MY Consultants is an education sector training and organisational development consultancy that supports individuals and teams in harnessing the knowledge and skills they need to enable them to deliver meaningful improvements in the workplace.
How we work
At MY Consultants we believe that effective organisational development requires a deep understanding of the context that our clients work in. That’s why MY Consultants’ coaches and facilitators have a keen awareness of the higher education, further education, and research contexts. Our development and facilitation interventions are tailored to the client group and the organisations that they operate in. At the end of an intervention the client is in a position to develop a clear action plan leading to long-term organisational improvement.
We have delivered over 2000 days of development and facilitation within the higher education and research sectors with over 30 organisations – read about what our clients say about our work.
Managing DirectorDr Robin Henderson
Dr Robin Henderson is a higher education consultant with a strong track record in delivering leadership and management development, and in supporting change-management initiatives within research-intensive universities. He works with a wide spectrum of staff within HEIs, including academic staff (from PhD students to senior professors) and professional service staff. He has worked with over 20 research-intensive universities within the UK and Europe. Within this work he brings a detailed understanding of the HE sector combined with direct experience of both academic and professional service roles. Recent projects have included the delivery of senior leadership programmes within research-intensive universities, the delivery of programmes for new academic staff and provision of support for change initiatives within both academic and professional service units. He also supports the Association of Heads of University Administration with leadership and management development. Prior to working as a consultant, he was an academic researcher with an international profile in the field of materials engineering. He is an MBTI, EQI2.0 and Firo Element B practitioner, an NLP Master Practitioner and a professional member of the Association for Project Management and Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.
Key AssociateDr Tracey Stead
Dr Tracey Stead is a facilitator and coach, with over fifteen years’ experience in higher education and the public sector. Tracey has a clear and direct communication style and is driven by curiosity and a passion for developing people. Since gaining her PhD, Tracey has worked in both the UK and the Scottish governments, evaluating policy and practice, and as a manager and trainer in higher education: designing and delivering a wide variety of skills, leadership and career development programmes for researchers, academics and professional service staff. She has delivered over 500 days of development within the higher education sector. Her clients include the universities of Bath, Bristol, Oxford, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Cardiff, as well as organisations such as the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Vitae, WISE and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement. She also contributes to a British Council-led initiative to enhance the research capacity of universities with delivery internationally including Brazil and Thailand.
Key AssociateDr Chris Russell
Chris is a training and development consultant working across higher education in the UK and internationally. His main interests are leadership, collaboration and communication and he works extensively with the research community, including PhDs, post-docs and academic staff. His work is typically a mix of workshops, focused on leadership, communication and research process, and facilitating events focused on collaboration between academia, industry, governments and the third sector. He has worked for over 20 HEIs across the UK, and his international work has taken him to institutions in Japan, China, Russia, Spain and Chile. Prior to his consultancy work, Chris was a post-doctoral research fellow dividing his time between a small, charitable funded research institute and a university research group. His research, in medical laser diagnostics saw him collaborating between various university departments, industry and the NHS.
AssociateDoug Folan
Doug is a highly experienced facilitator and improvement consultant who works with education and public sector organisations across Scotland, the UK and internationally. His focus is on supporting middle managers to move from managing to leading. Doug has recently been working with colleges and universities to develop their partnership working, strengthening links and making sure that they can meet the needs of employers and students. He has also designed and delivered leadership and management courses for local authorities throughout Scotland and England. Doug is influential at a strategic level, on national Educational policy across the UK and most recently in the Middle East where he was responsible at a national level for creating and implementing a strategic plan for further and higher education. Doug has worked on a number of programmes with MY Consultants including supporting the Programme Leaders Development Programme at the University of Glasgow, supporting the delivery of project management qualifications at the University of Newcastle and supporting undergraduate student employability initiatives.
AssociateKim Newton-Woof
After a decade of working in higher education, with a background in organisational development and design, Kim now operates as an independent specialist leadership consultant, facilitator and coach. Still operating as a trusted partner in the university sector, she also supports other sectors including, FE, health, finance, media and charity. Kim spends her days designing and delivering engaging and effective development experiences with and for leaders and teams. Taking a human-first approach, she uses creative ways to help leaders understand and fine-tune what they do, make different choices, and develop their own solutions. Her clients within the Higher Education sector include Bath Spa, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Warwick, Durham, King’s College London, York, Southampton and Oxford Universities alongside the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA) and the Committee of University Chairs (CUC).
AssociateLara Isbel
Lara Isbel has over a decade of experience in higher education, predominantly based at the University of Edinburgh where she worked in the Institute for Academic Development with a remit which included supporting equality and diversity, public engagement, and developing the next generation of researchers by managing the Chancellor’s Fellows development programme. Since leaving the University of Edinburgh she has completed a Saltire Fellowship before becoming a freelance facilitator and coach working predominately in HE. She has worked with MY Consultants on several projects including facilitation of workshops, coaching of academic staff and delivery of training linked to the visNET project to support early-career women academics in STEM subjects.
AssociateDr Elizabeth Adams
Elizabeth has over 17 years of experience working in career and professional development support, within Universities and as an external consultant. She has worked with UK HEIs of all sizes, supporting researcher development and culture, with the focus ranging from leadership and career development to institutional culture strategies, implementing narrative CVs and tackling bullying and harassment. Whilst working at the University of Glasgow, she led the researcher development function, undertook a review of research integrity and helped to establish the Lab for Academic Culture, delivering projects to understand and advance the institution's research culture, as well as influence national policy and practice. She was on the 2019 national writing group for the Concordat for Career Development of Researchers and Chaired the Universities Scotland Researcher Development Sub-Group. She now supports research groups, departments and Institutions to understand and reflect on their culture, values and priorities and develop an action plan for change. Elizabeth has also worked in the nuclear sector, looking at how teams can develop innovation, entrepreneurial thinking and psychological safety, moving away from a traditionally top-down safety culture. She has a PhD in Polymer Chemistry and is a qualified Coach and a Chartered Manager.
