Tell us about your contribution that has been recognised through the associate professorship.

I was recognised for my outstanding contributions to Academic Citizenship and Leadership (ACL) and Teaching and Learning (T&L), and my significant contribution to External and Professional Engagement (E&PE).

For example, I am recognised as a specialist in the application of coaching and mentoring principles to education, organisational change and leadership. I co-designed the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) professional body’s Global Team Coaching Standards which are used by over 25 international training providers and 1,500 practitioners worldwide.

I specialise in the leadership of large-scale education-based change programmes. For example, I have a national role as the UK Training Lead for the Chartered Association of Business Schools Help to Grow Management course. I’m responsible for capability-building academic and support staff in 50 UK business schools, as well as 2,000 business mentors, to deliver an excellent leadership experience for the 30,000 small business leaders who are participants on the course.

I develop innovative leadership development programmes, in particular for Masters and CPD / executive education learners, that benefit our region and wider business school sector. My work was cited as evidence in Sheffield Hallam gaining Times Higher Education Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year award 2022.

What does it mean personally to you to be an Associate Professor at Sheffield Hallam? What do you value about it?

I am exceptionally proud of becoming an Associate Professor and I’m grateful to Hallam colleagues for their belief in me and their fantastic mentoring. I feel more confident in my role and, since receiving the good news, I’ve had lots of ideas for what we can achieve together in the area of change leadership.

Tell us a bit about your career story so far.

I’ve had quite a varied career: a systems analyst and marketing specialist with BT; lecturer in an Ethiopian university; a change and organisation consultant with Openreach; I led client services for a niche coach training firm and joined Sheffield Hallam as an academic in 2014. I started as a Senior Lecturer leading our MSc in Coaching & Mentoring and then gained promotion to Principal Lecturer responsible for developing our Leadership Development portfolio. I have recently taken up the post of CPD lead for the College of Business, Technology and Engineering.

Looking back, I can see how the themes of Change Leadership have run through my career and I’ve been lucky enough to have amazing professional development to build my professional practice and thinking. This includes postgraduate qualifications in Executive Coaching, Coaching Psychology, Coaching Supervision, Advanced Organisation Consultancy and Research.

I hold individual accreditation as both a Global Master Practitioner Coach and a Coach Supervisor, both with the EMCC. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Mental Health First Aid Champion.

If you could go back in time and give yourself some career advice, what would it be?

If a role doesn’t feel right, take what you can from the experience and move on. In time you’ll realise the experience was more valuable than you thought as the distance offers new perspectives.

Also, as an American former colleague once told me “You miss every damned ball you don’t swing for”.

What’s next? Tell us about how you want to further develop your contribution.

I would like to build a network of people across the University who have expertise in change leadership and explore how we can develop and promote our collective work. We can use these models and approaches to add value to projects delivering Hallam’s Transforming Lives strategy and to help us move into new markets. Finally, I plan to further raise my external profile to promote our work and increase the range and depth of our collaboration with industry and professional bodies.