the owl symbol of Clarendon Executive Coaching & Mentoring

The Clarendon Owl is visible throughout the pages of this website, and was chosen specifically as the headline image of Clarendon Executive Coaching & Mentoring. It is not the result of any creative agency, rather the choice and design of me, Jeremy Earnshaw, the Founder of Clarendon.

In Greek mythology, the Owl was a symbol for Athena, who was the Goddess of Wisdom and Strategy. According to myth, an Owl sat on Athena's blind side, so that she was able to see the whole truth. In both Greek and Roman mythology, Owls were associated with education, intellect, and magic, in no small part due to their wide-seeing eyes, and their ability to see through darkness.

Owls themselves are known to have adapted to almost every ecosystem on the planet, with groups of Owls collectively referred to as a 'Wisdom' in many cases. The Owl has binocular vision, with a great amount of photoreceptors, facilitating good low-light vision, and is very far-sighted. Owls have large pupils and corneas that gather light very effectively, and the Owl has the best night vision in the animal kingdom. Binocular vision also enables the Owl to focus on prey, and boosts their depth perception.

The Owl also has exceptionally good hearing, up to ten times better than humans. With extremely sensitive ears, the unique hearing system of the Owl allows it to pinpoint the location of even the faintest sounds. A large part of what makes the Owl an effective hunter, is their ability to listen and hear exceptionally well, whilst remaining silent itself.

Sight and hearing is further enhanced by the ability of the Owl, with 14 vertebrates in the neck, to rotate its head to 270 degrees, giving an even better opportunity to see and hear all around.

So when creating Clarendon Executive Coaching & Mentoring, the image and symbol of the Owl was an instinctive choice for me. Coaching is the art of facilitating another person's learning, development and performance, and through Coaching & Mentoring, people are able to raise self-awareness, identify choices, find their own solutions, develop their own skills, and change their own attitudes and behaviours. The aim of Coaching & Mentoring is to close the gap between potential and performance. 

In order to do that, the successful Coach & Mentor needs to have many of the abilities of the Clarendon Executive Coaching & Mentoring Owl.