I was a cheeky kid.

Why go to school

when you can play in the woods?

Why accept things

when you can experiment

and take them to bits?

Life on,

and in,

the water matters to me

and I see vessels

and the journeys we make in them

as metaphors for our lives and work

Something about the glamour

maybe the helicopters in the brochures

attracted me to the Law

As a lawyer

you do get to see life

under the covers

After a while, I wanted more out of my life

I wanted to do something different

so I left to run my own business

I followed my passion

for designing, creating and solving problems

After a few years I exchanged my business freedom for a salary

and joined a tech business as their lawyer

essentially their problem solver

whilst enjoying the beginnings of middle age spread

I then moved to what had been Ross Perot’s business, EDS

and got involved in the early days of outsourcing in the UK

In his book, Ken Follett tells the story of EDS

and the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis

where Perot busted his men out

with a private army

That is how we ran the business..

…on wings of eagles

from where,

I felt increasingly uncomfortable

and jumped

I moved to Andersen Consulting which later became Accenture

and started to focus more on the people side of the business

Over 10 years there, I moved into negotiating and selling deals,

met my wife and a son and a daughter soon followed

During the next 7 years at Capgemini as Commercial Director

I qualified as a mediator and a coach and started writing

In 2013 I left my last job and set up on my own

My first book “The Power of Soft” was crowdfunded

and came out in January 2016

These days I am happy to do what I love

Writing is important to me – observing and connecting

In a practical way

As an enabler to my clients

My detailed career history on LinkedIn is here

In terms of formal qualifications for what I do now, I am a CEDR Accredited Mediator and a Meyler Campbell Executive Coach (accredited by WABC and the SRA)

I’m a Realise2 Accredited Strengths Coach and am also Lumina Spark, Emotion and Leader Accredited

My clients appreciate the fact that I know what its like to be in their shoes.

I have tools and approaches but I do prefer to meet situations as I find them

For me, context is crucial.

We need to step back to step up

but in the end

action is what matters.