I AM RUTH KIIRE

“My mission is to inspire women to embrace a well-integrated life, where success is sustainable and well-being is never compromised; to reduce stress and overwhelm, foster meaningful connections, and empower women to thrive as leaders, caregivers, and individuals."

Hi everyone! I am a retired social worker and now a trained life coach. I work with professional women juggling busy jobs with demanding family responsibilities ranging from taking care of their families, school runs, homework, extra-curricular activities, self-care, health, and more… In today’s world there are so many new things vying for our attention and taking up our time.  

From my own experience when I used to work full-time as a Social Worker for Children and Families, I know what it feels like working until late in the evening while your children are still young and you have to leave them with a child-minder all day long, pick them up at 8 pm and when you get home have so many things to do such as feed the children, do the homework, get them ready for bed, pack the things they require for the following day, etc. Then sit down to type a report that is needed first thing the following day. I struggled with guilt most of my life when my children were young while I worked. I did not know how to integrate my busy professional responsibilities with my family responsibilities and self-care was not even on the cards!

I suffered from stress which led me to develop high blood pressure, acne, and emotional turmoil (I cried easily and experienced frequent moments of guilt). Although at the time, I quite often felt like resigning from my job and just being a full-time housewife/mum; I could not because I needed to earn money to support my family. So, I persevered and continued to be overworked, stressed, and without any harmony in my life.

It was in 2022 after I retired in December 2021 that I decided to train as a Coach. After training, I decided that I wanted to support professional women who are experiencing what I experienced over 30 years ago when I worked full time and I had young children and create strategies and systems to make their lives easier.  

I developed the 5 Pillars for work/life mastery. In each Pillar, there are strategies to Discover Core Values, strengths/skills, support network, and more. In the Decide Pillar, there are strategies that will help you make well-informed decisions (good decisions). In the Discuss Pillar, you identify the key people you need to discuss important things both at work and home and with those they need for their personal care needs. In the Develop Pillar, you identify areas to develop your skills further both at work, parenting skills, and skills for family responsibilities e.g. meal preparation that is efficient and quick. You also learn skills to develop good relationships at work, at home, with friends and family, and their self-care buddies. Finally, in the Delegate Pillar, you will learn how to delegate some of your responsibilities to others efficiently and effectively both at work and at home, without guilt, and how to rephrase ‘delegation’ as a tool to support you and create the space required for the important things in your life goals, dreams, and vision.  

For SOAR Summit Scotland, I will share some of these strategies and tools with attendees. Here are what some of my clients say.  

“I work on the frontline of a refugee camp in Uganda. There are just 2 of us covering thousands of refugees (men, women and children) displaced. The atrocities that happen to women and children here are beyond your imagination. We try to help them all the best that we can but abuse, rape, violence, and harm happen all the time. Ruth helped me process these atrocities and find balance in a very stressful professional life, home life, and the demands of each. She empowered me to Discuss with key people in the Camp how we were feeling, how we could protect women and children from the abuse they were experiencing from men in the Camp. Discussing issues helped us make decisions that were effective and helpful to those concerned. Now I am using the strategies I learned from Ruth to help me through challenging days and help others too. Ruth’s work is real and life-altering. Our lives here are hard and at times unforgiving on a daily basis. Being able to have the support of Ruth has been a saving grace.” Natasha (Uganda)  

“I am Nancy, a busy social worker with three young children aged: 1, 4, and 6. My one-year-old goes to a Baby Minder and spends the whole day with her. My 4 and 6-year-old go to a nearby Primary School which has a Nursery attached to it. My Baby Minder picks them up from school at 3 p.m. and looks after them until I pick them up in the evening. When I came to see Ruth, I was very stressed and anxious. The coaching sessions helped me clarify my core values and priorities in my life and I discovered ways I could actually work from home twice a week. I also learned how to make effective decisions, discuss important things with my boss and colleagues, and share ideas about how we could support each other. I was able to plan my own development by identifying areas where I wanted to develop my skills and commit to taking action in those areas. One of my biggest realizations was that delegation was meant to support me and once I learned effective ways of delegating work to my colleagues, I had more time to do other important stuff. The Work-Life Mastery Programme helped me integrate my professional responsibilities with my family commitments and also have time for my personal self-care. I was so much happier.” Nancy (UK)