My clients believe that working with an executive coach who is commercial, pragmatic and thoroughly understands how businesses grow and make money, makes it much more likely they will achieve great success with less stress.

I'm Dr Terence Graynoth FCA and I have over 30 years of international business experience. Until recently, I was a senior director in the global head offices of one of the ‘Big Four' business advisory firms. Before that, I worked in the head office of a diversified FTSE 250 PLC and at some household names in financial services and FMCG. I’ve also spent time working for smaller organisations, running my own businesses and as a partner and registered auditor in a Chartered Accountancy practice.

I’m just interested in business and people. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve worked in strategy, corporate finance, business development, brand valuation, radical organisational change and transformation, AI and advanced analytics, operations, leadership, advising senior leaders and as an internal and external executive coach.

This successful and broad career has seen me working across a range of business structures and management challenges. I’ve been involved in negotiations on significant deals of up to a billion dollars and was a key player in a number of major strategy reviews that returned hundreds of millions of dollars to shareholders. I’m comfortable under pressure and have an expert understanding of the corporate landscape.

I am different from many executive coaches in that I come from the leadership, strategy and operational side of the business rather than the HR department. That will not be a good fit for everyone. Sometimes people want someone from HR – but often I find senior executives engage more with a coach who comes from a similar senior strategy, finance, leadership or operational business background to theirs.

Unfortunately, anyone can legally call themselves a coach and currently, there is no Chartered Institute of Coaching to provide clients with the highest reassurance of skill and professionalism. However, some decent qualifications and nascent professional associations are starting to be created. You want to look for an executive coach who has the highest level of qualification and the highest membership level of a good coaching association. You want to beware of those who have a long list of letters after their name, purporting to be coaching related but which you have never heard of before.

I hold a doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and an MSc in Executive Coaching and Behavioural Change from Henley Business School, part of the University of Reading. Both qualifications are reviewed by other British universities to ensure the UK institutional accreditation standards are met.  I have other coaching certifications but as mentioned above you should put more credibility on a doctorate and master's degree rather than any given by self-certified, for-profit, commercial organisations.

As well as the training, you want to consider the professional body and the level of membership of your potential coach. I’m fully accredited as a Master Executive Coach with the Association of Professional Executive Coaches and Supervisors. This is the highest level of accreditation at arguably the highest professional association for coaching – certainly in terms of relevant advanced degrees of its members and acceptability to the investment banks, magic circle law firms and the Big Four business advisory firms.

Before coaching, my original background was in physics, then finance, strategy, corporate change programs and recently 'Big Data and Advanced Analytics'. Over the years, in addition to my degree in physics and the coaching MSc and doctorate, I’ve been awarded multiple business qualifications including an MBA, Chartered Accountant, and ‘Driving Business Performance’ at Harvard Business School.

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