SHE Relatable Leaders Career Journey Spotlight

The SHE Women’s Network Support Heal Empower is all about empowering, supporting and elevating our members, and inspiring future generations of female leaders. Across 2025 and 2026 we will spotlight the careers journeys of some of our amazing members. Today we hear from Monique Carayol

Be Yourself, Back Yourself & Make it Happen!

Monique Carayol, Founder, Your New Avenue, Co-Founder, Bravery in the Boardroom

Monique is an award-winning Executive Leadership Coach, Consultant and ex-NHS Executive Director. She had a 20 year career in healthcare starting off in an admin role and navigated her way to a high-profile board level role where she was the youngest and only Black director when she joined the Board. She now supports people and organisations to build brave leadership capability and confidence alongside creating inclusive cultures and teams.

Introduction

I'm an ICF accredited leadership coach and consultant specialising in supporting organisations in attracting, retaining and developing talent and building succession pipelines to increase diversity at leadership level. I'm co-founder of Bravery in the Boardroom and our focus is on seeing boardrooms more representative of the communities and people they serve. I'm also the host of the #BITBPodcast where I interview senior decision makers and change agents turning the dial now on inclusive leadership and diverse talent development.

I had a 20 year career in the NHS, starting off in admin, then progressing through a range of commissioning leadership roles before moving into community healthcare in 20214. Within 2.5 years I'd stepped up into an Executive Director role as Director of Strategy and Transformation which I held for nearly 5 years. I left the NHS in 2021 to start my own consultancy - Your New Avenue - as I wanted to focus on using my expertise and experience to help other leaders to lead authentically, deliver successfully and build dynamic diverse teams.

Early Career

I started working at 15 years old in my first part-time role. I was still doing my GCSEs at school but I wanted to earn my own money. I grew up in a deprived area with teenage parents, so I saw money as a route to freedom; if you had money, you had choices. A challenge I've always faced is being the 'only one'. At each step of my career I was often the youngest or only Black person working at my level and/or the youngest parent. When I first stepped into employment, I was the youngest person in the team and 4 years later when I was promoted into a supervisor role, I was the youngest at that level too. Stepping into line management roles where I was regularly managing people older than me and even the same age as my parents taught me a lot about the power of mutual respect in helping to build trust as a leader.

Pivotal Moments

The biggest pivotal moment for me was my decision to leave the NHS after 20 years of service. I wasn't made redundant nor did I leave 'under a cloud'. It was my own decision to leave but it was a really tough one. I worked with my coach for 15 months to develop my 'leaving well' plan and without that support, I wouldn't have made the brave decision I did. Walking away from it all - my team, my Board level role, my achievements - was really tough but I knew I had to give myself some space to consider 'what next'.

Preparing for my transition - financially and emotionally - helped me to achieve it. And my first year in business was really tough - my first bit of paid work was 8 months in! But the support and encouragement of my family and the kindness of people in my Network who took the time to find out what I was now doing and offered to recommend me was eventually what brought the breakthrough. Being determined, staying focused and reaching out to people I knew and those I didn't but had a mutual connection to is what helped to get my business off the ground and growing.

Leadership Lessons

I think some of the most important skills I possess as a leader include the ability to truly listen - to actively listen to understand, not to defend or respond. And using the power of playback to check if I've heard correctly and pulled out the critical conversation points. The other is influencing without authority. It's a common error Leaders make in thinking that a leadership title equates to full authority and autonomy. It doesn't! The real leadership skill is influencing others to lead or be the change that you need them to be. Leadership is about enabling and empowering others to lead too - not constantly telling others what to do. I understood this very early in my career and its underpinned a lot of my leadership success.

Advice for Others

My strapline is the title of my story and it's the practical advice I always share - Be Yourself and lead as who you are. We constantly ask people to bring their authentic selves to work so leading by example by being authentic is crucial as a leader. Back yourself - because if you don't who will? And make it happen - take action and strive to deliver to a standard of excellence.

Closing Thought

When you step up into a new role, please remember what it felt like when you were previously in a new role. Too often when we first step into a new role, we compare ourselves to when we've just left a role that we knew inside out and were excelling in. Remember to give yourself some grace to settle in - don't overpromise, trust your instincts and listen to understand what really needs to be prioritised.

A quote or some advice that you found valuable

'When you know better, do better' this is a quote from 1 of my favourite icons Dr Maya Angelou. As leaders we're always learning and growing. But as you gain knowledge, confidence and understanding in how you lead, please use it! And set your own standards of excellence. This can be challenging when the leadership behaviours around you may be undesirable. But there's still an opportunity for you to lead well and others will see that and appreciate the example you're setting as a brave leader.