The executive who lived it.
Most inclusion programmes are designed by people who studied the problem.
X-INC Global is led by someone who lived it, through 25 years of senior leadership at HP, BBC, Microsoft, and Informa, and who now helps leaders and organisations understand what's actually getting in the way, from the inside out.
I didn't study this problem.
I lived it.
25 years of senior leadership at HP, BBC, Microsoft, and Informa. Global Vice President. Author of eight books.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
And someone who spent six months of redundancy quietly wondering whether they were good enough, knowing the answer was yes and feeling the opposite.
That experience is not the backdrop to my work. It is the work.
Not as an observer. Not as a consultant who studied exclusion from the outside. As someone who built high-performing global teams, sat in boardrooms, and still knew exactly what it felt like to doubt whether he belonged there.
That's the vantage point I bring to every coaching conversation and every organisational engagement.
It's my background that makes the difference
Personal Record of Achievement
- 7 consecutive years of highest employee satisfaction results across Microsoft
- 2010 Microsoft Management Excellence Award recipient
- 2014 Microsoft Execution Excellence Award ricipient
- 400 employees and outsourced service partners across 9 countries in the Northern European HP leadership role
- Digital advertising delivery across 80 countries at Microsoft managing 4 large global outsourced partners
- HP UK and Ireland restructuring programme delivered as proof of concept in 2 months
- $3 million saved in year one of the HP restructuring programme
- Career spanning 6 major organisations across 30 years
- Created and delivered a certified DEI training programme for more than 10,000 employees at Informa Markets
- 8 published books on leadership, inclusion, and performance
- Lead Well, Last long eBook series forming one complete leadership development system
- 25 years of senior leadership experience
Two ways I can help
Are you ready to work with me?
Are you a leader who's being overlooked?
You're capable. You're self-aware. And you're exhausted by invisible barriers that nobody will call out loud.
You need a coach who won't merely validate your frustration but will tell you the truth and help you develop a plan.
For the leader who's done pretending everything is fine
You've read the books. You've done the self-work. You've performed your way through rooms where you felt like the only one who didn't quite belong, even when your results said otherwise.
What you need isn't more reflection. You need someone who's been exactly where you are, who will tell you the truth without flinching, and who will help you move forward on your own terms.
What I offer:
1-to-1 Personalised Coaching: for women and minority leaders navigating senior environments
Online Programmes: structured, self-paced coaching frameworks built from 25 years of lived and professional experience
Books: a library of eight titles covering impostor syndrome, inclusive leadership, and performance under pressure
Do you lead an organisation that wants real change?
Not a programme. Not a policy. Real, measurable progress on leadership performance and organisational health; presented with the commercial credibility to land in a boardroom, not just an HR meeting.
For the organisation that knows something needs to shift.
You have seen the signs. Talented people leaving. Leaders going through the motions. Transformation initiatives that lose momentum before they deliver results. A culture that looks functional on paper but feels different in practice.
You have commissioned the training. You have seen the reports. And the numbers, or the culture, have not shifted the way you need them to.
What is missing is not effort. It is an honest diagnosis. Someone who understands organisations from the inside; who has led through the same pressures your leaders are navigating now; who can stand in front of your board and your people teams with equal credibility, and who will not tell you what you want to hear.
After more than 25 years of senior leadership at HP, the BBC, Microsoft, and Informa Markets, and having received the Microsoft Management Excellence Award for achieving the highest employee satisfaction results across the organisation for seven consecutive years, I bring that credibility to every organisation I work with.
What I offer:
Leadership Development Programmes: Bespoke workshops and development sessions built around the Lead Well, Last Long series; addressing change fatigue, sustainable performance, burnout prevention, and the inclusive leadership practices that retain and develop talented people. Every programme begins with a dedicated discovery session tailored to your organisation's culture, challenges, and priorities.
Organisational Advisory: Strategic leadership and inclusion programmes with commercial framing; designed to create measurable, lasting change rather than short-term compliance.
Keynote Speaking: Evidence-based presentations drawn from lived senior leadership experience, at the intersection of executive performance, inclusion, and organisational sustainability. Available for conference main stages, leadership away days, and board-level briefings.
Culture and Governance Consulting: Long-term programme design for organisations that are serious about measurable, structural change; not just the appearance of it.
Every engagement begins with a conversation. If you are ready to move beyond what has not been working, I would welcome the opportunity to understand what your organisation actually needs.
Two resources. One clear picture
Here is what we found. And here is what we built in response.
The Diagnosis
What People Really Need
31 women, people of colour, and marginalised leaders told us what's really getting in the way.
We listened. We wrote it down.
This free white paper draws on first-hand conversations to reveal what's actually blocking progress inside organisations, and what genuinely helps.
