Experience.
I have 2 decades of experience working as a serial intrapreneur for non-profits and social enterprises. Within these small and medium scale organizations I led the design, roll-out and expansion of numerous initiatives. I’ve also spent a large part of my career advising, mentoring and coaching other organizations. I was instrumental in leading these organizations to fully identify and embrace the reasons for which they exist, aided them to build strong foundations, supported their rapid growth and helped identify their major strengths and roadblocks.
Key strengths that I have developed through my career that are foundational to the way I coach include:
An ability to build deep and meaningful relationships
An aptitude for seeing the simplicity that resides with complex situations
A knack for asking the right questions. Questions that cut to the heart of things, challenges false assumptions and help others see things from different points of view.
As well as running Unfolding Impact, I also sit on the Board of Directors of a Kenyan Social Enterprise that has recorded 2x growth year on year since 2017.
My story.
In 2012, I moved to Nairobi to work for a globally recognized non-profit and oversee all their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene projects in Francaphone Africa. As I sat on the plane with my wife, having packed up our life in London, I though “This is it, this was where I can truly make my impact”. Except I didn’t. While I was ready to captain my team to success, I failed to realize the organization I was joining was akin to a giant container ship and my ability to change the course of that ship was profoundly limited. When I finally accepted that fact after 6 months of trying my hardest, I felt enormously dejected and was desperate to find a way off the ship.
After years of working inside organizations as an intrapreneur, it should have been time to step out on my own and build a new organization from the ground up. It should have been time to put my wide range of skills to full use and create lasting positive change. But instead, in my dejection, I questioned my ability to ever be a change-maker. Although I left shortly after and returned to my previous job, I felt a failure. This led to 3 years of lurching between deep despondency and desperate attempts to create a new career. Three years of feeling like professional fulfillment was just beyond my reach.
A few years later we had our first child and decided to focus on raising her. I fully embraced being a stay-at-home Dad. It gave me a true sense of purpose and showed me what fulfillment meant. It also gave me time and space to reflect back on my past successes and failures. Within that space I realised that my biggest successes were not the projects or initiatives I had led nor even the high functioning teams I had built, but the individuals I had mentored and coached. My path suddenly became clear, it had been right under my nose all along. I needed to coach others and help them unleash their full power. I needed to become an entrepreneur.
Becoming a coach and an entrepreneur has transformed me and my life. With the help of my own coach it has expanded my idea of what is possible, sparked my creativity and energized me beyond belief.
Hopefully you won’t repeat my biggest mistake, taking years to engage a coach and unleash your potential.