About
David Webster

I am driven by the desire to help people in whatever way I can. Business and leadership coaching provides the platform for me to use all my experience and personality.  I help my clients overcome obstacles, find the right path, identify solutions and improve how they work which helps them build their businesses and personal brands, lead well, drive their careers, achieve success and achieve a healthy work life balance.

 

My methodology and empathic approach allow me to quickly build high levels of trust and understanding. I pride myself on pragmatism, and typically achieve significant impact within three sessions. I aim for a healthy balance of challenge, support, humour and honesty.

My role as your coach is to enable the very best of you. Together we identify your goals, set clear objectives and develop and implement an effective plan in order to achieve them.

As a business coach, I have a keen understanding of the pressures, responsibilities and challenges facing leaders and entrepreneurs. It is often observed that my professional skillset is unusual – a lawyer by training but a businessman first – armed with a strong commercial and strategic instinct. I’ve amassed +35 years of experience. I had the privilege to lead, develop and grow high-performing teams, cultivating many leaders in the process, at three different London City law firms (Waltons & Morse, Eversheds and RPC).

I adapt my coaching approach to suit your individual needs whether that be a non directive approach, or even include mentoring. I am an advocate of leading coaching principles including Positive Psychology and the StrengthsFinder. These leverage my own core strengths on corporate strategy, effective communication, positivity, people development, networking, responsibility, empathy and inclusion. All of which are at the heart of consistently successful leadership, both in the short and long term.

My role as your coach is to enable the very best of you. Together we identify your goals, set clear objectives and develop and implement an effective plan in order to achieve them.

The experience that I bring to my coaching and mentoring relationships can be divided into the following broad areas:

Developing an individual and helping them to excel in their career has always been a passion of mine. As leader of the Insurance groups in three firms, I was responsible for the development, promotion and support of a large number of associates and partners. 15 partners were promoted, 8 lateral hires recruited and associates and partners mentored throughout my time at these firms. Listening, encouragement, honesty and taking responsibility for the team are of utmost importance in developing the strengths of each individual and building confidence, not only in the role but in their unique value as a person and colleague.

Since I started coaching I have helped four clients achieve promotion; three improve their external performance and interaction with their boards and colleagues; three with self confidence and how they present and four with the day to day management of their businesses. 

I am fortunate in being able to see the wood from the trees and clear paths to achieve different outcomes. It is one of the advantages of being dyslexic! The ability to create strategy has been a strength as a lawyer both in helping clients resolve their disputes but also in planning the direction of the practice. I have also found it very useful when working with coaching clients to help them work out their strategy for the next stage of their business or career.

Working as a leader of three teams in very different professional organisations has helped me to  understand and work  effectively  with a wide variety and style of leader. I have seen highly successful ‘rain makers’ move unsuccessfully into management roles as well as less able partners/lawyers develop into fantastic leader roles. I have acted as mentor and advisor to senior managing partners and team and group leaders across the board.As an insurance lawyer I have been privileged to  work with highly accomplished chairmen, CEO’s, general counsel, claims managers and finance directors.

As a leader I understand the challenges my clients face and can empathise with the pressures they are under. 

Understanding what clients want and responding to them so as to meet their needs is at the heart of my approach, which helped me to be one of the best client relationship management partners. At RPC I was very proud to be the client relationship partner for AIG, RSA, Direct Line, Aviva, Canopius, AJ Gallagher, JLT, Barbican, Pool Re, Liberty, SAGA and Markel.

In the legal world, most “sales” graduate naturally out of a relationship that has been developed over months or years. To buy the client will usually have to like you, want to use you and will usually assume that you have the expertise that you say you have. Work might also come after being appointed to the legal which in turn will usually only result in work if there is a good relationship. In both cases the relationship should help you really understand what the client wants and then to deliver the expertise and service they require. I am very good at building relationships with clients and producing work for the firm. I have also had a lot of experience in managing panel review processes.

While relationships are very important you also need to know how to sell yourself. I was very fortunate as a fresh and new partner on a business trip to New York in the early 1990s to be given a lesson by a senior insurance attorney on how to do pitch oneself (elevator test). While no one likes a show off or someone who is only interested in telling everyone how wonderful they are, the ability to be able to summarise your practice, your strengths and your confidence is a necessary skill to be able to apply with good humour and a little humility. Knowing your own strengths helps confidence and the ability to be oneself.

Throughout my career I had to produce work for myself, my teams and the wider firm. I was never in a position to rely upon others to produce work for me. I had to learn that to win work I had to establish a good reputation and relationships with clients and competitors. I was fortunate to be good at it which was one of the reasons why the managing partner at RPC asked me in 2011 to stop doing any fee earning work and focus entirely on building the business. I was very privileged to be the only top quartile equity partner to be relieved of all fee earning responsibilities. The experience I gained and the skills i developed help me to coach clients build their business and their brand. 

Taking responsibility for the financial management of teams I’ve led included helping partners and associates with their own financial management as well as running cases for clients to agreed budgets. I understand the importance of financial goals and discipline and the financial pressures that are part and parcel of being part of a successful business.

As one of the leading London insurance lawyers for over 20 years, I have managed highly complex litigation and worked very closely with senior management, running teams of lawyers, counsel and experts. The vast majority of my cases never got to court through my ability to help clients negotiate and mediate settlements. For my experience see the Mediation and Dispute Resolution section below. This experience helps me coach clients who have challenging working relationships to manage.