I support teams and organisations in transition

With a focus on sustainable performance through building resilience and flexing the muscle of participatory leadership, I blend diagnostics, analysis and drive with a human-centred, collaborative approach to create desired results.

I partner with diverse clients, tailored to their specific needs 

A background comprising over 20 years in global and regional HR leadership and Business Partnering roles has affords me breadth and depth in all areas of HR practices. Across the globe, my experience has been gained across multiple contexts and structures - private & not-for-profit sectors; start-up, scale-up, conglomerate; matrix, functional, product, geographic; Consulting, Oil & Gas, and Performance Materials. 

For more information on my credentials please see my bio and my accreditations and affiliations pages.

 

how can I help you? email me

 
 

I co-create, design and deliver solutions to meet relevant needs in a variety of domains. 

Expertise areas include:

  • People Strategy

  • Cultural Change and Change Management

  • M&A and HR due diligence

  • Organisational Development & the Future of Work

  • Leadership Development & Coaching as a Manager

  • Executive and Team coaching

  • Diagnostics of team and organisational dynamics

  • Workforce resilience & performance initiatives

  • Performance, Talent and Competency Models

  • Results-based management

  • HRIS implementation and process blue-printing

  • HR Function structure and development

I believe in workplaces in which all workers - managers, employees, external workers - are able to thrive

Culture (the way things work about here - a way of being that will develop and evolve over time) and engagement (how people feel about the way things work around here) are distinct. And linked. And between them they determine performance.

I have a particular passion for working with organisations seeking to promote environmentally responsible, inspiring, purpose-driven and effective ways of working to create positive impact for the greater good. Sustainably high performance is a product of clarity of purpose, highly collaborative engagement, creativity and adherence to agreed working principles.

 
 
testimonials source blog

The coaching with Simone was transformative… The changes of perspective that our sessions provided were invaluable in seeing problems differently and identifying options…I liked that she was able to see through the ‘problems I presented’, to gently 'cut the crap' to get to the real issues and to challenge me. She is a lot of fun too. Three years after I initially connected with Simone, I still see and feel the benefits of the coaching.    

Alexandre Le Cuziat, Regional Operations Director @ Action contre la Faim, Paris 🇫🇷     

Instead of bearing the burden as the person with all the answers, with Simone I started learning how to be a coach. I have become someone who asks my staff well-designed questions that get them into problem-solving mode. I've also become a good pair of ears that provides them with a much-needed blank canvas to make sense of their thoughts. Working with Simone, hmm, anything but ordinary and conventional training. She set quite unorthodox ground rules thus challenging our mindset about coaching and provoking our interactions and feedback. Time passes too quickly during Simone's coaching sessions.

Bojan Kovacevic, Project Manager, @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Belgrade 🇷🇸

Simone taught me to build my coaching game on even ground, ask open-ended questions where I can’t control the answers. This method greatly increases the odds of both a coach and a coachee leaving the session a slightly changed person.

Bojan Kovacevic, Project Manager, @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Belgrade 🇷🇸

I participated in group coaching sessions as part of the Leading People at UNOPS program as I wanted to improve coaching skills as a manager. And have opened myself to a coaching approach and learnt to think more about what I can offer to my team so that their work life is enriched. I appreciated the learning experience - exploring, not being judgmental, not providing solutions and would recommend the experience to my peers

Sudhir Muralidharan, Country Director, @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Colombo 🇱🇰

I have a more complete or richer set of options to use and behaviours, which reflects in what I project to others in terms of leadership and personality, and generally feeling and projecting a lot more confidence in times of uncertainty, ambiguity or conflict. More generally, I think I have changed some of my behaviours at work and socially, became more confident and assertive where I was sometimes too diplomatic, which has often helped in solving issues and conflicts more effectively 

Alexandre Le Cuziat, Regional Operations Director @ Action contre la Faim, Paris 🇫🇷     

Simone gave us several essential questions to help us coach our way through people’s most difficult challenges. Now, having tried Simone's coaching questions in my own coaching, what strikes me most is that they actually work! Simone’s methods armed me with a coaching structure to guide some wicked-smart people through complex problems.

Bojan Kovacevic, Project Manager, @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Belgrade 🇷🇸

Simone was very informative and provided what seemed to me the right amount and the right guidance when reviewing our coaching attempts. Her feedback on my coaching has spurred further reflecting on my approach and has encouraged me to take a more proactive and structured approach to coaching with the members of my team. I am more aware of how I approach coaching and even as far facilitating team discussions using the techniques that we have learned. I would most certainly recommend her not only for her knowledge and expertise on coaching, but also for her ability to explain and bring across techniques and methods.

