MY MISSION
Helping professional women to pursue their career with greater clarity, confidence and courage
Why women?
Perhaps because I am one of them and I truly believe women can make a real difference for the better in corporate organizations. For a long time I rejected the idea of women being different from men.
Myself I studied tax law, so it is a lot about figures and identifying tax optimization opportunities. This was a great intellectual challenge, that I enjoyed…. just for a while.
But, becoming a mother, working in several corporate organizations, networking, being a mentor and having coached women made me realize intuitively that we are different from men.
But I am also a lawyer, so as a research analyst at heart, I’ve spent time researching the data and it convinced me women are different from men, without arguing if it is biologically defined or socially constructed.
Studies show that women are more empathetic, they are more risk aware and they take a more nuanced, long term view when making decisions. They focus more on people.
Regarding a *McKinsey’study, having gender diversity on executive teams, specifically, has been consistently and positively correlated with higher profitability across geographies:
More women in leadership positions means healthier, more performant companies and contribute to enabling people to give their best at work. And it is good for both men and women because more and more men are tired of the ‘survival of the fittest’ way.
* Why gender diversity matters – Mac Kinsey 2017- Marisa Lauri ‘’Diversity as a Competitive Advantage’’ Barrett Rose and Lee Inc « Fostering innovation through a diverse workforce – Forbes 2011 Two minds the cognitive differences between men and women By Bruce Goldman- Delivering through Diversity Mac Kinsey 2018.
I have great news!
The world is changing in a way that serves women!
At a time when Artificial Intelligence is spreading, collaboration, creativity, agility and innovation are becoming critical skills, women have a role to play.
You are needed! It is time for women to be able to take their rightful place right now.
Why is it something I feel strongly about?
Maintaining the momentum in our career requires clarity, sense of purpose, confidence, resilience because there might be some obstacles, setbacks or disappointment along the way, and it is ok…
When I started my career in the banking industry, I really loved my job; designing new marketing offers, working for international clients and signing partnerships with leading companies. I was really engaged and also truly blessed with my company’s executive leader. Her leadership style was based on giving people the freedom to experience new ways of doing business and the trust to achieve results.
I thought it was the norm, but during the following years my experience was quite different. My company attracted new wealthy clients, I was praised for the results and I was proud of the results. But what I really enjoyed was the experience of what I was doing on a daily basis; tapping into my creativity to design offers, being innovative, thinking out of the box to stand out of the competition and getting leading companies to sign up partnerships with us. I was just doing what I was meant to be: creative, self-sufficient, innovative, impactful. I was successful, so what happened?
I got promoted and as my business results were awesome. My management thought that a commercial career was my path and actually I just moved on this career path that was all mapped out.
A few years later, less and less engaged, I left the company for several reasons and quite a few of them were all about me; like not being able to clearly identify not only what I was good at but also what I enjoyed doing, not being able to speak up, not being able to focus on solutions rather than dwelling into problems, not being able to set boundaries, not being able to manage my own emotions and reframe my mindset and not being able to have mapped out a clear plan to move forward, so I gave up!
And at this time I had a big sense of failure, played for a while the “blame game”, making people and circumstances responsible for my mistakes. I would certainly have benefitted from some professional guidance. In hindsight, I consider this failure as an opportunity to start a new career and to eventually find my calling.
In 2008, amidst a “mid-career crisis” I launched with the support of a few like-minded women a NGO “Ell’A Brest“. It is a French network designed to boost women’s participation and advancement in corporate organizations through mentoring, networking, professional development and advocacy. Leading this NGO during the 3 first years was a career breakthrough and redefined my perspective of leadership as the ability to engage people and create a positive contagion of inspiration, energy, challenge and support.
I discovered that I was not alone to have experienced challenges in keeping up the momentum. I have no doubt men too… But because of the “motherhood penalty,” the
rules and policies of the corporate game and stereotypes of what is expecting from women, we need the extra support to maintain a career-driven mindset while making sense of our careers.
Sometimes, we are holding ourselves back because we undermine our accomplishments, do not build a vision for our career, expect a reward but do not ask for it or don’t dare to speak up and raise our hand. Leading this NGO was a breakthrough experience for me and the first step of my career transformation into a woman career and leadership coach.
Today, I am a certified coach (International Coach Federation) accredited by the International Coaching Federation. I also completed complementary trainings in Emotional intelligence Assessments and in Solution-Focused Coaching to upgrade my skills and be the best coach that I can be for my clients.
From Paris to Taipei by way of Bordeaux, Brest, Montréal and Kuala Lumpur, I help women to reinvigorate their career, gain clarity on their professional career path, strengthen self-confidence and assertiveness and eventually be the best version of themselves to become a “Corporate Change Agent.”
That passion in helping women to make a difference has allowed me to:
- Launch and develop a a women’s network and have a deep understanding of their shared challenges
- Become an authentic entrepreneur and coach women driven by passion and purpose
- Contribute to the community as a mentor for “Lean In” Malaysia 2016
- Collaborate with writers for leading newspapers on coaching topics
- Deliver lectures on women’s leadership (BIGIT and Women in leadership congress)
- Get a ‘’Women Super Achiever award’’ at Mumbai’s 6th World Women Leadership Congress in February 2019.
