Lisa Lyons, a Career in Sales and Consultancy

I lead the Leadership & Workforce Transformation Practice for Mercer in the UK. We work with our clients to help them solve their most difficult people challenges. This can be projects to develop future leadership, introduce a new performance management approach or a total transformation of the HR function. In my role, I am responsible for developing new business and managing senior client relationships as well as leading the team of 12 people in the practice.  I take time to ensure that all our goals are aligned, that people feel engaged in their work and constantly improve how we do work over time.

I started my career working as an Area Sales Representative for Delice de France, and sold bread, croissants and cakes to our customers in the Manchester area in the UK. After one year I joined Capgemini Consulting as a graduate consultant. Here I was able to work on many different types of projects including customer experiencing planning, strategy events and developing employee communications.  What stood out most for me was learning how to work in a collaborative way. We often used interviews, focus groups, workshops and lots of communications to engage our clients in the work.

Following this time, I joined the Deloitte Human Capital Practice in Brisbane, Australia. I clearly remember the energy and vibrancy in the people and the market. Having left the global financial crisis in London, Australia was less affected and was going through a natural resources boom. I learnt so much from my colleagues and worked on interesting projects in both Sydney and Brisbane. After some time, I moved to Mercer to specialise further in the area of leadership and talent management in Human Resources. I had some fantastic inspirational women mentors in this role, that I still work with today. They believed in me and championed my progress in my career.

After thinking very carefully about the next stage in my career, I wanted to take time to re-skill and stretch myself. I joined the International MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. Working with students from across the world I embarked on the MBA journey. It was a seriously tough year! Long hours, testing times during team projects and so many presentations. It was at this point that I joined that Women in Business Club Board. It was a time when I was seeing gender biases in the workplace and wanted to get more involved in influencing the conversation.

After the MBA, I feel that I emerged with more confidence in myself, which was a major breakthrough. After returning to the UK, I rejoined Mercer as a Senior Associate in the London Office. I have had great opportunities to run new projects on a global scale and develop the business. Since then, I have been promoted to where I am today.

MEET & GREET WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE IE´S INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S BOARD.
V CYCLE OF CONVERSATIONS.
WITH LISA LYONS.

26 JUNE
11:00 CET
VENUE: https://ieuniversity.zoom.us/j/97416440278

Powered by IE Women in collaboration with the IE Center for Diversity and IE´s International Women´s Board.