Lorlett Hudson, Founder & CEO of One Hand Can’t Clap
Specialist in Executive Leadership &
Transitional Coaching for Senior African Caribbean professionals
Lorlett Hudson is an original thinker whose ideas have transformed the effectiveness, leadership and quality of life for many individuals and organisations.
She is recognised as a multi-award winning entrepreneur, Inventor, Executive Leadership/Transition Coach, an International Speaker and a trainer on a mission to support African/Caribbean Senior Professionals and Entrepreneurs achieve their highest level of success, improve their productivity, achieve positions of leadership and stay relevant on their career path.
She is the Founder and CEO of One Hand Can't Clap one of the UK leading learning and development companies. Set up in 2000 to facilitate inclusive leadership development, challenging existing ways of thinking, improve productivity in the workplace and schools.
“There is a moment in our lives and careers when we don't believe in ourselves. It happens to all of us. It is important when someone somewhere takes a moment to believe in us; it is worth a trillion pounds. I have learnt that what I know won't grow me, so I always reach out to others for support and advice.”
Lorlett Hudson
She worked with Senior African Caribbean professionals and young people to positively impact their communities, achieve their highest level of success and produce powerful results in their personal and professional lives.
She is the inventor of the critically acclaimed multi-award winning "Things Mama Used To Say", a 52 card box set of Jamaican/Caribbean proverbs to facilitate change management. Build inclusive leaders, diversity, inclusion, cultural humility, and develop high performing teams. Over 21,000 copies sold.
She also created the annual 'Common Ties' event that brings people together to share lived experiences and celebrate African Caribbean cultural pride and resilience.
Her pioneering approach has resulted in her winning the Silver Award of the prestigious British Female Inventors & Innovators Awards, Wavemakers National Awards, a runner up in the National Training Awards, and a Member of Courvoisier The Future 500 top talents in the UK, and recently the GLE Enterprise award.
All of her projects have been in recognition of her innovative action-oriented coaching that has transformed the productivity, effectiveness, leadership and quality of life for many individuals and organisations.
She is an RSA Fellow with a network of 29,000 Fellows who want to change the world for the better. In 1754, The RSA was founded by a group of like-minded individuals to transform the world - "We believe that when people come together, the possibilities are endless."
She is a Cherie Blair Business Mentor and Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship Caribbean Business Mentor.
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your career/role or areas of focus.
I am the Founder and CEO of One Hand Can't Clap, one of the UK's leading Learning and Development companies. Established in the year 2000 to facilitate inclusive leadership development, we teach diverse perspectives of leadership to build cultural bridges, transform existing ways of thinking, and improve workplace productivity.
We specialise in Executive Leadership and Transitional Coaching for Senior African Caribbean professionals who are starting or growing a business, climbing the corporate ladder or changing their career.
We use the community's experiences, knowledge, and expertise with a collaborative partnership approach to transform, support, and empower individuals to become exceptional leaders.
One Hand Can't Clap enables them to improve their productivity, achieve leadership positions and stay relevant on their career path.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you to make each day count?
I am passionate and motivated about leadership, culture and entrepreneurship and have spent the last twenty years teaching others about what I know about these subjects.
The Windrush generation inspires me; these people have motivated me with their courage, tenacity and vision to leave their homelands and start a new life in the UK. This generation was able to endure and have strived and created success under extremely difficult conditions.
Every day counts as I get to do the work that I am passionate about – building exceptional leaders who impact the world with their skills and talents.
I am motivated by my clients, who are taking a stand to transform the world. I get to make a difference in the world by using my creativity and original ideas to transform the effectiveness, leadership and quality of life for many individuals and organisations.
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I am passionate about storytelling, diversity, inclusion and preserving African Caribbean culture and heritage. This work area is important to me because I am concerned with the growing intergenerational gap in communities and the loss of culture and traditional support networks. I use proverbs in our training programmes to sustain our history, develop cultural awareness and creative thinking.
