We’ve sadly lost another of coaching’s leading figures and forefathers: Professor David Megginson. Megginson was emeritus professor of HRD at Sheffield Hallam University, founder of the Coaching and Mentoring Research Unit in the Business School, and co-founder in 1992 with David Clutterbuck, of the European Mentoring Centre, which became the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC), and which now has more than 10,000 members. Megginson received Lifetime Achievement Awards from Henley Business School, the EMCC and Coaching at Work, where he was a member of the editorial advisory board. In this obituary, we hear from some of his colleagues

 

David Megginson was a gentle man, a gentleman and a remarkable intellect.

His contribution to coaching and mentoring was immense, from his initial enquiries into mentoring and line manager coaching to coaching culture. We first met at a mentoring conference in London, when the idea of coaching as a profession was still emerging. We became firm friends and colleagues from that moment on, co-founding what’s now the EMCC, writing and researching together and sparking each other’s creativity.

Like so many people in this field, David arrived in a circuitous route. He trained as a botanist (which gave an interesting dimension to walks with him in the countryside), then through a succession of roles found himself teaching and lecturing at Sheffield Hallam University. Once he’d established his interest in informal development in the workplace, he soon gathered around him colleagues, who were energised by his enthusiasm to bring academic rigour to the study of coaching and mentoring.

The department at Hallam provided a counterbalance to the North American cultural domination of the field and influenced the creation of coaching and mentoring research teams in many other universities in the UK and elsewhere.

David’s values of inclusion and open enquiry greatly influenced the evolution of the EMCC into the caring body it is today. He also threw his prodigious energies into his other two great interests – chamber music and the Quaker community.

He’ll be remembered for his immense kindness to so many students and early-stage practitioners – and for his ubiquitous bow ties. We were “the two Davids” for an amazingly creative and fun-filled quarter century. On one occasion at an EMCC conference, the keynote speaker didn’t arrive. Could David and I step in at 10 minutes’ notice? We sat down and said: “What are we curious about lately?”

As so often, we’d both noticed an unexplored phenomenon and had come at it from different perspectives. With two minutes to go, we’d scoped a conversation and how we’d involve the audience. It takes a special kind of relationship to be able to improvise so completely in the moment – one I feel greatly privileged to have had with David.

David was an enthusiastic runner and walker. He was generous enough to slow down for me, as an occasional runner, but at one EMCC conference, we were both outclassed. We went out for an early morning run with a visiting Canadian general. We completed a long circuit at what seemed to both of us a good, stretching pace. Then the general said she’d just go round again and set off at a blistering pace! We did much of our co-learning walking the hills of Derbyshire and in remote locations, such as Nepal. When I found myself outpacing David, it was a sign that all wasn’t well with him. Over time, his body deteriorated, but his mind remained as sharp as ever.

David’s infectious, gently penetrating humour was a model for challenging limiting assumptions. He’ll be remembered for his compassion, his insight and as an exemplar of everything that characterises what it means to be a great coach or mentor.

Professor David Clutterbuck, Co-founder and special ambassador of the EMCC

 

I first met David at the end of 2002 on my first module of the Coaching and Mentoring MSc at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU).

After the first week, I approached David and asked him if he’d be my mentor. David terrified me in the first few sessions until he dispelled the ‘guru syndrome’ that had initially developed in my head.

A mentoring session with David in those early days made me feel as if I’d been mentally pummelled, but I left with a ‘glowing’ satisfaction from achieving so much. The creative tension, the reflective stretch that David facilitated, just cut to my brain’s core, stopping me in my tracks, developing my thinking in leaps and bounds, inspiring me and setting me on the path to become the person I am today.

Over the years we became colleagues and friends, teaching together at Sheffield Hallam University and working together as consultants. I’ve such fond memories of those years. David’s lovely rituals of bringing fresh coffee and fruit to our meetings. His amazing empathy and deep interest in people. He made an instant bond with everyone, putting them at their ease within minutes.

David was gentle, kind, compassionate and humorous, with a joy of life and learning and overall delicious vitality that made him stand out from others.

Through David’s later years I was still conscious of his mentoring influence and desire to stretch me further. Even recently, before he moved into Broomgrove, during lovely lunches with David and [his wife] Viv at their home, he always wanted to know the latest news about everyone, what I’d been doing and to listen to and challenge me.

David touched so many lives through coaching and mentoring. His influence lives on in the enormous legacy of his writing, research, and contributions to the EMCC and Sheffield Hallam. I feel very honoured to have been David’s mentee and to have worked alongside him.

Lis Merrick, Managing director, Coach Mentoring

 

We met first in 1991 when I was contemplating doing a PhD on mentoring.

David was an obvious person to contact because of his pioneering work in mentoring and coaching. My first impression was of a very erudite person, full of charm, decency and generosity. We kept in touch and through the fledgling European Mentoring Centre worked together with others to develop the now EMCC. In 1999 and a PhD later, a job appeared at Sheffield Business School. I immediately contacted David.

“Wow, if you come, we could start a Mentoring and Coaching Research Unit”, he said – and we did, with Paul Stokes. The three of us created the MSc in Coaching and Mentoring (the second such course in the world) and we delivered it together in Switzerland and the UK. As a team we were in the same office for ten years.

Often, if one of us were struggling with something or was looking puzzled David would say, “Coffee? You look like you need a good listening to!” Lunch was always an occasion if we were all together. It involved going somewhere interesting to eat and we had both serious and fun conversations. There was often much banter and laughter.

David was a master of conversation. Over the years we exchanged produce from our respective gardens and we discussed the delights of vegetable and fruit growing. David was a scholar, a scientist and artist, a poet, music lover and runner. He spoke truth to power with such elegance!

Over the years my first impressions of him were confirmed – erudite, charming, decent and generous. He lives on in his work. His physical presence has left us but he lives in our hearts and minds. It was an honour and a privilege, David!

Professor Bob Garvey, Managing Partner, The Lio Partnership and Consultant with Coach Mentoring

 

I knew David well, was taught by him and worked with him at Sheffield Hallam University for more than 25 years.

He was instrumental in getting me involved in coaching and mentoring in the first place and was one of my supervisors on my Doctorate. He was also very supportive to me personally through difficult times in my life and overall a very decent and kind human being. As a fellow teacher, writer, researcher and academic, his enthusiasm was infectious.

I ran many coaching and mentoring events, both within Sheffield Hallam and outside with David, and always enjoyed and got something out of working with him. I enjoyed his
stories and vignettes even if I’d heard them before!

He would often tell the story of working alongside Bob Garvey with senior managers in a major bank, where, in a break, they got the feedback that the session was ‘good but a bit slow’. After the break, David told the group that they were now going to go ‘even slower’ because they needed to reflect on what they were doing and why. This was typical of David – he was prepared to challenge people’s assumptions and push for what he knew they really needed.

Sometimes, this challenging behaviour would get him into trouble. I remember sitting in a fire safety briefing at the University, where, becoming impatient that the facilitator hadn’t begun the session, David said, “I would rather burn than sit here waiting for those who can’t turn up on time!”

Mostly, though, his willingness to ‘speak truth to power’ was on behalf of others who would otherwise have been marginalised. His contribution to coaching and mentoring has been immense and I know that many people in it, like me, will feel his loss quite keenly. I feel, though, that he has left a significant legacy for us all through his impact on those of us that knew him.

Paul Stokes, Associate Professor of Coaching & Mentoring, Sheffield Business School