The Artful Coach: Creative approaches to coaching

The Artful Coach: Dr. Les Joynes

Hello my name is Les. I engage clients with creative approaches to building and enhancing careers and integrating work-life balance. I am a New York University certified Coach and GoldAward © Mentor.

Building upon John Whitmore’s GROW model for coaching, I engage creative models at each step of the process from goal setting, to assessing realities, choosing options and planning ways forward.

Training: I completed my coach training at New York University. I trained in global management at Boston University and Vrije Universiteit Brussels (M.Sc) and California State University (MBA). I trained in the arts at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (BA), École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris and Goldsmiths (MA) and between 1997-2001 I was based in Tokyo at Musashino Art University (MA) where I was Japan Ministry of Education (Monbusho) Scholar. I received my PhD from the Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK; and my Post-Doctorate from the School of Art and Communications at University of São Paulo, Brazil. At Columbia University, I research the futures of coaching in global organizations. I am an explorer and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute and recipient of Fulbright awards for Mongolia and China and the 2022 Fulbright Professional and Academic Excellence Award for India

And more: I serve as an Entrepreneurship Coach and Mentor at Columbia University’s Almaworks in New York. I also serve as a Creative Entrepreneurship Coach at Parsons School of Design. In 2019 I founded a coaching initiative for museum professionals at Yale University and have coached current and future leaders at University of Melbourne and Columbia Business School. With thirty-five years in the Americas, EU and Asia, I have trained in five languages including French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

I grew up between the Pacific Ocean and the foothills of the Las Padres National Forest in Southern California and when not coaching I am making art and am an avid hiker and swimmer.