When it comes to your life chosen career, is there a phrase, quote or saying that you really like?
"Sometime Yuh Haffi walk around the barricades."
Meaning: Be creative in your thinking, believe in your judgement to find another way to succeed no matter what.
These proverbs and sayings, many of which have been passed down from generation to generation, are sources of inspiration that still empower and enrich many of us today.
Proverbs tend to have hidden meanings that are not always immediately obvious to the listener. They require thought and analysis and sometimes the knowledge of several proverbs to fully grasp the meaning.
What are you most proud of in your life?
I am the inventor of the critically acclaimed multi-award winning "Things Mama Used To Say", a 52 card box set of Jamaican/Caribbean proverbs to facilitate change management, develop high performing teams, build inclusive leaders and enable conversations around diversity, inclusion and culture.
Over 21,000 copies have been sold. I have also created the annual 'Common Ties' event, which is in its 13th year. It brings over 200 people together to share lived experiences and celebrate African Caribbean cultural pride and resilience.
My pioneering approach has resulted in being recognised with the Silver Award of the prestigious British Female Inventors & Innovators Awards, Wavemakers National Awards, a runner up in the National Training Awards and also a Member of Courvoisier The Future 500 top talents in the UK, and most recently the GLE Enterprise award for the UK's leading Learning and Development company.
All of this has been in recognition of my innovative coaching that has transformed the productivity, effectiveness, and quality of life for many individuals and organisations.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
To surround myself with people who fail in businesses, they know more than me and are further ahead in business.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles?
Amanda Gorman, an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalisation, as well as the African diaspora.
Tope Awotona, the founder and CEO of Calendly; a simple and beautiful scheduling tool that helps people schedule meetings without all the back and forth emails.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Black Young Professional Network. BYP is a community-focused organisation, where members join to interact with relevant content, network with like-minded people, attend events, and explore opportunities.
Frog Systems – Their Champions Cinema provides powerful lived experience videos with people from different backgrounds that offer hope and encouragement, whilst signposting local mental health and wellbeing support and information.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Build relationships and follow through consistently.
What drives or motivates you each day in a work environment?
Teams working in alignment with each other, because where there is alignment there is no conflict and people can bring their best selves. Creativity to work and contribute fully.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media?
The future of social media and work will give access and opportunities to many individuals to become entrepreneurs who otherwise would be marginalised.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
LinkedIn is my favourite social media platform as it enables me to network, be more visible, position my brand and attract my ideal clients.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever been a mentor to anyone?
There is a moment in our lives and careers when we don't believe in ourselves. It happens to all of us.
It is important when someone somewhere takes a moment to believe in us; it is worth a trillion pounds. I have learnt that what I know won't grow me, so I always reach out to others for support and advice.
I have four mentors and two coaches, and I am a mentor to 4 individuals to share my knowledge.
How do you network? What is your preferred way to network?
I am curious and spend time learning about people I admire.
I connect with them on social media, read and comment on their postings, invite some for a coffee or if it's not possible then I attend their seminars, workshops, read their books or follow them on social media.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
Read everything possible on the subject. Surround yourself with like-minded people.
Find a mentor who has failed in business and work with a passionate coach about their craft.
Educate and develop yourself in the subject and keep on learning.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Depending on their own knowledge. It is challenging working on your own, not Exploring and embracing different cultural perspectives and not being innovative and creative.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience?
Success for me is doing work that I love on my own terms. Find something you love to do and practice being of service every day.
What skills do you feel have helped you to become successful?
The ability to learn and explore diverse perspectives on leadership. Continuous learning and reading about leadership, staying curious, sharing, communicating, executing on my ideas and building relationships have all helped me to become successful. Embracing diversity, inclusion, culture and heritage in my work has been my competitive advantage.
Is there anything new that you are working on or involved in that you would like to share?
I am creating a vision quest retreat for creative leaders in Jamaica in October 2021.
The retreat is designed to develop the highest level of potential creative leadership for those who want to use their creativity to impact the world.