Wellbeing & Care
Because our wellbeing and need to care for ourselves is marginalised in our daily lives I offer away days, talks, coaching and consultancy that help people and organisations work to acknowledge and met their need to pay due care and attention to themselves and those around them as part of their work for change.
This work is designed to help your organisation prevent burnout, eradicate chronic exhaustion, and cultivate and practice the skills of humane and just leadership. Ultimately this work is designed to make sure that your organisational culture fully reflects and embodies your values for change in the world.
The things I can offer include:
- Keynote Speech: Beating Burnout and Building Internal Resilience (more about the topics I am available to speak about can be found by following this link)
- A tailored intervention designed to take your Teams on a journey towards a more resilient and humane way of working
- Additional Coaching & Action Learning Packages to support the process
- Away Days & Staff Conferences focused on wellbeing.
Humane and Just Leadership cultures are especially important in non-profit organisations, because part of what motivates your employees is a passion for your mission and your values, the change you want to create in the world.
If your people are attracted to creating a humane and just world. But your workplace culture and processes are chronically exhausting or dehumanising, then you’re going to see profound burnout and disillusionment -- and that leads to disengagement and low productivity. You’re likely to see exceptional interpersonal conflict and politicking, and you’re going to see people leaving or being less effective as a result.
That’s why it’s essential to create a culture around Humane and Just Leadership and teach your people to practice self-care and pay attention to their own wellbeing.
Otherwise you’re going to have a productivity and retainment problem. And you are also likely to find that you staff find it hard to embody your organsiational values.
Research has shown that the solution to engagement productivity and retention isn’t higher pay. It’s purpose.
And the workplace experience needs to be aligned with that shared purpose for it to really work for your organisation.
With NGOs, that’s even more pronounced. If your workplace culture is more humane and just, your teams will be working in alignment with their own values and those of the organisation, rather than feeling conflicted about them on a day-to-day basis.
I can support you to create a humane and just work environment that aligns with your mission by resourcing your people with the skills of radical self-care, resiliency, and humane and just leadership.
To talk to us about the challenges in your org and how we can best work with you book a call with me
More about me and why I do this work
I am a a Feminist Writer, Facilitator, Activist & Coach as well as a former CEO, Chair and Grant Maker. I help organisations build resilient cultures in which people value and care for themselves and each other. Here are my skills and qualifications:
- A degree in Swahili and Social Anthropology and a Masters in Anthropological Research.
- I was CEO of the charity AbleChildAfrica between 2004 and 2011; I have two decades of years experience as a leader and practitioner in international development; I also developed programmes in three countries for the mental health and wellbeing charity BasicNeeds.
- I have worked extensively in professional fundraising and grant-making and have raised millions of pounds for the organisations I’ve worked with to fund social justice projects. I have Chaired a Domestic Violence Refuge and led the organisation through a merger and have consulted with many other organisations in their change-management processes.
- I am also a Shadow Work Coach, Action Learning Facilitator, TedX Speaker & Nia Movement Practitioner; Founder of the Red Tent Directory and The Story Party; and a podcaster and public speaker.
As the Director of a small Charity I asked Mary Ann's advice on a wide variety of issues. I find her very approachable, and above all extremely helpful. As a mentor I find her advice very apt and practical- based on her far reaching experience in international development. As a consultant, Mary Ann really adds value. She puts in a lot of effort to ensure she has a complete understanding of the brief, and because she recognises a lot of the challenges we face, her input is very well informed and effective. She has excellent contacts in the industry so she is able to draw on wide ranging best practice. I would recommend Mary Ann's approach very highly. Molly Brech
I have had the pleasure on many memorable occasions of being in the audience when Mary Ann has delivered one of her wonderful talks. She is not just a consummate inspiring speaker; she is also a poet and a story teller, a weaver of compelling and moving narratives which she gathers from her own life experiences. She is ready to share of herself with moving candour while always bearing in mind the needs of the audience and the lessons she intuits they need to learn from her. I know that when Mary Ann gets up to speak, I am going to be taken on a beautiful journey full of vivid detail and soaring emotion and I can heartily recommend her for any speaking opportunity. Rona Steinberg, Outloud Coaching