Lorraine Steele started in retail fashion for The Gap and then executive recruitment in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Twenty years ago she changed careers to become a highly skilled executive coach/mentor and facilitator who specialises in global leadership development, cultural integration management and high performing teams. She found the work so rewarding and saw first-hand the impact it had on individuals, teams and clients that she was inspired to establish her own company in 2009. As the Director of Steele Consulting she understands first-hand both the rewards and challenges of working for yourself.

She is an American who has lived, worked and studied in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the USA. She moved to Portugal two year ago. Having been raised by a single mother, who supported her four children by teaching, she saw both the need and the value of hard work. Her mother was an inspirational role model and has had a lasting impact on Lorraine’s own outlooks and her belief in the power of women and the value they add to any working environment.

Lorraine has always instinctively supported women both as a formal and informal mentor. Across the years, she has coached countless senior executive women and has run many women in leadership programmes. With a French and Greek colleague she has recently designed and launched a Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging training programme targeted for all people in an organisation. Key topics they cover include raising awareness of unconscious bias, reducing the stigma of stereotypes, identifying privilege’s ‘invisible’ power and practicing having ‘robust conversations’ that drive inclusiveness whilst maintaining high performance.

With women in particular Lorraine finds it useful to focus on helping them understand how becoming a leader requires an identity shift. She supports them to recognise and overcome the ‘unseen’ barriers that leadership behaviours are more often equated with men. She prioritises in connecting women to their leadership purpose. It involves, amongst other approaches, moving from self-limiting belief to self-belief, tackling imposter syndrome and making conscious decisions to fulfill their leadership potential. From being the voiceless invisible contributor to having a confident voice to make the choice to fulfill their potential.
She works with leaders to strengthen their impact and harness their relationship intelligence (RQ) to overcome challenges, unlock further potential in their teams and successfully navigate the complexity of internal and external stakeholder demands to achieve results.
Recent clients include: Pfizer Portugal, Nova SBE, THNK, Creative Leadership School Amsterdam and Lisbon, Nissan, Coca Cola, McLaren F1, PartnerRE, Autoneum

Highlights

• Masters in Business Administration, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Sda Bocconi - all coursework in Italian 
• Bachelor of Arts Humanities: Italian Language & Literature, University of California, Berkeley
• Diploma in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring/OCR Board, NVQ Level 7
• Accredited in Strengthscope and licensed to use the Team Dialogue Indicator. 
• Delivers work in French and Italian