James Sherwood
Business Coach & Executive Services
Not every athlete has a coach. Only the best.
Its the same in business. So if you want to be the best, find a coach. To do that, you need to speak to some. There are no shortcuts. Chemistry is essential. Below are a couple of insights into me, which may help you.
1. How to
achieve
world domination...
​...when all the world's a stage
When I was first appointed to be a Managing Director at the age of 29, I had no idea how to fill the shoes I had been given. The staff greeted my appointment with a mixture of utter disbelief and complete incredulity. I had after all, been an interim marketing manager with no experience of the industry whatsoever. I had somehow fooled the bosses, but the staff knew me well enough to know I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
A sage old corporate advisor, seeing my plight and sensing something was amiss, took me aside and asked if everything was alright. I said I had no idea what to do. He looked me straight in the eye and said "You are the Managing Director. The staff know you are the Managing Director. Now just get out there and be The f***ing Managing Director!'
My coaching approach is a little more subtle but, like my first mentor, I prefer to keep coaching simple, direct and actionable. With the right support, you'll be amazed what you can achieve. I was.
Who?
C-Suite/Board (Mentorship)
Managing Director
Divisional Head
Fast Track
Where?
2. Dont
waste
another
decade
Don't take ten years. Take ten minutes.
I was interviewed for a little job in a town that I took to calling 'the arse end of nowhere'. It truly sucked. It was hours from home, it was on a crumbling industrial estate on the outskirts of a city who's heyday had been a thousand years before and most of the inhabitants looked like they had been born back then.
As I drove back with my wife, miserable as hell, we stopped at the first service station we could to have a coffee and do some deep breathing. 'Don't take that job' she said. ' It is just not right for you. You'll hate it'.
But we had spent all the money from my successful start up, taking my new wife and young daughter round the world for a year. We had a mortgage, I was penniless and had been on medication for depression.
I took the job. Within a year I was running the company. Then a group of companies. Then an even bigger group of companies. I was earning more then my boss, more than the Finance Director. I had free reign.
But after a while, everytime I sat at my desk, everytime I went to another industry dinner, everytime I had to get on the sluggish train to the arse-end of nowhere, the same question came up in my mind.
What on earth am I doing here?
Ten years of that niggling question takes its toll. It led to some pretty extreme things. Ask me about it when we meet!
It took me all that time to get to the most well known truth about how we spend our days: do something you really enjoy, with people who inspire you.
More importantly, and perhaps realistically, how do you make the most out of your working life, for you, the business and your family, now and into the future?
So save yourself ten years by taking ten minutes.
Call me, or drop me a confidential email by choosing a link below.
It'll take seconds. Not doing so might take years.
Coaching can be done in person or via Skype.
I am based in London but travel throughout the UK, Europe and the US.