SONYA PEREZ
Impact Cultivator, Change Expert, Leadership Coach
Enabling motivated change agents to expand their leadership potential by providing the insight, support and accountability for strategically and joyfully created change.
ARE YOU READY TO LEAD WITH JOY AND EASE?
HI, I’M SONYA
FOUNDER AND CREATOR OF THE LEADERSHIP ATLAS™.
My mission is to shift the paradigm of leadership development toward caring for the whole individual, one leader at a time. I can help you to become the confident, effective and joyful leader you want to be.
I know how it feels to be overwhelmed by your inbox and feel overworked to the point where your physical body suffers and your emotional and mental energy is maxed out.
I lived and worked in spaces where social justice was the priority and exhaustion was normalized. They went hand in hand in my mind and I never considered a different way.
I was so committed to the mission of fighting global poverty that I didn’t stop to take care of myself and I didn’t know that my relentless effort and hard work was actually damaging my capacity to lead effectively and authentically.
My accomplishments and hard work didn’t provide the confidence or inner peace as I took on new challenges. My perfectionism, dyslexia, and feeling like an outsider as the only Latina kept me in a state of struggle.
IT COMPLETELY DRAINED ME.
In graduate school, I learned about and embodied the simple, but powerful, mental shift towards a growth mindset which meant I was able to accept and feel confident in the growth process.
I finally gained more freedom to be my best self, be a more effective leader and be more creative.
I was able to confidently show up and experience the joy of learning and growing rather than constantly being stuck in a fear – worrying about making mistakes or not being enough for this mission that I cared so much about.
This is when my passion for creating positive change in the world shifted from addressing global poverty to figuring out how to better support the people in organizations that are trying to do good in the world.
The incongruence of caring for a cause but unintentionally treating employees poorly didn’t seem right to me. The model of production over people is hurting the impact we as change agents are trying to make.
Then during my Master’s program at Northwestern University, in Learning & Organizational Change, I discovered executive coaching and the many tools available to support leaders who want to create healthy workplaces.
Now, 10 years later after deepening my understanding of the brain, human behaviour and leadership (and getting married and having two beautiful children), I have created my own coaching approach, The Leadership Atlas™.
My practice leverages my experience in the social sector, knowledge of organizational change, neuroscience, somatics, and a plethora of insights gained from my own personal breakthroughs and mental shifts to help change agents lead with confidence, ease and joy.
It is possible to create a life that you love whilst impacting the world in positive ways.
I’M HERE TO SHOW YOU HOW.
OUR VALUES
JOY AND EASE
Our focus is on creating joy and ease in your work so you have the ability to access the creative, curious and open parts of your brain to do inspired, meaningful and sustainable work.
INDIVIDUALITY AND INTERCONNECTION
Everyone holds a unique point of view and we live in a network of meaningful connections in which our actions matter to the larger community. We have power as individuals AND cannot survive alone.
CURIOSITY
Is one of the most powerful, nonviolent emotions that creates space to move outside our comfort zone. Curiosity about why we are the way we are today and about the future we will choose to create leads to non-judgment and enables love to flow in the growth process.
POSSIBILITY AND HOPE
These values are key as a change agent and they set the foundation for action in a world where real setbacks, pain and darkness create the context for light, love, and radical change.
REJUVENATION
Life as a change agent Leader requires rejuvenation – real rest and immersion in beauty and nature. Healing our bodies and our minds, makes us more effective, creative and powerful leaders.
DO OUR VALUES FEEL IN ALIGNMENT WITH HOW YOU WANT TO LEAD?
I am a Chicana, Latina, Mexican-American, bi-cultural human. I am both privileged and know marginalisation. My ethnic identity and ancestral roots guide and ground.
I have walked the complex journey of identity development in a racialized society and know it has provided me with an invaluable perspective on change, belonging, and the ability to integrate what supports me and others to thrive.
MORE ABOUT ME
MY ENERGY FLOWS FROM JOY AND I AM DEEPLY COMMITTED TO HELPING LEADERS ESCAPE CHRONIC EXHAUSTION AND A HABIT OF SCARCITY AND FEAR.
Aside from finding joy in working with incredible change agents to help them step into their true leadership ability to create impactful change, I also find joy in…
Being present in the moment with my incredible partner and our two children. They have taught me so much and I am grateful every day for the love, knowledge and inspiration they bring into my life.
Travelling all over the world! From exploring the rice paddies of China, to watching the sunset in the cathedral of Familia Sagrada in Barcelona, basking in the warmth of Cali Colombia and admiring the glacial lakes in Patagonia, Chile, my unique life journey has enabled me to experience so much. In falling in love with the diversity of humanity and the variety of landscapes on this planet I believe they are all worthy of protection and care.
Being connected with my body through dancing, movement and exercise! Paddle boarding in the Boundary Waters and dancing on the shore of Lake Superior are my happy places.
