From the East End of London to India, Dominica and then back again, Martha Cuffy is an executive coach with a high-powered career who embraces female empowerment and racial equality.
Starting as a part-time sales assistant in Ravels London she continuously climbed the career ladder to become a corporate employee at Deloitte, working on multimillion-pound tech projects whilst edging towards a career in executive coaching every step of the way.
Read the conversation between The Diverse Executive Coaching Directory (DECD) and Martha Cuffy to explore her full life journey, and career as a coach.
DECD: What was your very first job?
Martha:
My first job was a part-time sales assistant in Ravel’s shoe shop on Oxford St when I was 15. Back then it was late night Thursday opening plus Saturday shift that I worked. I also did a Christmas stint at Argos during sixth form in East Ham. I also did two brain numbing days in a bonded factory wiping bottle labels during my time at Bristol University – I did not last!
My first full time job post university was working for BT as a contractor. Not what I expected after having had multiple graduate milk round interviews but it was a good lesson in understanding what skills you can pick up where and the level of assumptions you may or may not carry as a working class woman from Plaistow. I ended up dealing with a lot of high level complaints because I could build rapport with people and write succinctly.
My biggest growth spurt career-wise was working for an American entrepreneur who was one of the first Apple systems integrators. I spoke at tech conferences in San Francisco, New York and around France. It also meant I got to go to an annual tech conference at Aspen – and fit in a bit of skiing! I ended up as a Director of this company. I learnt so much but didn’t realise it until I did my MBA one year later in 1998- 1999.
A pivotal moment was choosing to do a project with Deloitte during my MBA study instead of going on what would have been a jolly to do my project in Chile. I interviewed those who led the dotcom strategy of some UK retailers including Tesco’s which in the 90s was pretty non-existent.
My biggest crisis point career-wise was at Deloitte. I loved tech but not doing corporate finance deals. I worked with some interesting people along the way like Jamie Oliver and Renee Carayol but the work did not move me. It also gave me ethical dilemmas. I worked on a dotcom deal that created the largest online gambling site in the world. What I did love was spotting trends and working with the management teams who wanted to raise funding. And in my spare time my astute lawyer friend would send people to me to “coach” about their next steps.
I was thankfully made redundant in 2001 and spent the next year working in different sectors such as ethical investing and CSR inspired by a course I had done at Schumacher College on Business and Sustainability. What I noticed is what the internal journey was missing. It was all about telling the other what to do and how wrong they were. After having a very potent dream in 2002 I decided to sell my nice but overly mortgaged flat in Maida Vale and commit to a two year Masters degree in Yoga Psychology in a remote part of India. Yes, I can really go for something and I realise that some of my clients think of me when they want to make a bold move. Lol.
DECD: What inspired you to become a coach?
Martha:
It was a natural choice. As I mentioned before I had a wise lawyer friend who used to send people to me to “coach” when they were at a crossroads in their lives.
When I returned from India in 2004 (I managed to be in a safe place during the tragic tsunami of 2004) a close friend was about to start a CTI coaching course and so I joined in!
Another person who helped me was Di Kamp. A former Deloitte colleague suggested I travel to see her. She gave me some invaluable mentoring. I left her home with an impactful metaphor about the need to learn wilderness skills when you fall off the tarmac road of life.
DECD: As a coach what led you to specialise in the particular area that you concentrate on (eg. leadership, personal development etc)
From my ORSC (Organisational Relationship Systems Coaching) training I learnt that how some people look at and experience leadership can be limited.
Living in Dominica for seven years led me to design a course for the University of the West INdies (UWI) called Leadership Presence. I had a bee in my bonnet about supporting current and future leaders. This is also linked to my study of the body. I practice qi gong, am a certified TRE (Trauma & Tension Release Exercises) Provider as well as being a Yoga Psychologist so I have explored different ways in which our leadership is experienced and perceived as collapsed or lacking “gravitas” due to the level of stress and trauma trapped in the body which the mind does its best to pretend isn’t there to keep the person safe.
I am told my approach is more holistic and opens up new dimensions that include and go beyond the logical/rational.
Many leaders do not feel secure in their leadership because they have a tenuous relationship to their body.
So for me embodied leadership is very important. There are so many different forms of intelligence and mainstream education values one over all others – the logical/cerebral. This body wisdom is held in indigenous songs and dances.
We can remember and learn so many resources once we appreciate the role our nervous system plays in regulating how we show up in meetings – are we radiating calm or panic? I once worked with a senior military leader who spoke about how he drank a cup of tea radiating calm before a mission with his troops.
In the past few years I have been called more into service to support black leaders who now realise the level of the charged load they are carrying inside and how this impacts their leadership. I have had the fortune to be part of global learning groups facilitated by people like Karine Bell, Amber McZeal and Resmaa Menakem (My Grandmother’s Hands) where we explore the impact of racism on the body and exploring what does it take to create a new culture where the flow of love can go to all regardless of your pigmentation level. This is emergent so goes beyond what is being taught in coaching schools.
DECD: What is the most interesting part of your work?
Martha:
Seeing the aha moments when leaders become very self-aware and relax more into an embodied leadership which everyone can pick up like a distinctive perfume.
DECD: What is the one project/case that you’re most proud of in your career and why?
Martha:
The programme I conceived with Shirley McAlpine. The idea was planted on my porch when I lived in Dominica in 2014. Shirley was visiting. We discussed wanting to support black leaders more in the UK. Had no idea how it would happen in reality.
Fast forward to a devastating tropical storm in 2015 and I found myself living in the UK. We partnered with Windsor Leadership to create the Inspiring Black and Asian Leaders programme. This was a six month retreat for senior leaders held at Windsor Castle and Cumberland Lodge.
We invited Patrick Vernon OBE to be the third person in the facilitation team. This happened over 2017-2018.
It was important for many reasons. It showed what was possible. To create from nothing. To invite people to take up space in an environment whose history can be very triggering. These leaders got to see themselves in communion in a different way. There was a felt sense of safety. Their faith played a big role in their leadership, an aspect I feel is downplayed in leadership development. One was the first black Bishop in 25 years in the Church of England. Another a senior Sikh female police officer whose authority covered Windsor Castle (handy as we were staying there) and the home of then PM Theresa May. One a gold Olympian, then President of UK Athletics. Another now Vice Principal at King’s College London.
And to continue to see how these leaders have grown is an honour. Wanda Wyporska for example is now becoming the new CEO of Black Equity Organisation. Aftab Rahman is currently raising funds to build an eco school in Bangladesh.
I also like to think that we sprinkled some “good trouble” in St George’ Chapel. 2 months after our private tour of the chapel, Harry Meghan announced their intention to marry there eight months later.
DECD: What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion in the workplace in today’s society?
Martha:
As a black woman born in the UK this is a long and deep topic. I like to dig deeper than the words diversity and inclusion. As one of my inspirations Resmaa Menakem always asks – diverse from what?
I wish we did more body-based (somatic) exploration of how the cultures in which we live and work are experienced in our bodies and not just in our minds.
We would experience the reality of about what we have internalised as to who is worthy or not based on the arbitrary ladder of skin colour or some other characteristic. Living in a pigmentocracy can be hard work when so many are unaware of the inner experience that some face daily. Rushing to fix without the visceral, emotional and spiritual understanding of what it is to live with a structural advantage which supports you staying ignorant can easily backfire.
And so more is needed than policy and strategy – so I wonder – how self-aware and embodied is the person making the decisions? There would be far more honesty and progress if we did.
DECD: What about your heritage makes you feel proud?
Martha:
I was born an East Ender. My parents were born in Wai’tukubuli – otherwise known as Dominica – situated between Guadeloupe and Martinique. Wai’tukubuli means = tall is her body.
They came to the UK in 1960. I am grateful that my parents made a commitment to make sure we visited where they were born. That commitment continues to transform me. Visiting Dominica as a two year old I was bathed in a tin tub containing various leaves, my first exposure to the wonders of medicinal plants. In my 20s it really woke me up to what we were doing to the planet, and thus ourselves. To the beauty of the world of which Dominica is a microcosm. Dominica is nearly ⅔ rainforest covered so it is very lush, not like other Caribbean islands.
I have had the fortune of living in Dominica for seven years as an adult in my late 30s. It expanded my range of how I show up as a leader. I explored and utilised so many of my skills. For example I was fed up with how the island was perceived so I designed a rainforest garden experience called Primal Spa which ended up being featured in the top travel magazine – Travel and Leisure. I was the founding President of the Dominica Health & Wellness Association, a board member of an organisation to help young entrepreneurs and designed a course on Leadership Presence for the University of West Indies.
DECD: What do you do outside of work?
Meeting random people and finding people we have in common.
I love walking along the Thames river.
Whenever I am in Dominica I love hiking parts of the Wai’tukubuli National Trail which at 114 miles is the longest trail in the Caribbean and finding a waterfall to bathe in at the end.
I love word play and writing Haikus is one expression of that although I am feeling a tad rusty right now.
Qi Gong. I spent a week on retreat in Portugal last year qualifying as a Quan Yin qi gong instructor.
I love visiting exhibitions that expand my sense of myself and the world. Like Kusama’s work or the In the Black Fantastic exhibition which drew on science fiction, myth and Afrofuturism to question our knowledge of the world.
Finding ways to explore the body that are both playful and transformational.
DECD: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read this week?
A reportage into the plight of many women who work in tea plantations in Kenya. A Kenyan reporter went undercover to do this dangerous work.
DECD: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Martha:
Sleep on a decision especially when you feel under pressure to give an answer. Allow slumber time to move it through. That is how I decided to sell up and move to India for my MA in Yoga Psychology!
DECD: What is your favourite movie, book, song, album or quote?
Martha:
Dancing to Janet Jackson’s – Rhythm Nation. I bought the DVD. Such an innovator.
Interested in working with Martha? Find out more about her professional coaching career here
