Coach Class

Nick was appointed CEO of Joules in 2019.  He has over 25 years’ experience in developing retail brands and strategy. He started his career at Marks & Spencer where he held a number of senior and director roles. 

Prior to joining Joules, he was SVP-Commercial at Asda and a member of the Executive Board, having previously been Managing Director of George. 

During his time at Asda, Nick was responsible for the performance of the grocer’s trading divisions across food, general merchandise and clothing, and helped drive significant innovation and digital transformation across the business.

Nick is an alumnus of Harvard University, having completed a Personal Leadership and Development course at Harvard Business School.

At M&S Nick worked in the corporate area, and experienced the luxury of the carpet and the quality of the crockery. 

He also worked alongside retail legends like Sir Stuart Rose - who led with clarity. He experienced the energy and momentum that's created by a common purpose.  When you speak to those who have worked for the likes of Allan Leighton and Archie Norman (Asda legends), people don't really remember the results, they remember how it felt to be part of the team.

At Joules now, Tom the founder of the business is still involved. A combination of his passion and the clarity he and his team has brought to the brand, is still clear today. It hasn't had to reinvent itself like many brands, who lose their way. 

Nick gets fired up and motivated by where the company is going, and the importance of shared values that you live by. You don't say one thing and do something else. 

He really enjoys learning and understanding how he reacts, unless you go and find out you'll never know. 

He gets a lot of energy from speaking to people from across the organisation. Which has been challenging over the pandemic. 

He now leads a hybrid team who are based at home and increasingly moving back into a brand new office. It is the first time in 12 years that all of the Joules functions will be under one roof, having occupied various offices in and around the area.

They've learned a lot over the past 15 months, that they can create product, acquire a business, open shops and close shops - all remotely.

They are now developing a fully flexible approach for colleagues who decide how much time the work from home and in the office. Making sure that work fits into their broader life. 

Core hours are 10am-4pm - with no meetings held outside of those hours. Which then allows people the opportunity to flex their time around the start and end of the day to take the kids to school or walk the dog. 

As he looks ahead, his hopes for the future - he says the business has a much stronger connection with colleagues in stores. 

He wants to ensure everyone feels they are in it together. Finding the balance is going to be key, and by the end of the year he thinks they'll have found their rhythm in terms of hybrid working.

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As an ex-England International table tennis athlete, former National Coach and current Head Coach at British Para Table Tennis , Greg has successfully competed and worked in elite sport performance leadership and management positions for over 20 years.

A fellow Barefoot graduate he is also an internationally recognised Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

In this episode we discuss the transition from coaching elite athletes to coaching business executives. 

From a very early age coaching was a part of his life. He recalls being eight years old and playing football in the garden while recording how to guides on video. He grew up with a fascination with the coach and player relationship. 

Following a short international playing career he got into coaching. Studied coaching at uni, and became a head coach in table tennis.

Barefoot was a fantastic learning experience for him, which ultimately improved his leadership skills. 

I reflect on how we have led polar opposite worlds, having spent my career in the world of business but recently started coaching a pro golfer. 

Greg has found the transition into the business world relatively smooth. Seeing lots of parallels between conversations with sports people  - diving into their thinking, recognising how they make decisions under pressure. Getting to the know the individual and what sits underneath the technical and tactical knowledge.

Now he works with clients who are trying to get the best out of their leadership style and philosophy, or get the best out of their teams.  

He doesn't really know about their business, he couldn't give them any advice as such, but he can ask them open questions and be curious, in such a way as to unlock their thinking and their potential. Getting them to challenge themselves in their leadership style.

He sees his role as one to nudge and nurture, asking the questions they won't necessarily ask themselves.

We also discuss resilience, and recent events at tennis tournaments and the Olympics where athletes are calling out their own mental wellbeing in relation to whether they feel able to perform at their best, or at all.

Greg sees it as forward thinking for both business and sport, and likes to think of wellbeing as a performance advantage. It used to be seen as a nice to have, whereas now it is a need to have. 

We need to spend more time being and recognising how we perform, in the past it was all about going harder and harder.

Avoiding burn out, regardless of industry or sector is key. Factoring in breaks, time out, breathing space. It is the same for athletes, they need to have time off, and less training at certain times. He thinks it is fantastic that people are now speaking out.

He's off to Tokyo this week, and has a buddy and support system in place. 

Greg has just had the conversation with the team about enjoying the moment, and not letting it fly by in a flash. They want to enjoy this moment together. It's been five years in the making. People have had to delay things in their lives, having children, transitioning into new careers. 

I fully expect him to have to update his LinkedIn on his return, having already helped deliver over 60 major medals for British Para Table Tennis, including European, Paralympic and World Champions. Watch this space!