Our clients
MY Consultants works with a wide range of Higher Education and research organisations across the UK and further afield. Organisations within the sector with which we have worked include:
- University of Aberdeen
- University of Bath
- University of Birmingham
- University of Bristol
- University of Cambridge
- Cardiff Metropolitan University
- Cardiff University
- Dublin City University
- University of Dundee
- Durham University
- University of Dundee
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Essex
- University of Glasgow
- University of Glasgow, Singapore
- Heriot-Watt University
- Imperial College London
- James Hutton Institute
- Keele University
- Kingston University
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- University of Luxembourg
- Masaryk University
- Max Planck, Tubingen
- Newcastle University
- Northumbria University
- Queen Margaret University
- Queen’s University Belfast
- Robert Gordon University
- University of Sheffield
- Solent University
- Teeside University
- University of St Andrews
- University of Stirling
- University of Strathclyde
- University of Warwick
- Campbell Collaboration
- Cancer Research UK
- UK Trial Managers Network
- Association of Heads of University Administration
- VITAE
We also work outside the HE sector supporting technical experts develop leadership and management skills. Organisations we work with have included:
- South Lanarkshire College
- Schlumberger
- Fifth Business
- AMEC
- Aberdeen City Council
- Grampian Police
- Grampian Chamber of Commerce
“I was on your steps to research leadership course yesterday. I found the whole day incredibly useful and thought-provoking, so thanks for distilling a huge discussion down into 7 hours! I went on a grant writing course a few years ago while a Postdoc and your session was vastly more illuminating.”
Thanks for a brilliant training day today. I’ve got a lot from both the training days I have done with you. As someone who has returned to academic life after a long gap, it has been particularly useful in getting quickly up to speed with how the whole university system works now! It has also helped me to think more strategically and to be more definite about the way my career unfolds.
Just wanted to quickly say that I really enjoyed the course today. That was probably my best spent 1.5 hours today. Really useful! Thank you.
Robin’s coaching has been instrumental in enabling me to become an effective leader within my organisation. It has been transformative, helping me to move from a difficult and negative position to one of positivity, agency and effectiveness.
The ideas and skills learned in those two days have transformed the way I work. Proper documentation, sign-off, peer review, appropriate agreed timescales and Gantt Chart planning have allowed me to take control of my workload. Not only I am delighted with the work I am producing but management are as well. I have delivered three successful mini-projects from the end of October until Christmas (using the ideas from the course) and have just been given a larger project to manage which I am keen to tackle. So, many thanks for your enthusiasm and delivery. It certainly struck a chord and had a big impact.
A quick note to say thanks again for your course modules in the PI training. I’ve had a bit of time to digest some of the things discussed and over the last couple of weeks I’ve applied them to my current project management situation and it has already made such a difference. Personally, reshaping my lists and splitting important and not important tasks and making sure I do all the important ones first has helped me clear a lot of niggly little things and in a few short weeks I feel like I’ve really got a handle on my own efficiency.
Thank you again for the fab course. I learnt a lot from what we discussed and truly appreciated your no-nonsense, practical and non-preachy approach to the issues.
Robin was inspiring. I feel more positive about myself and ideas to improve my ways of thinking.
I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your teaching style. You have a very unique way of presenting ideas that really made me think, so I got a lot out of your sessions. Thanks a million.
Many thanks for the course you delivered yesterday. It was truly eye-opening and very motivating.
Before I met Robin much of my work was going very well. However, whilst my commitments grew, productivity in certain areas was stalling. In particular I was falling behind on generating important outputs, like research papers, because seemingly urgent tasks were always finding themselves nearer the top of my inbox and I could not seem to find suitable blocks of time to focus on writing. Most notably, Robin has helped me prioritise my activities, identify how to filter requests on my time so as not to overwhelm myself and allocate and plan my work schedule so as to leave time aside each week to focus on activities such as writing papers. I am extremely grateful for his help and already feel that I am making excellent progress on paper writing, whilst more generally I am making much more efficient and productive use of my time without a negative impact elsewhere.
I found the leadership programme delivered by MY Consultants more useful than all the other training I have received from the University put together. The training has modified my approach to many aspects of my work, and in particular to the more effective use of my line management and direct reports. I look forward to participating in more training with Robin.
Due to Robin’s guidance through the programme, I feel that I am progressing my journey to become more of a leader than manager in the workplace. Because of the variety of people on the course and the interaction with them, I am more certain about the value my role adds to the university community. I value the opportunity the project work gave me to work closely with colleagues, and the fact that some were new to the university allowed me the opportunity to think more ‘bigger picture’ than feeling restricted to university norms. The one-to-one coaching with Robin was invaluable, and through his guidance I have become more confident in my abilities and feel that I really can make a difference in my role. I hope that others in the university are given the opportunity to work with him as he really does have the ability to make a positive impact.
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MyConsultants is a limited company registered in Scotland.
Registered number: SC237637. VAT number: 852214939
Registered office: 10 Vogrie Road, Gorebridge EH23 4HQ
hosting & development by desalo UK
MyConsultants is a limited company registered in Scotland.
Registered number: SC237637. VAT number: 852214939
Registered office: 10 Vogrie Road, Gorebridge EH23 4HQ
hosting & development by desalo UK