Jim Lawless

Meet Jim Lawless

Record-breaking freediver and voted #1 Motivational Speaker outside of the US in the Global Guru rankings, Jim Lawless has spoken to well over a million people on five continents.

For two decades, Jim’s sole focus has been:

• How can we manage uncertainty, transform fast and deliver high performance?
• How can we lead to ensure our people manage uncertainty, transform fast and deliver high performance?

Founder and CEO of transformation architects Symmetry.inc, Jim and his team work with leaders globally to deliver transformation to agile, intelligent organisations. His client list ranges from Apple to Microsoft, Diageo to Paysafe Group, fast-growth companies and Olympic Teams.

Jim is the author of the international best seller ‘Taming Tigers – How to do things you never thought you could’ (Random House).

Uniquely, he insists on walking the walk, not just talking the talk. He became a televised jockey, (and lost 25% of his bodyweight), within 12 months of sitting on a horse and became the deepest freediver in British history within 8 months; he is the first Briton to pass the magic 100m barrier.

Both ‘impossible’ transformations were undertaken to test and validate the Rules for Taming Tigers. Both were done alongside his day job – as transformations always are.

Jim is loved internationally for his energy, humour and lasting impact on mindset, and action. He delights with his personal experiences and leaves a highly credible and powerful new vocabulary behind him that lives on in the organisation.

Jim holds a degree in Law and spent the first decade of his career as a commercial solicitor in the City of London and International Legal Counsel with a global tech company. He founded Optimise in 2000 which has evolved into Symmetry today.

Outside of his work, Jim is a dad, friend, helicopter pilot and triathlete.