Good luck to Greg and the entire GB and NI para team in Tokyo!

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Stephen is a professional advisor to agencies and communication teams, an author and teacher, 

He has a track record of founding, growing and managing change within creative agencies. 

We met many moons ago when we were colleagues on the CIPR social media panel - considered to be quite ahead of its time back then with an amazing group of people around the table. 

Founded in April 2010 the panel was made up of CIPR members (and me!) who were considered to be some of the foremost social media thought leaders and contributors at the time. They collectively input into the Institute's policy guidance, education, training and digital media output, and co-authored two books on social media.

Stephen has reflected that he has benefitted at every stage in his career in a shift in technology - he started in tech PR at the end of the 90s, then moved into digital media and social - having previously studied engineering at university.

Even now in the last 12 months with his new business Wadds Inc, he is interested in the world of work and life following the impact of covid. 

One of the great things he does is work out loud, he loves the idea of a shared space where people can create, and learn. In many ways he is 'a collaborative doer'. 

Stephen has reservations about the way social media has been weaponised, but he believes it still has many benefits. The social web enables you to share your ideas, and invites others to improve on them, with the creation of community and shared spaces where people can come and think. 

During lockdown we've need to use tools like Zoom and Shooglebox to enable shared creative thinking - but nothing replaces the energy in the room when you are able to think around a creative problem.

Stephen has held the role of Visiting Professor in Practice at Newcastle University since 2014, supporting the university and students through teaching and mentoring.

He is also an author - and most recently collaborated with my dissertation tutor from Leeds Met (now Director of Research at Leeds Business School), Ralph Tench - updating the must-have PR manual for every practitioner and student - Exploring PR & Management Communication (first co-authored by Liz Yeomans and Ralph). Which Stephen and Ralph attempted to rewrite while walking the North Yorkshire moors, thrashing out the chapters as they hiked. 

The advice he would tell himself now if he was 25 again - would be learning to manage your emotions. Noticing the frustration or anger means something needs to change.  It's the most important lesson in life he's learned. 

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Aimee is a passionate, dynamic and pioneering brand communications specialist with 20 years experience - providing senior executives at some of the world's biggest global brands with strategic communications advice and counsel, with a particular focus on entertainment partnerships to help brands tell impactful stories. 

From early on in her career she knew she wanted to get into the film industry - and by putting it out there, an opportunity arose with the British Film Institute, which led to her joining DDA PR - a job she thinks she probably shouldn't have got.

Luck is when opportunity meets expertise - so when HP sponsored BFI - it was a no brainer that Aimee needed to be on that account.

At the time it felt like a long time coming - but as she looks back, it probably wasn't. When she was interviewed it was remarked if you can sell razors (Gillette was one of her brands at the time) you can sell Tom Cruise!

Patience has been Aimee's biggest challenge, but actually not getting what she wanted straight away was a blessing in disguise. Enabling her to get a grounding in brand PR that is now paying dividends in her latest venture - getting brands to partner with film makers.

She's now doing her dream job.

Aimee mentors a lot of people - her advice to others is that we don't know the whole story yet, sometimes what seems like the biggest disaster may serve us well in the future.

She sometimes wishes she could go back to her 22 year old self and say: "Trust me, you're going to be really grateful for this experience right now, it's going to come full circle."

She finds that mentoring others helps her affirm the beliefs she holds and lessons she needs to remember. Such as self care - sometimes you can get stressed when things go well - the feeling or pressure that you need to jump on this opportunity now.

In order to be the best version of herself Aimee practices transcendental meditation - every day without fail - a mantra based form of meditation. 

Her intuition is stronger, she hears things differently, she has more self-awareness. When you change yourself you change 50% of any relationship you are in - so you become a different partner, friend, sibling. All of her relationships have improved, she is more tolerant, more understanding, and gives people space. She has stopped engaging in the drama. She is kinder and more compassionate. 

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Diane is co founder of The Drum.

She describes herself as an avid consumer of business education, having stupidly not bothered in her early career. 

She also engages in mastermind coaching and business training and loves reading business books (currently on the go is The Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns). 

This appetite for learning has helped her make fundamental changes to the business in the last four years, resulting in a more focus and better results. 

On Diane's Twitter biog she describes herself as marketing-mad, business-obsessed, and unhealthily competitive. She also loves eating peas from the pod - so is looking forward to this time of year - pea pod season. 

She joined The Drum in 1996, but couldn't have imagined then she would be living in London with offices in Mumbai, Singapore, and New York.

She's proud of the communities The Drum has created, by supporting marketers solve their problems, helping them navigate their way through the industry.

One of the books she read that was life changing - Think and Grow Rich and the Language of Leaders - helped them express their goals better, and consider questions like why couldn't we open an office in London. 

