When you get to know me, you will realise that I prefer to work behind the scenes. However, I also realise that the first step to working together is for you to have confidence in the relevance of my experience. Hence, these notes…
Unlike most ‘coaches’, I draw on a background in behavioural science, subsequent training in psychodynamics and psychoanalysis, and over 25yrs substantial, strategic-level, organisational and leadership experience.
Having received my PhD in behavioural science, from the University of Bristol, I spent 15yrs working in mainstream management consultancy specialising in organisation development – primarily focused on corporate “Excellence” and creating exceptional places to work in which people found real meaning. Inevitably, this involved a great deal of work with the leaders of those organisations, exploring their ideas, anxieties, and responses to others.
It was while I was engaged in this work, that I learned of the Tavistock Institute in London, of small numbers of psychotherapeutically-trained confidants working in Wall Street and the City of London, and the existence of a growing international body of knowledge in the field of organisational psychodynamics.
Although the training takes around six years, I decided to progress my own career in this direction and eventually qualified as a psychodynamic psychotherapist, not with the intention of becoming a clinical practitioner, but to enhance my work in the organisational field.
If my PhD was in the science, then this subsequent training enabled me to appreciate what is, after all, an art.
That was over ten years ago. Since then, I have worked one-to-one with some quite remarkable people and seen them achieve things that even they had never dreamt they would achieve. I love my work, and relish every new challenge that my clients and I work with.
Along the way, I have authored 8 books, was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in Industry and Education, and regularly travel internationally giving keynote presentations, chairing conferences, and compering events, on various aspects of leadership, emotional and spiritual intelligence (EQ and SQ), governance, climate adaptation, corporate responsibility, futures, and strategy.
I write many articles and short essays, am on the editorial panel of one business journal, and judge some of the awards of the World Council for Corporate Governance.
As a Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP), I am bound by their code of conduct relating to professionalism, confidentiality and client-focus.
A richness of experience
I have been extremely fortunate in my life and career. Following an eclectic and very broad education, my consultancy work meant that I was involved in almost every kind of industry sector, working in many different cultures around the world, usually for long enough to witness first hand the remarkable transformations that have taken place in recent years.
In the course of over 25yrs, I have experienced working alone, in small enterprises, and in very large practices. As well as leading start-ups, I’ve been a member of teams transforming medium sized firms as they grow. At one point, at very short notice, I stepped in as Group HR Director of a business employing 54000 people, and helped lead this through a remarkable cultural transformation, so I also have first hand experience of the politics of such places. As such, I am very used to the rollercoaster between strategic direction and day-to-day operational issues, between profit and loss.
My interests embrace many aspects of corporate governance, social responsibility, employee engagement and ethics, and I work in these fields, both with my clients and (sometimes behind the scenes, or as a moderator and rapporteur) with a small number of leading institutions influencing government and business decision making. As Chair, I also help lead two medium-sized charities.
