Sensitive Leadership

I’m pretty bright so realised early on in life that the things I really loved and was really good at (play, imagination, story-telling, knowing what other people were feeling) were not highly valued qualities at school. So I set out to prove I could succeed in the ‘real’ world and it turns out I was pretty good at that too. I just couldn’t give up on the magical little being inside my heart.  Cue life as two separate people.  Me at school, then college, then university (right up to my second Masters degree because you can never prove yourself too much right?) then working in academia.  Me at home: illustrating and writing in esoteric books, training as a tarot reader, a reiki master, a shamanic practitioner.  All the while, ignoring that running these two lives simultaneously was really, really damaging my health. By 30 I had made it to director level at a top university, I looked like I was flying. Underneath the facade I was recovering from full body arthritis, stomach ulcers and a whole host of other chronic illnesses. I was in pain and I was lost.

I burnt out and dropped out. I put on the breaks and committed fully to a healing path. I got better. I founded a business where I got to work with free-spirited, magical people who really, really understood the hidden parts of my being.  Which should have meant I lived happily ever after… Only, my ambitious, make-a-difference, be in the thick of it self wasn’t satisfied with a quiet life. I wanted to do more, be more, give more. So I got back on the wagon without realising that, although I knew how to heal, I didn’t know how to stay healthy in my chosen career. Just past 40 I was burnt out again, two young children, leading a department of over 100, totally broken.

That was when I put the breaks on my career for a second time. I embarked on a journey of discovery putting all my intellectual and intuitive gifts into the ring. I worked with exceptional leaders and professionals to find a new way. I met and trained with specialists in leadership, energy management, communications and influencing. That’s when I realised, finally, that I wasn’t the problem. I, with all my sensitive gifts, was a key part of the solution. I have re-claimed my health, re-shaped my everyday existence and re-created my career. Best of all, I get to be unapologetically, deliciously me, every single day.

I now work as a coach and trainer helping sensitive and ambitious leaders live their fullest lives. If my story resonates with you, or you know someone who is soaring on the outside and scorched on the inside, my free and private membership group supporting sensitive leadership is open for new members.