2012 was a tremendous and unexpected inflection point in my life and career. I was in final contention for several senior executive roles, each taking months of interviews, meetings with entire executive committees, all while working on engagements for clients internationally.
Ultimately, those roles didn’t suit me and didn’t materialize. I was again at a crossroads. I could continue on the professional path I worked so hard to establish or, I could dive into what I felt pulled to do and which was soon to have me call upon my professional and social network developed from diverse projects around the world.
I wondered again, as I had much earlier in my career, why leaders behave the way they often did? Why organizations seemed to treat people in counterintuitive and counterproductive ways so often? And why leaders often didn’t take the opportunity to approach work from courageous perspectives in which people, leaders, clients,
and the world do business inclusively and generatively?
At this time, nothing in the market moved me any closer to creating meaningful change. I needed to take dramatic action to build opportunities and traction in new directions. It forced me to have the courage to take action and do something on my own that meaningfully aligned with my purpose and which I also found very exciting.
On the advice of a longtime friend, I took a leap of faith and met him in Istanbul. I connected with many of his colleagues, continued to learn, and reached out to friends in Europe and the Middle East. Those were all great hallmarks of transformation at that point in my career and gave me a chance to discover opportunities to connect with my true purpose.
That was where I found the courage to dive into anything and everything I needed to do to keep driving forward wholeheartedly. To put one foot in front of the other and listen actively, learn purposefully, and leverage my experiences to add value. I went IN the arena as President Teddy Roosevelt famously described years ago, let go of my hesitancy, and committed myself to my purpose.
This commitment helped me manifest my vocation on a truly global scale; going from New York to Istanbul, Paris to Dubai, and more than fifty countries. I learned new inimitable lessons in tenacity and courage I used along with many others to separate myself from the pack; embracing my authentic ways of working and often being a singularly real and honest voice for leaders at the most senior levels of global organizations.
Instead of joining many senior executives who avoid challenging their C-suite, I got right down to addressing the often uncomfortable realities and true consequences of leadership behavior. I closely examined how teams and organizations were structured, how their decisions were made and received, and how these decisions impacted engagement, innovation, and bottom-line results. I helped them face truths so they could make the right decisions from an informed position.
In so doing, I found I loved this latest results-driven elevation of my work in a senior advisory role. I didn’t just excel at bringing in a fully-rounded perspective. I applied a sophisticated understanding of behavioral psychology to assess cultures, behaviors, and many important leadership vectors which make or break leaders and organizations.
What I discovered was my absolute passion for helping leaders see how they can positively impact their teams, businesses, clients, and themselves. Out of all the roles in which I’ve worked to this day at numerous levels, my work as a Culture and Leadership Behavior Specialist brings me the greatest joy.