On the ReWild Your Business podcast this week, I'm talking to Maria Cussell, an experienced leadership coach who helps high achieving leaders become even more effective by developing insight and understanding to move quickly to action, bringing them more success and fulfilment, both professionally and personally. Maria spent over twenty five years at Barclays before building a practice of her own, and somewhere in the middle of her story she said something so simple I nearly missed it. She said that when our real strengths come naturally to us, we assume everyone can do them. So we stop valuing them. Ooof. Maria spent years in corporate being told, in various polite and impolite ways, that what she was good at didn’t count. She could walk into a room and connect with anyone, any place, any time. A friend once told her that when everyone else in the business was drawing up strategies to get past people’s defences, Maria just walked straight through them. And yet that never showed up on a performance review, because what got measured was audit findings closed on time and synergies squeezed out of a merger. She was good at the thing nobody was counting. Here’s what happened next, and I think it’s the part we all recognise even if the specifics differ. She started to doubt herself. Not because the feedback was accurate, but because it was relentless. A boss telling you you’re not hard-nosed enough. A 360 review suggesting the people who love your work simply don’t know what good looks like. Enough of that, over enough years, and you start doing the thing so many capable women do: talking yourself down before anyone else gets the chance. Maria caught herself mid-sentence doing exactly that in our conversation, thirty years on, and laughed about it. Old habits leave a long shadow. Isn’t it crazy how easily we hand the job of valuing ourselves over to whoever happens to be scoring us at the time. And how rarely that scorer is measuring the thing that actually makes us extraordinary. The thing you do without trying, the thing that feels too easy to count as a real skill, is very often the exact thing you should be building a life around. And the people who tell you otherwise, the ones measuring you against a scorecard that was never designed for what you’re actually good at, are not lying about the scorecard. They’re just measuring the wrong thing. Worth asking yourself this week: what’s the thing you’ve quietly decided doesn’t count, simply because it never felt like effort? There was a line Maria used… “When I coach, I fly”. Underneath all the values language we throw around in this industry, I love this reframe - not “what do I believe in” but “what happens to my body when I’m doing the work.” Finally, I ask everyone I speak to on this series the same question: what won’t you compromise on? Most people answer with a value. Growth. Honesty. Family. Maria’s answer was more specific and, I think, more useful. She said she can’t do work that isn’t fun for her. If it’s not a hell yeah, it’s a no. Uncompromising in the BEST way! Enjoy the conversation… About Maria “I act as a catalyst, enabling people to become ‘unstuck’ and move forward. My ability to hold multiple viewpoints enables me to empathise with the challenges faced by my clients, whilst also allowing me to challenge their assumptions.” Connect with Maria on LinkedIn HERE. THE COACHING BUSINESS ACADEMY Enrolment is OPEN for the Summer 2026 cohort of The Coaching Business Academy... The Academy is my 12 week immersive program for coaches who are ready to start consistently attracting and enrolling the right clients. Check out the Academy HERE - if it feels like the right support for you then we’d love you to join us. If you have any questions whatsoever, you can book a call with me HERE and we can chat it through. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gillmoakes.substack.com
