Anna Young Consulting

Renewable | Sustainable | Resilient

I am motivated by a passion to support purpose-driven and purpose-seeking leaders across the public, private and non-profit sectors.

My work supports people to:

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Name and identify future vision and create a pathway to move forward.

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Dismantle the obstacles to individuals and their organizations meeting their highest potential.

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Develop leaders and teams capable of sustainably delivering outstanding performance.

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Create systems and processes that support inclusivity and well-being.

Executive Leadership & Coaching

I work to enable leaders to become the best version of themselves across all dimensions of their lives.

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Team Development

I use a neuroscience-based approach to create customized programs that support growth and change; provide tools for high-functioning teams; and foster  healthy, diverse and inclusive work-place cultures.

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 Facilitation

I design and guide interactive workshops, meetings, and strategy processes that are creative, and build spaces for courageous, meaningful conversations.

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About Me

I believe that there is no one model of a perfect leader – and that leadership is a mindset more than any particular role we have. When we tap into our own authentic selves and strengths and combine that with the drive for change –  that is when the magic happens. Sometimes we can do that on our own. But the gift that a facilitator or coach brings is the ability to help us see what we cannot see ourselves because we are too close to a situation to have perspective.

After 20 years working in leadership positions around the world, primarily with nonprofit organizations, I shifted to work full time as a coach and facilitator. I support change in the world by working with leaders and teams to unlock new insights and access new resources. 

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I am originally from the UK, and a strong piece of my heart still grows strong roots there. However, for the past 25 years I have lived, worked and learned with leaders, teams and communities around the world including the Balkans, Indonesia, East Africa and South and Central Asia. I currently live in the Pacific Northwest with my two rapidly-growing children and husband. Before setting up my own consulting company I worked for over two decades in international humanitarian development and was most recently Vice President for Strategy and Learning in a large INGO.

I hold an Associate Coaching Certification from the International Coaching Federation and am a certified coach through New Ventures West, USA. I have a Master’s Degree in languages from Oxford University and a Post Graduate Teaching Certificate from Leeds University. I am currently adjunct faculty at New Ventures West and an adjunct instructor at Portland State University.

 

Anna Young Headshot

Renewable, Sustainable, Resilient

Leadership

What if each professional role we took on left us more energized, powerful, and committed than the last one? What if we could find ways to lead that left not only the world and our organizations, but also ourselves in better shape. What if we could also do that for those we manage and lead?
I support leaders to create the change that they are seeking without burning themselves out.

Just as at a global level we are seeking renewable sources of energy, at an individual level we can find ways of working that don’t leave us exhausted and diminished at the end of each day or week or role.

“Maybe you are searching in the branches for what only appears in the roots”

 

– Rumi

“Leadership is about being better able to listen to the whole than anyone else can.”

 

– Otto Scharmer

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

 

– Alice Walker

One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.

 

– Jacinda Arden

“Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.”

 

– Edward Abbey

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

 

– Nelson Mandela

Coaching

My Invitation to Coaching

Coaching is an invitation to see the world differently, to explore questions, challenges, instincts that you know are waiting to be answered. You are already succeeding, otherwise you wouldn’t have got to where you are today. And yet we all find ourselves at times needing something more. Coaching provides a safe space to step into these questions, supported by a guide who can help you navigate through.

To see whether this might be the right time in your life to pick up coaching (for the first time or again) I invite you to consider the following questions: 

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How have your current ways of showing up in the world helped you? How have they got in your way?

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Would a guide alongside enable you to do things you’ve never done before?

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Are you open to trying things differently?

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What questions are keeping you up at night? Do they excite or scare you? Do you hunger to have space to explore them?

Core Offerings

Executive Leadership & Coaching

Coaching provides leaders with a unique opportunity to press pause on all the activity that their lives and step back to take stock, to explore what really matters to them and to work with a caring professional who is not afraid to ask the questions and reflect the things that others may not be able to. When the timing is right, I have seen how time and time again allows for truly transformational results, often in areas which we weren’t expecting.

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I work with executives and other leaders to:

  • Identify and unblock obstacles that are holding them back
  • Reflect patterns and potential to support taking leadership to a new level
  • Invite new insights so we can be intentional about how we lead
  • Explore regenerative ways of leading that support the leader and those they lead to live their fullest lives.
  • Seasoned and more recent leaders stepping into new roles
  • Individuals looking to create greater alignment between their own purpose and the work they are doing in the world.
  • Leaders who are looking to bring their fullest selves to creating change in the world
  • Leaders seeking to create a sense of belonging in the world

Reach out to request details on a custom offering and pricing for you or your team.

Team Development

When was the last time that your team came together to talk about itself. To look at where everything is running smoothly, to check in on what could be improved. To make space for some of the more awkward conversations that keep getting put off? Have you made time to collectively agree on what you are trying to achieve and create a shared sense of purpose? When was the last time that someone new came into the team (a client I worked with recently said that every time someone new joins or leaves the team we should assume it is a new team)

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I work with teams using neuroscience based approaches to create space to:

  • Create shared expectations and vision
  • Have difficult/awkward conversations
  • Discuss team norms and boundary setting
  • Practice giving and receiving feedback

I work in ways that are interactive and dynamic and create space to practice and agree on and experiment with new ways of doing things. It is a way to unlock places in which we have become stuck.

