Lucia is an organisational psychologist and a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. Lucia and Natalia met in 1994 at school in the UK. Thirty years later Lucia is an organisational psychologist and leadership coach who has led leadership training programmes around the globe for governments, finance institutions, universities and the United Nations. She has taught on an MBA and has run her own coaching organisation from Malawi and now, Italy.
Natalia qualified as a social worker in London before moving to Germany to work as a counsellor with students of all nationalities in an International School in Berlin. She has recently moved back to the UK and is working as a school counsellor at a London secondary school.
We’ve both worked in different continents, in different settings, in different jobs since we left university. And we noticed a commonality.
Many leaders excel technically, they might be excellent coders or really good at medicine and they could be promoted to leader because of just that. But they often do not fulfill their potential or that of their team because they do not know how to lead.
They lack vital leadership skills such as effective communication, how to manage conflicts, and how to be a part of, and lead, a team.
Throughout education systems, leadership skills are rarely taught. Natalia has noticed the direct impact the lack of these skills has on otherwise very competent teenagers and the strain this puts on their emotional well being and ability to plan ahead for their future.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The feedback Lucia consistently receives from her Leadership Training is “we wish we had learnt these skills years ago”.
This is why we have adapted it for schools, specifically for 6th formers, to ensure that these students can match their emotional intelligence to their cognitive abilities and stand out from the crowd as excellent leaders of tomorrow.
