Lichfield inclusion champion shares her journey and workplace lessons

Lichfield-based inclusion leader Sarah Stephenson-Hunter reflects on resilience, identity and what it takes to feel able to show up fully at work.

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter’s work sits at the point where lived experience, organisational change and inclusion meet. As a blind trans woman, keynote speaker and Founder of Seeing Things Differently, she brings a deeply personal understanding of resilience, belonging and the hidden barriers people face in workplaces.

Her career spans more than 20 years across advocacy, public life and higher education. After beginning her career at RNIB, she went on to hold disability advisory roles at several universities before spending over five years at the University of Oxford, where she served as Staff Disability Adviser and later Interim Joint Head of Equality and Diversity.

In this exclusive interview with the Diversity & Inclusion Speakers Agency, Sarah discusses purpose, identity, resilience, the London Marathon and why workplaces lose creativity when people feel they have to leave part of themselves at the door.

Question 1. How has your lived experience shaped your view of purpose, identity and belonging?

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter: “For me, my lived experience, having undergone gender transition, having lived as a blind person and having gone through various career changes, showed me that purpose isn't a final destination.

“Purpose changes as you go through your life and career. It is about adapting to that purpose, being flexible and rolling with it, but maintaining that commitment to what you feel your core purpose is in life or work.”

Question 2. What does resilience mean when change is both constant and deeply personal?

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter: “Resilience is a really interesting word.

“We have this understanding that resilience is about being tough, staying strong and battling forward. But for me, resilience isn't about that. It's about coping with things in the everyday.

“Some days, being resilient means you have to be strong, tough and dig deep. Other times, it's about saying, “Okay, to be resilient today, I need to rest,” whether that's physical rest or psychological rest.

“Resilience is very much about coping with the situation you're in. For me, resilience isn't about being able to bounce back. It's about carrying on when there's nowhere to bounce back to.”

Question 3. What did running the London Marathon teach you about courage and pressure?

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter: “It taught me: don't ever do a marathon.

“No, I did enjoy running the marathon in a perverse kind of way. In terms of lessons learned about keeping calm under pressure, it was not just about the one decision to run the marathon, but to keep going.

“There are moments in life and work when we feel under pressure, when it's easy to think, “Oh God, I can't do this anymore.”

“In those moments, it's not so much about the big decision. It's about the decisions you take every moment. In the case of a marathon, it is the decision to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. In the case of work and life, it is to keep going and take that next step.

“It also taught me that, in order to cope under pressure, you do need help from others. I'm a blind runner. I couldn't have run the marathon without a guide and other people supporting me.

“In life, whilst we can be strong as individuals, we shouldn't be scared to ask for support and help from people.”

Question 4. How does identity affect whether people feel able to contribute fully at work?

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter: “For me, identity is very much about who you are, where you are, in whatever context.

“If you're in a workplace where you feel you have to hide part of who you are, or leave certain parts of your identity at the metaphorical doors you go into work, that makes you feel more anxious about speaking up, sharing ideas and having creative thoughts.

“If you're in an organisation where people don't feel able to be themselves, whatever that is, then you really are losing out on creativity and all sorts of fantastic things that people can bring if they're able to go to work and show up as their true selves.”

Question 5. What do you want audiences to take away from your speeches?

Sarah Stephenson-Hunter: “I have quite a simple aim.

“I hope that, through my speeches, people will be able to see things differently. Whether that's themselves, their own situation, their own experiences, their experiences in work or the challenges they face individually, I hope they will see things differently.

“There's also a phrase I like to use: inspiration, not inspiration. By that, I mean if through my speech you feel inspired to act differently, then I've accomplished what I've set out to do.”

This exclusive interview with Sarah Stephenson-Hunter was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.