“So many organizational and community leaders are exhausted, working to be of service while feeling depleted without even knowing why,” reports Sheila Delaney, a Leadership Coach and Facilitator who founded her firm, The Delaney Duke Group, in Bellevue more than 20 years ago. As she considers what’s up in leadership right now, she is clear: “There is not much more important for women, in particular, than ensuring we are connected to our vitality and creativity. It’s where our resilience and resourcefulness live.”

Sheila describes herself as a “recovering attorney” from Calgary, Alberta, where she grew up and practiced corporate law. She admits that coaching found her, rather than the other way around. “I met a woman at a job fair who introduced herself as an Executive Coach. I had no idea what that meant, and told her I had to take her to lunch. She rocked my world at a little restaurant in Santa Monica, California.” Sheila continues. “I came home from that lunch, looked at my husband, and declared ‘I'm not a lawyer. I'm a coach.’ He agreed. My identity shifted that day.”

Sheila was soon pursuing coaching credentials, leaving the law behind as work brought them to Bellevue. She was a natural for both coaching and facilitation, working most often with executive teams and boards of directors. She found a niche quickly, saying, “I was drawn into intense situations that required Public Relations to handle media and communications. I was called in to restore team, focus, and get everyone back to the business that needed doing.” She remembers a call from a client admitting to trying another facilitator first, who wasn’t up to the challenge. Sheila got to work.

“I love charged spaces, which is weird, I suppose,” she muses. “I have such compassion for the people who are leading and setting the tone through hard things for a whole organization. Too often, we skip the grief stage of crisis,” she emphasizes. “I think I make it okay to be human and I highlight the value of self-awareness. I don’t shy away from much, which helps and is probably a function of my own background and life experience.”

Post pandemic, Sheila sees leaders trying to chart new paths with tools that used to work but work no longer. “Fortunately, people are amazing,” she states. “But the going is strange. We lost in-office rituals that people took for granted, even as these rituals helped them navigate power dynamics and relationships. Walking into a boardroom, for example, sets the mind to a particular set of tasks and walking out shifts the mind again.” She sees compromised resilience, exhaustion, and reduced tolerance for tension everywhere. She has been getting smart about collective trauma since COVID. “I see a need to breathe life back into all of us,” she reveals. “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for their influence. Senior leaders must do so, but they aren’t the only ones shaping culture. The need for conscious leadership has never been higher. I see women, in particular, reframing how they show up. It’s time. It’s what I’m most often asked to speak about and I’m glad for it.”

Sheila is launching a podcast, ‘Crazy Beautiful Truth,’ and returning to speaking, especially to women’s groups. She recently presented at a ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ event, and focused on empowering attendees to reclaim themselves from the stories that told them who they ought to be. “My key message to this community of women was about loving ourselves back to life, waking up to boundaries, and the cost of trying to be someone we aren’t. Why is it that 70-80% of auto-immune sufferers are women? The connection is shocking,” she points out.

Reflecting on West Bellevue, Sheila smiles. “Both my daughters were born and raised here in West Bellevue, launching into the world from Bellevue High,” she shares. “Our eldest is in Canada and our youngest is a senior at BHS now. Bellevue has been a beautiful place to build a nest for my family and raise our daughters. And for my part,” she concludes, “I’ve grown so much here with both happy and sad things. I’ve done cool work, served in my own leadership capacities, and lived in three different homes. Mountains are my soul food. My partner and I can hike Twin Falls in the morning and be back to the desk in the afternoon. I love this city. May I be of service right here at home.”