David Marshall

David has worked as an executive coach since 1999 when he started MaSTerCoach which is MaST's executive coaching arm. He is responsible for liaison with clients and helping them with the matching of coaches and clients. In addition, he works with a range of clients as an executive coach.

He also enjoys training managers to become mentors and coaches to their own teams.

Career Background:

Prior to joining MaST David worked for sixteen years in retail in both the UK and South Africa. After training at Marks and Spencer he worked in a variety of HR roles in Woolworths SA. His experience included management positions in training and recruitment.

During his time in MaST he has had extensive experience of running senior management development programmes and has trained managers to manage performance and coach and develop their teams.

His interest and experience in coaching others lead him to train as an executive coach prior to setting up MaSTerCoach as a separate executive coaching arm of MaST International in 1999. He now has a team of executive coaches with extensive experience of coaching MDs and directors in a range of industries and companies.

Other qualifications and experience:

• Trained as an executive coach
• Qualified to use the Persona Profiling System
• Experienced user of 360 feedback
• BA Psychology

Specialist field:

• Coaching for promotion /networking/ profile raising
• Interpersonal skill development
• Worklife balance
• Influencing and persuading others
• Relating to and influencing different styles

Recent examples:

Coaching for promotion
A director aspiring to be an MD needed to raise his profile, network more effectively and start to think and act like an MD. Following coaching this individual has built up a network of contacts and led his own group through a major downsizing exercise saving his organisation millions of pounds. He has changed his profile and attitude and is now a credible MD candidate.

Performance coaching
A marketing manager, key to the organisation, was upsetting board members through inflexibility and poor communication skills. The problem was so bad that either it had to be solved or the individual would have to go.

Coaching helped to raise her awareness of how she came across to others and develop a range of alternative strategies to overcome the blocks which caused her to behave inflexibly. Her relations with the board improved markedly and she was commended for her improved ability to present her ideas to them.

Worklife balance
A director working very long hours and reluctant to delegate was referred for coaching when he became ill with an ulcer.

Coaching helped the individual to trust others and delegate real responsibility to his team. He is working shorter hours and has a more balanced life.