Jeff Grout
Senior teams are fluent in the vocabulary of good leadership. They are less consistent in the daily practice of it. The gap between what leaders know they should do and what they actually do under pressure is where organisations quietly lose ground.
Jeff Grout is a leadership speaker, executive coach and conference interviewer who helps senior teams understand what effective leaders actually do, grounded in two decades running Robert Half UK and six years as business manager to Sir Clive Woodward.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Jeff Grout
- Operator-grade leadership content. He ran Robert Half UK as Managing Director through a period in which the business grew from 12 staff to over 360, which gives his account of leadership and recruitment a grounding that most speakers on the same topic cannot offer.
- Inside access to an elite sporting campaign. As business manager to Sir Clive Woodward from 2002 to 2006, he saw England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup preparation and performance culture from the inside, which translates into specific examples rather than generic sporting analogies.
- One of the senior interviewers on the UK circuit. His public interview work includes Lord Sugar, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Dave Brailsford, Charles Handy, Sir Terence Conran, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Stella Rimington and Greg Dyke, and he is regularly booked as conference chair where a board-level audience needs a senior host.
- Eight books on leadership, performance and recruitment, including What Do Leaders Really Do? (Capstone, 2007) and The Adventure Capitalists. The work is published, not just performed on the stage.
- A repeat client list that includes Amazon, BT, British Airways, HSBC, Barclays, LinkedIn, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Harrods and UK Sport.
Biography highlights
- Former UK Managing Director of Robert Half International, the world’s largest specialist recruitment consultancy. Built the UK business from two offices and 12 staff to £65 million turnover, 19 offices and over 360 staff during a 21-year tenure.
- Business Manager to Sir Clive Woodward from 2002 to 2006, spanning England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup victory and the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour.
- Graduate of the London School of Economics.
- Co-author of eight business books, including What Do Leaders Really Do? (Capstone, 2007), The Adventure Capitalists (Kogan Page), Mind Games, Recruiting Excellence and What You Need to Know About Leadership.
- Public interviewer of senior figures including Lord Sugar, Sir Richard Branson, Charles Handy, Sir Dave Brailsford, Sir Terence Conran, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Stella Rimington, Sir Stuart Rose and Greg Dyke.
- Collaborated with the BBC to produce an interview training video, and has delivered leadership and executive skills workshops for clients including BT, HSBC, British Airways, Virgin, Harrods, Amazon, LinkedIn, Deloitte and Ernst & Young.
Biography
Plenty has been written about what makes a good leader. Much less has been written about what leaders do on the day a quarter misses, or on the morning after a senior resignation. The working reality of leadership is where most senior teams need help, and where generic advice tends to fail.
That working reality is the ground Jeff Grout has operated on for most of his career. He spent 21 years inside Robert Half International, the world’s largest specialist recruitment consultancy, eventually running its UK business as Managing Director until 2000. Under his leadership, the operation grew from two offices and 12 staff to a £65 million business with 19 offices and more than 360 staff. That is the grounding behind his current work with senior teams on leadership, recruitment and high-performance culture.
From 2002 to 2006, he was business manager to Sir Clive Woodward, through the years surrounding England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup victory and the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour. That sustained access to an elite sporting campaign at its peak gives his work on high-performance culture a different weight. He saw the detail of how a winning environment is built and defended, up close and over time, not as a single anecdote deployed for colour.
For senior buyers, he is typically booked either as a keynote speaker on leadership and high performance, or as the conference chair and interviewer who can hold a board-level room. His written work spans eight books, including What Do Leaders Really Do? and The Adventure Capitalists. His interview subjects have included Lord Sugar, Sir Richard Branson, Charles Handy, Sir Dave Brailsford, Sir Terence Conran, Dame Stella Rimington and Greg Dyke.
Key speaking topics
- Leadership in practice
- Building high-performance teams
- Peak performance lessons from elite sport
- Leading change
- Recruitment, retention and talent strategy
- Executive interviewing and conference chairing
- The characteristics of success
Ideal for
- Senior leadership teams who want a practical, operator-grounded account of leadership rather than an academic framework
- CHROs, talent directors and senior HR leaders focused on recruitment, retention and high-performance team design
- Conference organisers who need a senior chair or public interviewer for a board-level audience
- Sales leadership and high-performance culture off-sites
Audience outcomes
- A sharper vocabulary for describing what effective leaders actually do day to day
- Specific examples, drawn from elite business and sporting environments, of how high-performance teams get built and held together under pressure
- New questions to ask about recruitment and retention, from an operator who ran a 360-person business
- A more confident view of the behaviours that separate consistent performers from occasional ones
Talks
A practical account of the daily behaviours of effective leaders, drawn from interviews with senior figures in business, sport and the armed forces.
Key takeaways:
- How senior leaders actually spend their time, against the picture painted by the textbooks
- The small consistent habits that distinguish leaders people want to follow from those they tolerate
- How to test whether your own leadership style matches what your organisation actually needs
An inside account of how England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign was built, with direct translation to the behaviours that produce sustained high performance in business.
Key takeaways:
- What Sir Clive Woodward’s “100 things 1% better” looked like in daily practice at the top of the sport
- How a high-performance culture is maintained when it comes under pressure
- The difference between using sport as an analogy and using it as evidence
A session on the conditions senior teams need in place before sustained high performance becomes possible, drawing on both corporate and elite sporting environments.
Key takeaways:
- The factors that must be present before a team can perform at its peak
- How to hold high standards without creating a culture people want to leave
- The recruitment and selection decisions that shape team performance long before development work begins
Videos
Testimonials
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| South America | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US West Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |