The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 14: Winter 2019 | Page 25

IN PROFILE
LEE MEARS
EXECUTIVE COACH
THE PRESTON ASSOCIATES
How did you become an executive coach?
Nick Blofeld, who was CEO of Bath Rugby at the time,
introduced me to different contacts who had helped the club
over the years. I met Simon Wilsher, Doug Lockland and David
Scotland who are business guides and exec coaches and I
embarked on a coaching journey.
David worked with me to map out my strengths, taking it
right back to before I started rugby, looking at what I enjoyed,
what my skill sets were and how I could make a living out of
them.
I completed a Post Graduate course in Executive Coaching
and then BRE introduced me to Preston Associates.
Where does your work with
Preston Associates take you?
I tend to work in London, Europe and the Middle East.
We work heavily in the banking sector with names such as
RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Citibank. We also work with many
law firms. I have one legal client in Dubai and I’ve started to
do more in the tech world working with start-ups, which I
really enjoy.
How do you work with clients?
Former Bath and England international
rugby star, Lee Mears, talks exclusively
to The Business Exchange about life
after rugby and his transition to a
successful corporate career.
Lee is a Bath treasure, playing for Bath
Rugby Club in 268 games, touring with
the British and Irish Lions to South
Africa in 2009 and representing his
country at two Rugby World Cups. In
2013, after 16 seasons at the top, Lee
was forced to retire from the game due
to a life-threatening heart condition.
In this interview, Lee tells his story of
how at age 33 he reinvented himself,
using his expertise to help create high-
performance teams in the business
world.
We work diagnostically, interviewing the Board or the CEO
and asking questions like ‘where are you?’ ‘Where do you
want to go?’ And ‘How are you going to get there?’ We
find out what’s going on in the business and then create a
stepping-stone plan to get them where they want to be.
We also get briefs from legal HR departments needing our
help to support a colleague in a firm stepping up to Partner.
Becoming a Partner requires a different skill set, and I equip
my clients for that journey.
I also help CEOs transitioning out of their role and back
into the normal world. This is exactly what I went through to
find my career and niche post rugby, so I understand what
they are going through!
What skills do you take from the rugby
world to help business leaders grow?
Mindset is the key to behaviour change, and that for me is
looking at which behaviours have got you where you are, and
which behaviours can help you grow faster. This is what you
do a lot of the time in sport, continually questioning where
you can find those marginal gains.
Is there a book you would recommend
to get into the right mindset?
I would recommend Find the Good by Heather Lende. It
talks about how - if you wire your brain to look for the good
in people in life, and at work - you will start to be happier. It
looks at how the brain works, advocating journaling in the
morning, and by finding the positive in the world, it puts you
in a happier place.
What are your top tips for getting into the right
mindset for business success in 2020?
We’re in an age where we are trying to unlock ‘discretionary
effort’ in business. Everyone’s talking about robots, but at
the end of the day, it’s all about people. I encourage clients
to continually work on themselves as people, their role in
the business and their relationships with family and friends.
By doing that they will help the system. Life changes, roles
change, but if you can keep working on being the best version
of you, you’ll definitely be a happier person!
How do you get your job satisfaction?
When you have someone come back to you and say “Thank
you so much. That was worth every minute of my time,” or,
seeing how different someone is as a result of the coaching,
it’s really powerful and rewarding.
You start to realise as you get older and wiser, that
feedback like this is much more powerful than nice shiny
things that give you pleasure for only five or ten minutes.
Someone saying you have impacted their life and helped
them is way better!
What have been your work highlights of 2019?
One of the tech firms I work with has been in double-
digit growth for the last three years, and there was a big
organisational change piece where they morphed from being
a pre-payment services firm, into a FinTech. For them to do
this and keep the growth, it has been a challenge and one of
my favourite projects, helping the company fly and continue
that double-digit growth. I’ve also seen one of my lawyers
promoted to Partner which is fantastic.
What are your plans for 2020?
I turned 40 this year and set some challenges – so 2019
has been action-packed. I climbed Everest, achieving two
world records with Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of
rugby, and I then went to Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
So, I would say more of the same, but if I did that my wife
would kill me! It’s been a great year, but 2020 for me will be
more about family time, so hopefully, people in Bath will see
me more!
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019
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