PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) has affected many soldiers throughout history and it was variously called battleshock, shell shock, or the like. There was the stigma that it was about soldiers being “weak-minded” especially as many with the condition fled the battlefield. In fact, 306 British soldiers were executed for cowardice in World War 1.
Basically, soldiers were thought to be on a scale of brave to cowardly.
Simple thinking and wrong. Some of those executed already had medals for Valour; like the one young junior officer who had the Military Cross for showing incredible bravery one day, but then he ran away days later.
We now know a better metaphor is we all have a reservoir of courage, which drains during stressful times. Some people have larger ones, others have smaller ones, but put anyone in a stressful situation for long enough, and they will flee (physically or mentally).
It applies in civilian life too. CEOs are depressed at more than double the rate of other staff (Barnard, 2014). The cost to US companies runs in the hundred of billions of dollars. Research indicates that up to 25% of top global CEOs suffer some form of mental illness.
If some of your senior managers not performing then perhaps they are over-stressed? Our coaching can help boost resilience (with ROI studies showing returns of about 6 times the financial outlay).
And the 306 British soldiers who were executed for cowardice in WW1? They were granted a group pardon in 2006 by the British Government. Perhaps recognizing that cowardice has more to do with the circumstances and stress, than the person.
Mark began his career as a combat and chemical engineer, but quickly started to get a greater interest in human performance and leadership in particular. His first role was in the UK’s 5 Airborne Brigade, where he was a Jungle Warfare instructor, Helicopter Abseil dispatcher and Demolitions Officer for 11 years before moving into the business world for 30 years.
He specialises in enabling organisations and leaders to gain significantly greater engagement from their staff in a way that directly increases the 4P’s of purpose, productivity, performance and profit. He does this through leadership and high-performance team training in Motivational Leadership and boosting leaders’ four fundamental intelligences (which means first extinguishing the “IQ Myth”). These courses focus on leadership, self-leadership and self-awareness in both professional and personal life.
He has run leadership development and assessment courses since 1986 in twenty countries and on 6 of the 7 continents, in both military and commercial environments. Countries include: Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Africa, Dubai, Jordan, Brunei, Belize, South Korea, the Falkland Islands and Fujairah UAE, involving participants from about 60 different countries from around the world.
Mark set up the international consultancy, MarkTwo Consulting, in 2002 to provide advanced leadership development and assessment programs, applying the best international organisational psychometric instruments. Mark is certified in twenty of the world’s best ones, and realised an additional instrument was needed that helped companies motivate and engage their managers and workforce. Mark researched the area and found new ways of explaining pragmatically the underlying causes of the lack of engagement and productivity. Using those findings, he developed MarkTwo Consulting’s highly innovative and holistic Universal Hierarchy of Motivation (UHM) leadership development tool.
The UHM gives leaders new insights on human intelligence and helps people to enhance their self-awareness and self-leadership in all areas. Recent advances in neuroscience have vindicated the UHM theory have added weight to its conclusions.
His drive for guiding people to be the best leaders they can be at home and work, combined with his deep knowledge and unique take on “authentic” leadership as a driver of business performance, has made MarkTwo’s courses highly sought after in Asia-Pacific.
Mark speaks at high profile events, and has been interviewed on Australian national TV, and prime time media on matters to do with capability, selection, recruitment and assessment.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Royal School of Military Engineering. He is trained in a form of Jungian psychology as well as internationally credentialled in 20 of the World’s best organizational psychology instruments for assessment and development. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Facilitators, Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and member of the International Coaching Federation.
He is also qualified in other unusual areas, such as a Range Firing Officer, Taekwondo blackbelt, Watermanship Officer, and an Arrest and Restraints Instructor.
Mark has published three books: MOTIVATIONAL LEADERSHIP – which debunks 10 common myths on leadership (and several illusions about intelligence); THE SEVEN MOTIVATIONS OF LIFE – a psychological reference book on the psychology of leadership and life; and A HIMALAYAN TRINITY – about insights gained from experiencing serious illness and trekking across remote areas of the Himalayas.
He has Dual Citizenship (UK/AUS) and lives in Melbourne Australia with his wife, Ruth.
Connect with him through social media:
Twitter/X: @MarkTwoConsult
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