Charlotte Sweeney is a leading expert in diversity inclusion and equality and is a woman on a mission to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.
Having started her career in retail banking, Charlotte became increasingly frustrated with the fact that as an employee of an organization she couldn’t say what she truly felt or what she truly saw within the organization that needed to change. Charlotte decided that the only solution was to set up her own consultancy and left her corporate career to set up Charlotte Sweeney and Associates which provides services that support organizations to adapt with a focus on inclusion, diversity, well being, engagement and change leadership.
She is now recognized as a thought leader in her field and has won a number of awards, as well as having been recognized by the Economist as one of the top 50 diversity professionals in the world.
Highlights
Challenges
- I became the chief executive of a business that didn’t have any clients at the time, but I was doing everything in the business and that for me was a little bit daunting at the time.
It’s so easy to be able to sell a product, because you’re talking about a thing. But when you’re talking about yourself and what you can do for that client it does feel very uncomfortable and it still feels uncomfortable even 5 years on now for me.
Words of Wisdom
- Think about the one thing you need to do in the next hour. Forget everything else, what is the one thing that is critical right now
- I’m a firm believer in managing your energy and not managing your time
- Every single day there is going to be an element of fear in what you do. There is always that fear that somebody else out there is doing something better than you having that nervousness and having that fear but then learning how to deal with it in the appropriate way is so helpful for business.
There will be naysayers out there. There will be people that say they don’t like your product, they don’t like your style, they don’t think what you’re doing is right. Accept that feedback and thank them for it, but carry on doing what you think is right.
Resources Mentioned
Colour coded diary-if it’s not in my diary it’s not happening!
Links
Get in touch with Charlotte Sweeney and Associates on their website
