Jon Davidge
M7 Associate
Coach
Facilitator
Jon’s background in leadership is a product of long experience, practice and study.
In a 25-year business career, which started as a Procter & Gamble graduate trainee, his first significant leadership test came in his mid twenties when he was sent to Johannesburg to set up and run a subsidiary of The Toronto Star Corporation.
What Jon learned about himself and about leadership from those early experiences stood him in good stead later in his career as Managing Director of a number of publishing and media businesses – including the task of leading the orderly and timely transition of Robert Maxwell’s youth publishing arm into new ownership after Maxwell’s death had left the organisation in chaos with the pension funds missing.
After qualifying from a year-long coach training programme with The Institute of Human Development, Jon began coaching full time in 2003. Early work was focused in the health and publishing sectors.
He trained as a supervisor of coaches and teams with Professor Peter Hawkins at Bath Consultancy Group in 2008.
Jon’s parallel career as a visiting tutor at The Leadership Trust began earlier (in 1988). He was appointed Associate Head of Training & Development in 2012, also working as a regular course director of senior level and board programmes and as the Trust’s senior coaching supervisor. Jon also collaborated on the design, development and launch of three new open programmes: Coaching Skills for Leaders, Leading with Impact and Strategic Leadership.
Jon brings a coaching approach to leadership development; informed by his own experiences as well as nearly two decades of coaching and mentoring fellow leaders passionate enough to want to develop their craft. Clients can expect a refreshing and enduring experience from Jon’s one-to-one coaching sessions.
His two particular fields of interest are coaching leaders to:
– approach the challenges of adaptive change effectively
– appreciate and take on the responsibilities of distributed leadership
Significant recent clients include The European Central Bank, The Financial Conduct Authority, A Middle Eastern Department of the Interior, Lloyds Development Capital, Charles Tyrwhitt, The International HIV / AIDS Alliance, Leeds Playhouse and Southeastern Railways.
His major influences include Barry Oshry, a pioneer of systemic leadership, Ronald Heifetz of Harvard University, whose work on the side-effects of leading change informs Jon’s coaching approach, and David Gilbert-Smith, winner of the Military Cross, commander of the SAS’ training and tactical wing and founder of The Leadership Trust.
For Jon, the art of leadership boils down to enabling individuals and teams to connect emotionally and intellectually to the purpose of their work and having the courage to trust them to work with freedom within constraints and deliver. The hardest task seems to be getting out of the way!
He lives in Brighton with his wife, Claire. He loves reading, ocean sailing, photography and Liverpool FC.
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