Client Conversations: From Redundancy to Reinvention (with Lisa Colledge)
Lisa Colledge sat down with me to discuss what it was like starting her business after facing redundancy at the corporate job she had for 20 years. Her story is one that hits very close to home. During COVID, I was also laid off and took it as an opportunity to change careers from advertising to coaching.
Lisa moved to The Netherlands years ago but is still a “proud Yorkshire lass” at heart. She worked at a large corporate company for the last 20+ years where she helped start a new business venture, became a thought leader, worked on new strategic plans, and traveled all over the world. Even though this was a fantastic opportunity, she felt something within her change. She was the Chief of Staff and her role was to transform the culture in a very difficult and toxic environment.
Many entrepreneurs come out of toxic environments that we wanted to shape, and we had ambition to shape, and most of us who are very heartled and very empathetic people had success in making those changes. But we have this bigger mission and need to take what we want to do fully outside of that toxic environment because it won’t allow us to foster what we were trying to change.
Even though she was leading the change at her current company, more was changing in her personal life. She became a mother and noticed that her youngest child wasn’t developing in a typical way. “I went on a crazy journey to find out what was going on. Then I found this incredible doctor who said he was autistic with learning disabilities.” For Lisa, putting a label on this allowed her to move forward and start to work on helping and supporting him. It was a challenging time but she found that “the universe sometimes gives you amazing opportunities when you’re at your lowest.” A colleague introduced her to the Disability and Inclusion ERG at her company and she went on to not only participate, but led the group and expanded the focus to neurodivergent inclusion. She was amazed at the response and number of people who were just happy to be acknowledged. People found a place of belonging, a home.
I found this an amazing opportunity to learn and test strategies in my position as Chief of Staff. What I found was that by making neuro-inclusive changes, not only neurodivergent people benefit, but everyone benefits. Things become better everyone.
Then came a transformational moment in Lisa’s journey. She was made redundant at her company. But instead of sending out resume after resume, she took this as a gift to foster the idea that had been growing within her. “I told my husband over a glass of wine in Tuscany about my business idea and he didn’t laugh at me so I knew I had to do this.” Sometimes we don’t believe in ourselves enough to believe our own ideas, we dismiss them. But what I love about Lisa’s journey is this was just the beginning. She took this redundancy as an opportunity to create something that will be hugely beneficial to others.
“When I was preparing to talk to you, I decided to be brave and describe myself without feeling like an imposter. I am an entrepreneur. I am a badass CEO, a thought leader, an educator, a change maker. I want to use my background in change management and psychology and all the tools I have at my disposal. If I can help someone, I’ll be happy.”
Her business was inspired by neurodivergent inclusion and how that can help reengage the workforce. “I want to work with organizations who have a disengaged workforce and there’s a disconnect between the goals of the company and where the team is. They’re probably suffering from difficulties in retaining and finding talent. Their productivity likely isn’t where they want it to be. Innovation is below where they want it to be and customers aren’t as happy as they were in the past. My mission is to turn that situation around and make sure everyone loves working at that organization and wants to stay there, and people who don’t work there want to work there.”
“I will start with a diagnosis of the current situation using any evidence available. I will talk to people, read survey’s, and gather feedback. It’s important to really get a sense of what’s going on holistically. From there, I will identify common hotspots and look for areas that are going really well and create a strategy that builds on the company’s success hotspots. If they wish to continue with me through the implementation process, I will lead it and involve everyone making sure leadership is modeling the behavior. We will create sustainable change.”
Upon hearing her speak so eloquently and so clearly with so much conviction and knowledge, I think many people will be surprised to hear she only began the journey of launching this business 3 months ago.
We don’t all start out with that level of confidence, but we can get there. When we began her first 3 month coaching program, she really just wanted to build up confidence around her idea. However, I find that if people are focused and ready, you can do a lot in 3 months, so we made the goal that at the end of this quarter, she will be networking with her first potential clients “and now I am” she said with a smile. As we head into our next 3 month program, I asked her about her biggest wins so far on this journey.
“I actually enjoy working again. I remember what it’s like to build something that you care about and what you’re passionate about. I feel like I’m back again.”
I love the feeling of reinvigoration of enjoying work again. Starting a new business or launching a new idea is something that scares people because they’re tired or burned out.
What they don’t realize is that there’s a lot of energy to be gained from the new project. That’s the beauty.
We have to remember that things happen when they’re supposed to happen. There’s no should. You can’t look back and say you should have done this sooner. The truth is you needed the time to take the journey that brought you to where you are today. You wouldn’t have been ready before now.
Slowing down is not bad. When you get an idea, you don’t need to race toward the finish line, you need to recognise that you’re entering a new journey. You’re entering a new phase. It doesn’t happen overnight. There’s emotions that need to be felt and steps that need to be taken. However much time it needs to take is exactly how it needs to unfold.
Thank you Lisa, for being an inspiration and following your journey that will make a difference in so many lives.
Lisa Colledge is the founder of Lisa Colledge Consulting. Lisa works with organizations with a disengaged workforce, where employees lack motivation, accountability and feel disconnected from the company’s mission. Lisa helps leaders to create a culture that re-engages their employees, using an approach inspired by neurodiversity inclusion, leading to happier, more productive employees, better teamwork and collaboration, and higher rates of retention.
Jaime Bancroft Gennaro is a business coach, a leadership coach and a consultant. She helps people realign with their talents and skills to have successful, fulfilling careers and businesses.
Registration is open for Spring Private Coaching. If you are ready to launch a new business, or grow your existing business, set up a call with Jaime to see what’s possible in 3 to 6 months.