Niels Ramm, Programme Manager @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Copenhagen 🇩🇰

Simone has a very pleasant demeanour that I feel made us, me particular, feel comfortable in a group context. I think this is a very important aspect particularly when coaching in a group setting. I liked the entirety of the sessions, the discussions, the coach and the coachee roles. But in particularly I like the perceptive feedback that you give after a coaching session. It provides food for thought and guidance on how to improve/structure one's approach and techniques. I found this to be particularly helpful.

Niels Ramm, Programme Manager @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Copenhagen 🇩🇰

It was good fun and very productive! I was very positively surprised by how easy you got us into your (our) sessions and how quickly we grew together. I very much liked your playful approach to some topics that seemed to be very abstract and incomprehensible, and in the end we all understood and were able to apply new tools. Your trust in us, openness and playfulness in the sessions made me feel very comfortable and taken care of, and it helped me open up and take the most out of the lessons. Thanks for the great lessons learnt and for the good time we spent together! I very much enjoyed every minute!

Simonetta Siligato, Senior Advisor, Asia Regional Office @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Bangkok 🇹🇭

I wanted to learn more about coaching and how I can build and improve my coaching skills to become a better team and people leader. After our sessions I feel I have gained considerable knowledge about coaching and how to help others overcome challenges or re-address issues to be able to deal with them in a constructive way. Simone helped me see beyond what was familiar to me, to apply new tools (e.g. metaphors) to explore new grounds and to grow in a field that was completely new to me.

Simonetta Siligato, Senior Advisor, Asia Regional Office @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Bangkok 🇹🇭

Creative and hardworking, Simone is also very gifted to bring clarity and to hold a systemic view and approach to help individuals, groups and organisations to grow. A pleasure to work with her!

Sylvie Faisandier, Consultant | Trainer | Certified Coach @ SFConseil, Paris, F 🇫🇷 

The initial contracting with Simone helped refine the objectives and build trust very quickly. I was impressed by her ability to understand the issues I was facing. Simone was able to go beyond some of the initial requests I had and move away from leadership theory to focus on... me.

Alexandre Le Cuziat, Regional Operations Director @ Action contre la Faim, Paris 🇫🇷     

I participated in group coaching sessions as part of the Leading People at UNOPS program as I wanted to improve coaching skills as a manager. And have opened myself to a coaching approach and learnt to think more about what I can offer to my team so that their work life is enriched. I appreciated the learning experience - exploring, not being judgmental, not providing solutions and would recommend the experience to my peers.

Sudhir Muralidharan, Country Director @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Colombo 🇱🇰

I wanted to improve my coaching as a participant on the Leading People at UNOPS program group coaching practice sessions. The experience was great. I appreciated the group interaction and the mutual respect and found it also fun and interesting

Bo Teglers Nielsen, ProgrammeSupport Officer @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Yangon 🇲🇲

I wasn't sure how the distance group coaching would work. However, Simone used techniques which enabled added benefit of synergistic group support. She encouraged interaction and sharing within our group thus creating an atmosphere of success and celebration. [2 yrs later] I still vividly remember our group coaching exercises, particularly due to the way they were done, over the electronic communication tools and yet so lively as if all of us had physically attended them.

Bojan Kovacevic, Project Manager, @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Belgrade 🇷🇸

I definitely listen more to what my team mates say and tell me. I stopped focusing on helping others in my team by solving the problem for them, but instead try to make them see the problem or issue from a different angle so that they can find the solution that they feel most comfortable with. This helps them gain self-confidence and grow to become reliable and independent team members and colleagues. Thanks for the great lessons learnt and for the good time we spent together! I very much enjoyed every minute!

Simonetta Siligato, Senior Advisor, Asia Regional Office @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Bangkok 🇹🇭

I really liked the way Simone took the discussion so deep, to help me realize what the real issue was. Indeed, there were so many underlying issues that I hadn't realised. There were surprises in Simone’s approach which brought out different perspectives to the discussions, and helped to get to the core. I appreciated Simone’s courage to challenge. As a result of participating in the Leading People at UNOPS program group coaching practice sessions with Simone, my team, my family and I are enjoying the benefits of our time together every day. I am consciously spending time on what matters most. Keep up the good job!!!!

Irene Mbote, Human Resources Manager @ United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Nairobi 🇰🇪