About us
AN INCLUSIVE INTERSECTIONAL GLOBAL COACHING SPACE SUPPORTING WOMEN IN THEIR LIVES AND CAREERS.
Founder of Activate Futures.
I have spent the last 20 years building a solid and successful career in the Public Sector, occupying a number of Senior Executive Directorship roles and leading large teams through complex strategic transformation.
Change and development have always been the threads that form the fabric of my life. So my vocation in 'transformation' plays to my strengths and has given me deep insight into the value of coaching, both as a mentor and mentee, because of how evolvement within workplace environments can be perceived (hint: it's not always positive).
That's why Activate Futures is founded on the principle of helping women see their unlocked potential. Possibilities over problems.
Change evokes introspection and reflection, which is difficult. But incredibly rewarding.
My first insight into behavioural change was when I did my first of two masters degrees in Applied Anthropology, Community and Youth Work, which gave me an ethnographic lens into communities and understanding in the human psychology of change, the complexities around it, and what constrains us. It was fascinating. But it was whilst undertaking my second Masters degree in Strategic Leadership and Management 10 years ago that was one of the most transformative journeys I've ever had.
Not only did it give me a more formal foundation to organisational structures and how they work, but it was an invaluable investment that helped me to develop the Activate Futures executive coaching model.
I was also fortunate enough to come by some significant coaches throughout my career and education who played a significant role in my life. They had a transformative impact on me which allowed me to reconnect with myself and facilitate my focus on personal development and career acceleration.
Then three years ago I completed my ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diploma in Leadership & Management and Executive Coaching which was part of some formal training in my job and this was when Activate Futures finally came together in my mind.
Not only had all my interests collided, but it felt like a natural step to accelerate it into something bigger to help others. Finally, during 2020, a deep time of reflection for most of us, I put all those ideas into motion.
I have formally coached women of all ages, skill levels and stages in their careers. Now Activate Futures is here for a wider global audience beyond my immediate circle for women to elevate their lives. To build, advance, and evolve in their lives to be the best versions of themselves. To reach for the life they envision for themselves.
The art of achievement
The benefit of working with me is that I have gone through what a lot of women either have or will go through on the path to success. Understanding the steps to achievement is a skill, and my roadmap for my clients is a blend of their needs and my experience.
Individuality is powerful and I always factor that into my coaching approach, taking time to understand the requirements of each client before building a plan. But the one thing each of my plans have in common is achievability.
The strategic steps to success
1. Build your network.
Build your coalition through the people in the sector you desire to be in.
2. Be flexible.
You will sometimes need to take on things just for the challenge and experience.
3. Diversify.
Learn new skills, take on lots of different projects, don't be intimidated by working outside of your comfort zone.
We are the women in the arena
This excerpt (right) from Theodore Roosevelt's widely quoted Citizen in a Republic speech at the Sorbonne was a rallying cry to end cynicism against those who were trying to change the world. As far as my coaching goes, I like to see it as 'the women in the arena'.
The arena is a metaphor for your life and career. Spectators are the people on the periphery of our lives making critical judgements. But ultimately it's about recognising yourself as the person at the centre of the arena daring courageously to achieve great things.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."