About

Hi, I’m Suchitra

I know from my own experience that when we get more honest and connect with ourselves, we are better able to create that same strong connection with those around us. It takes time and reflection and adjustment and support. I know this first-hand as I have needed a lot of coaching and mentoring along the way! Despite or maybe because of all the trial and error along the way, my purpose found me fairly early on.

My history includes managing the community development arm with the YWCA in Banff, where my my focus was on strengthening women and youth in crisis while creating preventative programs for the thousands of seasonal staff that work in the Bow Valley every year.  My passion for sustainable development issues led me to volunteer for several organizations, one a national not for profit where I was responsible for overseeing volunteer facilitators who helped prepare and debrief participants from their overseas postings. These positions took me to Asia, South America and throughout Western Canada.

After moving to Toronto twenty-five years ago, my work then became focused on the corporate arena of Training and Development, first for a boutique recruiting agency then a fast-growing sales company in hi-tech. In these roles, I designed and facilitated training programs in customer service, sales and then management and leadership development. At this time it became clearer to me that helping leaders design their sustainable success is my lifework. So I headed out on my own as an entrepreneur, became certified as a coach and focused on strengths-based leadership development.

Clients have described me is insightful and savvy, grounded, easy to trust and connect with, vulnerable, present, quick to laugh, and always willing to say what needs to be said in service of your growth. I am grateful to be trusted to do this work.

Eight years ago, I co-founded 1-DEGREE/Shift with three partners because of our shared passion around helping organizations thrive through an intentional culture. We work with values as a shared language to better understand from the front lines to senior leadership what the priorities really are currently and how that is serving the results you want to create. At the heart of what we do is facilitate courageous conversations that help shift the whole team toward better realizing their desired future.

The values I personally aspire to include compassion, courage and curiosity, and like you, these values show up across my life from my professional endeavours to my personal adventures. I have been fortunate to hike Peru’s Inca trail, backpack in Maui and Scotland, kayak Canada’s Clayoquot Sound, perform in a popular theatre troupe in the remote islands of the Philippines, motor bike to remote hot springs in the Bolivian Andes and sing on the stage of Carnegie Hall. Plus, I was blessed to call Banff National Park home for 13 years. And now, I live on the waterfront of downtown Toronto, the upside of which is I get to kayak out into Lake Ontario from a short bike ride away from my front door.  Love that.

“Suchitra’s delivery and energy have yet to be matched by any development program I have participated in and feedback from her program participants is overwhelmingly positive.”

– Jason van Ravenswaay | Head of Global Sales Operations
BlueCat