People

Paul Gibbons

Founder of one of Europe’s most successful and innovative consulting boutiques, Future Considerations, which has worked with twenty of the top hundred businesses in Europe. Grew the company to $4m in revenue, with projects on five continents, and forty associates and staff.
Adjunct faculty at the University of Wisconsin Business Schools in Milwaukee and Madison teaching change, conflict resolution, strategy implementation, and personal (career) goal setting.
Named by CEO magazine one of the UK’s CEO ‘super-coaches’.
Has produced outstanding results for a dozen executive teams and boards through facilitation, coaching and education.
‘Internal guru’ in PwC’s internal think-tank on innovation, leading change and learning organizations.
Change leader on a billion-dollar systems implementation, chief strategist for several investment banks, and quantitative expert on Financial Risk Management.
Undergraduate major in Biochemistry, advanced degrees in both Philosophy and Psychology, former visiting scholar at two major Universities. Advanced study in Economics and Counseling, certification in Coaching.
Multi-lingual: conducted business in four languages, with light conversational knowledge of
Author of more than one dozen articles and co-author of a volume on leadership and culture.
Conference keynote speaker and chair.
Winner of international and national championship events in Bridge, Backgammon, and Poker.

There is an entire billion dollar industry devoted to taking the business’ temperature through surveys of all kinds. Most of those are a waste of money because there are few good doctors who know what to do next to reduce the fever!

In order to be an inspirational leader, you need to first be inspired.

Culture Change is the most talked about and most infrequently achieved change in the business arena. Everybody says they want it, few are prepared to do what it takes.

Great talent development and a high-performance culture are key differentiators between world-class businesses and the mediocre. Sadly, few organizations know how to sustainably produce those.

What Gandhi taught us about leadership is that it is an inside job. He was shy, bookish and incapable of giving a public address. He knew he could only change India as quickly as he could change himself.

We don’t think a moral person is someone who merely obeys the law. We set the bar higher. Contrary to Milton Friedman, the same applies to businesses: an ethical business must have higher standards than simply avoiding the courts.

Nelson Mandela used to jog in place daily in his toilet-sized cell. Why? Despite being twenty years into a life sentence with no hope of reprieve, he said “one day I will lead my people to freedom, and to do that, I will have to be fit.” That sort of resolve is sadly missing from most of today's business leaders.

360 degree feedback is a recipe for mediocrity. If Winston Churchill scores 7 out of 7 for inspiration, how come so many business leaders score between 5.5 and 6 on 360 degree instruments. If raters standards dervie from those they see around them, we have a recipe for mediocrity.

Most of my life, I’ve had an IQ above 160. However, I’d trade 20 of those points, for 20 character-quotient points any day. The latter are much more valuable and much harder to come by.

Spirituality is essential for human flourishing. By that I mean living a life of meaning, connectedness, values and purpose. However, the connection with religion makes the word taboo. Leadership development requires working very hard on a leader’s spirituality, but never call it that.