Creating effective and engaged teams and leaders
Lorraine Kay
"I've harnessed and driven a sled of six huskies across the Arctic tundra in the few hours of winter twilight. An amazing feat given my extreme fear of all things canine up to that day!"
What specific skills do you bring to the Blue Gnu team?
My sweet spot is supporting teams to explore their individual connections and collective dynamic to create great team working. To embrace healthy conflict and challenge and build collaboration that delivers for their business. My leadership and organisational development experience brings a range of tools and an understanding of the challenges our clients face in their daily roles, in the organisational systems in which they operate. As an experienced individual and team coach, I build rapport and trust with my clients, providing a safe space for them to explore and put into action what will really make the difference for them on their development journey. Finally, my innate skills include high energy, passion and enthusiasm for both life in general and all that I deliver for our clients!
Tell us something we wouldn't necessarily know about you ...
I grew up on a large council estate in South East London, playing out on the green with the other kids when we all got back from school – I loved it! At secondary school I started learning Spanish and through a weird twist of fate, was offered the opportunity to take part in a Spanish student exchange. Despite my mum’s fears for the worse, at 11yrs old I flew solo to Northern Spain and spent a month living with a very wealthy and culturally educated family, moving with them and their many domestic staff between their two properties. The whole experience really was like something out of a Disney film! It was an adventure that was so far removed from my life and happened at such a young age, I believe it shaped some of who I am today. It taught me that I could take on and face challenges, be brave. It opened my eyes to a world bigger than my little corner of London and gave me an early appreciation of different cultures and ways of being. And it gave me my love of travel and adventure, which I indulge whenever I can!
What is your passion and mission?
Why do you do what you do?
I believe passionately in the amazing potential of human beings to grow and develop with no limitations other than those we put on ourselves. I feel privileged that my role is to support others to believe in this for themselves and achieve whatever it is that will make the difference in their personal or professional lives. In the interests of full disclosure, as a parent I've not always been so successful in this area but I’m still learning!
What qualifications do you bring to the Blue Gnu team?
Insights Discovery, Motivational Maps, Liberating Leadership, BPS Levels A&B to work with OPQ and 16PF and other psychometric tools, EMCC Senior Coach, Certificate in Management - Canterbury Christ Church University, Chartered Member of the CIPD
What is the most interesting Blue Gnu project you've worked on?
A global logistics company that recognised the value to their teams and the business of shifting their organisational culture away from transactional management toward transformational leadership. Our role was to deliver a number of programmes to support the start of this journey and the scope for these to be impactful and a significant element of the change was really exciting. Also, the enthusiasm and engagement from the participants to embrace this development and become better people managers was inspiring.
Who would your dream client be and why?
My dream client would be a global leader who engaged me to travel around the world working with their teams in the most unusual places on earth. This would indulge my love of real travel and adventure, immersing myself in the cultures of my clients.
What does your Insights Discovery profile say about you?
Lorraine is noted for her innate ability to inspire and encourage others around her and exhibits excellent interpersonal skills. She is energetic, gregarious and sociable, her intuition heightens her insight, vision and curiosity.
Lorraine is interested both in possibilities beyond what is already obvious and in ways that these possibilities might affect others.
Lorraine is optimistic about life in general and human potential in particular.
What are your top 3 motivators?
Searcher
For me, Searcher is about knowing that what I do makes a difference to those I connect with both personally and professionally
Friend
Friend motivator is about the energy I get from my relationships - it is the oxygen that makes the world an amazing place!
Creator
For me, Creator is about me having the space to generate ideas and solutions that it's likely no-one else will have thought of