Mel Ross is an expert in humanising transformation and a modern mindset coach to leaders and entrepreneurs all over the world. Merging her artistic background with business acumen she created The Dilyn WayTM framework in 2013, an approach to humanise transformation and business that bridges the gap between projects and change management, strategic vision, leadership, and human evolution. She is CEO of Adapt2Digital and the founder of the Leadin4D academy providing practitioner certification in The Dilyn WayTM. Mel works all over the world with private clients and governments, working 121 with leaders as well as with teams. Her mission: The gift of the age we live in is our ability to reconnect with our humanity, leveraging digital and data for the good of all. When we have poor leadership, we all suffer, when we have courageous and human-centred leadership we all benefit.
Mel Ross, Transformational Mindset Mentor-Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I live in West Sussex with my husband and dog. I’m a Welsh Vegan married to a New Zealand Carnivore, so life is full of diversity! I have always been a listener and I guess therapist, being a person people seek out space to think or just be safe. I even remember when I was in primary school being a therapist for my Cello teacher going through some tough times and I was only 9!
I think we are so fortunate to be living right now. We are at a time where ancient wisdom is becoming scientifically endorsed and technology can enhance our lives and work if used responsibly – Put those things together and the impossible becomes possible.
Whilst I was raised a Baptist, I gravitated to aunts who were Druids, relishing in the mysticism and the musical, creative, poetic romance that also surrounded them – In my eyes!
With a career that has spanned over 20 years in the tech and tech-enabled industries where I have always found excitement in the opportunities technology can bring, I have been fortunate to merge these two passions into a career that, for me, is purposeful. Helping leaders and entrepreneurs break out of survival and into thriving, joyous, courageous, successful humans, and leaders.
I’m a human who is equally as fascinated by the past as I am about the future – balanced with a love of being grounded in nature and celebrating life with friends, family and clients.
Can you share more about Modern Mindset Theory and why it’s so important right now?
Any leader, business owner or entrepreneur will feel or sense this. That the structures and practices still lingering in our organisations and teams no longer serve us. However, efforts to transform globally continue to skyrocket in terms of dollars spent, with success rates now rock bottom. It’s not because of the strategy, or the budget or the technology it’s all the thinking we bring to it.
Mindset work is gaining popularity and becoming normalised within the work environment, and that’s great. However, leaders need to evolve their mindsets faster so they can behave, act, and speak in ways that give a glimpse of a future that’s possible, better and has room for everyone in it.
Modern Mindset TheoryTM is the framework and approach I developed to help leaders rewire their brains for the modern world of leadership and business, using hundreds of techniques and exercises to help them achieve success and high performance in a way that can be sustained over time. That’s crucial in this world now.
From becoming DatamindfulTM to being Humanity Centred, Modern Mindset TheoryTM helps leaders understand where they are now and visualise where they want to be in a way that is unique for them, strength-based and grounded in the nuances of the modern world. It is also designed to map unique pathways with specialised and proven techniques and exercises to achieve success and performance quickly, without compromising authenticity or breaking personal boundaries, two things leaders and entrepreneurs struggle with.
Culture shifts by looking up, I see this all the time when leaders think their words, or their strategies are enough to engage people in a vision of the future and they are not. People are watching! Younger generations are expecting! They are watching us, not our reports or our PowerPoints, they are watching us to see evidence of a brighter future and feel they belong to.
I see a particular need for Modern Mindset TheoryTM in the work I do with entrepreneurs and business owners. They have great ideas and great products and services, yet grasping the holistic thinking and constant shifts in behaviour needed to succeed and keep going when others falter is hard. To support my mentoring I also have a Mental Fitness GYM (Grow your Mind) where leaders and entrepreneurs can build the mental muscles, they need to thrive in a modern setting that’s constantly shifting and unpredictable.
As a leader working with both private clients and governments worldwide, can you highlight a specific challenge you've encountered that leaders and entrepreneurs find most daunting?
I could easily answer this with the rise of AI, which is true. However, there is something more fundamental I encounter and it’s the need to do more with less, it’s like a time poverty pandemic that’s spreading throughout the modern world right now. Without time we have no space to think, without thinking time we have no space to create, without creativity we have no space to transform. I work with leaders to master Time, Energy and Attention. This is what I call TEA Mastery, and it’s also something that resonates with female leaders especially those in midlife who might be going through menopause. It worked for me! Mastering Time, Energy and Attention is a real challenge and again, the solution lies within us, it’s a mindset shift that’s needed and the ability to challenge our beliefs.
Generative AI is big too. I am currently developing a program to help leaders and entrepreneurs develop an AI mindset. I read an article recently that said we had electricity that enabled advancement in humanity, then we had the computer, then the internet. Now we have AI. So every leader must grasp what this means strategically and personally in practice. There are three things leaders can do to start thinking about to engage with AI:
Instead of thinking of Artificial Intelligence, think of Another Intelligence.
