About Us
Find out about Prior Consulting, why you should work with us – our passion, approach and our values.
Meet the Team!
I, Jonathan Cook, founded Prior Consulting in 2007 to offer my clients best-in-class leadership, management & skills development, facilitation and coaching services. Having worked in both the Technology and Utility sectors in senior HR and L&D roles, I recognised that there was a need for a different approach to people development, one built on helping clients understand and be confident in themselves, appreciating how they engage with others and then helping them develop and apply relevant skills and behaviours to their work.
Over the last 18 years, I have built a consultancy to deliver this approach, incorporating the latest insights from occupational psychology, neuropsychology and thought-leaders in business. I have assembled a talented group of Associates to support me and enable Prior Consulting to scale-up as required.
Today, we work with a wide range of clients across a diverse range of sectors from financial services, technology, hi-tech manufacturing and aerospace to international conservation and agriculture, from early stage start-ups to mature organisations. With many of our clients, we enjoy long-term relationships and have had the privelage of delivering programmes to multiple cohorts over many years.
Why? Because we build connections, we never become complacent and we strive constantly to improve and build on what we have done before.
Learn about us, find out more below. We look forward to working with you!
Why Prior Consulting?
- A track record of long-term client relationships, being invited back time and again to run multiple cohorts of programmes
- The capacity and credibility to constructively challenge you / your team to find your own solutions to the opportunities you face
- Extensive experience working at all levels of organistions from Global Leadership Teams to Operational Teams
- Experience building powerful client relationships, understanding businesses and their needs
- Deep appreciation of the commercial realities facing a diverse group of sectors including Conservation, Technology, manufacturing and Public Sector
- A powerful grounding in psychology and neuroscience which underpins our approach and our interventions
- The capacity to understand organisations through a Systems lens – drawing out the customer – supplier relationships that enable the delivery of products and services to your customers
- A deep curiosity about how, as humans, we connect and build relationships.
Schroder Leadership Behaviours
Underpinning all we do are the Schroder Leadership Behaviours, a set of 11 discrete leadership behaviours which were identified through extensive research distilled through multiple studies which, when present within organisations with dynamic environments, drive superior performance; a fact evidenced through numerous international studies and research projects. They form a lense through which we understand you and your organisation and a rich resource on which our development support (including 360 feedback) is structured and delivered.
Our Values
As we hope you will discover, our values are at the heart of all we do and they speak volumes about our approach to developing solutions for you:
- Ownership & Accountability – taking responsibility for our actions
- Commitment – from the day we take your brief to the day we complete our work and beyond
- Building Confidence – in your ability to succeed
- Tough Conversations – honest and frank discussions
- Visionary – inspiring others to follow
- Engaging – with all we have the pleasure to work with
- Making Connections – communicating effectively with all stakeholders
- Trust – something that will evolve in the working relationship.. we hope
“As a global organisation, it is essential to have someone who understands how cultural differences play into the dynamics of a leadership team. Jonathan is incredibly sensitive to this, but he does not allow us to “hide” behind cultural difference to avoid the difficult issues. Through a blend of psychology, management theory, coaching, and creative practical exercises, Jon creates a space that nurtures honest, transformational discussion and action planning.”
Patricia Zurita, CEO, Birdlife International
Meet our team
Prior Consulitng draws on a close network of talented, highly experienced associates to enable us to scale to meet your requirements.
Founder and Director
Case Study
An agricultural solutions company approached us to develop a workshop to help their team of agronomists build their negotiation, rejection handling and conflict management skills.
Learn how we helped their team move forward in an engaging and inspiring two day workshop!