Caroline Esterson (55) and Wendy Gannaway (53) are co-directors of innovative learning and development company Genius Learning which provides dynamic and inspirational training to companies looking to empower and develop their teams. The company celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2021.
Working with their team of consultants, Genius Learning also works with C-suite executives on a one-to-one basis to help them upskill and improve their own performance.
They both had very different routes into learning and development. Whilst Caroline started her career in retail, Wendy studied performing arts.
Whilst working with companies including Debenhams and Habitat, Caroline soon showed her initiative in offering excellent customer service – and also being a bit of a maverick, she was unafraid to speak up when she felt incorrect decisions were being made. It was during this period she met her first real mentor, David Hood, who allowed her free rein for her creativity.
However, during this early stage in her 20s, Caroline’s dominant personality came to the fore when she went for a promotion against another candidate – and the other woman was chosen. Her manager explained while she was a great sales professional, she was not a team player and this was a skill she needed to learn. Caroline believes not getting this job was the greatest lesson she learned in her professional career. Being a team player is a skill, it’s not a right and, for many, it’s not a natural inclination.
She went on to become a store manager for Habitat before moving into learning and development where she was a Regional Training Officer for Debenhams, London Electricity and then Training Manager for Colonial Mutual. Here she was charged with a project to set up a new Contact Centre when they were in their infancy and this is where her early lessons about teamwork really paid dividends. Her time at Colonial Mutual was also a time when she experienced overt and clear sexism as a woman in a corporation. This eventually led to her making a decision to set up her own business.
She set up her own training company Leaps & Bounds which thrived with 22 staff and turning over £1.2m. This continued until the late 1990s when a perfect storm came. The recession hit at the same time as Caroline had adopted two small children with her husband Bill and without her full attention the business started to decline. Then a few years later, there came a further life change when Bill was elected as a member of Parliament for the constituency of Sefton, a role he still holds today. It was time to move from Kent to Liverpool and for Leaps & Bounds to be dissolved as her new family life began.
Meanwhile, Wendy’s early career started at Colonial Mutual, working in HR. Her colleagues soon spotted that she had a talent working with people and teams. She moved into learning and development staying for nine years and leaving for pastures new when the company had around 750 staff in the UK and also large teams overseas. This is where Wendy and Caroline met and bonded over their desire to do the right things, their love of laughter and joyful pink jackets amid the sea of grey.
Wendy moved on to become training manager for a company selling business equipment and she became used to working in a male-dominated environment helping teams and senior management teams to bring about behavioural change. It was during this time of her career she decided this was going to be a time to prepare to start her own business. Over time she’d come to realise that she wanted to be her own boss. She fulfilled her dream and started up her own training business in 2004 called Onwards & Upwards and during the next few years worked alongside other specialist trainers including Caroline Esterson. During this period Wendy, who lives in Essex, met and married her soul mate Paul and they have lived happily together ever since.
Once life had settled, Caroline decided to rebuild, so she contacted Wendy. Having worked together previously, they knew they had the same ethos and understanding about the importance of nurturing and cherishing people in any business – from the top down and from the bottom up. For both, the key to success in business is healthy relationships.
In 2016, the pair set up Genius Learning and since then they have provided training to thousands of people, 100s of teams from companies including Ralph Lauren, Boden, Specsavers, EE, SSE, E.ON, Fenwick, Colorcon and more. They have also written two books around ‘genius ideas’ based on their combined experience of more than 50 years of best practice in L&D. For more information visit https://www.inspireyourgenius.com