For the world to control AI we have to role model using it responsibly, so others follow.
Reframe AI from something that is replacing our jobs to enhancing our jobs.
Statistics show that the skills emerging to support AI outweigh those likely to be lost. Which of course leads to the need for fostering a learner’s Mindset – but maybe that’s something I’ll write about in a blog!
You also offer modern mindset theory certification to business coaches. How do you see this certification contributing to their practice and supporting modern leadership mindsets emerging?
That’s a great question. In 2017 I was approached by a business coach asking if she could train in the framework and profiling tool so she could use the techniques and tools with her clients to help them develop modern-mindedness. This quickly turned into a certification program for business and executive coaches. Most coaches and mentors say it gives them a unique selling point in a market that’s becoming quite busy. I am only one person. No matter how successful my work or products might be, the support and reach I have is only so much, but with more and more business coaches and mentors integrating Modern Mindset Theory into their work I believe we have an opportunity to systemically address a fundamental that keeps leaders and entrepreneurs awake at night – “How do I keep up to date with the speed of change?” “What will my business look like 12 months from now?”, “How can I keep up and keep well?”
Given your background in both the artistic and business realms, how do you incorporate creativity into your approach, and what benefits have you observed from this unique combination of skills?
I’m always adapting and always evolving, that’s been a part of my identity from a young age. I do believe some of this comes from my creative background. I sometimes get called a chameleon in the way I can sense someone’s needs and mould to their style and tone instantly to help them craft and travel their journey. That’s surely something from my acting and singing background! I guess it’s a bit like empathy. No doubt that this ability to immerse myself in different characters has helped me develop a holistic and empathic approach, by transporting myself into the shoes of others to gain perspective.
Your mission is to change the way we think about business and work one person at a time, leveraging digital and data for the good of humanity. Could you provide an example of a project or initiative where this mission was successfully realized, and what positive impacts it had?
I find my purpose gains its most power when I am working with a business owner or entrepreneur. Seeing a leader over time and the entire culture shift towards modern ways of thinking and doing is incredible, especially when this becomes self-sustaining and self-evolving. Nothing seems to be a blocker anymore in the eyes of the leader. One business I worked with managed to transform its entire operating model, evolve its product suite to become more effective and sustainable, as well as empowering its customer service team to become more human-centred. With this kind of change that stems from mindset work, everyone within the organisation becomes a beacon for change – one person at a time and one tiny step at a time. Becoming responsible business leaders and businesses is the only way we are going to protect the planet and have a chance at controlling the evolution of AI. What I have learnt here is that small doesn’t mean slow when it comes to human transformation, and that’s powerful. Yes, the needs and timelines are great, but the approach to address them effectively is through small changes created from a future vision, rather than knee-jerk reactions created from historical thinking.
In your experience working with diverse clients globally, what trends or patterns do you see emerging in the intersection of digital transformation, human evolution, and community well-being, and how do you anticipate these trends shaping the future?
I think the focus on who we are rather than what we do as leaders and businesses is starting to resonate more and more. I see many businesses starting to invest in personal development that is centred around who they are as a human, rather than just skills or capabilities, It speaks to vertical leadership development and systems thinking. We must lead and live from the inside out, this is where courage, confidence and resilience come from, which are all key leadership traits needed to navigate the AI revolution that’s already begun.
We’ve struggled throughout the digital age to navigate some of its deeper, more ethical, and philosophical questions because we’ve adopted a mindset that assumes someone else has the responsibility, whether that’s a technical expert or a policy maker. The fact is that in today’s world, there are no digital workers and non-digital workers, we are all digital workers, digital leaders, and digital businesses, with an ethical responsibility.
One way to grasp this is to think about an Architect. When an architect wants to create something new and modern, they can only do this by combining two principles: Taking strength of the past, letting go of weakness and merging this with a believable vision of the future. If an architect only has the past to rely on, all you will get is a building that reminds you of the past because that’s what it is, a replica of the past. Leaders must be able to take strength as well as let go of the past and merge that with a clear vision. That is not skill, it’s not theory, that is all mindset and belief.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
Make individual mindset development (inner work) available or mandatory for all leaders and entrepreneurs to become the role models we need to see and experience a glimpse of a future we can believe in and be a part of. I would also love to see personal development as a fundamental part of learning provision for any worker in any business.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
Whilst working at Disney, I was one of the pioneers of embracing digital thinking and practices and was a representative on their then-digital strategy board. It made me realise that whilst I was immersed in the reality of a world that had changed and was constantly changing, leaders and businesses around me weren’t. The truth behind this made me recognise the strength and power of mindset and beliefs in creating either a winning or struggling strategy. That was when I recognised that my unique strengths and gifts had a purpose. That sparked a huge journey of transformation for me that started with deep self-awareness and inner work, to get me to where I am today. Now I have a proven dynamic framework uniquely forged from past wisdom, and seeing the future as untapped potential and possibility, all brought together by the discoveries and science of the present.
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