Karen is an exceptional facilitator and speaker. Her work at TheEnergy Project has ranged from facilitating c-suite groups, largemanagement teams and giving inspiring key notes to senioraudiences. She always radiates confidence and enthusiasm. Karen is an exceptional facilitator and speaker.
Karen Downes
Transcending Business as Usual
My personal mission is to unleash the potential of the human spirit and for all to flourish.
Over the breadth of my 30-year career I have built successful companies and supported civil society organisations, advised business leaders and led development programmes around the world to achieve measurable results. During this time, I’ve learned what it takes to tackle difficult issues such as gender equanimity, how to build resilience in facing adversity and setbacks, how to infuse business with purpose and how to engage people in meaningful work to ensure they bring their best of themselves to any endeavour.
I have designed and facilitated hundreds of programmes to empower women and men to be authors of their own lives, to fulfil their potential and live true to their higher purpose. I have witnessed the extraordinary breakthroughs that are possible when we are released from the constraints of our out-dated beliefs and unconscious counterproductive behaviours. Only then can we recognise our inherent human value and potential.
In the end it takes the fierce courage to initiate our own and others’ transformation.
Read MoreNew ways of living and leading
What I do
Create opportunities in all sectors of industry and levels of society that enable people to transcend their current state to a new level of consciousness, to take their rightful place as responsible citizens contributing to a better world.
The things I care about
Core Topics
Elevating consciousness
Consciousness lies beyond the rational mind. Bridging the divide between psychology and spirituality, logic and intuition, the personal and the professional is needed today to transform the old ways of working that no longer serve.
Human flourishing
Flourishing lies beyond the basics of health and wellbeing. It requires individual responsibility and intention to develop our inner resources: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual intelligence is essential for capacity building and resilience.
Community building
High peforming teams compete to win, functioning communities thrive on shared valuee and support of one another. Leaders today need to capably manage both.
Ethical Leadership
Values, virtues and character strengths are respected in great leaders as they stand for a better future for the company, their people and the planet.
Respect for diversity
Everyone included and no one left out speaks of inclusivity, but this is not possible when difference is judged versus respected. When the people value 'different to me' then another way forward is possible.
Societal and systemic change
Systems and structures hold laws, mindsets, methodologies and behaviours in place. When inside the system it is hard to see what is needed for change, developing the ability to step outside and see what is emerging and what is needed is essential.
from corporate executive suites to women in rural villages
Who I Am
I have worked with and learned from great leaders around the world. These people often rise to be heard in the most unlikely places or situations but always when they are needed most. They are to found in the corporate boardrooms, heading an organisation, on the warehouse floor or in the remote villages of India and Bangladesh.
I have fostered the confidence of reluctant leaders, encouraged those who were suppressed, empowered the voiceless to find their voice and supported those who saw possibilty to take a stand.
To travel with them on their journey as they found the courage and commitment to transfrom a system that was unjust, to stand for business as a force for good or to create a culture that served the whole, has been extraordinary. Always this has required a shift in belief and a mindset that was constrained by the past.
I have facilitated hundreds of programmes to empower women and men to be authors of their own lives and to fulfil their potential. This has been my life’s work and continues to be the work I love to do.
What I like to talk about
What I Am About
Latest News
Finding lessons and meaning through adversity I was so excited to be going home. My daughter and I had planned..
Download the article here.