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ABOUT ME
A Leadership Coach With A Difference
I'm now an ICF accredited individual, group and team coach.
But that isn't how I started out in life!
I'm also a PhD research scientist and I've spent 16 years working in and leading academic and pharmaceutical drug discovery research teams.
Most of that time I was thriving, but I reached a turning point where I often felt like I didn't fit, and I didn't know why. In part of my role I felt I was valued and doing well, but in another part I was constantly told to do things a different way and everything felt difficult and frustrating.
So when I got the opportunity to train as a coach I jumped at it!
Very quickly I realised I had a special talent for coaching. I was surprised to discover that a lot of apparently confident senior leaders struggled at work. and that I was able to help them in a way they had never experienced before. Even in those early days of coaching my clients commented on my calm, relaxing presence that made them feel they could be themself in our sessions and discuss things they never normally shared.
The training also involved a lot of self development and group work, which helped me to figure out my situation.
I started to understand why I wasn't happy in part of my job, yet loved the other part. A big part of this was discovering the concept of flow.
Behind Leaders In Flow
When I heard about the concept of flow it literally blew me away.
All of the sudden the way I felt and performed made so much sense.
I finally understood why I sometimes loved my job and sometimes hated it. Some aspects of my role gave me energy and excitement, but others left me feeling drained, demotivated and stressed. I could see where I was in flow and where I wasn’t, and I had discovered the route to change that.
Flow was first described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi when he was pursuing the secret of happiness, but flow has important benefits for our work as well as our personal life.
Flow brings growth because it requires an element of challenge, so to maintain the great feeling you naturally seek new challenges.
Flow brings focus because you exist in the moment and the task. You aren’t trying to impress, or wondering what others will think of you. You aren’t thinking about your next activity, you’re focussed on the now.
Flow doesn't feel like work. Working in flow minimises stress and enhances wellbeing as well as focus and performance.
When I established my coaching business I knew I wanted to help science leaders find their flow at work so they could bring their true brilliance to developing new medicines; because I realised I would have my biggest impact on drug discovery by helping others realise their true value and achieving theirs.
I knew from my own experience how powerful it is to be able to be yourself and in flow, and how crushing it is to feel that you can't be yourself.
I want to help leaders who feel their work place is a hostile environment. By helping them discover how to be successful as their true self I help them shift the balance to create an environment where everyone can flourish.
On A More Personal Note
I was born in Manchester, U.K. and I'm extremely proud of my birth city and the tough resilience Mancunians are known for.
Like the city itself I've bounced back from a few knocks in life and always worked hard to come back stronger and better. Hence the gold and black theme to reflect the symbol of Manchester - the worker bee.
I have also lived in the USA and Sweden. I now live in Cambridge with my husband, our daughter and two cats!
When I'm not working I enjoy reading and cooking and I'm a regular runner where enjoyment always takes priority over achievement! Although I have run several half marathons to raise money and awareness for diabetes U.K. as I've lived with type 1 diabetes since I was 12.
