Every Person's Path to Purpose: Everyone's Work Manifesto

2018 sees Duncan's twenty-first year working as a Career Guidance Practitioner and Coach in Career Development, Executive-level, Purpose, Sport and Performance Improvement. Alongside which he is also consults to organisations on Employee Engagement, Talent Management and People Strategy. It has been said his ideas on the world of work, motivation, career management and purpose are “visionary”. His innovative, results-orientated, pioneering and infectious spirit has seen him pushing barriers in his daily work and many sporting pursuits; especially long-distance swimming, golf and triathlon.

Throughout this 21 years, he has been helping individuals and organisations decode their occupational DNA; in order to get more out themselves and, ultimately, experience greater happiness and fulfilment in how they make their living. In the past he has taught golf and swimming and uses his proven coaching techniques to complement his careers work. Duncan also has the unique - some might say controversial - distinction of having had 35 jobs in the first 32 years of his life. So he knows what it is like to navigate the minefield of not knowing what to do! Perhaps more by process of elimination, there is one thing for sure. Duncan discovered his calling and leverages this energy positively!

At school his English Language teacher announced that one day Duncan would be a Writer. And this is a goal Duncan has strived towards ever since. In his writing he draws upon his many anecdotes to help contextualise his message. Everything in Duncan’s life hinges around the aesthetics of movement and work. He loves the efficiency derived by the mastery of technique and nurtures this beauty in work and play. He has come to realise that purposeful, proactive and persevering people are innately charismatic and energy-giving in a challenged world where 90% of people are in the wrong job or not engaged by their work at all. Right now everything he does is about getting more people into their ‘right work’ and spreading his ideas through print, coaching and workshops.

An Ideas Factory, his passion has led him to design ‘employability’ programmes for the BBC (‘Up for Hire’), contribute to the design of the National Careers Service Advisory Panel for the UK Government’s Dept for Business Innovation & Skill & Dept for Education and dynamic career development programmes for world-leading organisations like Vodafone, the BBC and Haringey Action Group on Alcohol.