I was born in the North East of England and then at a very early age lived in the Middle East, experiencing countries such as Iran, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudia Arabia. I felt very privileged that at such a young age I had such a wonderful experience in a different culture. Whilst my Father stayed out in the Middle East I returned to the UK with my Mother and Sister and I went to Boarding School where I learnt to play the wonderful game of rugby. Playing at both County and North levels and eventually playing for England colleges, rugby really was my life and as it was just entering into the professional era, my life had a purpose. One Saturday afternoon all that changed when I had a serious knee injury and my purpose had gone. For many years I sold Insurance, Car Rentals and Cars and quickly realised, with my cultural and sporting background I was an excellent communicator, great around people and loved supporting others to succeed. I needed a sector where I could thrive in and a role that I could enjoy and a company where I felt invested in. In 1997 I joined the recruitment sector with Manpower Group.
I started as a Recruitment Consultant and 10 years later I joined the main UK Board and in 2023 became responsible for 2 recruitment brands delivering in excess of £700M in revenue. I do wonder how I got there, however when understanding my journey, I realised that there were 4 reasons why I got to where I did.
I worked hard, put in the extra hours when needed and took sideways and even one backward step to gain more experience in different areas of the business. I read a lot, worked hard on my own development and was a strong reflector on my decisions, my successes and my learnings.
I appreciated that I couldn’t be successful on my own, I needed talent around me and that I needed to nurture and grow this talent. I wanted to grow my people while hoping to prepare them and make them Board ready for the future.
I understood the importance of family and finding a work / life balance that made me happy. I can remember in 2007 to 2009 as a new Board member, keen to impress and at times, the business ran me, rather than me run the business, this was a huge lesson learnt about taking time out for myself.
Investment – Although I was a self-learner, I appreciated that nothing can be of more value than a different prospective. This is where I was very lucky to have a leader and company that were keen to invest to gain an accelerated performance from myself as an individual and from my team. I was lucky enough to have a Mentor for 2 years as initially I struggled to find my place as a UK Board member. I was also appointed a Coach who really focused on my emotional intelligence and at times when there was a business problem or strategic issue, I invested in a consultant to help the team and with expert advice in how to improve my business and make more profit.
As I wanted to do something different, I used those 4 reasons to decide what I wanted to do next and what I could offer any individual and any business, Coach to Inspire was born.