Who We Are: London
Anne Owen
I have worked at Sheppard Moscow Ltd (SML) for 11 years and I am a Partner and leader in the business.
Before joining SML, I had an eight year career in the Civil Service where my roles included rehabilitation counseling, customer satisfaction work, running internal attitude surveys to support organization development and working as an internal consultant on personnel policy in the Cabinet Office.
Since joining SML, I have worked in many varied areas, but some of my favourites, which have been both satisfying and enjoyable, were:
- Helping merging organizations to make a vital cultural shift, through identifying shared values and goals and agreeing new ways of working together as well as honouring their pasts;
- Working with operator teams in a food manufacturing company to be more proactive and independent by helping them to be more skilled at solving problems encountered on the line;
- Developing coaching as a managerial style in a mutual building society in order for it to be more service oriented and less hierarchical;
- Supporting a newly created organisation to design appropriate ways of working;
- Developing consultants to be less expert and more process-oriented so that they can create lasting change within their client systems.
I also particularly enjoy working with leadership teams to develop their own purpose and way of working.
Clients and colleagues have described my key qualities as incisiveness, perceptiveness; being very "human" in my work, and a high standard of professionalism. Some of my core beliefs are to work with seriousness of purpose, but lightness of approach; to approach life from a systems-thinking perspective; to respect an individual's capacity for managing her / his own progress and growth; and to start each assignment with a clear answer to the question "why are we doing this?". I become very loyal to my client organizations and usually shop in their stores, buy their products and open accounts with them.
I am currently exploring the possibilities of internet technology for our business, particularly how it can help our clients to grow and develop in a world where time is a very scarce commodity.
I am also a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. I have two children and work half-time in order to create balance in my life. I am also a school governor, an active fund-raiser and love singing.