I love Seela’s story. Born to two journalists (and refugees), she was displaced from her birthplace before age six and by age 13 had lived on three continents. Through transparent dialogue in the home, her parents taught she and her siblings to debate difficult topics with candor, grace, and respect. Because of the diversity and deep honesty in which she was raised, Seela very easily connects with those she serves in many authentic ways. Having experienced it firsthand, I can attest to the ease by which she builds trust.

She helps teams to establish their vision, facilitate 360 degree assessments, administer the DISC assessment, knows change management well, teaches us how to do conflict well, and she has supported many in succession planning. Seela understands how to connect organizational strategy to learning and development strategy to make learning scalable, repeatable, and measurable. In our conversation, she offered tremendous examples of how comfort, loneliness, and lack of action kills growth. We also joked about how “ghosting” still happens in professional environments. We need that to stop.

Some of her favorites resources include Simon Sinek’s Start With Why, NPR’s podcast Hidden Brain, Daily News from the New York Times, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and Nomadland by Jessica Bruder. When I asked her about how she would help people break free from society’s mold, she reminded everyone there is no mold. There is no prescribed path… simply a series of choices.

Seela Farani-Simmons is an impactful organizational, learning, and leadership development expert whose career spans over 15 years across a variety of industries, including finance, retail, hospitality, and healthcare. She has worked with business leaders and HR professionals around the globe and in organizations ranging from small, start-up environments to large-scale Fortune 100 organizations. Seela holds a Master’s degree in the Psychology of Leadership at Work from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication from Arizona State University.  She is also a member of the Association for Talent Development, the National Speakers Association, and the International Coach Federation.

To learn more about Seela’s work, please visit www.seelasimmons.com,  https://www.linkedin.com/in/seela-simmons-726b935, https://twitter.com/SeelaConsulting, and her podcast https://www.facebook.com/InspiredWomenInspire.