John works with senior executives whose leadership skills expand and mature after each and every coaching session. He does it together with you, having quickly created a relationship where you are comfortable to be challenged through open questioning, assertive listening and the rarity of silence. He'll use all his experience as an experienced leaders’ coach, a wildlife gardener and a former global business leader to scaffold your time together. Your sessions will regenerate you, making you ready to go out and tackle issues that either seemed impossible or just too big. Your difficult colleague. Your important but challenging client. Your year-end figures. Your company’s carbon footprint. Your contribution to a sustainable and equitable future for all.  

Coaching Philosophy & Approach

As a business leader, a position often reached without much foresight or preparation, you need to reach out. Find the people who are going to nurture in you the time to reflect on the challenges at hand. Who ask the questions that makes you think in a whole different way. Who are invested in making perfect your mental and emotional wellbeing. Who hold up mirrors so that you can see how others see you. They might be a chair and a  mentor and John, your coach.

As such, John is the one who will ask you the direct questions and offer the occasional observation that no one else does. He’ll be the one who gets you to think about how to nuance your leadership to appeal to the many in your organisation or your customer base rather than the few. He'll be the one who gets you thinking about how everything you do fits within a bigger system and impacts your fellow seven billion humans and the living world. How much better can your business decisions be to create a sustainable world, to tackle inequality and, most importantly, to regenerate you in the process?

John is often asked by people how to encourage frogs to lay spawn in ponds, bees to a city street or pollinators to an urban meadow. Cover the pond’s surface with the right plants. Grow a range of flower shapes and forms in a street. Add diversity to a plot of turf. His answer is always to spend time and effort on making the conditions right to nurture life and it will come – just as you do  as a leader with your teams and your customers. But the most important part, John always add to people, is that they themselves must feel how their individual actions really can bring about change. Just like your leadership. 

Background

Any regular day John might spend the morning in a coaching session with a business leader and the afternoon leading a group of volunteers to rewild a city park. 

What unites both roles is a desire by his clients to find their purpose in all they do. To find the inspiration of that bright future in everything and everyone that surrounds them. And to use those inputs to repair and regenerate themselves, their fellow humans and the earth itself. It is the only way to achieve a life or a business that is sustainable, one that can be handed on to family, friends and colleagues.   

Previously John spent thirty years in corporate life, the last decade years in a FTSE 250 global media company, first as an award-winning editor of magazines then a business leader with his own P&L, both in the US and Europe, an advocate for transformation and innovation, particularly technology, and an EMEA division board member. Throughout his career, he was a disruptor, promoted and retained to raise what his fellow colleagues scarcely imagined. John finally disrupted himself and made the change.

Client testimonials

"John worked with me when my company was going through a turbulent time. I was amazed by how quickly John's involvement led to positive change in my interactions with other people, and have since introduced John to friends and colleagues without hesitation.”

Jarvey Moss, CEO, Saible

"John took the time to truly understand my needs, challenges, and goals, creating a safe and supportive environment. As a result, I enhanced resilience, enabling me to navigate challenges more effectively.”

Artur Dzido, (former) Executive Director, Finance & Resources, Cheltenham Borough Homes

Qualifications/Other Credentials

Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching

Bi-monthly supervision with a ESIA accredited practitioner

Studying for an MSc, Sustainability and Ecology, Centre for Alternative Technology

Alumni of UBM Business Leadership Programme

Bachelor of Arts, Durham University