The Prescription
Lead Well, Last Long
The four-book series and bespoke service programme built in direct response to what those leaders told us.
Keynotes, workshops, and corporate training days tailored to your organisation, all grounded in more than 25 years of lived senior leadership experience.
Download the Whitepaper
Get real insights of what people really need
Download the Series Guide
Learn more about the Lead Well, Last Long Programme
About Mike Sealy
Mike Sealy is a leadership coach, inclusion strategist, and former senior executive with 25 years of leadership experience at Hewlett-Packard, BBC, Microsoft, and Informa Markets, where his career culminated in a role as Global Vice President.
While grounded in academic understanding, his real expertise is forged through lived experience, the depth of which is reflected in work shaped by what he has seen, navigated, and led firsthand.
Being selected for an elite leadership programme yet being unable to speak, despite having earned every right to be there. Watching someone take credit for his work. Building a high-performing global team, only to have a manager engineer his exit from a company he loved. Six months of redundancy, knowing he was good enough and feeling the opposite.
Mike didn't just study Impostor Syndrome. He survived it, time and again, within some of the world's most prestigious organisations. That experience is not the backdrop to his work. It is the work.
Today, Mike works in two directions at once. He coaches women and minority executives who are capable, self-aware, and tired of being invisible, and he works with the CEOs, CHROs, and senior leaders who are ready to stop performing inclusion and start delivering it. The reason he can speak credibly to both is that he has sat in both seats simultaneously. That vantage point is not something you can study your way into.
Through X-INC Global, Mike brings together individual executive coaching, organisational advisory, and leadership development programmes that are grounded in real experience rather than theory. His approach is direct, commercially minded, and built on a single conviction: that the most effective leaders are those who understand what is actually getting in the way, and have the courage to address it honestly.
He is the author of eight books on leadership, inclusion, and performance. His titles include Leadership in Action, The Belonging Shift, Mindset Unlocked, and Leadership Decoded, as well as the Lead Well, Last Long series comprising Morning Habits of Confident Leaders, Before You Break, The New Rules of Leadership, and The Growth Mindset Leader.
Mike is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Executive Education alumnus of IESE Business School, INSEAD, and Wharton School. He holds a certification in DEI Cultural Competency Leadership and has worked with Cambridge Judge Business School.
He created and delivered a certified DEI training programme for more than 10,000 employees at Informa Markets and oversaw a significant rise in ERG participation during his tenure as Global Vice President of DEI. His work spans boardrooms, coaching sessions, keynote stages, and the pages of eight books; all carrying the same message: that genuine inclusion is not a values exercise. It is a performance strategy.
Mike Sealy is still the person in the room who knows exactly what it feels like to have earned his place, and to doubt it anyway. That is precisely why his clients trust him with theirs.
About X-INC GLOBAL
Why X-INC Exists
The X-INC Lead Well, Last Long leadership method and coaching programmes were shaped over more than two decades of my own senior leadership experience at Microsoft, the BBC, HP, and Informa. Across every one of those environments, the same pattern repeated itself. Technically strong professionals were promoted into leadership roles without the confidence, communication skills, or inclusive behaviours needed to succeed. The talent was there. The support was not.
I founded X-INC Global on a single belief: that the most impactful work on inclusion comes from someone who has experienced the system they aim to change, not from those who have only studied it from the outside.
I work in two directions
- For leaders who are being ignored: I coach capable, self-aware women and minority executives who are exhausted by invisible barriers that nobody will openly acknowledge. I won't validate the frustration. I'll tell the truth, provide a strategic plan, and help them progress on their own terms.
2. For organisations that are serious about change: I work with CEOs, CHROs, and senior leaders who are prepared to move beyond what is not working and start achieving results that are measurable, sustainable, and built to last.
That means addressing the challenges that most leadership conversations avoid. Change fatigue. Burnout. Cultures that look healthy on paper but feel different in practice. Inclusion that is framed as a commercial priority rather than a compliance exercise. And the gap between what an organisation says about its people and what its people actually experience.
What I bring to all of it is something that cannot be taught. More than 25 years of senior leadership at HP, the BBC, Microsoft, and Informa. Eight published books. The Microsoft Management Excellence Award for the highest employee satisfaction results across the organisation for seven consecutive years. And the experience of sitting in both seats at once; inside the problem and inside the boardroom.
That is the vantage point my clients expect. And that is why it works.
X-INC, pronounced Zinc, represents the philosophy at the heart of this work.
X stands for transformation: the shift from technical expert to confident, effective leader.
INC stands for inclusion: the everyday behaviours that create the conditions for people to perform at their best.
Because when inclusion is practised properly, it doesn't sit alongside performance. It drives it.