Introduction
In May 2019 I attended a retreat in Greyton because I was suffering from burnout, both physiologically and to some extent psychologically too. What led to this, I will write about on another day. On this retreat I decided I want to start a blog, and here I am 9 months later, and I have finally started it. Procrastination, I know, but the time is now right for it.
There is for me some arrogance in starting this blog, why would anyone want to read my blog? I do believe that the combination of my career, training and life experiences offer rich insights and learnings, and if others can benefit from that and as a result, learn to fly, then my goal has been achieved.
I am a Life & Executive Coach, I do Leadership &Team Development and Strategic Facilitation work, and I see my Blog fitting into this space.
I am also privileged to have led a rich life, with a fulfilling career to date and life has thrown some curveballs my way and through that I have learnt so much, mostly about myself and so maybe I can share some of those learnings with you.
I can only speak authentically from the “I” or as we say in coaching the Structure of Interpretation (SOI) and each person’s SOI is unique and equally valid. And whilst this is written from my perspective and experiences, I will reference the content of experts in their respective fields liberally, their work serves the purpose to inform & develop us and I will always provide the sources for you to do more self-reading on.
A blog is a really vulnerable thing to do, it is self-exposing, and exposing myself is not something I would naturally do. In Enneagram language my main Ennea type is the Strict Perfectionistand so being guarded and appearing more perfect to the world is so much safer, so what I am thinking doing this blog?
Elizabeth Lesser in her brilliant and must-read book, Broken Open, states “We are all bozos on the bus, contrary to the self-assured image we work so hard to present to each other on a daily basis. We are all half-baked experiments, mistake prone beings, born without an instruction book onto a complex world. None of us are models of perfect behavior; we have been known to be unreliable, lethargic, egotistical and stingy and each one of has at times, awakened in the middle of the night worrying about everything from money, kids, or wrinkled skin and saggy arms, in other words we are all bozos on the bus. This in my opinion is cause for celebration, if we are all bozos, then for God’s sake, we can put down the burden of pretense and get on being with being bozos.”
Just a little about myself then, I started my studies in Human Resources and Industrial Relations and then wanted to move into General Management and successfully completed an MBA. I subsequently have also successfully completed Coaching Studies and Enneagram accreditations. I like studying and will no doubt continue doing so.
At age 31 I became the HR Director of a national printing company and 3 years later took over the running of their largest operation. At that time there were only 2 female printing industry CEO’s and yet that was never my motivation. I never saw gender as a limiting factor, this from my mother who was the only female director in the retail liquor industry in SA long before this.
In 2000 my husband and I separated and in 2001 I fell head over heels in love with the MD of a supplier (now my husband) and as this was a conflict of interest, I opted to leave the printing industry, move to Johannesburg, join and marry him and start a new career in Management Consulting. I joined PwC Consulting in the time of the Enron debacle. After six months I was promoted to Associated Director. PwC Consulting was taken over by IBM Business Consulting where I was the Country Leader of their Human Capital Consulting division and there was awarded a Global Leadership Award. Whilst at IBM I had our daughter at age 38. After a short stint at Adcorp I joined Accenture where I after 4 years I became the Managing Director of the largest division in Management Consulting, i.e. Talent & Organisation Performance.
My success was always due to building incredible teams of such talented and passionate people and my success is credited to their incredible performance and dedication. I have always been passionate about “my people” and their career development & growth will always be a sense of pride for me. I loved Management Consulting and the incredible privilege to work with such talented people and for remarkable organisations who entrusted so much to us.
In Consulting, as a Senior Executive, you travel a lot. My husband traveled a lot too and we had a young daughter and when he retired and I was still travelling extensively and working 14 hour days he one day asked me, “you are chasing the wind and what does catching that look like to you?”
That evening I left on yet another flight to a European city I would fly into, book into a hotel, work 3 loooong days and fly back and upon take-off I read the Dante quote “In the middle of the my life I found myself in the middle of my life within a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost.” I returned from that trip and resigned from Accenture.
We had a home at Arabella Country Estate, and I joined Abagold, the integrated and sustainable agri-business, with core competency and focus on Aquaculture in Hermanus.
Again, my passion was the people and the community from which they came. Here the majority of the employees were farm workers and being able to make a difference in their lives and that of their children I will cherish always.
In 2020 I left Abagold to start my own business, Find your Wings, and this blog is written within that context.
A long intro, thank you for reading it and I truly hope that you will find something valuable from my blog over the coming weeks and months. I will post at least one new Blog per week.
Please interact with me, pass it on to your friends or colleagues if you believe it will be valuable and relevant to them.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louanne-lubbe-6a2364a/
- I do not like Typing as we are so much more than just our main type and so here, I am using it for introduction purposes only. The power of the Enneagram is diluted if we use it to box types, as we have a type, sub types, instincts, etc.