About Michelle
A lifelong curiosity about the human experience has shaped how I understand leadership and organisational life
The anthropology Lens
I studied anthropology at Durham University, where I became fascinated by the diversity and richness of the human experience across cultures and societies.
Anthropology invites you to immerse yourself in a world and become deeply curious about how the people within it make sense of their lives, their communities and the systems they inhabit.
Through studying cultural, behavioural and business anthropology, I began to see both the extraordinary diversity of human experience and the surprising universality that runs beneath it.
That way of looking at the world with curiosity, close observation and a desire to understand has stayed with me ever since and continues to shape how I explore leadership and organisational life today.
The HUMAN RESOURCES LENS
My curiosity about human behaviour, both why people behave the way they do and how that behaviour shapes systems, found a natural home in the field of human resources.
Working in senior HR roles within multinational organisations including Ford Motor Company and Deloitte gave me a front-row seat to the realities of organisational life across the UK, Europe and Australia. From large-scale recruitment and leadership development to organisational restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and trade union negotiations, I was able to observe the many forces shaping organisations.
HR offers a unique vantage point, sitting at the intersection of the everyday experiences of employees, the decisions and behaviours of leaders and the organisational systems they are all part of. From this vantage point I was able to observe how individual behaviour, team dynamics and organisational systems interact, and how those dynamics shape the everyday experience of work for thousands of people.
This experience deepened my interest in the patterns that emerge within organisations, and in how the inner world of individuals and leaders often influence the wider systems they are part of.
THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT LENS
Working closely with leaders and leadership teams across the Asia-Pacific region deepened my curiosity about the patterns shaping how leaders think, relate and lead, and how those patterns ripple through the organisations around them.
As a Director within a global leadership consultancy, I worked with senior leaders and executive teams across industries and cultures, supporting organisations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sony and Microsoft as they worked to strengthen leadership capability and navigate increasingly complex environments.
Working across cultures and organisational contexts offered a unique perspective on both the diversity and universality of the challenges leaders face. It also reinforced something I had been noticing throughout my career: leadership is shaped as much by the inner world of the leader as by the external circumstances they face.
Over time I became increasingly interested in how the internal climate leaders bring to situations - their thinking, assumptions and state of mind - subtly shapes how they experience the world, how they relate to others, and the dynamics that unfold within teams and organisations.
The human system lens
Working closely with leaders and organisations led me to a deeper exploration of the human system itself, the source from which behaviour, relationships and organisational dynamics emerge.
Through establishing and leading my own businesses in Australia and the UK, I had the opportunity to work closely with leaders, teams and organisations across a wide range of sectors. Alongside this work I studied the psychology and neuroscience of human performance and wellbeing, including advanced study in the science of flow, the optimal state of human functioning. Together, these experiences reinforced my thinking that how we think and experience the world fundamentally shapes how we lead and relate to others.
The human system is the building block of the dynamics we see within teams and organisations. The state of that system, the internal climate we lead from, shapes how we see the world, how we experience challenges, how we relate to others and ultimately how we behave. From there patterns begin to emerge within teams, leadership groups and the wider systems organisations operate in.
Understanding the design of the human system, and learning to work with it rather than against it, changes how we lead, how we relate and what becomes possible within organisations.
BRINGING THESE LENSES TOGETHER
Today my work brings these different lenses together as I work with leaders, teams and organisations to explore the patterns shaping how they think, relate and lead.
Often this begins with stepping back to observe the visible and invisible dynamics shaping a team or organisation. Through leadership coaching, team development and leadership programmes, I have had the opportunity to work closely with hundreds of leaders across a wide range of sectors.
Much of my work involves spending time alongside leaders as they navigate real situations, helping them develop the ability to see more clearly what is unfolding within themselves, within their teams and across the systems they are part of.
When that clarity grows, something shifts. Conversations open up, relationships evolve and leaders begin to respond to complexity with greater understanding and confidence.
Across all of this work, the focus remains the same: helping leaders better understand the human dynamics that sit at the heart of leadership, teams and organisations.
a different perspective
I now live with my family in North Devon on the south-west coast of England, where the landscape offers a constant reminder of the value of stepping back and seeing things from a wider perspective.
The coastline and the open countryside create space to pause, reflect and reconnect with what really matters. Overtime this connection to nature has become a part of my work.
I invite leaders and small groups to step away from the pace of organisational life and spend time here in North Devon, creating space for deeper reflection and fresh thinking.
Often it is in these moments, away from the noise and urgency of everyday work, that people begin to see themselves, their leadership and their organisations more clearly.
Qualifications And Training
BA Hons in Anthropology, Durham University including Behavioural Psychology and Business and Medical Anthropology
Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, De Montford University
Advanced Coaching Diploma, Coach Inc. (ICF credentialed)
Certified Leadership Assessor, Centre for High Performance Development
Flow Research Collective Trainer Accreditation
Qualified Holistic Health Coach, Institute of Integrative Nutrition
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness UK
3 Principle Practitioner Training, Pransky and Associates
Innate Health Education and Resilience Training (IHEART) Certified Practitioner