I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I went to ballet school at the age of 11 and pirouetted my way through two years of tights and tutus. But according to my teachers, my shoulders were too big to do it professionally – so that was the end of that. Although I was pretty devastated at the time, it didn’t take long before I realised what I REALLY wanted to do.
I loved working with people, solving problems, making a difference and bringing teams together to achieve success – whether it was in the classroom or on the stage. And even though people tried to persuade me against it, I decided that a career in Human Resources was the right choice for me. I went to university and qualified as a CIPD practitioner, and worked with fantastic local businesses, including 18 years as an HR Director at GlaxoSmithKline in Ware.
That is where I met my husband – who proposed 11 days after meeting him! We married 18 months later and have two wonderful grown up children. I spent six years as an HR director for a business growth consultancy before setting up my own consultancy in 2016, retaining my client base and working with SMEs across Hertfordshire and London. I’m passionate about making a difference to the individuals and businesses I work with, whether it’s helping to put new processes in place or changing a company’s culture.
On the face of it, HR is a long way from ballet dancing but being calm, strong, resilient, compassionate and aware of the many dimensions of human behaviour and emotion, are just some of the shared skills which I’ve applied throughout my career. And those ‘broad shoulders’ have come in useful too, particularly when dealing with sticky and challenging issues! The greatest satisfaction of all is seeing my clients breathe a huge sigh of relief when they release their HR is in safe hands. And watching a business flourish as a result of a renewed focus on their people – that’s what really gets my heart racing.
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