Team development can work well during retreats, or as a series of conversations built into the regular cadence of the working week. I encourage seeing these as punctuation built into the way a team works rather than one of moments that are fun but get easily forgotten in the flow of the week.

Reach out to request details on a custom offering and pricing for you or your team.

Facilitation

I work with groups and teams ranging from 4-100 to create dialogue and conversation that allow new insights and possibilities to emerge. I am skilled in guiding conversations around difficult and sensitive topics, developing strategy and vision and creating culture and norms for teams to thrive.

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My principles for facilitation revolve around:

  • Co-creation with the key stakeholders – I don’t believe in cookie cutter approaches – I design the process in response to the needs of the group and the organization
  • Creating a safe space in which everyone is invited to participate
  • Processes which are highly interactive and cater to different learning and engagement styles
  • Mixing and matching different processes depending on the needs of the group (no one size fits all)
  • Creating space to allow for unplanned conversations to happen
  • Being ready to pivot when the unexpected happens
  • Creativity and fun.

I have 20 years in facilitation, working with teams around the world. My background in strategy development equips me to guide groups through conversations around strategy and direction as well as more abstract, yet equally critical dialogue around culture, values, relationships and team dynamics. I see workshops/gatherings/meetings as pause moments that need to be integrated into the cadence and culture of the organization’s work and flow in order for meaningful change to take place.

Reach out to request details on a custom offering and pricing for you or your team.

Anna has provided leadership coaching for several of our senior managers while I was working at Transition Projects over the past three years and done a remarkable job equipping them with insights, capacities and resources to grow their own leadership responsibility, while at the same time balancing the immense challenges and stresses that working with vulnerable populations experiencing homelessness create for these individuals. I am grateful for her ability to meet each team member where they are and to create tailored coaching strategies to help them explore and grow into their own potential.

Executive Director – Transition Projects

Having Anna as a coach has been a game changer. She’s been able to provide us with individual support in identifying and confronting previous workplace trauma; deeply embedding our values in how we work together; and helping our team members navigate conflict, set boundaries, be accountable, and lead with compassion. She’s truly the best investment we’ve made in ourselves and the organization.

Director Seeding Justice

When I started working with Anna, I was new to my city and new to my first Executive Director role - experiencing a lot of change and growth all at once. Anna was a stabilizing presence in so many ways: equipping me with some important tools to center myself and bring my whole self to my new role, perspectives to help me allocate my energy, and opportunities to sound out some nascent ideas before moving forward into what felt like a great unknown.

Executive Director – Portland Non Profit

Anna was a wonderful thought partner as my team planned our first in-person meeting since COVID began. She was great at helping us to focus on key objectives, save space for the fun and personal connection we knew was critical, and ensure we used a variety of facilitation approaches to reach different types of adult learners. In addition to helping us plan, Anna did a fabulous job facilitating our week-long meeting, ensuring we achieved our key objectives and had clear action items and next steps. Anna helped us create a warm and productive environment, and helped our remote team bond in a short period. I definitely recommend her for your strategic facilitation needs!

Senior Director – Mercy Corps

In retrospect, I see how it has been so easy for me to not take care of myself and be reflective with the rush of life, work, and responsibilities. The coaching experience formalized making that time and with your guidance provided insight, a framework, and resources to help me practice and develop new ways for self-care, reflection, and personal growth. Your guidance created a prompting and process, in a very nurturing and natural way, that I could certainly not have achieved on my own.

Private Coaching Client

I always felt that Anna intuitively knew how deeply personal my leadership is and she wasn't afraid to guide me through an emotional transition. She welcomed my challenge and supported my exploration of identity and meaning, while giving me valuable tools that will be helpful in all parts of my life.

Executive Director-  Portland Non Profit

Resources

I write regularly on topics and resources that inspire me, disturb me, and invite me to see the world differently.I post them here to invite a conversation with others in my community – whether friends, colleagues, peers or clients. I believe that by entering into dialogue and sharing more of what matters with each other we will become more connected, more resilient and ultimately find better solutions to the world’s challenges. Please read and join me in conversation. I will respond to everyone who writes back.

Why Write?

Why Write?

Many of you know that in the last month I wrote my first paper  in a very long time, together with a dear colleague, collaborator, co-conspirator and friend, Myriam Khoury. And it felt like a huge accomplishment. It’s been six months in the writing and quite a lot...

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Three Tips for Better Budgeting (Your Energy)

Three Tips for Better Budgeting (Your Energy)

I recently had dinner with a good friend who has an illness which means that her energy is extremely limited and she has to plan her days budgeting her energy, particularly if she wants to do something in the evening. Once she has ‘spent’ her energy for the day it is...

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Why I Don’t Read Biographies (and Why I Maybe Should)

Why I Don’t Read Biographies (and Why I Maybe Should)

I like to read. I like to read a lot. I also like to both own books and to give them away. Over the years I’ve shifted from having a strong preference for fiction and the escapism that imaginary stories hold, to non fiction and then now am somewhere at a mid point...

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