Profile

For Bill, leadership is absolutely about who you are and how you behave. As he says, “a leader is always ‘on’. The most powerful impact is created as much by small, informal interactions as by high-profile presentations.”  

He’s a fervent believer in the value of reflecting on past successes and failures in order to see the big picture.  He is adept at helping clients explore the challenges they face in their own leadership and sharpen their leadership impact. Clients value his intelligence, insight and honesty, as well as his ability to provide practical tools for producing outstanding performance. 

In his work with senior leaders, up to and including board level, Bill draws extensively on his own fifteen years’ experience leading large, creative teams as a top flight television and film director for the BBC, ITV, Sky and others. Routine challenges in the role included inspiring outstanding performance whilst working within tight time frames and budgets, managing powerful egos, navigating the politics of finance and corporate supervision, and compromising without damaging the core ambition.  

Before becoming an actor and director, Bill studied Psychology at Oxford and there is a theme running through his career of behavioural insight and working through relationships. 

He joined Maynard Leigh in 2003 and has worked with many major corporations both in the UK and internationally, such as DHL, KPMG, Deutsche Telekom, Ocado, Ernst & Young, Body Shop, BNP Paribas, Mercer, Hewlett Packard, UCL and Barclaycard. 

Testimonials

Every leader should have the opportunity to work with such a fantastic and committed coach as Bill. I recently attended some personal sessions with him and I felt that each of them contributed significantly to boost and strengthen my leadership skills. Bill really understood and respected my personal style and guided me to improve it by proposing the right and challenging questions and offering a range of resources for me to decide, rather than to come up with conventional solutions. He provides an encouraging, warm and confident atmosphere where is easy to interact.

Milena Roweda, Chief Executive Officer at Gauss Fusion

I had the pleasure of working with Bill during an intense though extremely rewarding and valuable leadership training. Bill combines a huge range of soft skills with expertise and experience acquired over his career. In particular his background as a successful actor and director really helped in enhancing the many small things in communication, verbal cues and body language. Bill was able to adapt to the virtual setting, creating a safe environment for our small group to be really open about challenges, strengths and feedback. All of this combined with his positive approach and good humour make him an exceptional coach. Highly recommended.

Christian Schwarz, Service Platforms Security Director at BT