Introduction to Sacha
With over 15 years of global experience across diverse industries and organisations at varying stages of growth, Sacha is a senior leader in Learning and Talent Development who specialises in building high-performing teams and cultivating a culture of learning to help organisations achieve their strategic objectives. Following a life-changing experience with Hemiplegia, Sacha defied expectations by walking on the Great Wall of China and completing the final 115 km of the Camino de Santiago. These extraordinary milestones have shaped a compelling keynote speaking career, where Sacha inspires audiences with powerful messages on mindset and resilience. Sacha Dekker, currently serving as Head of People Transformation & Culture at Oaklee Housing, has built a global career at major organisations including Shell, Oracle and Hubspot. Her story is one of resilience and commitment to turning challenges into opportunities for growth.
Career Background
Sacha grew up in an entrepreneurial family home in the Netherlands where her parents owned several retail stores. Sacha was naturally drawn to sales early in her career, despite earning a degree in Public Relations and Communications. After spending some time in Sales, she transitioned to Customer Service, where she oversaw the customer service centre for Northern Europe. As part of the off shoring, she had the opportunity to spend 11 months in South Africa setting up management for success, and recruiting and training new staff. It was there that her passion for Learning and Development began. This interest led Sacha to a Senior Manager role in Learning & Development for the Commercial Academy, where she trained and coached senior deal makers responsible for deals worth >$500million, often involving governments and NGOs. These experiences offered her the opportunity to collaborate with external vendors like Duke University and Harvard, learning from elite experts in negotiation and facilitation. Five years later, Sacha joined LinkedIn to establish their Learning and Development department. She later moved to Oracle, where she was responsible for transforming enablement from external to internal sales. From there, Sacha spent 2 years as VP of Global Go to market enablement & Comms with Hubspot. Notable achievements include reducing top talent attrition by 29% and boosting engagement by 16% through streamlined across sales and communication customer. Today, Sacha is Head of People Transformation & Culture at Oaklee Housing, a not-for-profit, government funded Approved Housing Body. In addition to her leadership role, Sacha is a motivational speaker on topics such as disability awareness, social inclusion and resilience.
Dealing with Adversity
Sacha’s story of adversity is underpinned by the death of her father in 2009 only seven days after his diagnosis of cancer. While researching funeral music, Sacha felt something awry but put it down to stress, loss and grief. Conversations with a friend led her to meet with her GP who instantly referred her to a Neurologist. She concluded more diagnostics were needed but based on preliminary tests she concluded it was likely one of three possibilities: a brain tumour, an aneurysm or epilepsy. Further testing confirmed a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy, causing silent seizures. After internalising this invisible, but very real, condition, Sacha shared it with a trusted work colleague and was met with what can be best described as apathy. In another instance, a conversation about her health turned into a discussion about potential salary reduction if she reduced her hours. These experiences forced her to consider how others might perceive her condition and strengthened her determination to be heard. Sacha noted that 9 out of 10 people with an invisible disability will not disclose this to their employer.
The Great Wall of China
Sacha continued to work as before, however it reached a point where the epilepsy, and the lack of finding proper medication to get the seizures under control, were affecting her visual memory and inability to identify people or places after a short period of time. In August 2015 she underwent brain surgery to prevent early onset dementia. Sacha recalls the surgeon counting on their fingers how low the risk was. Facing the prospect of dementia by age fifty versus a relatively low risk surgery was a decision she had to make. Though considered low risk, the procedure led to a massive bleed on her brain leaving her paralysed on the left side of her body. She could not stand or walk and her speech was impacted. It was medically improbable that she would ever walk, work or live independently again. This was the immediate response, fight or flight and it was a very deliberate choice. Sacha had been due to walk the Great Wall with her Dad and the trip was within weeks of commencing before he passed.
“I am not just going to walk again. I am going to walk on the Great Wall of China”
Is Resilience A Choice?
Sacha’s firm belief is that resilience is a choice, not a skill. People assume that resilience comes with time, when in fact it may not. As part of rehabilitation in the NRH in Dublin, Sacha was fierce with her mindset in learning to become independent again – tying her own shoelaces, amongst many other tasks we take for granted. Resilience is mixed in today’s working world. It’s made complex by instant gratification that we have through technology and other tools. Think of how many organisations offer free snacks, lunches and other perks. Are we prepared for when there is an economic crisis, and we need to pivot and be more dynamic?
Conclusion
There are several authors Sacha is interested in on mindset and resilience: Adam Grant, Amy Edmondson. Amy is well known for her pioneering research on psychological safety, the idea that people perform at their best when they feel safe to speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of judgment. Sacha claims that 60% of where she is today is due to the strength and value of her network and relationships. We sign off with a quote from Bob Burg and John David Mann.
“Putting others interests first and continually adding value to their lives – ultimately leads to unexpected results”
