Testimonials
Simon has worked closely with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management for several years in different capacities. Firstly, Simon advised and supported the senior leadership team to review, improve and grow its consultancy arm (FMLM Applied) which has now evolved into a successful business supporting healthcare leaders and organisations across the UK. Simon has also been very involved in the design and delivery of a number of leadership development programmes for senior medical leaders, doctors in training and pharmacists. Feedback from commissioners and participants has been consistently positive about Simon’s engaging style, flexible approach and ability to get groups to learn and work together effectively to achieve their goals. Simon has also provided coaching within the team and for participants on our medical leadership programmes.
Simon is great fun to work with and I have appreciated his honest approach, reflective nature and ability to adapt as circumstances require in the time we have worked together. His advice and support has been invaluable over the past few years and I would not hesitate to recommend him for OD, leadership development or coaching.
Kirsten Armit
Chief Operating Officer, Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management
I worked with Simon for several years. I’d highly recommend him. He’s a really knowledgeable LD/OD consultant and excellent coach whose advice I value highly. He builds great collaborative relationships with his clients and is a pleasure to work with.
Kate Wilson
Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry
If you are looking for a consultant to help your team resolve a knotty problem, talk to Simon. He has the great gift of listening with an open mind and then asking perceptive and probing questions. He subtly steers you around rabbit holes and opens fruitful avenues for you to explore. Consequently, you can be confident that you are fixing problems, not treating symptoms.
Simon can do this because he has a quick mind, business “nous”, and a sophisticated understanding of individual, group, and organisational dynamics. What you get is a professional partner who keeps your team steadily focused on the issue at hand, while flexing and adapting his approach to raise energy and motivation.
Simon models honesty and transparency in a gently humorous way. He is acutely aware of his own emotions. He can demonstrate the power of sharing feelings in a thoughtful and constructive manner. If this sounds heavy, it isn’t. Simon judges these things nicely to help important ideas resonate and lift the capability of your team.
Technically, Simon is brilliant. He is up to date with research in his field of organisational, cultural, and leadership development and change management. But he also has an amazing range of creative ideas for workshop and programme design to suit different groups, situations, and issues, for both virtual and face-to-face delivery.
I have been a colleague of Simon’s for many years, so I have witnessed how effective he is and the value he brings.
David Barnard
Director, Pracsys
Sadly not every professional is interested in making sure that they are right up to date with the latest research and thinking in their core area. However Simon is one of those rare people who takes their professional responsibilities and development seriously, and who mixes practical experience with proper evidence and research. Simon is professional, knowledgeable and with a real concern for not only making sure that his work is evidence-based but that his deep knowledge is right up to date with the very latest research and evidence.
David Wilkinson
Editor of the OR
Simon is an amazing person who works with clients to deliver their goals, with the highest level of integrity and sense of purpose. We worked together on a number of impactful pieces of work in the public sector that changed the working lives of thousands of frontline workers, senior managers and executives.
He operates confidently and curiously to understand others and will stand up for what should be done at all times.
He is a highly skilled facilitator, and as a colleague was a joy to be around.
Jonathan Magee
Managing Partner, Leader of Public Services practice, and diversity and inclusion sponsor for UK & Ireland, Korn Ferry
I’ve known Simon in several capacities: colleague, associate, supplier, consultant and more. He’s a talented developer of people and organisations. He’s thoughtful, insightful, and can be challenging when appropriate. Above all, his professionalism shines through.
Chris Lake
Managing Director, Integrated Development Ltd
Simon is able to combine a vast range of knowledge with adept facilitation skills – and even more than that, he is great fun to work with. Participants and colleagues alike would recommend him – because he can challenge you and support you with equal ability.
Joel Greig
Director at Practive Ltd
Simon designed and facilitated a leadership programme for the top 70 leaders at Post Office during a period of major transformation. We were just 18 months post-separation from Royal Mail Group with a leadership team that needed to own and drive the performance of the business to become commercially sustainable. Simon was brilliant to work with – thoughtful, creative and responsive. He designed a programme that met the requirements of the brief but which delivered more than we could have expected for the team. He brings a rare balance of empathy with commercial focus and is extremely adaptable to varying stakeholder requirements, from the L&D team to the CEO. Delegate feedback was overwhelmingly positive about Simon’s facilitation style. He is incredibly intuitive and agile at moving with the group, creating a safe but developmental space. Simon would make a great partner to any L&D or Talent function and I would not hesitate to recommend him to design and facilitate leadership development programmes aimed at senior leaders
GD, Head of Leadership Development, Post Office
I worked with Simon on a board development session…a very positive experience. Simon stepped in relatively last minute to partner with me to deliver the session. Simon first and foremost built rapport very quickly and demonstrated his knowledge and experience of leadership and board development and facilitation. Needless to say, this put me at ease. We co-designed the session and I found Simon to be very collaborative and insightful along the way. We successfully co facilitated the session and even though we had not worked together before, Simon made things feel easy. The group we worked with had discerning taste and he quickly won them round with his confidence in the tool, his knowledge of leadership development and his commitment to ensuring a session with the participants’ outcomes at the centre
NL, Head of Group HR, Cambridge Assessment
I wanted to let you know that there has been lots of positive feedback about our event. I think people felt challenged – but in a good way – and lots of self-reflection and learning taking place. I think some of the big stuff was getting out – and there is a growing confidence that we will be able to tackle this. Lots of humour too. Bring on the next event!
LP - Local Government
– The experience and neutrality that you brought ensured that we achieved what were always going to be difficult outcomes to deliver….participants agreed that the workshop achieved its purpose / objectives and we have the key actions agreed in order to move forward in integrating pharmacy with our ICS. An excellent result.”
(Pfizer / NHS STP Workshop – Pharmaceutical/NHS)
The NHS Leadership Academy has worked closely with Simon….in designing, developing and delivering a number of leadership development interventions, including the widely recognised Mary Seacole programme. As well as the significant experience and expertise Simon has brought, a shared value base and a common goal of making the programmes more accessible across health and care, has been vitally important. As the Academy is on the brink of creating a more sustainable, NHS-led delivery model for the programme, we are continuing to work with Simon to ensure a robust transition from external to internally-delivered interventions, allowing more flexibility and cost-efficiencies which can be passed on to the service
(GR, NHS Leadership Academy)
Simon has been great, encouraging, reassuring, helpful and kind. He has challenged us to look at things differently and given us lots of ideas, taking us out of our comfort zones and given us more confidence.
(OD Capability Building Development Programme – NHS)
Thank you for your support and patience during the programme. Your good humour and gentle nudging in the right direction was just what I/we needed and it made a huge difference to the success of our learning set.
(Senior Leadership Development – Public/Private Sector)