Embarking on a career journey often shapes our perspectives and equips us with invaluable skills, and for Dina Rana, her first professional experience was a profound catalyst for her future as an executive coach. Right after graduating university, she dove into the Boots Graduate Training Scheme in Nottingham, where she found herself entrusted with responsibilities that would typically daunt even seasoned professionals. In a remarkable twist of fate, Dina was tasked with mentoring high-level executives, including the Chief Marketing Officer and the challenging Heads of Marketing, drawing upon her foundational coaching knowledge obtained through her HR qualifications. This eye-opening experience not only nurtured her innate leadership potential but also laid the groundwork for her illustrious career. In this exclusive Q&A, Dina reflects on the bold steps she took early in her career and how those formative moments shaped her approach to coaching and leadership in the corporate world. Join us as we delve into her inspiring journey, highlighting the lessons learned along the way.
DECD: What was your very first job?
Dina:
My first ‘proper job’ was straight after university on the Boots Graduate Training Scheme based in Nottingham. But if I look right back, my first ever job was aged 16 on the photographic counter at my local Boots the Chemist branch in Bolton! It was probably here that I learnt to admire and respect what the parent brand stood for and what led me to apply for their Graduate Scheme partway through my undergraduate degree. I was really proud of myself for getting selected for one of the 20 or so places out of 30,000 applications. It’s this scheme that I credit for ‘cutting my teeth’ in the world of business. We’d rotate for 6 months at a time to work across different functions like HR or marketing, whilst also attending residential training courses to accelerate our leadership skills. We were really lucky to have this level of investment in us, simply because someone believed in our abilities as future leaders. It’s here that I began my Coaching journey.
DECD: What inspired you to become a coach?
Dina:
During my time on the Boots Graduate Scheme, we were thrown into scenarios that you could never imagine a 21-year-old to be responsible for! Simply because those in power believed we had the potential to be the future leaders of the company. For me, one of these was to act as coach, mentor and business advisor to the Chief Marketing Officer and the three (sometimes warring) Heads of Marketing for the international marketing division that I supported as HR business partner. As part of my Masters’ degree in Human Resources and my Charted Institute of Personnel and Development qualification, I’d received foundational training on how to coach others. But the business didn’t know this! It was just fortuitous for the people that I coached! So later when I joined the BBC, I applied for another development programme to be formally trained by the ICF as an Executive Coach over two years alongside my Marketing role. I got selected and once qualified took on internal clients, supporting a range of established and emerging leaders on all sorts of work place challenges. From overcoming imposter syndrome, to developing their personal leadership style, to fostering high performance in others. I’d also been coached myself in the past and had first-hand experience of the potential it had to super-charge your growth. It opened up within me totally undiscovered areas that wouldn’t have been discovered without the gentle aid of an external person. I was glad to be able to do this for others too.
DECD: As a coach what led you to specialise in the particular area that you concentrate on
Dina:
Since I’ve been trained in a corporate environment and to meet the needs of the business who employs me, I’ve started off as an accredited Executive Coach. But over the last 15 years, and with my own continued professional development, I’ve learned that what someone brings into the work space starts off very much in their personal space. The confidence gap, battles with figures of authority, fear of speaking in public or asserting boundaries, self-doubt, over-compensating, addictive tendencies (delete as appropriate), doesn’t only reside at work. It starts long before, and impacts other parts of our lives too. I’ve heard some coaches express that ‘they’re not psychotherapists’ and therefore have felt uncomfortable dealing with some of this more trauma-based work. My personal belief is that when you coach, even in the workplace, you deal with the whole person and can’t separate the impacts that some of these other experiences have on a person. So you must have some psychology or psychotherapeutic training and experience to fully support a person. This is my specialist area. Supporting people with the changes that they want in their careers and work lives, whilst navigating that through the lens of the personal ‘inner rule book’ and how that might be inhibiting or empowering them both at work and outside. My passion is to do this for under-represented groups. Women, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ communities. Whilst I have been given endless training and opportunities, I’ve seen first-hand how these resources aren’t shared equally. But they can be. If only people knew who and how to ask. That’s the work that I love to support people in.
DECD: What is the most interesting part of your work?
