Hello. I work with people to help them be happier, more successful and more effective.
I do this through training, coaching, speaking, and writing.
Over the past few years most of this work has been done with big companies like Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Cisco Systems. It’s lots of fun working in places like this, I’ve met some great people, and it’s made me surer than ever that happy, resilient, psychologically flexible staff give companies an enormous strategic advantage.
I spent a lot of years working in prisons, with people with histories of violence, and drug and alcohol addiction. Amongst the challenges and the chaos, what was fascinating was to learn that most people want the same thing – to be seen, to be understood, to be valued. The people I met during those years have stayed with me, and things I learned from them and the time working with them still underpin the work that I do today.
In 2008 I had a…breakdown? Burnout? What’s the word for when life gets too much, and you just stop coping entirely? It was one of those. That experience of total collapse, and the process of rebuilding myself and my life from there was difficult and fascinating and changed me in many ways. Today it fundamentally informs the way I live and work.
It was after this that I decided to make the transition into coaching and training. I studied with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), the first coach training school to have its programmes accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
My aim is not just to help other people not sink to the point of collapse that I reached, but to encourage everyone to take conscious action to improve their lives and those of the people around them. Not through ‘seizing the day’, or through ‘thinking positive’, not through any cliché or spurious quick-fix solution.
Just through being curious, conscious, and flexible.
I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone enough to know that, yes, the world does fall apart, but not in the way you fear.
– Tan Le
What else?
I live in Brighton, England and am married to Sally. Our daughter Frances is three and the best child and person in the entire world (don’t even try and argue with me on this one).
I’m a bruised, world-weary veteran of nearly 40 years as an Aston Villa supporter, a relationship defined by fleeting moments of joy amidst long stretches of frustration, misery and tedium.
If I had the time and money I would watch literally every film that is released at the cinema. Not that I have no sense of quality control whatsoever, but I love the experience of being in the theatre so much – the anticipation as the lights go down, the last handful of popcorn stuffed into my mouth before it goes perfectly quiet – that I am willing to give any film a chance.
Also, I won the quiz show Pointless, but it’s not a big deal.* …..
*It’s a massive deal, please ask me about it.