She is inspired by Andy Murray, as tennis fan, but also watching his journey as a wee laddie from a little town in central Scotland go on to achieve the success that he has.

When recruiting people she looks for people who are curious about their business and about the world. She also likes people who smile, someone she can imagine spending time with, people who enjoy their lives. An important aspect of high performing teams. 

There are still lots of un-dones on Diane's list, including to do virtual awards by making it like a full blown TV production. The Drum is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, which is being accelerated by the lockdown. The USA is also a big target, with the aim of it being a much bigger part of its business.

The downside is there have been times when they weren't sure they'd make it through to next month, with the business hinged on loans against their house, worried she may need to let her team go. So it's not all been rosey.

There's failure in her past but she chooses for it not to define her. 

Her advice is to surround yourself with good people, who will support you and wipe your tears for you.

Through her competitive nature, she refused to fail. You have to work hard, nothing worth having is easily won. 

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Marissa is a fellow Barefooter, but who is on a different cohort of the training. We met on the Barefoot Taster Session back in January, but started the course at different times, as I wanted to learn during work time (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and Marissa wanted to go to college at weekends.

She specialises in delivering learning consulting and professional facilitation services, having spent 19 years working at Deloitte. 

She is working full time during the week, and studying at the weekends, but doesn't feel like it's a chore. She gets the energy from the rest of her group, the learning she's doing, investing in herself. But she admits it is shattering! 

She tries not to worry too much about what they've learned each week, go with the flow. When ti comes to learning, people have to find what works for them. We start with the best intentions of reading all of the books on the list, but in reality most of us haven't. But that's ok. Instead being in the moment, rather than stressing or beating yourself up. Look at what you are doing, don't focus on what you're not.

The bits that have stood out so far for Marissa are the vision work, looking back and understanding what it looked like, what it smelt like. The other key thing is her coaching style and how it has changed through the course. She is much more aware of what she is saying, how she is reacting. So much more at ease with it. She used to plan much more, think about how it was going to play out. But now she knows the best coaching conversations are just going with it, and taking away that structure. 

When you first see some of these things in action, you wonder how is that going to work, it feels awkward, but then you bring it into your coaching and see how powerful and impactful it can be. 

But Marissa has also observed that clients react differently - the wheel of anything worked brilliantly with one, but not with another. And that's ok.

Being a coach and being in the presence of another human being when you see them make a shift in their thinking, is a real privilege. 

Marissa's hope for the future - two two years from now she'll have 100 clients under her wing, helping support people. 

I reflect that I am a better person on the back of Barefoot, I am more self aware, I recover quicker. I recognise I have an iceberg and how I show up to a coaching session has an impact on the client. In recent weeks I got to see that in action as I received an email one minute before a session started that previously would have knocked me for six, but I was able to observe my feelings, and manage them in service of the client. 

Loved catching up with Marissa - and seeing how far we have both come in six months. 

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For anyone that has worked with Andy Clarke over the years, he obviously needs no introduction.

The former CEO of Asda where he was in charge for six years - a longer tenure than most chiefs. He left school with one O'level in English having spent too much time on the sports field - where he captained the rugby team and water polo team. 

Only hanging up his rugby boots when he was 50 having suffered a big injury - he knew the time was right to start watching from the side lines.

His father a policeman, encouraged him to get a job, soo he knocked on the door of the local shop and asked the manager Denis Lever if he'd employ him.

He got the chance, and worked his way up to supervisor. The rest is history.

Rugby taught him discipline and respect - skills and values he carried through to his retail world. 

He works on the basis that nobody is a bad person, so giving people an opportunity in the world of work, or via his involvement with The Princes Trust.

He still wears a shirt and tie to Zoom meetings, as he felt it was the right thing to do. The old disciplines have stuck with him. 

40 odd years in retail and flashed by in an instant. But his appetite to be on the shopfloor is not diminished, so much so he does all the family shopping - something his wife tells him is sad!

I remember the rapport he had with Asda colleagues on the shopfloor when he was at Asda - working with people is something he's always loved. And has always made him feel proud to be a part of, community spirit and teamworking environment. 

 We reminisce about the Walmart shareholder event where Asda took 250 store colleagues to NW Arkansas to the annual jamboree. 

Many of whom didn't previously have a passport or had travelled on a plane outside of the UK. For a week they'd all be up at 5am seeing different parts of Bentonville or seeing Rod Stewart perform on stage. It was an unbelievable journey - life changing in a really positive way.

It also led Andy to be on stage with the band Keane - who had been flown in to represent the UK. 

