Michael Taylor

An experienced facilitator, international management consultant, and master coach, Michael has deep expertise in understanding and implementing culture change, building world class teams and developing global leaders.

He has experienced first-hand the excitement of running profitable high engagement businesses. This includes managing a team of 25 professional consultants. Michael is Managing Director of Xponential (Pty) Ltd, a professional services firm he founded in 2006, and a Director with People Quotient (Pty) Ltd [PQ].

A practice leader for executive coaching and leadership development, Michael is highly regarded as a thought leader in the fields of executive coaching and team effectiveness.  He has a wealth of practical experience at both management and executive levels, and inherently understands the challenges leaders face in the current world of complex volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity. He has been instrumental in facilitating many significant global transformation projects that have seen organisations execute their strategies with greater clarity, insight and inspired leadership.

His operational experience is in Sales, Marketing, Operational and General Management.  This knowledge and experience has inspired the design of transformative thinking frameworks that explore the SYSTEMIC interrelationships and dynamics between effective personal leadership, high performing teams and healthy organisations. These approaches have been successfully applied in industries such as Financial Services, Media, FMCG, Information Technology and Digital Telecommunications.

VALUE PROPOSITION AND KEY AREAS OF EXPERTISE

BUILDING HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS: (T30)

Using an integrated model that focuses on 6 core pillars of high performance, 30 transformative questions are used to unlock the drivers of high performing teams and organizations and highlight the key shifts teams need to make in their quest for greatness.

NEXT LEVEL LEADERSHIP(NLL):

Michael has spent the past ten years researching the field of Leadership Agility, regarded by many experts as the Master Competency of the future.

He has designed a Next Level Leadership Model that assists organisations more accurately assess and develop their high potential leaders to avoid future executive derailment. This contemporary framework is currently being used in organisations to facilitate a transformative shift in thinking about the DNA of leadership at “the next level” and the behaviours that will enable the environment for this transformation.

CONSULTING PROJECTS

• Restructure of national telecommunications of KSA Kiribati /Principal consultant with Hay Group(Pty)Ltd
• Senior facilitator appointed to implement an organizational restructure of a global multinational (Sydney, Australia)
• Principal facilitator in Human Resources culture transformation project (Johannesburg RSA)
• Principal facilitator in leadership culture change (Johannesburg, RSA)  
• Roll out leadership talent and succession plan (Moscow, Russia)
• Creating a wellness culture in a Y-gen application software development company (Pretoria, RSA)

QUALIFICATIONS AND ACCREDITATION

Michael is a qualified organizational behaviourist and completed the inaugural Master’s programm (M Phil) in management coaching at the Stellenbosch University Graduate School of Business (USB) in 2011.  He was awarded a distinction for his thesis, which explored the characteristics (DNA) of leadership behaviour that positively impact employee engagement and enables high performing teams and organisations.

He is professionally accredited as a Master Coach with the International Coaching Council (UK), and Behavioural Coaching Institute (Australia).

REFERENCES

“By partnering with Michael in the past 3 years, I have developed innovative techniques to deal with the challenges in my work environment. This has enabled me to successfully transition from a junior manager to an executive role within 3 years in a global research firm. His insights are incredibly valuable and practical” – Project/operations executive              

“I’ve never experienced a programme quite like this one, highly integrated, simplifies complex systems thinking, respects everyone’s opinions, and breaks down the traditional excuses we tend to make for slow strategic execution.” –  Chief Financial Officer           

 “Your insights and guidance over the 12-month executive coaching process were so transformative and insightful, I feel empowered and inspired to take on my next level role.” – Senior Legal Counsel