I knew Debbie over a
period of 16 years. I was in my first role in a large organisation as the
Training Manager, and she was recommended to me to deliver some of our
management training. Over the years that followed I began working with Debbie
more and more. In a time where I was bombarded by other consultants offering me
their services, I found Debbie to always offer sensible, practical solutions
backed up with real experience. She never tried a ‘hard-sell’ approach with me,
and certainly never touted for business, but instead she responded to my
questions of ‘do you have any suggestions of how I should go about this…’ by
giving her advice. If it was something I could do myself without paying for any
external help, she would say so. It was this impartiality and generosity that
led me to trust Debbie and her judgement implicitly over the years, making her
my first go-to person whenever I was faced with a new challenge.
Very quickly we got to know each other personally, both
having a child at the same age. Our catch-up phone calls extended into catch-up
lunches, where we would talk for ages about family and personal things, as well
as discussing our joint work projects.
On a professional level I enjoyed working with Debbie as our
skills complimented each other well. She was organised and practical, and would
efficiently manage all the management development programmes she ran for me
over the years. I could always trust her to be prepared, organised, and calm.
She was also personal and engaging, and presented and delivered effective
training, as well as introducing me to a great network of other professional
trainers. She had great attention to detail, and extended her business to
becoming an accredited centre for the Chartered Management Institute.
Debbie was an excellent listener, and used her listening
skills to good effect as a consultant, listening to me describe the work-place
issues I was trying to resolve, and she would easily pick out and identify what
they key points were and suggest a way forward.
These attributes were all part of who Debbie was, and the
times that we talked on a more personal level these same listening skills were
employed. By now I had moved on to a new role in a larger organisation, but was
still using Debbie for all of our management and leadership development
training (Other providers I had tried just did not have the same attention to
detail). She was growing and developing her business too, and over time our
lunch meetings developed from considering solutions to work-place problems into
peer to peer chats around our own career paths, as well as the usual personal
and family stuff, plus now comparing notes on our recent shared interest of
running (although Debbie was much more dedicated than me!)
Earlier this year I had some thoughts about my next career
steps, and Debbie was the person I wanted to share these thoughts with. She had
always been encouraging and instilled confidence in me. I hadn’t even realised
it but all these years Debbie had been my unofficial mentor.
I have learnt so much from Debbie. She has been my role
model of what a good consultant should be like, interested and empathetic,
solution focused without being over-bearing, and always extremely professional,
clearly stating what she would do and by when, and always meeting any
commitment. I know these attributes come from who she was as a person. She was
interested in others, and a genuine and warm person who had high standards.
Spending time with her was always a pleasure, and I will
miss her immensely, but I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work
with and to know Debbie for all those years, and for all the personal support
and encouragement she most generously gave to me.
My thoughts and prayers are with Debbie's close friends and family at this time.
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