Sharing experience of starting the Third Act of their professional life.

Following twenty years as CEO of an independent publishing company, Stephen Page (2022 Mastered Graduate) shares his experience of starting the Third Act of his professional life with the Mastered Programme and his coaching journey since.

I first came to London with a rock ‘n’ roll band from near Birmingham. We failed really fast, thankfully, and I began a career in books. This led to me in 2001 becoming Chief Executive of Faber & Faber, a great independent publisher. In 2021, I decided to step away from the CEO role after twenty years, to become Chair. Part of that change was prompted by a desire to pursue my interest in people development, driven by an interest in psychotherapy. I was fortunate that quite quickly the Meyler Campbell Mastered programme was recommended to me and I graduated in September 2022.

Mastered was transformative in a number of ways. My decision to create change in my life was fairly abstract and intuitive, but as soon as I began studying with my syndicate, the stage of my Third Act was vividly lit. The agnostic approach of the course suited me very well, as I was not so much training as exploring. This exploration was encouraged and journeyed across many questions. Do I want to coach? Do I want to train as a therapist? How would I want to coach, what is my style? What use is my experience? In all cases I found answers in my reading, in the discussions with my tutor and syndicate, but above all with the new community I joined. The Mastered course introduced me to so many people who are now mainstays of both my professional and personal life, which felt so close to my experience of vocation when I stepped into the world of literature aged twenty-one. Like minds, and open minds, abounded but with a widely differing range of experience.

Mastered also gave me the confidence, the practical experience, and accreditation to then set up my own coaching practice as I graduated. I work across many sectors but concentrate on creative and cultural businesses and leaders. I particularly love working with high potential people, many of whom are in the earlier stage of their leadership journey. I’ve shied away to some extent from publishing, as there is a tendency for my professional biography to get in the way. As a coach I do bring my experience to the table, but I do so in support of the equal partnership with the coachee, and I know that it is possible to coach in areas where you have no sector or professional knowledge. I find that it is sometimes harder to discipline your coaching closer to home.

Alongside the coaching practice, I also try to bring my coaching skills to my other roles – as Chair of Faber, and as Trustee and chair on other boards. Like many Mastered graduates I only wish I had been trained twenty years ago! I would have been a better Chief Executive. One place where it has turned up surprisingly is my work on the Creative Industries Council, where the sector works with Government. I chair the Working Group for Education and Skills and seek to influence politicians and civil servants on behalf of Creative and Cultural organisations. Listening, giving feeding back, and ensuring that priorities are defined and met, have all been enhanced with a coaching mindset.

For me the Mastered course has enabled a complete reset of my professional life, and that has had its own knock-on in how I live more broadly. I’m excited to develop myself as a coach – I am barely out of the foothills – and to grow my practice, and to do so alongside a portfolio of other responsibilities. But also, to have fun. I still play the drums, and, in the band I play in, one of my colleagues from Mastered has become a new member, fusing my early enthusiasms with my new vocation. The music was not a failure, it turns out, but a thread now weaved into my new coaching strand. We try not to coach the band though. These are places to just have fun.

Stephen Page
Mastered Graduate, 2022