About Sandra Keys

With professional training in psychometric testing with SHL, Sandra assessed over 500 participants through her work on leadership assessment and development centres with SHL (Hong Kong) between 2000-2004. Sandra constructively supported and challenged clients, providing objective feedback, and coaching to senior managers using a wide variety of structured exercises such as role-play, group exercises and written business cases as well as use of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) and ability tests. Clients included Henkel, Cognis, China Light & Power, the MTRC and the Hospital Authority.

As a co-Founder Director of Caretta Limited, a Hong Kong-based company from April 2004 to March 2021, Sandra has worked collaboratively with trusted associate colleagues to enable the building and retention of partnerships with multi-national companies to establish strong and diverse leadership talent pipelines, through which they continue to secure competitive advantage across the Asia-Pacific region. She managed over 100 residential leadership assessment and development centres, successfully identifying the strengths and development needs of 1200 high potential future leaders. She worked in close partnership with senior managers to teach and coach them in objectively assessing and developing talented employees. She has written 750 tailored personal feedback reports, setting the foundation for clients to strategically tailor their internal training and development, career, and succession planning programmes. She has also delivered 50+ Individual Executive Assessments for recruitment to critical senior positions. Key account clients include BASF and Henkel.

Sandra has been working as an Associate with NetExpat providing Partner Assistance Support to the partners of Expatriates re-locating to the UK since 2018. Sandra also has an Associate Contract with Talogy providing report writing services for leadership assessment and development.

Sandra is professionally affiliated with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). She is also a member of the Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), through which she conducts voluntary work. Additionally, she is a member of the Organisational Development Network for Europe. She has an MA (2:1) in French and Business Studies from The University of Edinburgh and has recently qualified with Hogan accreditation. She is a published author and a mother to one daughter. She works in English.

Active Listening

Active Listening is one of the core skills underpinning all the work that Caretta and Associates deliver. The traditional Chinese character ‘To Listen’ shown here depicts the fundamental nature of this skill better than the English language. “To listen absolutely, using eyes, ears and heart as one to give undivided respect and attention”. It is through listening that we learn and how partnership working evolves.

Living Our Dying

… a work in progress

The original inspiration for Caretta started as a wish, hope and dream that emerged in my own thinking on a long/hot bus journey across Egypt in 1992. Having spent a summer season living and working in Greece, I learned to scuba dive whilst living by a small, protected beach resort for Caretta turtles. On my way back home to London I dreamt that I would run my own business, and I wanted the spirit of the turtles to continue to inspire my work.

In Native American teaching, the Turtle is the oldest symbol for plant Earth. Turtles live in and around water and they invite us to take our time, to allow our natural pace to work for us. Too much, too soon may offset the balance. Turtles carry their homes on their backs. They invite us to go into our own shells and to come out when our ideas are ready to express themselves. Turtle teaches us how to use protection. If you are bothered by the actions or words of others, it is time to go inside yourself and honour your feelings. If you are attacked, it’s time to give a warning snap.

I first translated my own dream into action in 1996, when I became self-employed 4-years working for the NHS, establishing Caretta UK. I then co-founded and ran Caretta Limited in Hong Kong for 17-years from April 2004 to March 2021 through which I was engaged in running Leadership Assessment and Development Centres and individual Executive Assessments around the Asia-Pacific region.

My own ongoing experiential learning in psychotherapy through my work with Terry Cooper, one of the Co-Founding Directors of Spectrumtherapy now spans over 25-years. All of us are in a continual process of forming, stabilising and reforming our adult reality. When individual identify is grounded in somatic reality, each of us may say: “I know who I am by how I experience myself”.

Writing as I am now in September 2022, marks a transition to re-forming the future shape of Caretta from a London-office base. Dreams are in a constant process of evolution. Dreaming allows a dialogue between two worlds, who we are and what we are in the process of forming.

Thank You for reading about my own story today and I look forward to also listening to and learning about you.