You see I feared that I was not the senior manager of an International Payment Processing team managing 32 staff, processing millions of pounds worth of payments to worldwide destinations daily. I wasn’t a competent manager of a large team within the top five quartile for employee engagement… but in fact I was the shy young girl from a small Irish town – an imposter if you will.

I struggled with social anxiety which meant that I had a fear of being judged and this impacted me in so many ways. I rarely felt confident in going for promotions and as a mother felt that there were many others who could do a much better job. I constantly felt guilty, either leaving work too early to be at home or leaving home too early to be at work, and I struggled with eating and my weight.

So when in 2011 an opportunity arose for voluntary redundancy I changed career and became a cognitive behavioural, life and workplace coach. This journey cost money, time, hard work and anxiety. The irony being that it was this anxiety and training that helped me to understand what social anxiety was and finally how to overcome it. But the hard work was worth it; it always is.