Stephen Barden
Stephen@Stephenbarden.co.uk
Phone: +44(0)20 73322236;
Website: www.stephenbarden.co.uk
Profile
Stephen Barden came to the coaching profession after 15 years in senior management, 10 of them as a chief executive in substantial commercial companies.
Business and Management Experience
Stephen Barden has been Chief Executive of Axel Springer Television (based in Hamburg, London and Los Angeles); News Digital Systems (part of the News Corp group) and Quadriga plc, a portfolio company of Nomura International.
He has been Chief Operating Officer of BSkyB and Managing Editor of TV-am plc.
As an entrepreneur, he has also founded businesses in the media and communications sectors.
Coaching, Facilitation and Mediation Experience
Stephen has been a full time senior executive coach since 2001. He coaches senior managers and star talent, as well as corporate teams and boards.
He has created and facilitated a wide variety of programmes to develop high performing teams in the financial and corporate sectors.
He has facilitated significant programmes to develop and integrate corporate cultural values. And he has coached to integrate newly created, multi cultural project teams.
With his substantial business expertise, he is often asked to work with teams on strategic exploration and development
As a mediator, he predominantly works to resolve conflicts within and between commercial organisations. This can include work with individuals in dispute with one another or their employer; or contractual disputes between companies.
Client Organistaions
Client organisations include investment and merchant banks, insurance, legal, public relations, public housing, medical, media, marketing, and alternative energy.
Corporate clients have included:
Axa, Barclays Global Investments, BNP Paribas, Cognetas, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Egg, HBOS, Merrill Lynch, Nomura, Sal Oppenheim and Trafigura;
The Institute for Charted Accountants in England and Wales and The Chartered Institute for Personnel Development;
Ashby Cohen Solicitors and Simmons and Simmons;
BTG, Brightwave Limited, The Flagship Group, GSMA, Hyde Housing, PCA, Sherbet Television Productions and THQ.
Coaching Style
As you would expect with his business background, Stephen Barden’s coaching approach is clearly focused on pragmatic outcomes both for the clients and their sponsors. He works closely within the psychodynamics of context: of the client’s behavioural influences; of the team objectives and values and of the organisational drivers and culture.
At the level in which he coaches, Stephen finds that the technical skills of his clients are rarely in question. The main enabler –or inhibitor – is the management of relationships; ultimately, the management of self.
His coaching process is keenly sensitive to the balance between confidentiality of client sessions and the requirements for feedback to the sponsoring or corporate client.
Qualifications and Training
Stephen graduated with distinction with a Diploma in Professional Coach-mentoring for Senior Executives at the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring.
He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School's Programme for Management Development and has substantial training in Organisational Development, Action Centred Leadership and negotiation.
He is a trained Mediator accredited to the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Regents College, London.
He has also trained in coaching supervision with the Centre for Coaching Supervision.
Membership
Stephen Barden is a faculty coach mentor of both the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development and the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring for their respective diploma courses for senior executive coaches.
He is a member of the CIPD's Coaching and Mentoring Faculty and of its committee developing standards for senior executive coaching.
Stephen is a member of the Association for Coaching and of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
Articles
“Beware of Coaches Bearing Assumptions”
(Coach and Mentor Journal: Spring 2007)
"The Team: The Heart of Executive Coaching"
(Coach and Mentor Journal: Spring 2006)
"Coach mentoring: A Survival Tool for Ethical Corporate Governance"
(Coach and Mentor Journal: Spring 2004)
Workshops and Presentations
"Me and my Coach"
(CIPD Coaching Conference, London: September 2004)
"Coaching your Staff to Success"
(CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition, Harrogate: November 2005)
"Coaching the heart of the organisation: the team"
(CIPD HRD Annual Conference, London: April 2006
“Managing a High Performance Team”
A series of 5-7 modules customised for clients. Ongoing: January 2007 onwards.
“Developing Trust within and between Teams”
A one day programme for clients who require sustainable relationships between partnering project and management teams.
Those who lead from the front are leaders of one: themselves. Those who lead from the centre, have found the heart of their followers.