Who Am I?
Trust and vulnerability are key factors in the success of a coaching relationship – during the time we work together the focus is on you. A coach leads from behind to support you to make your own choices, discover your strengths, celebrate your successes and encourage you to lick your wounds and learn from anything which doesn’t go as planned.
My summary
Therefore I am writing this summary of who I am as you won’t hear about me during your coaching cycle. It’s interesting as I write this because many of the “stories” seem to belong to someone else – I guess that’s what happens as we traverse through life.
I am an ever evolving human – previously in my corporate life and early coaching practice/corporate training I was a human “doing” – in my current iteration of myself – redefining who I am, where I am going and what I want to achieve in this next part of my life I am focussing on “being”
I have had my share of ups and downs – made some bad choices but mainly good ones and learned from those which didn’t work for me – even if it took some time for the lessons to sink in! I didn’t follow a “usual” path through University – choosing instead to “only” go to college to get some skills (thanks to my mother’s insight and wisdom) and worked my way up the ladder at Ford Motor Company from the most junior secretary to a manager who had various international roles, travelled extensively, lived all over the UK, worked all over Europe and lived and worked in the US.
I was blessed to have people who supported my journey, saw my potential, were prepared to encourage me and give me advice, guidance and encouragement to carve my own path. I believe I made a positive difference in a huge organisation by being a change agent, advocate for my people, customer focussed and not a little rebellious. It was a “man’s world” but many of those men helped and supported me and I was prepared to stand beside them uniquely as me – regardless of gender. It was a challenging 20 years, inspirational, emotional and educational – the experiences I learned there helped me later in life too.
My theme throughout my corporate career to help others develop and learn – whether that was a core part of my role or not. I had a reputation for being an effective people leader as well as able to deliver results on my own. I loved building teams of diverse individuals and encouraging them to pool their differences to make a lasting change and impact on the business.
My coaching work and learning facilitation work started full time in March 2002 … I was one of the very first certified coaches in the UK as coaching was a relatively unknown practice or role at that time. I was fortunate (and remain grateful) to a few of the Ford Managers in various other Brands who supported me in the early days because they could see the value in what I could offer – without that it would have been hard to get started.
I have coached people in so many industries and business sectors at very senior and relatively junior levels. I have coached entrepreneurs and aspiring musicians and helped data scientists to learn and live emotional intelligence. Working with Boards and Senior Leadership teams was the most challenging but in some cases very rewarding and working with young people and those aspiring to become “great” was a joy and privilege.
I trained to become a personal trainer in 2012 – having undergone a major life change personally with my health and fitness. I could see the value in combining physical fitness and nutrition with the emotional development I was doing with people.
And now I am once again undergoing change – I am studying Regnerative Agriculture to enable me to support food producers, farmers and corporations within that sector to adopt more regenerative, nature cycle based approaches to growing food which will be more nutritious AND make a positive difference to the natural world and the imbalances of carbon we are currently experiencing. I have always loved nature and this gives me a way to expand my people development and business strategy skills into the natural world for long term good. Watch this space for how I do.
My personal life
On the personal front – I have a beautiful dalmatian dog who has brown spots and the kindest heart and funniest personality – her name is Lottie. She goes everywhere with me and she has made a huge positive difference in my life.
I was married to a wonderful man but we grew apart and were divorced some while ago – but we are still friends and I meet up regularly with him and his new wife for lunch and walks with Lottie. In fact, he gave me the money for the puppy for Christmas. I am proud of what we have achieved as friends post marriage and wish that more people could experience such a friendship.
Sadly I lost my younger sister to cancer a couple of years ago – that almost killed me – certainly broke my heart as she was my best friend as well as my sister. It was a really tough lesson for me and made me realise that we don’t talk about death – our only guarantee in life and this is something I am wanting to address in the near future with Death Café’s and even workshops to plan our passing from this planet.
I am blessed to still have my mother who is an inspiration to me – despite losing her husband (my father) and her youngest daughter in the same year. She has fought and built her resilience over time and is enjoying a life without them and staying well despite being an octogenarian.
My friends are my rock – I have a global network having lived and worked in so many countries – but my heart is in Poland and those friends there. The Polish are resolute people who have suffered so much over the centuries – their humour is similar to the British humour(!) and I find them generous, friendly, supportive and direct – you know where you are with them which is so refreshing.
I think that’s enough about me – if you like what you read – then I’m the coach for you – if not – then I wish you well and hope you find someone who can support you.