Executive Coaching and Personal Branding

We all buy products or services from organisations that spend millions  of pounds creating and protecting their brands. Some of us work for these organisations. We all are aware of this. But we very seldom take the time to consider our own personal brand. We may worry about how other people view us – but we seldom, if ever, analyse this and even less frequently do we do anything about it.

Business and political leaders understand the need to be or to become a brand. Richard Branson and Boris are the examples that spring to mind immediately. Both have huge profiles and personal brands which have been carefully cultivated and worked on – like extremely precious and very fragile plants. Both of these leaders understand that simply doing a good job is not enough. You have to be seen to be special.

Executive Coaching

Career development is the most important part of the most important part of most people’s lives. The decisions you make in your career and the steps you take to identify and then progress in your career are amongst the biggest you will ever make.

In the 24 000 plus hours of message crafting and narrative work that I have done over the last 20 years, I have worked 1-2-1 with over 800 people. This executive coaching which focuses on you, your personal brand, your personal development, your aims, ambitions and progress is intense but incredibly rewarding.

Some people have changed careers totally because of the work we have done together. Some have decided to stick to their chosen paths and, because of the work we have done together, have prospered. All have become clearer about what they want, their abilities and where they need to catch up. All have left better equipped to get what they want out of their lives and their careers.

This includes ditching the negative perceptions of themselves that they had harboured, nurtured and tolerated like favourite children. All of them are now able to identify and articulate their strengths, their assets and their ambitions. All of them are happier.

“I have been working with Peter and benefiting from his knowledge and skills for nearly 10 years. He has helped me with general communication skills, presentations and speeches at all the key stages in my career – all of which have been pivotal to my personal professional development which has brought me to a senior managernent level within a German, M-DAX listed PLC. Although we have often worked face to face, he is always available on the phone and by email and is always happy to work evenings or weekends – often at very short notice – which is exactly when I need him!

I can wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend him to anyone who takes their professional and personal development seriously.”

Group Company Secretary – German PLC

“Honestly, I don’t think I would have been able to make such a drastic change without your pep talk which challenged me and made me take stock and face reality.”

K – Psychotherapist

“You were brilliant.”

CEO of a UK PLC and Board member of a FTSE 250 company

“Thank you for all your help and support. Without you I would not be here.”

S – Conservative MP

“You have a talent to leave your questions echoing in my head.”

Executive in a global PLC

Personal Branding

Most corporates train new staff to conform, to minimise or delete any or all distractions that could possibly derail client relationships. Good rainmakers/fee-earners and politicians are different from the rest. They have given up being automatons. The really successful ones are virtually untouchable. They have established an identity – a personal brand. They are authentic and individual and people identify with them. They are different and successful as a result.

They have gone through what I call the FISO cycles – alternately fitting in and then standing out and now focus on standing out only.

Being a person with an identifiable personality is essential if you want to stop being the automaton that so many corporates find easier to manage. Life is too short to be a clone or a cog.

You are the number one world expert at being you. Stop trying to be a version of someone else.

If you are in politics having a brand is essential. In business it will take you to the top or you will crash and burn or stay for ever in the backroom. I am sure you will agree that coming second is pretty rubbish. It is rubbish in elections, rubbish in job interviews and rubbish in promotions.

Of course leaving the security of the status quo is risky! But sometimes you have to give up “good” to get to “great”.

If your clothes are bespoke – shouldn’t you be too? Let me help you be YOU!