Expert interview with Allana Coulon, trail runner, singer and Managing Partner at MartinJenkins.
Allana Coulon became a mum at 19, developed Bell’s Palsy that permanently changed her face… And still landed the top job at MartinJenkins. Her path proves that the ‘perfect’ career trajectory is a myth, and that our perceived setbacks often hold our biggest lessons.
💡 We worry about our quirks way more than anyone else does – When Allana developed Bell’s Palsy, she lost her smile – the thing people had commented on her whole life. She couldn’t express her joy, toddlers looked scared when she smiled at them, and people misread her face as angry when she was just thinking. It took years to accept, until she started noticing other people’s quirks – and finding them endearing, even beautiful. If she could see it that way in others, why wouldn’t they see it that way in her? We all obsess over things we’re self-conscious about – far more than anyone else ever will. The benefit of getting older/wiser is caring a lot less. 😅
💡 The ‘diversity hire’ concern? Own it and move on – When Allana landed the top job, she grappled with whether she’d been chosen because she was a woman. But then came two realisations: First, it didn’t matter what others thought. Second, even if gender was a factor, that’s actually a good thing for the organisation (and those coming up behind us). She took the role knowing she’d deliver and spent her energy on that!
💡 Face the brutal facts, keep the faith – When Allana had to let people go for the first time in MartinJenkins’ history during an economic downturn, she leaned on the Stockdale Paradox: face the brutal facts, keep the faith. Leaders need to hold competing, sometimes contradictory things in tension. She was brutally honest with her team about the financial situation – people deserve the truth. But she also kept the faith: staying positive, believing they’d work through it, and focusing on where they could go in the future. It’s not about sugar-coating hard times or being relentlessly pessimistic – it’s about respecting people enough to give them the facts while bringing them along on the journey forward.
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