About Maria
Maria’s expertise is grounded in over 25 of years of operational, organisational and inspirational leadership in policing within three different organisations. Her passion, focus and motivational skills not only propel her but have proved contagious to those she leads who then seek to emulate a similarly engaging, caring, supportive but service focused leadership approach.
As senior leader for over 20 years, there are few personal and organisational challenges and changes that she hasn’t faced. Gifted with exceptional people and relationship management skills, Maria has consistently demonstrated the ability to build effective relationships internally and externally whilst also equipping her team members to do likewise.
Adaptable and resilient, with proven skills in creating and facilitating positive and thriving team-working cultures, Maria values equality and inclusion and recognises the creativity that working with diverse teams brings. Her strong communication skills have developed over many years working with a complex array of senior external stakeholders from local authority, business, voluntary and government sectors.
Learning from her own “lived” experience of burnout in 2020 and writing candidly about her recovery back to full health and what she describes as her highest levels of resilience and health, [Crisis to Comeback – a roadmap to health transformation after burnout], Maria has developed a roadmap for others to prevent burnout, as well as tools to aid recovery. Her adversity during that time has become a springboard for her to equip others not only to improve their own personal resilience but also to develop lifestyle approaches to prioritise wellbeing and simultaneously optimise leadership resilience and effectiveness.
Maria says “My best years are ahead and I plan to use all the experience, expertise and skills I have developed over the last 30 years to equip and support individuals and organisations to optimise personal and organisational leadership approaches, leading WELL so that all can thrive.
Maria lives in Burton on Trent, Staffordshire. She has always been sporty though nowadays likes cycling, particularly in Majorca in the summer and ski ing in the winter. She has an ambition to become qualified as a ski instructor as she loves the mountains and helping others to enjoy one of her favourite pursuits as much as she does !
Summary
Public speaker, Author, retired Chief Superintendent with over 20 years of senior leadership experience in 3 police forces – Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Derbyshire. Former senior leader in the voluntary sector and founder/trustee of a charity. Group Fitness, personal trainer and health coaching professional.
Skills and Experience
- Excellent leadership, communication, presentation and change management skills.
- Extensive and broad scope of operational, community, and strategic organisational policing experience
- Expertise in leadership across multiple contexts – professional [policing] voluntary [church], instructor [group fitness] – from small teams of 10 – 12 to accountability for leading teams with 100 leaders and 500 frontline officers and staff.
- High levels of motivation, positivity, enthusiasm and ability to “get things done”.
- Ability to see things from the perspective of others and tailor approaches accordingly.
- Listening skills – enhanced by completing external coaching accreditation programme.
- Negotiating and influencing skills enabling and engendering collaboration, team cohesion and “buy in”.
- Extensive understanding of wellbeing and impact factors on physical, mental and emotional health
Professional Qualifications
Police Senior leadership programmes, Strategic Firearms Commander, Gold Multi-agency Incident Commander, Tactical Firearms Commander, Bronze/Silver Public Order Commander, PIP 4 and SIO development programme. Kidnap & Extortion Senior Investigating officer, RIPA Authorising officer, Sporting Events Commander.
Qualifications
- MBA Public Service – University of Birmingham
- This Naked Mind accredited coach
- Lumen metabolic health coach
- Coming Soon! Level 4 Personal training, Obesity management and lower back pain
- Level 3 Fitness and group exercise programmes
- BA Hons Theology – University of Manchester
Honours and Awards
- Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal
- Queens Golden Jubilee Medal
- Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal
- Chief Constable’s Commendation for bravery