My story

After a 25-year career in communications and government relations, including 10 years as Director of Communications for Siemens plc, I retrained in team relationship coaching and workplace mediation, and now focus on helping leaders and managers build engaged, high-performing teams. 

My passion

I have an innate passion for positive and productive working relationships, and bring a deep understanding of team dynamics, culture and communications. Not only am I at my best when working as part of a cohesive team, I also successfully led my own team for many years, keeping them engaged and motivated through a series of major organisational changes. I firmly believe that people should enjoy their work and that positive working relationships are a cornerstone of job satisfaction and employee engagement. I also believe that, while machines and AI can do many things, people skills are still the domain of human beings and it is becoming more important to train people in them. 

My work

The aspect of my work I enjoy most is my training work, which focuses on helping organisations to develop their employees’ people skills and the human leadership skills of their leaders. I used to host conferences during my corporate career and I am very comfortable on my feet in front of an audience or sitting in front of my laptop delivering online workshops. 

As a team relationship coach, I work at the team entity level, focusing on the unique relationships that exist between individuals within a team. This includes tapping into the inherent wisdom and creativity of teams to create positive changes in culture and performance. 

A natural ability to build bridges between people and to see both sides of an argument led me to train as a civil and commercial mediator. Subsequently, I completed specialist training in workplace mediation, where the objective is to repair and rebuild relationships between colleagues in dispute, enabling them to work together successfully again. As part of my portfolio, I work part-time as Operations Manager for West Kent Mediation where I am also a volunteer mediator. 

Of course, my long experience in communications and government affairs will never leave me and I frequently bring elements from my former career into my current portfolio career. I also act as a communications consultant for some of my clients and keep up to date with current digital marketing trends. 

My motivation

As well as my passion for positive and productive working relationships, I am motivated by my belief that organisations should build teams of diverse thinkers. Striving for cognitive diversity is an important way to avoid groupthink and drive innovation. Much of my work is aimed at helping people with different backgrounds and perspectives to work together effectively. In my view, the more different perspectives that can be brought to bear on an issue, the greater the creative possibilities.