The epiphany that led Graham to an academic career came when he fully understood the dissonance between external success and underlying values. This conflict frequently leads to both “badbehaviour” and misery, and prompted Graham’s move into coaching, consulting and teaching. He is now the academic director of a number of company-specific executive programs at INSEAD including HSF, UniCredit, Pernod Ricard, Essilor Luxottica, AB Foods, and Allen and Overy among others. For 15 years Graham was leadership development practice director at INSEAD’s Global Leadership Centre and directs the Challenge of Leadership, a CEO program at INSEAD, which is a significant flagship program. He has also worked as visiting faculty at Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, Moscow Higher School of Economics and ESMT in Berlin.

With expertise in leadership, high performance teams, group dynamics, team dysfunction and change, he is second to none. Outside his INSEAD roles, he specialises in coaching C-suite executives and teams. He consults around team dysfunctions, team and organisational development, and communication. He has worked privately with senior executives at McKinsey, Siemens, Bristol Myers Squibb, AXA, Aviva, Georgia Capital, HSBC, Tesco, AstraZeneca, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, UBS, Shell and BP among others.

As a contributing author to the books Coach and Couch, The Psychology of Making Better Leaders and The Coaching Kaleidoscope, he also authored the academic paper Towards Executive Change and The Use of Transitional Space, and continues to publish today with INSEAD. Recent examples of his work can be read here:

• Navigating the Future with a Human Touch
• Don’t Be an Authentic Leader

This approach to coaching encourages clients to reflect while simultaneously challenging assumptions and asking questions they may have avoided asking themselves. By really getting to know his clients, he can help them to address behavioural blind spots, develop strengths and eliminate destructive leadership characteristics. He enhances leadership performance through insights and development derived from a combination of behavioural science and action learning. His expertise in organisational psychology enables him to look holistically at individual clients, from their abilities to manage transversal, subordinate and superior roles, to the climate created by leaders in their organisations and teams.

Support for clients includes pushing at the boundaries of their comfort zone – developing leadership skills in line with their values and enhancing the effectiveness and performance of both the leader and their organisation. Characterising his style as being “firm but with humour,” he has a thick skin and relishes the opportunity to learn from challenging clients. His clients appreciate the no-nonsense, straightforward approach to counselling and advice and his ability to get straight to the point while generating real insight.