Welcome Bob!

Hi, I’m Bob, Sanctus’s Chairman.

I joined Sanctus this summer because I wanted to get involved with something that really matters to business and society. Coaching does that – and Sanctus is, in my newly biased opinion, seriously good at it.

Coaching comes in many forms. I’m no expert but I’ve had cause to benefit from three of those – and would have benefited from a fourth.

For the last 25 years of my career, I helped to grow four small businesses. As Sales Director, Managing Director or CEO, I needed to learn how to manage people. Whether we think ourselves good at that or find it overwhelmingly hard, we can always do better. 

Learning how to communicate, understand, empathise with and inspire is an ever-changing challenge given how different each of us are. What I have learned came not just from my best bosses along the way but also external coaches and mentors. I get what performance coaching and management support can do for business leaders and the companies they work for.

Then I got ill. Really poorly. ‘Incurable’ blood cancer aged 47. Happily the wonders of modern medicine bashed it into remission within months and that’s where it remains, for now. But the sudden mental headf*ck was enormous. The therapist I saw was second only to my utterly amazing wife at getting me through those dark days. It’s one thing to say ‘don’t let cancer shape your life’ or ‘carpe diem’, it’s quite another to do it when you’re wondering if you’ve seen your last ever Christmas. Sometimes we all need a little external advice.

So performance coaching, management support or mental health guidance… I’ve been a major beneficiary of them all. The one thing I wish I’d also had outside help with is my work-life balance. I used to work stupid hours and under-estimate the impact on both my stress levels (thinking about work at the weekend when I was meant to focusing on my kids’ dodgy Monopoly deals) and my professional productivity. It took a life-threatening illness for me to see sense. A Sanctus Coach could have helped me to sort that out a hell of a lot earlier.

So here I am – a committed part-timer. Like all good Chairmen, I will happily bask in any reflected glory that the brilliant staff and coaches at Sanctus will no doubt provide as we grow this great business of ours. I am certainly here for that, to share my experience of growing businesses and for the fun of the journey ahead. 

But I’m also here because what we do matters – as I’ve already seen to a greater degree in my life than I can say.