I help people to develop themselves and organisations to be true to their founding purpose. Blending experience as a journalist, coach and strategy advisor, I bring a career-long interest in the place of organisations in society and the issues facing people in fulfilling their potential through them.
I work through engaged inquiry with individuals or groups, creating a space which both supports and challenges people to connect with their values. I help organisations become more focussed on aligning their actions with their avowed purpose. I help individuals to be more aware and accepting of their present reality, with all its contradictions, as a pre-condition to accessing their own wisdom.
People who work with me appreciate the openness and candour that I bring and the space I create to reflect on and face up to difficult issues. I believe this helps individuals to be more grounded and influential and organisations to turn integrity to their competitive advantage.
Experience
I’m a founder-director of Valoro VGW, which helps business leaders to build public trust in organisations by incorporating the concept of social value into their strategy and operations. I set up my own consultancy practice in 2007 with clients ranging from small entrepreneurial companies, through NGOs such as Amnesty International and Action Aid, to large corporations including the BBC, Telegraph Media Group, Amgen, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and media clients overseas.
I’m a regular coach to leaders in education and social services in the London Borough of Camden. As a coach with the Arts Marketing Association, I work with senior professionals in a wide range of cultural organisations including the British Library, Manchester City Galleries and Dundee Contemporary Arts. My private clients include entrepreneurs, chief executives and media producers.
I have particular experience of working with people leading creative teams. I worked for 20 years in the broadcast media sector, mainly in the BBC. Beginning as a reporter and news producer, I moved into strategy and digital media development and became an internal leadership coach. As senior advisor at the BBC Trust, I led the first public value tests, a radical, new approach to evaluating public investment decisions which is now respected throughout the media industry for its rigour, transparency and fairness.
Personal development and accreditation
I gained a Master’s with distinction in coaching from Oxford Brookes University, where I developed a research interest in the influence of stories on our sense of self. I also have professional coaching qualifications from i-Coach Academy and the BBC’s coaching network and an MBA from the London Business School. I’m a licensed practitioner of the MBTI and FIRO-B psychometric instruments.
I’m committed to continual development of my practice and work with a supervisor and with peer coaches. I’m a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and subscribe to its code of ethics.
What clients have said
“Martin has been an excellent coach. He really pushed me hard to find my own solutions. It felt very challenging, uncomfortable at times, but in a very good way.”
“Martin was very patient and encouraging. There was never a moment when he told me outright what I needed to do, which made me have to search for the answers myself.”
“I always felt he was listening and would pick up on things I said that, at the time, I didn’t think were important but that, later down the line, I realised were very significant.”
“We covered an awful lot of ground. Each problem that I brought to the table unearthed something. In many cases these were interesting self constraints. Overall the questioning of these self constraints has given me greater confidence and ability to feel more an author of my own work life.”
“In an ideal world, someone like Martin would be on the payroll of every company and accessible on a regular basis. Increased clarity, productivity and satisfaction would undoubtedly follow.”
“An open and frank relationship with the potential for me to be challenged. I was always encouraged to talk and set the agenda. I felt I was listened to and felt supported and as if someone was ‘on my side’through a difficult time.”
“The coaching process far exceeded my highest expectations. I liked your calmness and light touch with humour which helped me relax and trust you.”
“Martin helped me articulate the scope of the challenges I faced. Working together, Martin and I were able to identify the knotty issues and look at creative ways of unravelling them.”
“Would be good to have a Martin app!”
