Lorraine Richmond has made it her mission to help others find what they want to do in their lives.
Richmond is the owner of a self-titled leadership coaching business, which she has been running for 10 years. Prior to working as a leadership coach and speaker, she spent time in leadership development consulting.
“The same issues or challenges kept surfacing,” Richmond described of why she moved into coaching. “Whenever there was a group of leaders gathered together to change policy, to discuss things, to solve world problems, they would be very inspired about whatever was brought to them until they left the room or shortly after, and then they would return to the defaults. To change meant that they would need to change something, so there was this discomfort. That began to stir restlessness in me, and I thought there must be another way.”
At around the same time she began to think of alternatives, Richmond learned about leadership coaching, where you deal with people who are ready to make a change. She was immediately interested in the field and began researching what made for good credentials, and jumped straight into leadership coaching from there.
Richmond has a set goal in mind when she enters her office every morning; to ‘be an unstoppable catalyst to influence a meaningful culture change.’ The culture change she wants to help implement is to see a culture where the values and purpose of people matter. Richmond doesn’t want people to be warm bodies going into the workplace to serve the agenda of somebody else, but rather to be looking out the window for something more.
“People want to matter, people want their values to be valued,” she explained. “So in the culture of our First World country where I live and work and play, I see that often. There is outer success, and people exchange their inner values for something out here, and I’m done with that. I’m done drinking company Kool-Aid, and so are many others. That is what I love about it, is having these real, authentic, truthful, gutsy conversations. That’s hugely satisfying and meaningful to me if I can help someone find what matters to them and live that.”
Richmond’s profession is one that she draws a lot of personal reward from. Her desire is always to see people pursue what they value and are passionate about, and seeing them achieve or discover that is a wonderful feeling.
“If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I will have lived a very full life in knowing the ripple effect goes on and on and on,” she noted. “That’s the rewarding part. It’s more than what Lorraine Richmond does, it’s what the people do who have been inspired, coached or had their thoughts provoked and they’ve lived and contributed in a greater way. I can’t think of anything better.”
Entering into the leadership field isn’t something Richmond always had in mind for her career. In fact, she didn’t even always know it existed. But when she looks back on her career, she said she has found leadership was always there. Whenever she joined a club or an organization, Richmond would quickly find herself exploring ways to improve it and make a greater difference.
Richmond entered the leadership industry as a way to provide service and help others, and it’s the personal reward she draws from that that motivates her to continue every day.
“The highlight is simply sitting one-on-one, or speaking to a group of 10 or 100 or 1,000, and having the response back where people say, ‘I’ve never felt this level of hope before in what matters to me.’ The reward is people making a huge mind shift or a tangible shift in their career. They choose to lose outer success for periods of time for something that is more worthwhile, and then the ripple effect and their influence through that is unbelievably rewarding.”
Helping people reach their goals is what make Lorraine Richmond a Woman to Watch.
Crowe MacKay’s Women to Watch program is a weekly feature that profiles remarkable women in our community, concluding October 16. After terrific response, the nomination period for 2015 is now closed. Watch this space each week to see our remaining Women to Watch.
