Susan West

Susan West, Managing Director - SJ West Leadership Consulting

Susan West is Managing Director at SJ West Leadership Consulting, a Brussels-based coaching and development firm. She is an executive coach who brings a wealth of business experience and leadership insights to help individuals and teams build the competencies they need to lead at a higher level. In addition, she is an angel investor and advisor for start-ups and small enterprises. After earning a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages from Princeton University and a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University, she embarked on her first career where over the course of 20 years she held leadership roles in several Fortune 100 companies including Citibank, Honeywell and Merck & Co. Her responsibilities included leadership and organization development, talent management, succession planning and management of enterprise-wide change initiatives in the context of growth initiatives, restructuring, M&As and JVs. She held positions at the business unit and corporate level. In 2006 she found herself at a crossroads. Deciding to devote more time to achieving a balanced life and focusing on her passions – inspiring people to grow their personal leadership capability in their current role and at critical career transition points, she changed career and country. Susan left the corporate world, moved from the U.S. to Belgium and joined a global non-profit association in Brussels as Chief HR Officer. New opportunities arrived in 2010 to work as an independent consultant with business leaders and engage in new projects with SMEs, government, associations, start-ups and private clients. Susan is a member of the Executive Education faculty at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management. She is an ambassador and mentor for MizBiz, a leading Belgium-based professional association for women. She is a regular speaker and guest lecturer at international congresses. Born in New York, she is based in Brussels and has dual American/ Belgian nationality.

Workshop - Secret Success Factors of Leading Change: Using Your Head and Heart to Make the Difference

On some level change happens all the time in organizations. It may be small and affect just a few in their day-to-day work, or it may be a complete transformation touching many people inside and outside the organization. For decades we have benefited from the research and wisdom of change management gurus, but we still struggle. Even worse is the dis-engagement people often experience during and after a change initiative that can become part of the institutional memory and affect future attempts to grow your organization and keep it relevant. Sometimes we don’t have the experience to navigate through organizational change, but often we have the knowledge or engage the help of experts that do and even then we are not always successful in achieving the intended goals. Sometimes the change simply does not stick.

In this workshop you will learn some of the rarely discussed success factors behind the famous best practices of change management. We will look at why it is a strategic advantage to use your head and your heart to plan the journey and then take yourself and your people through it. You will learn what to look at to analyze the readiness of your organization for change and how to incorporate the humans side into your plans and actions. On an organizational level, we will look at using organizational culture as an enabler of reaching the desired future state. Come join us and learn how to tap into your Practical Warrior and your Emotional Lover as you move yourself and your organization through change that is sustainable and grows and develops people in the process.