Get to know Shalini Sequeira, Coach

What inspired you to focus your career on leadership development and coaching?
In my very early career, one of my bosses was a great natural coach, and working with him left a lasting impression. I could see the results he got and the following he built up, but I didn’t have the vocabulary for the skill he was using. No-one talked about coaching in those days! (Much later, I understood that he was using coaching as a leadership style).

Fast forward a good few years, and in another career (as a leader) I was offered some coaching myself. It was a game changer for me as I started joining lots of dots. I experienced the power of having a thinking partner who tailored their approach to me and my goals, and who both supported and challenged me. It reminded me in some ways of that early boss and his approach.

I started coaching at that point, later on undertaking coach training and establishing my own coaching and leadership development practice. In my work I am really interested in how we can accelerate the leadership journeys of groups who are underrepresented at leadership level, and how we can establish truly inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive.

How do you approach coaching women navigating major career transitions, such as returning from parental leave or stepping into senior roles?
What often provides clarity is for each person I coach to tune into what’s really important to them – their values, their purpose, the balance they want, and what gives them energy. When you know these things, you can use them to make decisions aligned with who you are and what’s important to you, and you have a point of steadiness despite the storm going on around you. I encourage women to tune into these things and to feel confident in using them to make decisions.

Something more simple – but equally important – is looking after yourself. Managing energy and health so that you can perform well at work, and not being tempted to deprioritise this when pressure mounts. I notice that the best leaders role model looking after their energy so that others have permission to do the same and it creates a virtuous circle. During times of major transition, I believe this is key to thriving rather than surviving.

You’re passionate about equity and inclusive leadership. What’s one shift you’d love to see in how organisations develop and support diverse talent?
The shift I’d like to see is for organisations to understand, and tackle, the systemic aspects of the challenge much more.

For example, I highly rate group coaching and I’ve seen that group coaching can support people from diverse groups to understand that they face common challenges and that there are ways to navigate the barriers. But ultimately if they go back into the same “system” and nothing else has changed (except for their own sense of confidence), they feel frustrated and demotivated.

The best organisations offer equitable support to diverse talent and simultaneously tackle things like clarity around promotion processes and practices, helping diverse talent to identify powerful sponsors, working with managers, thinking about the equity of who gets access to coaching, and other systemic issues which are entirely separate from the diverse individuals. That’s when I see organisations fast tracking great results.

What’s one piece of advice you find yourself giving to almost every client?

I often ask people how much time they have to reflect – and the answer is almost always: none. Leaders are hugely busy with the day to day. They are often fire-fighting, driven by the urgent things happening now that need resolution.

But when they step back, they see that they don’t want to be always in fire-fighting mode. They want to be strategic, they want to be driving things and not always being reactive. This consciousness of where they are and where they want to be is the first step to changing.

So, my invitation to almost every client is to do things differently,  and find some regular time for stepping back, thinking and strategizing – even if it’s only a tiny amount a week. Time after time, when people start doing this, I see it making a huge difference for their work and for their personal lives.

What excites you most about being part of Shape Talent and the work we do to advance gender equity?
Improving gender equity is part of my own personal purpose, so working with Shape Talent is totally aligned with the impact I want to have on the world. I love the results we get at Shape Talent and I love the calibre of the team – everyone is purpose driven, impact focussed and excellent at what they do – and we are a group of great collaborators. It’s an inspiring and exciting place to be.