I’m the creator of My Wisdom Career™ – a program to help corporate women to find a career with meaning that enables her to live life on her terms.
MY PURPOSE
My purpose is to help you have a strong sense of meaning and purpose through your work. I want to help you do the work that reflects who you really are – your strengths, values and passions. Focusing on how you can design a career with meaning has the double benefit of empowering you whilst protecting your wellbeing.
The Pandemic created an existential crisis where many questioned what was important. Some experienced Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) turning a challenging work period into an opportunity to redefine the ideal career.
Many people want something different from a traditional work model now. We want to define, design and organise work so we can live our lives in a way that work for us – each and every day. We don’t want to exhaust ourselves trying to do what our organisation demands of us anymore.
Some organisations are responding to this shift to personalise work for employees, but many aren’t. They ether don’t know how or don’t think it’s feasible.
My Journey
Why should you work with me?
I’ve been actively seeking growth since I was a teenager. I wanted to find ways to reach the potential I felt I had inside me that my environment didn’t allow me to easily develop.
My search was partly due to being bullied in primary school. I was transferred to a new school which left me feeling that, with a second chance, I needed to protect myself at all costs.
I grew up with parents who didn’t think career success was a priority. As a women, my main job was to get getting married and have children. However, how could I get married when I felt so ‘unformed’ as a human being? My family role as helper around strong personalities, didn’t serve me to develop a strong sense of who I was.
I decided ‘a corporate career’ was my route to make something of myself. I created an alter ego to help me be the person that I thought I should be – confident and self-assured. But it was a mask.
Jobs in HR and various relationships boosted my self esteem for a while yet deep down I felt more anxious than my peers. Despite growing competence, stayed a constant companion with a critical inner voice judging my every move.
My alter ego did a great job during all of this – no one guessed how I felt inside as they engaged with a confident and bubbly young woman enjoying life.
Books became my therapists
As I entered my 30’s, I started to feel much more confident in myself. I felt clear about who I was and what I had to offer. I wanted to live my life on my terms and stop compromising. I took on more challenging leadership roles, relishing the opportunity to do leadership and change management, my way.
In m personal life, I was in a relationship that was no longer working for me and sadly, as we were de-coupling, he died. The shock of it took me a long time to process and I needed professional help.
After a few years of inner work, out of this tragedy, I made peace with my past, became more authentically myself and looked to the future. I had discovered tools and support that transformed me from ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving’ – and it felt great! I wanted to make it my life’s mission to help others learn how to thrive too.
This is the decade I call, building ‘My Wisdom Career™ as my skills, values and passions synthesised. I put together the building blocks to help solve complex people problems. I studied an MBA, trained as an Executive Coach and delivered numerous behavioural change programmes with the mission to enable individuals, teams and organisations to thrive. I focused a lot of my time on gender inequality whether in a leadership role, as a Diversity leader or as a mentor or coach. I felt compelled to help women understand their value and grow in confidence and courage to take more risks and opportunities.
In parallel to exploring work that was meaningful for me, I continued my inner work using a wide range of therapeutic modalities that helped me to build my Thrive muscle. I’m thankful to few special people (you know who you are!) who changed my life. By raising my awareness, helping me to change my mindset and behaviour through Cognitive Analytical Therapy, Family Systems Constellations, EMDR, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Mindfulness Meditation… and more, it has enabled me to achieve far more of my potential than I ever thought possible. I am eternally grateful.
My background
- 10 years in Human Resources
- 10 years in Change Management
- 10 years Consulting Leadership
- 15 years in Executive Coaching, accredited with the ICF and EMCC
- 20 years mentoring, coaching and sponsoring female leaders and emerging leaders
Academically, I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD), have a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and am studying an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology (MAPP-CP).
Finally, some fun facts about me:
- I’m an exercise addict – current addiction is Les Mills Body Attack and Body Combat.
- I LOVE going on retreats – I’ve explored Fitness, Buddhism, Yoga, Indigenous Sweat Lodges, Sound Healing and Juicing.
- I’ve trained to be a Stand Up Comic and delivered a live set – one of the scariest things I’ve ever prepared for – and I loved every second of it.
- I ran the London Marathon in 2009 to raise money for the Samaritans.
- I did a bungy jump for a dare when I was 19. I never did it again as I’m scared of heights.
- Finally, I love music and think there should be more clubbing options for 40+ year old market!