Glyn Mitchell
Glyn read Economics at the University of York and then qualified as a Solicitor, working in private practice and later for the Crown Prosecution service. In 1989 Glyn and his wife Betina, both lawyers, took a year out to travel in Nepal, India, Thailand and Europe. This was followed by a career change to work for two non-profit organisations providing personal development programmes for young people and business people using experiential learning. During this time, Glyn qualified as a mountaineering instructor, a role that he continues to fulfil on a part-time basis. In 2002 Glyn became self-employed as an executive coach and leadership educator.
Glyn and his wife live in the beautiful English Lake District where they enjoy climbing and walking in the mountains and looking after their garden and 350 year old house. Together with their son Benjamin, a rock climbing instructor, they run StoneJourneys providing instruction and adventures in rock climbing and mountain walking in the Lake District. Glyn is currently a Trustee of the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team and served several years on the Ethics Committee of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
Career Change
A highly successful partner in a financial services firm came to coaching to help make a major career decision. Although work was going well, it was taking a singificant toll on family life. During the engagement the client reflected on his life's journey, the benefits and costs of his current role and alternative future dierctions. Having decided to leave, the client developed an exit strategy that supported his former partners and built a positive relationship for the future.
New role
A. highly skilled senior analyst was promoted to manage a team of his former colleagues. He continued to focus on the analytical part of his new role as this was his area of skill and comfort. Feedback from his team was generally positive but he was seen as under invested in managing people. Through coaching, he was able to shift his focus towards managing and identified a number of straightforward actions to support and develop his team.
UX & DESIGN
Coaching Practice - Case examples of topics clients have brought to Glyn's coaching practice:
MARKETING
Managing Sensitive Work Relationships
Being promoted to manage a team of former peers can be a challenge, especially when the new manager has to manage an older and more experienced colleague who had been expecting to be promoted first. Coaching helped the new manager understand her own conflicting feelings about the promotion and plan an approach to her colleague. Having a clear approach gave her the confidence to successfully manage a difficult conversation.
BRAND CONCEPTS
Clarifying Goals
A client felt that she had been passed over for promotion and was understandibly upset. The initial stated goal of the coaching engagement was to help her be well positioned to gain a future promotion. The early coaching focused on understanding the reasons that promotion was important to the client. During these sessions the client realised that a promotion would compromise aspects of her personal life and that the real change she wanted to make at work was to be more involved in higher profile projects. This did not need a promotion and she was able to achieve the new goal in discussion whith her manager.
1979
B.A. Degree Economics, University of York
1983
Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court, UK
1993
Qualified as a Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor
1998
Practitioner Neuro-Linguistic Programming
2009
Certificate in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring. Bangor University Business School
Coaching Tools
Glyn is licensed to use a number of psychometric instruments to help clients understand personality preferences in themselves and others:
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Step 1
- The Firo-B
- Rosinski Cultural Orientation Framework
- Global Leadership Assessement 360
- Leadership Judgement Indicator
- Level A Qualified, British Psychological Society
Glyn has worked with clients from companies including:
Pfizer, Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Moody’s Investors Services, Nextag, Aptuit, Alliance Data Services, BlackRock, Teach First, Getty Images, and Zurich Insurance.
He has worked in:
UK, USA, Canada, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Australia.
Comments from Clients
While having our coaching session, Glyn did a great job at quickly structuring our conversation and forced me to come up with insightful findings and next steps for what I should do in terms of the career/life planning.
Junior Management Consultant
He is very emapthetic, understands my coaching needs and is responsive and picks up on themes quickly. He has made a real effort to understand the environment in which I work which enriches the conversations. He is always well prepared for our meetings and goes beyond the superficial to truly understand the causes of behaviour.
VP, Chemical Manufacturer
Glyn genuinely inspired me during our conversations, asking many questions that pushed my thinking meaningfully and allowed me to plan for accomplishing my short and long term goals.
Management Consultant