Welcome! I’m Alicia and this is my story, the story that led me here to leadership coaching and designing and delivering career workshops.

I started my career 23 years ago in financial services. Early on I worked for a leader who regularly asked for my input and as I spoke his expression would sour as he said, “What you feel is not important to me. Tell me what you know.” As an emerging leader with an eagerness to learn and develop his words left me disoriented and confused. It was his belief that business decisions were made using hard data – numbers and research – not feelings while my instinct was to weigh decisions through a lens of compassion, empathy and listening. His values leaned toward logic; my values favored emotions.

Believing that I was innately pointed in the wrong direction to be a business leader, I reacted by writing a false narrative and creating a shadow brand of myself as a datadriven story teller. This false narrative ultimately led me nowhere and rendered me and my brand ineffective. I was eventually passed over for a promotion which was awarded to a less qualified candidate, a candidate whose value set mirrored that of the leader’s.

There were two valuable lessons I learned during this time. First, my feeling is my knowing. My authentic self leads with emotion. By leading with “I feel” I was simply using the wrong words and as a writer that was difficult to acknowledge despite its truth. When asked for my input I should have offered “What I know is…” and when asked “How do you know…” respond with, “I lead with compassion, empathy and listening skills.” For a quarter of the population our feeling is our knowing. That is our strength.

Second, leaders do business and work with those that share their value set and not all leaders share the same values. This realization allowed me to envision a scenario in which I worked for a leader who truly saw me and acknowledged my strengths. I created a new narrative and began searching for the right team and the right role, one in which I could lead with my authentic self and thrive.

Today I am content, satisfied and genuinely joyful. Finding the right words and sharing my life stories ultimately led to connection and authenticity in my leadership. I search for and support this same connected authenticity in others everyday.

In my coaching practice I work with both experienced and emerging leaders as they craft and inspire others with their life stories. The telling of stories creates a powerful connection between leaders and their teams. I also coach leaders on the importance of life stories in identifying their value set. Understanding your personal value set is essential to building an authentic personal brand.

Are you ready to share your story? I’m listening.