British Author and Strategist
Colin Gautrey specialises in power, reputation, influence, and organisational politics. He has worked in this field since 2003, following a corporate career spanning mergers and acquisitions, international strategy, information technology, sales, and leadership development.
His work now extends beyond organisational politics into the structural disruption affecting large and complex organisations and the senior people within them. His particular interest is in how power, authority and expertise are changing, and how executives and senior experts respond.
This work draws on more than two decades of experience in organisational power and influence, together with continuing research into technology, AI, geopolitics, markets and institutional change.
He holds an MBA from Warwick Business School (International Strategy and Complexity) where his dissertation, The Criticality of Political Skill, examined and expanded on the work of Ferris et al, with a particular focus on the practical application of influence to achieve organisational outcomes. He worked closely with Warwick Business School from 2008 to 2024, including extensive work as a coach on their Executive MBA programme.
Academic and institutional presentations
Gautrey has presented research and delivered programmes at London Business School, the Wharton School, Cass Business School, the Australian Graduate School of Management, and many others. He has been a frequent presenter at The Conference Board in New York, and has presented regularly to the Project Management Institute, the Chartered Management Institute, and the Institute of Directors. He has participated in research with Harvard Business Review on executive coaching.
Published works
- 21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Beat the Game of Office Politics – Capstone Wiley, 2005, with Mike Phipps
- Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career – John Wiley, 2008, with Dr. Gary Ranker and Mike Phipps
- Influential Leadership: A Leader’s Guide to Making Things Happen – Kogan Page, 2014
Other books
- Advocates and Enemies: How to Build Practical Strategies to Influence Your Stakeholders, 2008
- A Project Manager’s Guide to Influence, 2015
Collaborations and recognition
Gautrey contributed a chapter to The AMA Handbook of Leadership (American Management Association, 2010), edited by Marshall Goldsmith, who also wrote the foreword to Political Dilemmas at Work. That book was co-authored with his long-term friend and collaborator, the late Dr. Gary Ranker of New York.
In conversation:
A selection of recorded conversations with authors and thinkers in adjacent fields.
Allan R. Cohen
Co-author of Influence Without Authority – a conversation on the nature of influence in organisations where formal authority is absent or insufficient.
Morag Barrett
Author of Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships – a conversation on the role of relationships in professional effectiveness and long-term career success.
Caroline Goyder
Author of Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence, Influence and Authority – a conversation on presence, communication, and the relationship between inner confidence and external impact.
For media and speaking enquiries get in touch.
Gautrey has been a regular contributor to Talent Quarterly, the publication founded by Marc Effron whose contributors have included Dave Ulrich, Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Malcolm Gladwell, among others. His work has been featured in the Financial Times, The Times, and the Australian Financial Review.
Intellectual foundations
Gautrey’s thinking draws on systems thinking, behavioural psychology, and long-standing interests in perception and human decision-making, alongside influences from Daoism, complexity theory, systems dynamics, and organisational cybernetics.
Current work
Gautrey works privately with a select group of executives and senior experts navigating structural disruption, pivotal decisions and complex organisational situations.
His work centres on three capabilities: Domain Mastery, Astute Judgement and Political Dexterity. Together, they concern understanding the wider environment, making sound judgements under uncertainty and navigating the organisational realities through which decisions must become action.
In August 2026, Gautrey established the Pattern Recognition System, an independent research process examining structural disruption across organisations, industries and institutions.
The system draws on multiple AI models to identify and examine developments across a deliberately broad international landscape. Individual signals are recorded and developed into longitudinal evidence, enabling emerging patterns and competing interpretations to be explored.
The research underpins his private work and is also made available selectively through ExecutiveDM, an independent intelligence service for executives and senior experts.
The Gautrey Framework
A coherent approach to repositioning in a new world.
Domain Mastery | Astute Judgement | Political Dexterity
Further informatio
Gautrey’s writing is published primarily at gautrey.life and gautreyinfluence.com, and via Substack.