PRIVATE ADVISORY
Project PAPAYA
To support the leaders behind McLaren’s continued success.
The Challenge
Sustaining McLaren’s position at the upper echelons of motorsport means protecting the leadership, culture and conditions behind its success. It also requires the agility and resilience to respond to evolving competitive, technical and regulatory demands, alongside changing fan and sponsor expectations.
Senior leaders must balance immediate performance demands with developing talent, managing key relationships and preparing for what comes next. This requires deliberate choices about where their attention makes the greatest difference, where others can take greater ownership and how they preserve the perspective and capacity to lead effectively over successive seasons.
The Solution
Project Papaya proposes an initial six-month pilot providing confidential, independent support to McLaren’s senior leaders. Its purpose is to build on established strengths, enhance leadership effectiveness and protect the capacity to sustain that contribution over successive seasons.
Combining considered counsel, objective perspective and practical coaching expertise, the relationship provides protected space to think through consequential decisions, examine assumptions and address competing priorities.
The intended value extends to the wider team: strengthening the leadership, culture and conditions that enable exceptional talent to thrive.
Project Scope
The Pilot
An initial six-month pilot of confidential, one-to-one support for participating senior leaders at McLaren, tailored to their responsibilities, circumstances and priorities.
Centre of Gravity
The work centres on live leadership challenges and opportunities, combining confidential counsel, objective perspective and practical coaching expertise. It complements existing provision and offers protected space to explore consequential decisions, relationships and competing demands.
Individual Focus
The focus will be shaped with each leader around their needs and intent, identifying where support can add greatest value.
Proposed Approach
Orbital Objectivity
The relationship sits close enough to understand each leader’s context and ambitions, while remaining outside the team’s internal dynamics. This creates space to explore uncertainty, question assumptions and consider options without an internal position to defend.
Experience from other demanding leadership environments offers a different lens, helping uncover patterns, possibilities and approaches that may be less visible from within.
Intended Outcomes
Enhance Leadership Capability
Explore fresh perspectives on consequential decisions and evolving demands. Identify opportunities to build on established strengths, test assumptions and extend their leadership contribution.
Strengthen the High-Performance Culture
Explore how their leadership shapes the conditions for exceptional talent to thrive, identifying opportunities to strengthen trust, candour and shared ownership alongside demanding standards and clear accountability.
Sustain Peak Performance
Unveil what sustains effectiveness and explore choices around attention, responsibility and recovery that protect the capacity to lead over successive seasons, alongside personal priorities and life beyond work.
From Insight to Action
Each conversation starts with what matters most to the leader at that point.
Careful listening, considered challenge and practical coaching help clarify thinking, explore choices and identify action aligned with their intent.
Live situations provide opportunities to test approaches and reflect on their impact. The focus develops as understanding deepens, with progress reviewed against the outcomes agreed together.
Working Arrangements
Delivery and Review
Given the team’s dynamic nature and pace, sessions are two-weekly to sustain continuity of support, with periodic in-person meetings as required.
Sessions are booked before the pilot begins through the live Scheduling platform and can be rescheduled with five days’ notice.
Progress will be reviewed at agreed intervals as priorities evolve. A review towards the end of the six-month pilot will assess outcomes and continuing support needs.
Costs
Costs will be provided separately.
Confidentiality and Agreement
Discretion is central to the relationship, recognising the personal, organisational and commercial sensitivities of senior leadership within Formula 1’s highly competitive environment.
One-to-one conversations remain confidential. Any progress updates shared with McLaren will be agreed with the individual leader beforehand.
A tailored support agreement will set out individual needs and confidentiality terms. A separate NDA can also be signed if required.
WHAT CLIENTS GAIN
Greater clarity when the situation’s
complex and the final judgement remains yours.
01
02
Clearer Thinking
Space to step back from immediate pressures, make sense of complexity and see the decision more clearly.
Objective Perspective
An independent perspective outside your organisation and personal circle, free from internal politics or competing loyalties.
03
Considered Challenge
Thoughtful challenge to test assumptions, surface what may have been overlooked and strengthen the quality of your judgement.
04
05
Greater Composure
Maintain perspective and respond with sound judgement through scrutiny, uncertainty and pressure, setting the tone your people need.
Trusted continuity
A discreet, consistent relationship with someone who understands you and your context, supporting you as challenges and priorities evolve.
WHAT CLIENTS GAIN
Greater clarity when the situation’s complex and the final judgement remains yours.
Clearer Thinking
01
Space to step back from immediate demands, make sense of complexity and see the decision more clearly.
Objective Perspective
02
An independent perspective outside your organisation and personal circle, free from internal politics or competing loyalties.
Considered Challenge
03
Thoughtful challenge to test assumptions, surface what may have been overlooked and strengthen the quality of your judgement.
Greater Composure
04
Maintain perspective and respond with sound judgement through scrutiny, uncertainty and pressure—setting the tone your people need.
Trusted continuity
05
A discreet, consistent relationship with someone who understands you and your context, supporting you as challenges and priorities evolve.
WHEN IT MAY BE VALUABLE
Specialist support to meet the
demands of high performance leadership.
01
You’re weighing a consequential decision with implications for your people, performance and reputation.
02
You’re leading through change while expectations, visibility and scrutiny continue to grow.
05
You’re sustaining success while protecting your energy, personal relationships and life beyond the role.
06
You’re considering succession, your next chapter or the legacy you want to leave.
04
You’re strengthening your senior team and shaping a culture that enables exceptional talent to perform.
03
You’re addressing difficult relationships or conversations where trust, candour and accountability matter.
INDEPENDENT BY DESIGN
No competing agenda.
I work outside your organisation’s reporting lines, internal politics and competing priorities. That gives you a confidential space to speak candidly with someone whose focus is your leadership, performance and wellbeing.
I’ll ask the questions others may hesitate to ask, challenge your thinking and help you consider the wider consequences of your choices—with the independence to offer an honest view.
HOW THE RELATIONSHIP WORKS
A partnership shaped around you.
YOUR PRIORITIES
Our conversations focus on your immediate challenges and longer-term ambitions, adapting as your circumstances evolve.
SIX OR TWELVE MONTHS
Engagements run for six or twelve months, with a minimum commitment of six months. This gives us time to build trust, understand your context and support meaningful progress.
CONVERSATIONS AND ACCESS
We meet remotely via secure video calls, or in person by arrangement. We agree the frequency of scheduled conversations and contact between meetings at the outset.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
Travel, urgent access, extensive document review or involvement with other stakeholders can be agreed separately.
I limit the number of advisory relationships to ensure each client receives consistent attention, continuity and responsiveness.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND BOUNDARIES
A relationship built on trust.
Our conversations are confidential. Information is shared only with your express permission, subject to legal and professional obligations.
If your organisation funds or introduces the engagement, we agree confidentiality and any reporting arrangements with you at the outset.
Private Advisory supports your leadership and judgement. It complements specialist advice, including legal, financial and medical advice, which should come from appropriately qualified professionals.
CLIENT PERSPECTIVE
“Our sessions have offered a rare space for honest, reflective thinking — free from hierarchy or internal filters.
John has helped me reframe long-held assumptions, develop greater clarity in my decision-making and bring balance, proportion and perspective to my overall approach.”
Simon T | United Kingdom
PRIVATE ADVISORY
It starts with a conversation.
We’ll begin with a confidential conversation about your circumstances, priorities and what you’re looking for, then consider whether working together feels right for both of us.