Next up in our ‘Connection Series’ is our Client Development Director Shona:

• Let’s start with an introduction, what’s your role at Connect Three and what do you do?

I’ve been an associate for nearly 2 years and last year this evolved into being our Client Development Director. In plain Scottish this means that I have responsibility to create and develop our key client relationships, explore and develop our commercial partnerships and work in partnership with our Head of Development to create relevant products and solutions for our evolving clients’ needs. I still love getting stuck into coaching, delivery and facilitation with clients especially when there is the opportunity to use psychometrics, the most recent one being the Insights Discovery Profile which I became accredited in while we were in lockdown.

• Wow, that’s a lot of different responsibilities! Out of everything, what has been your favourite moment in Connect Three so far?

So far, I would choose designing and delivering a session on our Principally Women programme to help delegates create their personal vision board. Why this? It was an opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone, try something different and experiment with a story telling approach. I enjoyed demonstrating our values of be bold, be curious and be you…and the positive delegate feedback proved it paid off!

• Amazing, so what are you reading right now?

Apart from when I’m on holiday I’m not the best at losing myself in books. When it comes to work related reading I tend to dip in and out of them and have a few on the go at any one time……currently there is The Science of Organisational Change, The Squiggly Career and Ikigai. I’m a bit of a magpie for articles and blogs that pop up through my LinkedIn network which spark my curiosity and only recently started to listen to podcasts… with so much out there I find recommendations from others a great starting point.

• Well those are some great recommendations from you right there! So, who would be your dream person to coach?

My dream person to coach is anyone who has clarity about what they want to achieve from our coaching conversations, has the courage to show some vulnerability and is prepared to indulge my curiosity to create those lightbulb moments which cause them to take action. If I could choose my dream executive coach it would be Dawn Flockhart who introduced me to NLP and made sure every conversation helped me to discover a little bit more of the inner me. Sadly, Dawn is no longer with us and I often find myself reflecting on what she would ask me to change, do or learn.

• And one last question for you Shona, if you could only give one piece of advice to the leaders and future leaders reading this, what would it be?

Follow your dreams, work hard and trust in yourself. Once I realised that true success comes from doing something that matters, playing to your strengths and surrounding yourself by equally amazing people then my leadership journey enabled me to achieve more than I had ever imagined possible…and continues to do so.

Brilliant, thank you! Look out for our next connection in a week or two 🙂