I remember a time in my career that impacted Andy - as his personal PR, looking after him conduct media interviews. The headlines in one particular paper didn't go to plan. Not what either of us wanted to see. I wanted to put my head in the sand - I'd mucked up. When we came into contact, he gave me a wink and a friendly clip round the ear. Shit happens. Don't worry about it.

Choosing your attitude, is important to Andy. Mistakes are made, it was intentional. It was a huge learning process and has stayed with him ever since. 

I ask him where he gets his energy, a father of seven, the most recent arrival a pandemic baby called Tom.

He's always had it since school. He and his brothers lost their mother when he was pretty young, he watched how hard his father worked to bring them up, and gave them a real purpose and aspiration to keep going and do more. 

He loves to see his own children grow up and develop - that gives him energy. 

He has no plans to retire - what would he do all day? Read books and play golf? It would do his head in!

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In this episode I caught up with Mav Wynn, an amazing leader who decided to leave the world of investor relations in the city of London to become a pilates instructor in Costa Rica.

A career spanning 20 years, enabling listed companies to communicate with shareholders more effectively. 

But she felt that something was missing. 

She was helping companies better articulate their purpose but she wasn't so clear on her own purpose. 

She realised some of the things that were important to her, required her to leave the city and move to the jungle. 

Mav wanted to: "own her time, be closer to the ocean, and have more movement in her life."

Her coach, Elizabeth, helped her understand what was important to her. Helping her gain perspective that gave her the confidence to make these changes. 

She kept wrestling until she found the answer inside herself. 

Mav is full of wisdom, self-reflection is key, being mindful of living in the moment, accepting that it is a journey she's on. 

Her arrival in Costa Rica is the start of something, not an end point. 

She thinks finding a good coach, is invaluable.  To help guide you on your way. 

Living through the isolation of lockdown has been tough for someone who thrives on the instant gratification of teaching students in person.

Not having that energy exchange weighed heavily on her. 

She found herself beginning to drift, so she checked back in with Elizabeth again. 

She took a long hard look in the mirror, and decided, "you've got this". 

She feels the pandemic has encouraged people to slow down, spend less time on their laptop, to live more healthily. 

People who are very successful and wealthy are realising living a much simpler life has real benefits. 

She believes personal growth happens through relationships, seeing new people, learning new things. 

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Claire Foy is a fellow student on the Barefoot Coaching course - in this podcast we reflect on reaching half way, and review our 'performance' in the first half. 

It's strange to think two months ago we'd never met one another as a group, and just how far we've come as coaches and students of coaching in that short space of time.

We are already good enough, more resourceful, better equipped, and embracing the chance to learn new skills, play at new techniques and trust the process. 

Claire is a class act, and so easy to converse with. 

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We reconnected a few years ago at a cricket test match at Lords over a glass or two of very good quality wine, having crossed paths at Asda. An accomplished leader, Ade started his career working in his family's shop in Glasgow. As a young man, he learnt the art of buying and selling and listening to customers, and how to actually make money.  

If you buy something for X and sell it for Y, the bit in the middle goes in the family pocket. It is something he has carried with him - the simplicity of doing business.

An informal approach in the corporate world has not held him back, his preference for talking to people and cutting through the noise, making the complex simple has stood him in good stead throughout his working life. If you stop and listen to people in your team, you can learn what it is that goes behind the decisions they are making. If you want to win as a team, you have to instil confidence in your team - bring out the best in everyone in that team. Allow people to be themselves first, and for them to realise that it's OK be yourself. 

His approach to problem solving relies on a 3-step formula: simple, complex, simple. 

Start by asking simple questions, those that you would ask as a child, be inquisitive, get the cut through from people; then put in place a complex set of analysis, pull together data, opinion, hearsay, facts; then spit out a simple answer so people understand what you want them to do in three headlines.

Ade is willing to question the traditions that have gone before and happy to be 'unimpressed by them'. Challenge the norm can lead to greater success and an inspiring approach for your team, who see you are willing to accept new ways of working.

In recent years as he's led large teams across companies like Asda and Accolade Wines, Ade has drawn down on one of the best managers he ever had the pleasure of working with. Allied Domecq's David Scotland, who was on the board and CEO of the wine business. 

At his first quarterly review meeting as MD UK Ireland, Ade prepared a big pack of numbers and information. David rocked up to the meeting, and Ade got ready to present his pack. But David stopped him, put the pack to one side and said: "I know all of that, I've seen it, tell me what it is you are going to do to lead and inspire this organisation to better things?"

It made him realise managing people was the most important thing you could do in business.

David added: "You've got to stoke the fire within people - make it a great place to work, deal with their emotions, and encourage them to be the best they can be."

He found that truly inspiring. And has led like that ever since. 

I'm happy to say I've witnessed Ade live out those words of David's to the max. 

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