Sir John Henry Douglas Whitmore, 2nd Baronet (16 October 1937 – 28 April 2017) was a pioneer of the executive coaching industry, an author and British racing driver.

Family life and background

John Whitmore was born on 16 October 1937, the son of Sir Francis Whitmore and Ellis Johnsen. He was educated at Eton College, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Cirencester Agricultural College. He inherited The Orsett Estate Company at Orsett, Essex, in 1962, on the death of his father. The inheritance included the family seat of Orsett Hall, from the grounds of which he used to take off and land his plane. In 1968, he sold the house to his friends, Tony and Val Morgan. He married twice, first to Ella Gunilla Hansson, from whom he was divorced in 1969, and later to Diana Becchetti. He had a child from each marriage. He died on 28 April 2017.

Early career (in motor racing)

In his first year in the competition, 1961, Whitmore won the British Saloon Car Championship in his BMC Mini Minor. In 1963 he drove again in the BSCC and came second in the championship in a Mini Cooper, finishing just two points behind Jack Sears. In 1965 he won the European Touring Car Championship in a Lotus Cortina (KPU392C). He won by finishing first in his class in 8 of the 9 1965 ETCC races (and finishing first overall in 6 of the races). Sir John drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for five years between 1959 and 1966. In the first year he finished tenth overall and second in class along with Jim Clark in the Border Reivers Lotus Elite. In 1965 (with Innes Ireland) and 1966 (with Frank Gardner) he raced in a works Ford GT40, but had to retire from the race both years with mechanical problems. At the end of 1966 he retired from racing. He returned later in life to driving in historic car events such as the Goodwood Revival.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Later career (in business and coaching)

After leaving racing and the world of motor-sports, he became interested in transpersonal psychology and its emphasis on the principle of will, intention, or responsibility. He went on to apply his learning and skills first to the world of sport and then to business. In 1970, he studied at the Esalen Institute in Slates Hot Springs, California, with the likes of William Schutz (creator of team development model FIRO-B), and then trained with Harvard educationalist and tennis expert Timothy Gallwey, who created the Inner Game methodology of performance coaching. Sir John founded the Inner Game in Britain in 1979 with a small team of Inner Game coaches trained by Gallwey. Initially they coached tennis players and golfers but they soon realized the value for leaders and managers of organizations. At this point Sir John coined the term "performance coaching" - this was the birth of the modern coaching movement as we know it. In the early 1980s he and partners founded Performance Consultants, a provider of coaching, leadership development and performance improvement. Sir John and his colleagues spent much of the 1980s developing the methodology, concepts, and techniques for performance improvement in organizations and showed it was possible to improve performance, increase learning and enjoyment, and find a sense of purpose in work. Sir John is regarded as the pioneer in the field of business coaching. Along with Tim Gallwey, Laura Whitworth and Thomas J. Leonard, he is credited with launching modern coaching in the 1970s. For some people, Sir John will always be best known as the co-creator of the GROW model, one of the most established and successful coaching models. He presented at numerous conferences around the world and contributed to many other books such as Challenging Coaching and Coaching at Work. In the 1990s, Sir John was a co-founder, along with Eric Parsloe, David Clutterbuck, David Megginson and Julie Hay, of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). Sir John was involved with the Professional and Personal Coaches Association (PPCA), an organization that merged in 1998 with the International Coach Federation (ICF). He served as a Trustee for the ICF Foundation until his death in 2017.

Awards

Whitmore received a number of awards outside his career in motor racing, including:

Media coverage

Sir John has been interviewed numerous times. Some examples include: