Hi, I’m Lara Meyer
My career has never fitted particularly neatly into one box.
It began in research and insight, took me into leadership and business building, through large global organisations and smaller entrepreneurial environments, into self-employment, coaching and facilitation, and most recently into the world of education.
Along the way, I’ve lived and worked across countries, cultures and very different organisational contexts.
For a long time, those transitions could look like changes of direction.
Increasingly, I see the value in the connections between them...
A career across contexts
Research was my professional starting point. Over nearly two decades, including roles with Kantar/TNS and Microsoft, I learnt how to ask better questions, make sense of incomplete and sometimes contradictory information, and turn evidence into something people could actually act upon.
But some of my most important learning came from deliberately changing context.
Moving from larger organisations into smaller ones brought me closer to the messy reality of building things: shaping propositions, developing teams, creating new ways of working and making decisions without the infrastructure or established playbook of a global business.
Later, building my own business took that further. Suddenly there was nowhere to hide from the relationship between an idea and its execution, or from the need to experiment, learn and change course when reality had other plans.
Leadership brought another perspective. Being responsible for people and outcomes taught me that a good strategy is only ever part of the answer. Organisations ultimately move through people: through the conversations they have, the decisions they make, the systems they work within and the extent to which they understand and believe in what they are trying to achieve.
And coaching added a different lens again...
Training as a coach, and now working as an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with leaders from around the world, deepened my understanding of mindset, behaviour and change. Facilitation has extended that curiosity from individuals to groups: how we create the conditions in which people can think well together, navigate difference and turn conversation into meaningful action.
My life has moved geographically as well as professionally, taking me from the UK and Ireland to Spain, the US, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Living and working in different places has made me increasingly curious about context itself.
Change the environment and different things become possible. Different strengths are valued. Assumptions that once seemed obvious become visible.
We see organisations, other people, and sometimes ourselves, differently.
That has become an important thread in how I think about leadership and growth. People don’t operate independently of the systems and environments around them, just as teams don’t operate independently of their organisations.
Different contexts, different lenses
Where those threads meet
Today, much of what interests me sits at the intersection of strategy, leadership and culture.
Across my career, I’ve often found myself at my best when something needs to be created, connected or made clearer: turning evidence into strategy, building new propositions and ways of working, bringing structure to ambiguity, aligning people around a direction, and helping individuals and teams develop the capability and confidence to move forward.
That means I’m particularly drawn to situations where there isn’t an obvious answer, where something needs to be built or changed, complexity needs to become clarity, and progress depends not simply on having a good idea but on bringing other people with you.
My writing explores those questions from different angles, connected leadership, growth and change, mindset and meaning, and the conditions that enable people and organisations to perform without losing sight of the humans doing the work.
I don’t claim to have all the answers. After a career spent asking questions, crossing boundaries and periodically putting myself back into situations where I have more to learn, I’m increasingly convinced that the interesting work often begins before the answer is clear.