Andrew Tallents is one of the founding leaders of the self-coaching for leaders movement. He enables leaders around the world to live their professional and personal dreams. With three children and two grandchildren, Andrew lives in the UK and enjoys traveling globally to educate and coach leaders about self-coaching. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf to relax and be outdoors.
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your Entrepreneur journey/venture/initiative.
I grew up in a working-class family where I was taught to work hard for a living. My father worked away from home for most of my childhood, and as the eldest of two brothers, I had to look after my mother who was suffering with depression. I attended a local school and managed to gain a place at university. It was only when I turned 47 years of age that I realized that I could be successful in life by running my own business and being in service to others who had been in similar situations to me. I set my business up in 2017.
What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business/initiative? What motivated you to say YES, go for it?”
I had been working with senior leaders and CEOs for many years as a headhunter but realized that many of the leaders were unhappy and could not maintain strong relationships in their personal lives. Work always got in the way of personal goals. I had this realization myself in 2017 and decided to get out of my own way to live the life I wanted on my own terms. I found there was a demand from other CEOs, Founders, and leaders who wanted to do the same thing, and The Tallents Partnership was born.
Tell us something about your initiative or current role. What is it about, and what impact are you trying to make?
We have a dream to enable millions of leaders around the world to maximize triple bottom line profitability in their organizations while living their professional and personal dreams. We do this by meeting the leader where they are right now and supporting them on the self-coaching journey through education and coaching. We then support the leader to introduce the same disciplines into their team and the wider organization so that it becomes self-leading, reducing the need for middle management layers and improving triple bottom line profitability over time.
Are there any achievements or accomplishments you would like to mention?
I am proud of my own self-coaching journey moving from a successful executive working long hours and never seeing my family to a business founder who decides when I work and who I work with. I am also proud of the hundreds of CEOs and Founders who I have supported on their own personal journey in living their professional AND personal dreams. A key step in achieving this has been the publication of my book ‘Self-Coaching for Leaders,’ which achieved number 2 in the Amazon book sales charts in December 2021. Finally, I am proud to be invited to speak at international events where I share the benefits of self-coaching through education and inspirational stories.
What change would you like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
I would like to see men in senior influential roles in business, government, and NGOs recognize and accept that most systems in the world were designed by men for men and have not taken into account over half of the world’s population. I and other men around the world have a responsibility to listen to young women about what they need from these various systems and redesign those systems so that they enable everyone to succeed in life no matter what sex they are.
What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
A decade ago, women had to behave like men to get to the top of organizations. Now, women are being more authentic in their leadership style and are progressing because they are optimizing their female superpowers. As AI changes the landscape of our organizations in the coming years, we will only be differentiated as leaders and businesses by the quality of relationships we have with other humans. This is where women excel and can make a real difference in the coming decades. We need to enable women to step more easily into leadership roles so we can learn from them about how to be more effective in relationships.
What would you want to say to our young leaders/audience reading this?
For the young leaders in the audience, learn how to self-coach as soon as possible. Reconnect with who you are, and never forget it. Refocus on what is important to you and not other people, and Regenerate the best version of yourself by looking after your mental health and surrounding yourself with positive relationships at work and at home. If you do these things, you can live your professional and personal dreams wherever you live in the world.
