“I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” —Brené Brown

As a little kid, I was always curious and loved learning. My days were filled with reading encyclopedias (we had the free set you got from the grocery store!), conducting some type of science experiment, watching the planets and stars through my dad’s telescope, or being an entrepreneur (lemonade stands, delivering papers, car washing – you name it!).

Fast forward to University, where I found my home in Engineering. Industrial Engineering, to be exact. A discipline that brings people, processes and technology together. That formed the basis for my future – integrating people and processes, managing the art and science of change. And while I never really practiced pure engineering, it started the “leading teams through change” thread. Mastering the balance of people and process, art and science, heart and head, strategy and execution. A few reflections that shaped how I think about leading change:

1. Developing people is at the core of successful change. I was very fortunate to spend the early days of my career working for Procter and Gamble (P&G). At P&G, you learn to run things well, to develop yourself as a leader, and in turn, to develop a team of leaders. P&G gave me an incredible foundation that I still draw upon to this day. As a “promote from within” company, the future was predicated on how adept we were in developing future leaders. It was top of mind in all that we did, and it fostered a culture that was innovative, entrepreneurial, and high-performance. That stuck with me throughout my career.
2. Managing change is a process. Continuous improvement (aka change) has always been a passion of mine. Simply put, change is just moving from one state to another. It does, however, follow a process. I have been through post-merger integrations, large-scale transformations, and small process improvements, and with each of those, the old saying of “trust the process” truly does hold up. Continuous improvement has taken on many different shapes, sizes, and labels as I practiced it throughout the years. What started as Industrial Engineering became Total Quality Management, Integrated Work Systems, Business Re-Engineering, Business Transformation, and Lean Six Sigma, to name a few. Labels aren’t really helpful, but what they all share is a supporting framework, often a set of principles, to guide your change journey. The framework helps foresee, prepare, and handle change-related issues because at the heart of EVERY change is an individual going through the change.
3. Leadership is building your resilience to change.

   “The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do.” —Amelia Earhart.

   I spent the last decade of my career building and running two businesses in the travel and education space. That challenged every aspect of my leadership and helped me grow significantly as a leader and coach. Each year, the company was new. It had significantly grown, and it was like starting over. That required me to deal with my own paper tigers, before I could deal with my teams’. Change is neurological. And the subconscious mind is powerful. Training the subconscious mind is where real, lasting change occurs. And that has been my focus recently.

And now, as an ICF certified coach and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner, I want to continue to help leaders navigate change ~ organizational, professional and personal change. My deep understanding of and experience with the human and process elements of change underpins my ability to work with teams and individuals to help unlock their full potential to be and do their best. That’s all about accelerating impact!