Hi there, I'm Cécile

One half of Cecile's face. Light-skinned woman with brown hair and green eyes.

I believe in a bright future

I believe businesses and people within them have a huge role to play in driving the systemic change we need to build that new age.

I help people feel inspired and empowered to shape and take on the most impactful and meaningful projects in their business.

A new age is within our reach.

An age that could be as important as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. An age where our ways of being are aligned with what feels right to all living things. An age that is welcoming of new life both tomorrow and in thousands of years.

I'm optimistic because I’ve seen and worked with some incredibly ambitious people who are putting their skills, energy and hearts into solving some of the big challenges humanity is facing, like climate change or education for all. We need more of those people and we need them to work together to make transformational change happen.

Businesses have a crucial role to play in that story because they are spaces where we come together to work towards a common goal. When a business sets itself a clear goal to drive purposeful change in the world, it states that its resources, network and reputation are now in service of that goal. It also invites the dozens, hundreds or thousands of people working within it to put their skills and relationships, as well as their brains and their hearts, in service of that goal.

We need more of those purposeful businesses.

We also need more creative, ambitious and energetic people to spearhead transformational projects within those businesses. Entrepreneurs who are working on the inside and solving big world challenges at the same time. Intrapreneurs, I should say.

I want to help people develop the skills, the confidence and the agency to lead impactful projects in the businesses they are a part of. In service of a better future. There are so many budding intrapreneurs out there and I want to see them flourish!

Building a bright future

I write about what I think we need to do to build a bright future, why and how businesses can help, what kind of people businesses need to be able to make positive change happen, and how I can help people build the skills and mindset they need to take on the most meaningful projects on behalf of the business they have chosen to work for.

September 7, 2022

I spent twelve years working in big businesses

I join businesses whose mission I feel inspired by. I get drawn to projects which have a transformational impact on people, where I can think big and bold and where I get to work with talented and kind people. The more opportunities I get to learn while doing the work, the more I thrive.

I'm good at shaping meaningful strategies, at spearheading big projects and at leading teams. I get stuff done well and fast. Here are some of the projects I've worked on:

  • I delivered the first-ever strategy of National Grid System Operator, a 1,200-people regulated business, as it publicly positioned itself as a leader of the energy transition in Great Britain.
  • I created and led a high-performing HR strategy and transformation team that built a new learning platform, two brand new learning experiences and a visual representation of career paths for the most critical profiles in the business.
  • I led a virtual team of 15 that facilitated the recruitment of 200 people in six months, working alongside dozens of leaders to process thousands of applications at pace and to ensure that newcomers were onboarded well.

I’m a learner, a writer and a maker of things

In February 2022 I decided to step away from the corporate world to reflect on what I wanted to focus my energy on next. Since then, I've been learningl sorts of small projects that spiked my curiosity.

I’m a lifelong learner and a true believer in the value of self-directed learning, learning by doing and learning alongside peers. Learning doesn't stop when you leave school or university, there are transformational learning options for adults too, out there.

While on sabbatical, I learned to write about my own ideas and found the confidence to publish them. I enhanced my design skills and added a couple of tools to my portfolio, Figma and Webflow. I also dove into a few leadership and people management programmes which very much broadened my view of what 'decentralised leadership' and 'leading from the heart' might look like.

Check out some of the material and teachers I studied with over there. It's useful for both individuals and businesses!

I write about building thriving businesses in which people do meaningful work together, about what I think it takes to become a well-rounded intrapreneur, and also about my recent shift towards directing my work as a free agent.

You can find my writing over there. And here are some of my favourite short essays:

Following the inscrutable exhortations of my soul

In this piece, I share some of the big shifts that have happened in me since I left my corporate job to go on sabbatical eight months ago. Among others things, I write about my journey into embodiment and my slow but definitive move from a scarcity to an abundance mindset.

October 11, 2022

It's not about you

In this piece, I share one of the game-changing moments in my career where I finally 'got' one of the most fundamental unsaid rules in business. A moment that subtly yet undeniably transformed my ways of working and helped shape me as a leader.

October 30, 2022

Inviting Mother Nature into the boardroom

I've been thinking about how to bring more humanity and meaning into big businesses. In this piece, I explore how embodiment practices in the workplace would help us reconnect with our inner wants and needs, and help us shape the purposeful businesses we want to see in the world.

December 1, 2022

I also make things. I like to turn great ideas and thinking into reality. That was already true when I worked for big businesses, it’s also true now that I am fully self-directed in my work.

Most of the things I made while I was on sabbatical have been experiments of things I'd never done before.

Welcome to my virtual home. Sign up for my newsletter if you want to get (slightly irregular) updates on what I'm up to.