Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzannah Kelly.

Hi Suzannah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

As a young woman arriving in Canada from the UK and stepping into the corporate world many many years ago, I quickly learned that the path to success was not a straight road. It requires you to navigate your own success path based on hard work, networking, relationships, solid performance and a belief in yourself. It also requires a certain level of confidence to overcome obstacles and advocate for yourself. Over 25 years in Human Resources, I navigated the complex landscape of corporate life—both locally and globally and at an executive level—grappling with office politics, leadership challenges, mergers, acquisitions, and more. Along the way, I witnessed firsthand the uniquely rocky, sometimes lonely and frankly disempowering journey that women often endure to achieve success.

Now, as a certified ICF coach with over two decades of experience, I draw on my own journey and the lessons I learned through my own career. Today, I empower women to navigate their corporate careers with confidence, courage, and clarity, empowering them to transform their challenges into opportunities and successfully create and own their careers on their own terms.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

No, not at all! The road to where I am today was anything but smooth. In the early stages of my career, I often struggled with a deep lack of confidence. I was young and inexperienced and at the time, worked in an all male environment. It was an environment where my voice was too easily silenced. As I grew in my career, I also experienced environments where I was overlooked for opportunities that should have been equally available to me and sometimes compromised into situations that went unaddressed in favors of a culture that put results over values.

Amid these challenges, I was also sometimes fortunate enough to encounter remarkable women who supported, inspired, and mentored me. Their encouragement and wisdom taught me invaluable lessons about resilience, self-advocacy, and the importance of nurturing a supportive network. They helped me understand that while the journey could be isolating and fraught with obstacles—from subtle dismissals to overt challenges in leadership and decision-making—the strength of self belief and community and shared experiences could transform even the most daunting hurdles.

As I look back on my career journey, I am now grateful for every setback and challenge…..I would say all those roadblocks, despite the self-doubt at the time became a stepping stone toward my growth. These experiences, combined with the mentorship I received, have empowered me to help other women navigate their own corporate paths with confidence, courage, and clarity. This is work that truly fuels my soul and I’m so happy to be in this space today. As I channel all of my experiences into coaching, I celebrate both the struggles and the support that have defined my career, and I am committed to passing on these learnings to empower the next generation of female leaders.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I specialize in empowering women to navigate the corporate world with confidence, courage, and clarity. Drawing on over 25 years of experience in Human Resources and executive roles—both locally and globally—I deeply understand the complexities of corporate politics, leadership challenges, and the need to constantly prove oneself in environments that are often disempowering, highly competitive and that can often stifle those who are struggling to show up authentically, either in leadership or employee spaces and not lose themselves in the process.

In addition to working one-on-one with women wishing to navigate their careers whether that is to elevate their leadership, pivot their careers or launch their legacy by stepping into entrepreneurship, I also partner with organizations to help build engaged, inspiring cultures (I call it Spectator Free) where employees, leaders and teams can show up as the best versions of themselves—both personally and professionally. I want to see human inspired workplaces where people genuinely want to work and can thrive —to create inspiring cultures where people genuinely want to work and can thrive in the process.

I’m proud to be known for always being my authentic self, for standing for workplaces that empower people and give them agency over their careers and their lives, for always ensuring fairness and equity and for not backing down from what’s right and not who is right and for showing up in a way that encourages others to see the possibilities in their own career journeys.

What I am also proud of is my courage to walk away from what what I had always known – my corporate career of multiple decades to rewrite my life’s narrative on my own terms in my midlife season. This leap of faith, rooted in deep trust in myself, not only redefined my career but allowed me to fully embrace who I am. Today, I bring my personal experiences and professional expertise together to coach mentor, inspire, and empower individuals, leaders and organizations to achieve lasting, meaningful success.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?

Over the next 5-10 years, I anticipate the workplace will continue to evolve in profound and transformative ways, reshaping how we think about and enact leadership at every level. The world is shifting significantly at warp speed when we look at technology advances, the multi-generational workforce, the undercurrent of more and more people looking for purpose and meaning through their work and world events (political, socio-economic etc) that are impacting employees and therefore our workplaces on a very personal and individualistic level.

We will continue to see a need for ongoing authentic, purpose-driven leadership. Leaders will increasingly be called upon to lead with authenticity and a clear sense of purpose. Their demonstration of vulnerability and being true to themselves will lead to greater and deeper trust in the workplace, to inspire their teams, and create environments where employees feel empowered and safe to share their unique contributions and perspectives.

The rapid pace of technological change will continue to redefine the workplace through digital transformation and agile leadership. Future leaders will need to be agile, adept at harnessing digital tools, and skilled in managing both remote and hybrid teams. Managing this while also maintaining genuine human connections will be critical in driving innovation and ensuring organizational resilience and sustainability.

We are perhaps seeing the greatest push back to the current workplace than we have seen in recent history. Employees are speaking up and speaking out on their wants, needs and desires. Finding meaning and purpose is driving the conversation. The focus on employee wellbeing – the growing recognition of mental health and work-life balance as critical components of professional success is here to stay. Leaders will need to prioritize creating supportive, holistic work environments that nurture both the personal and professional growth of their teams, recognizing that thriving employees are the foundation of a vibrant, successful organization.

Investing in ongoing leadership development through coaching will become increasingly central to building robust leadership pipelines so that organizations can remain competitive. This underscores the importance of continuous learning, personalized development, and the cultivation of skills that enable leaders to navigate an ever-changing corporate landscape.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion remain essential, but the focus is shifting in some spaces away from more formal programs and policies which will require even greater focus on fostering genuine inclusion and belonging. Organizations will need to grapple with how to sustain and deepen their commitment fairness and equity and sense of belonging and ensuring that every voice is heard and that diverse perspectives are truly integrated into corporate cultures.

I hope what we will see is a more holistic and human approach to leadership—one that values authenticity, continuous growth, and the well-being of every individual. These are values that I embrace and leverage alongside my own career experiences to empower both individuals and organizations, helping them build inspiring cultures and resilient leadership pipelines that not only achieve business success but also enrich the lives of everyone involved.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.suzannahkelly.ca and www.suzannahkellyconsulting.ca
• Instagram: @suzannahkellycoaching
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/suzannahmkelly.com