What was your background before joining Stroud?

I joined Stroud after graduating from Imperial College London with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering. As a student, I worked for a "year in industry” at a leading technology innovation and product development consultancy, where I designed and prototyped novel food & beverage devices, as well as interning at of the world's largest FMCG companies.

What is a typical day for an Engagement Lead?

There are very few 'typical' weeks as an engagement lead, which is part of why I enjoy it so much. Any given week might include a mix of:

• Travelling to one or more of my teams on client site to set direction, coach them on skills they are developing, or help them break through on a particularly challenging technical problem-solve.

• Meeting with current clients to set the vision for the next phase of a project.

• Speaking with prospective new clients, understanding their aspirations and challenges and how we can help.

• Running formal training to develop the capability of our Stroud team, or one of our clients' teams.

I have also taken the opportunity to become involved in the commercial side, and I really appreciate the experience I am getting in helping to run our London operations.

In what ways have you developed professionally since joining?

The most profound shift in my development has been the transition from personally delivering awesome results, to managing and developing our incredibly talented people to deliver those results themselves. This has meant learning to tailor my leadership style to different individuals, to give effective feedback, to step back from the detail and provide 'big-picture' direction, to know when to give people a brief and the autonomy to execute on it, and when to provide hands-on support to someone navigating something new. Learning how to effectively unleash the potential in others has been both the most challenging and the most rewarding part of my growth.

What have been your favourite moments on the job so far?

Internally: Every time I see someone that I have managed or coached, get a big 'win' (deliver big financial results for a client, crack a previously-thought-impossible problem, have a tough conversation they were shying away from, etc.). At this point, I'm fortunate enough to see something like this every week.

With clients: The special relationships and trust you build when you've helped them make change that they can see in their operations, people and ultimately in their P&L. It's a very satisfying feeling when a once-highly-skeptical German plant manager has you round their house for dinner, or takes you to their favourite beer garden!