SENIOR LEADERSHIP COACH
Executive coaching for complex, high-stakes environments
John Dyson - Executive Coaching
I work with senior leaders in complex, high-stakes environments who know that prevailing approaches are not working and are ready to find better ones. My clients come from industries where the stakes are real, the problems are gnarly and the opportunities are huge - pharmaceutical and life sciences, industrial and manufacturing, construction and infrastructure. Sectors where the structures and leadership models of the last century are no longer fit for purpose.
The most sustainably effective leaders understand that success isn't governed by individual greatness or a re-organisation - it's built on purposeful collaboration. The ability to work with others, communicate across networks, and step outside arbitrary constraints - and build the kind of trust that makes organisations genuinely work.
THE APPROACH
01
INDUSTRIAL.
Rooted in the real world of manufacturing, pharma, construction and infrastructure. Grounded in three decades of doing the work. Substantial, no-nonsense, while built for complexity.
02
IMMEDIATE.
High-stakes thinking for leaders who can't afford to wait. Not coaching for its own sake. Important work that needs to happen now.
03
INTELLIGENT.
Rigorous, unconventional, operating at the intersection of business strategy and human psychology. Not off-the-shelf thinking. For leaders who would be bored by conventional approaches.
THE PROCESS
HOW IT WORKS
This isn't a rolling programme of weekly calls. A typical engagement runs six sessions of two hours each, spread over three to nine months - enough time for real thinking, and enough momentum to keep the work moving.
Deep Dive
1–2 sessions
We develop problem clarity and diagnosis - understanding the situation in full before reaching for solutions. Where useful, this can include a site visit.
Analysis & Discussion
1–2 sessions
Through critical thinking and challenge, we develop improvement approaches that are grounded in the reality of your environment.
Move to Action
1–2 sessions
We develop personal and operational approaches - test them, review them, and agree what follow-up looks like moving ahead.
SECTORS
WHERE I WORK
PHARMACEUTICAL & LIFE SCIENCES
Complex regulatory environments, volatile supply chains and the pressure to bring genuinely transformative products to market. Leadership in this sector demands more than management skill.
INDUSTRIAL & MANUFACTURING
Sectors under structural pressure – from automation, from global competition, from leadership models that haven't kept pace with the scale of change.
CONSTRUCTION & INFRASTRUCTURE
High-stakes projects, complex stakeholder networks, and organisations that run on collaboration or don't run at all. Purposeful leadership here isn't optional.
30 YEARS. THREE SECTORS. ONE APPROACH.
I spent more than 25 years at GlaxoSmithKline, eventually as VP, Head of Capital Strategy and Design. Since 2018 I have been Professor of Human Enterprise at the University of Birmingham, lecturing in business strategy, project management and collaboration.
I work closely with global strategy and design consultancy Bryden Wood, and am co-author of Design to Value – published by RIBA – with Mark Bryden, Jaimie Johnston MBE and Martin Wood.
I also chair cross-sector conversations that bring together pharmaceutical companies, regulators, big tech, research institutions and academia - leaders who rarely sit in the same room, working through the most complex problems in their fields. That perspective comes directly into my coaching work.
I am also a BACP-qualified counsellor with a private practice.
WORKING ON SOMETHING GNARLY?
In-person and remote coaching for senior leaders across London, the M4 corridor, Oxford, Bristol, Birmingham and wider UK.