Executive advice · Coaching · Consulting · Facilitation
I work alongside capable people and organisations carrying significant responsibility — helping them see what matters, work through what’s getting in the way, and make meaningful progress.
Independent perspective. Broad experience. Straight talking.
A useful person to have alongside you
Running a team, leading an organisation or delivering something important rarely comes with a neat set of instructions. There are competing priorities, people to bring with you, decisions to make and more demands than hours in the day.
Sometimes you need a specialist. Sometimes you need another pair of hands. And sometimes you need an experienced, independent person who can join the dots, ask the questions others aren't asking and help you work out what to do next.
That's where I come in. I bring together executive experience, coaching, consulting and facilitation — adapting what I do to what will genuinely help.
“I can’t make more hours in the day. I can help you take back control of the ones you have.”
What I do
These aren't rigid packages. The work starts with understanding what you need, what's getting in the way and what will make a difference.
A confidential space to work through the challenges of leadership, understand the patterns that might be holding you back, and find more purposeful ways to respond. Supportive, honest and challenging when it needs to be.
Strategic thinking, organisational development and practical advice to help clarify priorities, navigate complexity and turn good intentions into focused action.
Practical senior-level capability for organisations that need experienced leadership or operational support without necessarily needing another full-time executive. This can include COO-style support, management and delivery.
Experiential, engaging workshops that get people out of presentation mode and into the work: thinking independently, having useful conversations, testing ideas and building shared understanding.
Support across leadership development, team effectiveness, people and culture challenges, governance and organisational change. I look at the visible issue and the human dynamics underneath it — because progress depends on both.
For leadership development, team effectiveness and culture work, I also collaborate with my colleagues through 2bh Consulting, bringing together complementary expertise when an engagement would benefit from a broader approach.
How I work
The presenting problem isn't always the whole problem. A strategy can be sound but lack ownership. A capable team can be constrained by its dynamics. A leader can know what they should do and still find themselves reacting in ways that get in the way.
I pay attention to what's happening above and below the waterline — the practical realities as well as the emotions, assumptions, relationships and habits that influence what happens next.
Build trust quickly, listen properly and understand the real need — not just the brief on the page.
Hold multiple threads, recognise patterns and make sense of the relationships between people, ideas and problems.
Be curious, test assumptions and get beneath the convenient explanation. Sometimes the useful conversation is the uncomfortable one.
Turn insight into decisions, action and tangible progress. Understanding matters; what changes because of it matters too.
Use experience, independence and a bit of humour to make difficult work easier to approach — without pretending it's easy.
Good work matters. So does having a life beyond it. Sustainable success should leave room for both.
The right kind of engagement
I work best with capable people and organisations who want to make meaningful progress. You don't need to have all the answers, but you do need to be open to thinking differently and prepared to take part in the work.
I'm not interested in tick-box exercises or change theatre. If people are being sent along against their will, or the organisation isn't prepared to support the change it says it wants, we're unlikely to be a good fit.
A little about me
I've spent much of my working life in executive leadership, consulting and governance roles in the UK and New Zealand. I've led teams, carried the responsibility for results, worked through organisational challenges and sat around plenty of boardroom tables.
I know what it's like to be juggling too much, making decisions without a complete picture and occasionally wondering whether you're making it up as you go along. I've also learned — sometimes the hard way — that professional success isn't much of a success if it comes at the expense of the rest of your life.
That experience informs how I work. I understand the realities senior people face, but I'm not there to tell you what you want to hear. I'll bring curiosity, perspective, humour and a willingness to challenge. I'm in it for you, and that means being honest.
My father's guiding principle was “service, not self”. It remains a good description of what I believe this work should be about: helping people do things they might not have thought possible, and do so in a way that leaves room for a full life beyond work.
I'm also a co-founder of 2bh Consulting, where I work alongside Susan and Malcolm to help people and organisations develop more conscious, connected and effective ways of working together. We bring different experiences and perspectives to the work, united by a belief that the quality of our relationships — with ourselves and others — is fundamental to how we lead and live.
Start a conversation
If you have a challenge, an idea or simply too many moving parts, let's talk. A first conversation is a chance to understand what you need and whether I might be useful.