I have acquired a reputation for being a bit competitive on the sports field. It was widely believed in Direct Line that I had broken an opponent's arm during a 5-a-side football match. The truth is that during a friendly match against our advertising agency, one of the partners collided with me and fell over. He didn't realise until the next day that his arm was broken. However, as a creative agency, that version of events wasn't exciting enough for them. Hence the more dramatic story they circulated.

When the facilitator was summing up that the end of a team building session for Direct Line's management team she asked what people that learnt from the two days of exercises. One reply was "... if you need to solve logic puzzles make sure Graham's on your team...."

In my first few years at Direct Line, my executive colleagues took to calling me "The Truth". This was because if the management team wanted the truth about the performance of the business they would ask me.
My team members preferred "The Wolf". A reference to the character played by Harvey Keitel in the movie Pulp Fiction - The person you call if you need a calm head to sort out a messy problem. If you've seen the film you'll understand. If you've not seen it, then you've missed a great film.