Performance Enhancement Practice · Oxford, since 2010
Our work
Harris Hawkins works with chairs, principals, and boards who carry weight that cannot easily be shared elsewhere.
We work to repair, and to enhance. In the former, we help with succession decisions, board fractures, cognitive load, cultural transformation blockages, the long-running cost of high office, or the quiet but damaging erosion that accumulates with years at the top. In the latter, we help people to outperform their personal limits and expectations; to discover and unlock strengths and capabilities that are locked within, just needing the right key.
Our work is clinical in standard and confidential in nature, but practical in shape. Most engagements unfold across one-to-one sessions, paired with periodic group or boardroom work. A typical cycle runs from twelve weeks to eighteen months. We work alongside existing advisors, legal counsel, medical and other expertise, and family-office structures.
We do not publish a client list. All engagements are strictly confidential. References are available on introduction.
Who we work with
Our principals and associates are based in London, Doha, Cape Town, Geneva, and Hong Kong. They share three things in common: the seriousness of what they carry, the privacy required to address it, and a preference for working with one senior advisor over the long term — rather than a rotation of consultants.
How we engage
All work begins with a confidential introduction — usually through an existing principal, a board chair, or a trusted intermediary. A first private conversation, held at our offices, the client's location of choice, or by secured line, establishes whether the engagement is right for both sides. From there, scope, phases, cadence, outcomes and fees are agreed before any formal work begins.
We work to deliver real change, not deliverables. Our incentives and fees are based on what matters to our clients: outcome, seniority, discretion, and scope.
Selected commentary
The principal practitioners
MD · MRCPsych · DPOL (Oxford)
Dr Harris trained in medicine, cardiac surgery, then psychiatry in Oxford. He left traditional medicine to study outlier psychology and leadership dynamics, and founded the practice in Oxford in 2010 in response to work commissioned by alumni of Oxford's Saïd Business School. His expertise is in how to use clinical skills and techniques to enhance performance, and to solve the unique challenges, of people at the top of their chosen fields. Clients are drawn from a broad range: elite sports, media, high-risk and complexity industries, boardrooms, and principal-level leadership.
He is the author of Exceptional (Amazon, 2023), and contributes a discreet clinical voice to publications such as Inc. Arabia and Entrepreneur, and to selected projects including the MentalWealth AI-guided performance enhancement platform.
MSc · RPN · CBE
Dr Hawkins brings decades of real-time psychological technique from a career in high-risk mental health settings. Her expertise in dealing with bad-faith actors, escalated demands, and covert dynamics is invaluable in the real world of elite leadership, pressure, and competition.
Engagement
All correspondence is held in confidence. We do not retain enquiries that do not progress.