidance and Placement Manager with the Chamber of Commerce. A former Member of the University of Derby Careers Team. A leader of both "The Step" and "The Graduates into Industry Programmes"  

Lyn has been at the heart of The ChangeKey Partnership from its very first day — and her contribution to the lives of the clients she has worked with over three decades is immeasurable.

Like Jeff, Lyn is a highly experienced career coach offering face-to-face and online coaching across a broad range of career challenges. Her specialist areas include career direction and career change, redundancy and outplacement support, and personal development and confidence — guiding clients through some of the most challenging and significant transitions of their working lives.

What sets Lyn apart — and what clients consistently remark upon — is an innate ability to see clearly what others sometimes cannot see in themselves. She has a rare and remarkable skill for identifying the right job roles for individual clients and conducting targeted job searches on their behalf. For many people, this is the most overwhelming and paralysing part of finding a new direction — and Lyn’s hands-on, personal approach removes that burden entirely.

Lyn’s warmth, intuition and genuine investment in every client she works with is something that simply cannot be taught. It is, as her many clients over the years would confirm, simply who she is.

 

More Than a Partnership — A Community

Jeff and Lyn have always seen The ChangeKey Partnership as something greater than the two of them. Over the years, the colleagues who have joined them, and the clients they have worked with, have become something closer to a community — and in many cases, close friends.

That is not accidental. It is the natural result of working with people at moments of real vulnerability and real possibility — redundancy, career change, a first interview, a dream job finally within reach. When you walk alongside someone through those moments, something lasting is created.

“Your career should feel like yours” is not just a tagline. For Jeff and Lyn, it is a promise they have been keeping — one person at a time — for over thirty years.

 

Ready to Start Your Own Story?

Get in touch with Jeff and Lyn today — we’d love to help.

Tel. +44 (0)115 784 8013

Email. info@changekey.co.uk

Web.  www.changekey.co.uk

The fundamental question hasn't changed at all: Am I in the right place, doing the right work, for the right reasons?

If you're asking that question — whether you're facing redundancy, feeling stuck, returning to work, or simply ready to think clearly about what comes next — we'd welcome a conversation.

We're based in Sherwood, Nottingham, and work with clients across the UK, face to face and online via Microsoft Teams.

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