This is an interview in the series Women around the world, a mosaic of feminine impressions and inspiration in times of Corona
The interview was held in Italian by Cécile Masson author and leadership coach.
The feminine world contributes greatly to the brilliancy of certain businesses without necessarily taking centre stage because many feminine values are to be found in the collective.
After having worked for many years successfully in Marketing and Communication Laura realised that her true passion were people that transform company’s goals into reality.
The personal transformational journey that started in 2008 is on-going. Having acquired various accreditations as a professional coach she works with individuals and teams in organisations supporting cultural and management change and authentic leadership development.
Just before the lockdown she has experienced an intense health issue with one of her family members and when they were recovering again and orienting themselves as a family in how to face a new phase the imposed lockdown occurred. The not-knowing, the dread of what was happening was very present and yet there was also gratefulness that allowed them to face the personal family matters differently.
This gratefulness is still present as it allowed her to read the reality that was emerging and see the hidden gems that appeared. In the beautiful hills of the country region of Oltrepò Pavese she found solace in the lungs of trust and regeneration that nature provided close to her home.
· A deep silence and sense of listening that came naturally
· A sense that the time we were living collectively is a sacred time wherein individual and collective suffering and strength meet.
The suffering and departure of many around her made her feel slightly disoriented and she counteracted this feeling by offering her time, help and presence to clients, people of the vicinity and friends in whatever way she could. The suffering is present yet through that suffering something new wants to emerge. She is conscious that this is not yet over and will have consequences for many in possibly devastating ways.
The pattern she observes is first of all a readiness to inquire and she sees also the possibility to renovate. We can design a future that is different and more in line with our humanness, with the respect of our social systems that we live in and co-create and also the system planet, the earth, that hosts our existence. This however is only possible if we reflect together, if we slow down, if we stop and inquire and wait for the answers to emerge.
In her work as a coach this readiness to inquire and question oneself is a great step forward to create awareness for new possibilities that have not yet been considered, established or known. The automatic responses are exactly the ones that we need to revisit, keeping only those that are still valid by revaluing them and at the same time have the courage to let go of things.
She would let go of much egotism that is not connected either individually or on structural systemic level to a greater reality. The WEF is inviting all to raise our awareness of interconnectedness and to sense and feel that on all levels.
She strongly believes that we are moving from the paradigm of “I” to the “WE”
However to let go it is important to invite
· More dialogue and shared leadership that starts with revaluing our inner leadership to express and manifest as a collective intelligence.
· A deep connection with Nature and the intelligence of plants as the flora is rich in strategies that have cooperation, generation and resilience at their centre. We could surface much strength as living beings by reorganising our social fabric and also the structure of organisations and teams.
· A reorganisation of the scale of our values with a focus on personal well-being to enhance collective well-being.
Laura is happy to share the example of a rose that brings forth her beauty and delicacies growing like any other living system from the inside out, referring also to my book Rose letters of love to life. The feminine world contributes greatly to the brilliancy of certain businesses without necessarily taking centre stage because many feminine values are to be found in the collective.
Transformation is needed of the feminine world and of the masculine world too, which goes hand in hand with the rediscovery not to say discovery of an authentic inner leadership.
This calling invites a constant transformation which is what collectively we are living right now in these disruptive times.
Personally she has lived through many deep transformations already and starting from scratch is something she knows. If there is a pattern that repeats itself it is the one of individual transformation yet this time widely shared with many others.
The compassion she feels for many who suffer is a calling that becomes an engagement and commitment to help personal transformation to manifest itself externally to shape future scenarios created by a collective intelligence.
There is not one magic constant formula. We are all floating in some way or other on waves of joy and despair, of results and total nothingness of tiredness and energetic vitality.
Mindfulness, Yoga and above all conscious body movement sustain her in these times where working from home and reinventing new practices with clients is far from smart just now.
She unites her innate passion and love for dance with the conscious movement to regenerate the self, acquire new insights and see other possibilities to recover personal balance. So any practice that unites body and mind be that through music or walking in nature is precious to her.