Dina:
The people that I meet. Whether they are Directors, Nurses, Analysts, Business Founders or anything in between. It’s just a joy to support people in achieving that ‘AHA! Moment’. Where they finally unlock something that’s been blocking them for probably most of their adult life. What’s most fascinating is that no matter what the sex, seniority or status of these individuals, most of us deal with the same fundamental challenges of being human. We have more in common than what differentiates us. Often even just understanding that basic truth, and that you’re not alone in your struggle, can be very releasing and open up avenues that were previously felt impossible.
DECD: What is the one project/case that you’re most proud of in your career and why?
Dina:
I’ve been a Coach on the NHS’s digital leadership fellowship since its inception. I’m proud to support this Network, because it aims to give leaders of colour access to some of the tools, training and support that are so easily accessible within the corporate world. The goal being to level out some of the disparities of representation within senior NHS leadership. When I talk to my coachees, who range from 19 to 60+ years of age, it’s both amazing and saddening to see how very capable and experienced people are carrying around deep wounds of prejudice and inequality, suffered within their workplace. When they needn’t be. When we work through these blockages over the course of several sessions and I learn what they go on to achieve after they’ve found their new sense of freedom, I’m so incredibly proud of them and their efforts.
DECD: What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion in the workplace in today’s society?
Dina:
As a Race Ahead Instructor and coach, my journey in diversity and inclusion is deeply personal. Growing up in diverse environments, I experienced firsthand the power and need for spaces where everyone—especially those from underrepresented backgrounds—feels genuinely seen, valued, and empowered. This work is more than a role; it’s a calling shaped by my own experiences and the stories that have stayed with me.
DECD: What about your heritage makes you feel proud?
Dina:
Being Indian, one of the principal tenants of my heritage is the concept of ‘seva’ which literally translated means ‘selfless service’. So, there’s a big emphasis (for those who practice the concept of seva) to volunteer and donate to beneficiaries other than themselves. Not just money, but your time too. I think it’s this which was drummed into me from a very early age that subconsciously moved me towards this world of personal development and leadership, even before I was getting paid for it. I’m passionate about it because supporting people to be the best versions of themselves hopefully inspires them to ‘pass it forward’ to others too. So, I need to thank my parents. I might not have appreciated what they were saying when I was a kid – but I do now!
DECD: What do you do outside of work?
Dina:
My passion for transforming people extends to one of my favourite hobbies too! Which is transforming properties. Taking a shell of potential and building it into something really beautiful. My husband and I are currently in the middle of developing our own home and at some point, would like to ‘flip’ other properties. Kirsty and Phil – watch this space! I also need the restorative power of green spaces and nature. So, most days you’ll find me walking my dog for at least an hour a day in green space, just deep breathing.
DECD: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read this week?
Dina:
It’s an old one, but I’m currently reading Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’. It’s literally changed my whole perspective on sleep. I’d highly recommend it! I always thought that you could catch up on sleep hours missed. But apparently not. And it’s giving me a newfound understanding of how so much creative thought and unlocking of problems (and mental health) is done within sleep. The power of an afternoon nap – which I thought was just slothful – well apparently, it’s not. It’s like taking a dose of medicine! Now that finished the book and got over my guilt of not sleeping enough, I understand what athletes do to enhance sleep and I’m making a real effort to get a maximum amount of quality hours.
DECD: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Dina:
Fake it ‘til you make it. Now I don’t mean drive a car if you’ve never stepped into one, but there’s certainly some truth to this advice. I first heard this as a 20 something entering the media world. An industry that felt completely alien to me and I didn’t feel worthy of being within it. Despite being selected through a competitive process my self-doubt demons wouldn’t shut up. A wonderful and wise woman, who’s still a dear friend gave me this advice. I couldn’t believe that something so simple would actually work. I exclaimed back at her, ‘but what if I never make it?’ and she said, ‘keep faking it’. And what do you know? She was right. In this very simple set of words is wrapped a piece of deep, cognitive psychology. Which is; our beliefs about ourselves dictate our behaviours. Our behaviours dictate how people respond to us. Which reinforces our beliefs and behaviours. If we can act like we have comfort and confidence we can, over time, reverse engineer our (authentic) beliefs to align with our (‘fake’) behaviours. My clever friend basically CBT’d me over a sandwich.
DECD: What is your favourite movie, book, song, album or quote?
Dina:
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world”.
Interested in working with Dina? Find out more about her professional coaching career here.
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