Present yourself in 3 words or phrases
Cross-cultural port, durable in transition, designing what’s next
What makes you get up in the morning?
The noise of the ocean assists. Living near the coast implies I often wake up to waves and a morning chorus of birds, which turns out to be a pretty good everyday suggestion that perspective is complimentary, if you pay attention.
Beyond that, I’m encouraged by constructing things that outlive me. Programs, teams, and now frameworks that assist individuals design more deliberate lives. At this phase of my career, success feels less about accomplishment and more about positioning: doing work that shows who you really are, where your voice and strengths have space to matter, and where the work itself brings you happiness.
Explain a task or effort you’re presently working on that excites you.
There are styles I keep seeing in my work today, and it never ever gets old. An experienced expert, someone with years of proficiency, walks in thinking they’re stuck, however then they leave with a prototype and open themselves to possibilities.
After 30+ years working in global education, I understand that sensation totally. I’ve lived the profession rotates, the minutes of doubt, the question of what’s next!.?.!? That experience is precisely what drew me to operating at the crossway of management and life design, drawing on the concepts from Creating Your Life to help people reframe profession choices as design difficulties rather than crises. The structure is effective because it satisfies individuals where they are. Not with answers, but with much better questions.
What’s a piece of work or a decision you’re proud of, and what did it teach you about yourself?
The work I’m most proud of didn’t come with a ribbon-cutting minute. It came silently, a few years into developing a North American division for a summer season school operation. When I browsed at the group we ‘d assembled, I believed, this is it! This is what right appears like!
Arriving wasn’t seamless. There was obscurity, restructuring, and more than a few incorrect turns in the working with procedure. However when the right individuals were finally in the ideal seats, something moved. The numbers followed: profitability, high client return rates, seasonal staff who came back every year. Individuals who desired to return. That’s the genuine metric.
This taught me that people don’t resist change– they resist unclear modification. My task wasn’t practically technique but to bring clearness. Ensuring everybody comprehended not simply what we were building, but why it mattered which I had their back while we built it.
What’s a little day-to-day practice or practice that keeps you grounded– and why does it matter more than people think?
Making my bed. Every early morning, without exception.
It sounds so basic and that’s exactly the point. Admiral William H. McRaven said it best in his 2014 commencement address at the University of Texas: “If you wish to change the world, start by making your bed. One small job completed gives you a sense of pride, encourages the next, and the next. By the end of the day, that a person routine has actually silently increased.” That concept has actually never ever left me.
My variation adds warm lemon water in the early morning. Bed made, lemon water in hand. Here’s what I’ve come to think: the little things are never ever really little. They’re a practice that is ingrained. If you can’t get the small things ideal regularly, the huge things will always feel more difficult than they require to be. It’s not attractive suggestions. But in my experience, it’s the unglamorous habits that do the heaviest lifting.
What idea, book, podcast or discussion has stayed with you recently?
If you haven’t listened to the recent Mel Robbins podcast episode with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans– How to Design Your Life in One Hour– stop what you’re doing!
It distills the core principles of their 2 books, Creating Your Life and their recently launched, How to Live a Meaningful Life, into a single available conversation that has the possible to truly shift how you see your career and your life.
I’ll admit I’m not an unbiased recommender. This work is the structure of what I do now. However that’s precisely why I can state with confidence: these ideas work. I’ve seen it in others, and I’m living it myself.
What’s the best gift international education provided you, and do you think you could have found it anywhere else?
Viewpoint! And it began before my career did.
I studied abroad in Spain in the 1980s just years after completion of Franco’s dictatorship. The country was in the middle of an impressive, complex resuming to the world. Being there as a young person, seeing that transition firsthand, planted something in me that never ever left. It taught me early that history lives, that context shapes everything, which appearing someplace with humbleness and interest is not simply good manners– it’s vital.
That experience set the course. 3 years in international education deepened it. Working across cultures, time zones, and systems taught me that intricacy is regular, not extraordinary. That my way is never the only method. Which interest isn’t simply a personality trait, it’s a leadership proficiency.
Individuals shaped me most. International education draws in contractors, bridge-makers, and individuals who are really driven by possibility. Being surrounded by that energy for thirty years leaves a mark. Could I have discovered this anywhere else? I do not think so. Not in this mix. Not with this strength.
Even as my work has developed, that worldview travels with me. The international lens doesn’t turn off. It notifies how I think about shift, about development, about what it implies to assist somebody discover their footing in unfamiliar area– expertly or otherwise.
What did you think a career in global education would appear like, and how wrong were you?
I thought I ‘d have one job for life.
It started with EF Education, the first business I worked at. As it turned out, it was a seventeen-year education in itself. EF had a culture unlike anything I ‘d come across: bold, agitated, truly international, and driven by a belief that absolutely nothing is difficult. Work hard, play hard and EF meant every word of it. That energy entered into my blood stream early and never left. It set the bar for what a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation could seem like, and I’ve been going after that basic ever since.
I presumed the path was direct. That if you worked hard and provided, the story kept entering one direction. And after that it didn’t. What followed was something I never would have scripted. A career winding through Study Group/Embassy English, Amerigo Education, Sannam S4, and EC English. Various organisations, different obstacles, different versions of me. Looking back, that range was an education in itself.
The pandemic humbled me further. Laid off numerous times. Humbling doesn’t quite cover it, but humbling, it turns out, is extremely beneficial. Each ending required a reckoning with what I really desired, what I was proficient at, and what work felt worth doing. What looked like disturbance was, every time, an invite.
I didn’t strategy to end up where I am now. However I’m uncertain I could have gotten here any other method.