James Parsons

James works primarily in leadership assessment and development, but is also a qualified careers coach and likes to work with young people to help them launch in their working lives happily.

James had a first career in investment banking which he didn’t like very much but then got roped into coaching lots of bankers when he left. Since 2009 he’s managed to broaden his appeal to other business leaders, entrepreneurs and third sector CEOs. He is also a partner of a successful leadership practice and supports hiring companies with assessment for recruitment and development.

Coaching Approach

A bit different. I draw from a broad patchwork of thinking from clinical, neural and behavioural sciences, not just psychology taught at coach school. Here’s my basic philosophy about coaching:

• The world is trying to solve right brain problems with left brain thinking - business tends to focus on the IT more than the I or the WE, which is where the real power lies. You are an organisation of relationships first and foremost.

• To change yourself or others, work from the inside out. Tune up your system starting with your physiology because that’s where emotions are born. Emotions drive the feeling and thinking that determine what we do. If only golfers knew this before playoffs, they’d win more of them.

• You can’t just think your way “there”, hence much coaching is an expensive waste of time. A tuned-up system will produce better signals for your brain to work with so the answers will come. You’re the expert after all - I just need to be smart enough to stay with you and make sure that happens. 

All programmes with me are quite systematic because our human systems are. You will get a coaching journal based on an inside-out model of coaching I call Fit to Lead. It’s full of exercises, tips, ideas that have worked in real life and signposts to further reading for the curious. Into this we knit your reality. It seems to work pretty well.