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ABOUT

“Hard work”, “determination” and “love” are the 3 main qualities that most define my career and life accomplishments to date.

HARD WORK

I was born in Aleppo, to a Syrian father (Eye Surgeon) and Spanish mother (Promising music star).

At the age of 14 my parents decided to move to Madrid from Syria for various reasons. The main one is to provide us with better professional choices..

Moving to Madrid meant a new and fresh beginning; during my teenage years I experienced disturbing and dark moments that impacted me profoundly and those needed to be healed, but since I was too ashamed to talk about it and the fact that my Spanish language was basic, I “forced” myself to step up!  and totally focused on my studies,  I was also determined to pass my course to make my parents feel proud, and to also forget my past; I not only passed my first year in a foreign city but I even got nominated as one of the top students that year! and it was not because of my marks but because of my determination.

This is how I started learning about the power of focus and the results one can achieve when we put our minds into it.  

Over the years to come I also learnt other very important habits that helped me heal and move on; I learnt the importance of forgiveness, letting go and the fact that sometimes events happen “for” us and not “to” us… However what I didn’t know then is how during my healing process I had developped other qualities that influenced and impacted my personal and business life, in a negative way.

My leadership career commenced at the age of 16 when my father would leave me to supervise his business during my school holidays in Madrid… I then started acquiring important leadership skills and most valuable experience on how to run businesses. I will always be grateful to my first mentor, my dad.

After finishing university and having worked with world class organisations from Royalty, sports and entretainment, governmental bodies to TV, where I continued developing my leadership career, I decided to move to the UK alone and without speaking the language… a new set of challenges arose.   

DETERMINATION

That was more than 14 years ago… 14 incredible years where the past 12 were spent in London launching and developing business units; leading large teams and managing big operations; delivering high level training; coaching and mentoring leaders.

My first big leadership breakthrough in the UK was when I was appointed the Head of Operations of a small boutique service based firm. I had full responsibility of all our clients, onsite managers and their teams. I served this organisation for a number of years until I was invite to set up a division within a company and my work impacted hundreds of employees.

I got reminded of a very important lesson, in order to succeed “Hard work” was not enough, it also required “impact” and “visibility”.

Moving to the Global Headquarters of an important bank as their Head of client services was an important milestone in my career, I had a large team to look after and several departments to run. We had a lot of international attention, people coming from different parts of the world to meet my team and learn how we run our business. We had the influence of impacting standards globally.

Wanting my parents to be proud was still a driver and I was determined to succeed, they had sacrificed so much for my siblings and I, that I felt it was my turn to make their decision of moving countries worthwhile. Having said that, I had never reflected on what true success really meant. Wanting my parents’ approval supported me tremendously in achieving many goals, until I realised that I also needed to make myself feel proud and fulfilled being mindful of the influences that societies, cultures and people had on me.

in a world where so many women have no control over their destinies this life is a gift, what i DO WITH THIS GIFT is what matters.

LARA KHALAF

LOVE

In my opinion life biggest force that pushes us to “be” and “do” beyond belief, but it has to consciously start from us, the way we speak, treat and address others is a reflection on how we speak treat and address ourselves. how can we otherwise love others and love what we do if we don’t acknowledge it to us first? 

Although I hold a degree in literature my “love” has been serving people which is how I dedicated my life for more than 20 years of international experience in the private, public and corporate sectors.

A few years ago I decided to leave team leadership and found a new vocation, supporting women to be more confident, up-skill their personal leadership qualities so together we can have the voice and confidence to raise consciousness in the world.

I have spoken internationally on the topics of feminine Leadership, women’s empowerment, leadership, and the power of the mind; I was lucky to also speak at the prestigious TEDx platform.

I am also a coach partner with my favourite magazine, Psychologies Magazine and recently celebrated the first anniversary of the podcast I host “She Who Rises Up”.

There is another business I am a non-executive board member for, the aim is for it to be ground-breaking; once up and running I shall tell you more about it.

One frequent question I get asked is “why women empowerment? Men need support too!” and I totally agree.

I think this is the right time for women to rise and in my opinion the core work of this movement is not to promote female superiority, it’s about supporting and teaching women to take over their “inner” world first; it’s also an invitation for women to connect to their feminine energy with grace, joy, acceptance and total confidence.

One of my hopes is that more women rise into their infinite leadership, wisdom and power, to live and lead from their purest and highest self, feeling truthful to their mission and purpose, and thus impacting people, businesses and societies in a conscious way.

My wish for when my time to retire from life on this physical dimension comes is to look back and say, “that was one extraordinary life I had”.

I am incredibly fortunate to be able to support already extraordinary and successful women to discover, define and develop their feminine leadership style.

This is it for now… one more thing… I sincerely cannot wait to work with you..

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Simply the best. No words can describe her power. Making us, busy women around the world, stronger & conscious of what we can do & who we really are.

Sabrina P. – Italy

She gave me another perspective about what I was thinking and made me feel more confident about the direction I had in mind. 

Renata A. – Brazil

Lara has helped me in the past to evolve in the woman she could see in me before I even saw it myself – I love her infinite.

Vanessa P. – United Kindgom