What a discussion with the lively, witty, laughing and authentic Kenza Barrada. She shares lessons on knowing when to say: “I’m done.” and when you are aligned. She shares how she crafted her professional life based on her evolving personal needs. She explains how she first found meaning in her tasks and then sought deeper meaning in the service to others. This is also the story of staying whole by integrating all the different parts we are made of. And finally she explains how meditation and gratitude made her journey an even more beautiful one.

Kenza Barrada is the Founder and CEO of the WAOW Project, a leadership and team development consultancy. She is also the co-Founder of @it Razala, a permaculture and eco-agriculture project south of Marrakesh in Morocco where she grows a sustainable and edible forest with her husband and children. She is a passionate and expert problem solver! Before this Kenza worked in Morocco, France and across Africa, South America and even Asia in strategic consulting mostly for McKinsey. She started her career in the Consumer Goods Industry.

Key Learnings

Knowing when to say: “I’m done.”

A few times in her career, Kenza said “I’m done!”. First she was done with working in the Consumer Goods industry in emerging countries where the population had more pressing needs than buying diapers or shampoo. Then she was done with Strategic Consulting at McKinsey because it did not fit her new personal life needs. 

“It's very personal, but it didn't make any sense to me. And I remember myself in Argentina  waking up in the morning to go to work as a sales junior, junior something for L’Oréal and I started just crying and say: ‘I can not do that. I can not do that. I can not see myself doing that in the next year or the next years.’”

How to know when you are aligned 

Kenza shares how she has known deep inside herself that she needed a change in her career and life. “I know that I'm aligned when deep inside of me, I feel it's okay. I feel there is nothing more for me there. It's very difficult to just put words on that, but it feels right when you say “I'm done, it's finished, I'm moving to something else”. Inside it's totally quiet and it's okay. And then of course there could be fear in my head or whatever. And of course my head can tell 10,000 things. But deep inside, it's quiet. And it's okay with what's happening and I trust this feeling.” 

Crafting your professional life based on your evolving personal needs 

Through most of her career, Kenza responded to her changing needs. When her mother passed away, she needed a change of environment. When she wanted to reconcile with her home country Morocco, she worked as a strategic consultant supporting the government. When she wanted to focus on her family and her desire to be more creative, she quit McKinsey to found her consultancy. 

From having meaning in the tasks to finding meaning in the service to others

Kenza loved being a consultant. She loved the interaction with the people, gathering facts on the ground, using her intuition to come up with creative solutions and then testing them through models. She enjoyed working for the government. All of this gave her meaning and satisfaction in her work. Yet she felt the need for an even deeper meaning in her work. She was working on important societal topics, yet she was still some distance from fundamental topics, such as climate and food. That’s how she started specialising in agriculture. 

Staying whole, bringing the different parts of ourselves on our journey 

Throughout her journey, when making significant changes, Kenza tried to integrate “all her parts, not to leave anything on the side.” For instance she left McKinsey but she still works for them, providing training to staff. She does not work on agricultural projects anymore but she founded her own permaculture farm. 

The magic of being in the here and now with meditation

While a strategic consultant at McKinsey, Kenza was working on projects through Africa and beyond. Her rhythm was frantic, travelling most of the time and working with highly senior public and private figures. Her marriage was in trouble. That’s when she deepened her meditation practise. 

“We took speedboats and we spent hours on the speedboats on the Congolese river with the sun setting right in front of us. And it was just so magical. I deeply connected with this moment because of my meditation practice that just allowed me to be completely present to that magical moment. I was not telling myself stories about what to do next, the next deliverable, the next meeting, the role I had to play, blah, blah, blah. I was not having any blah, blah, blah In my mind. I was just present to what was going on in my life.”

Making the journey more manageable with meditation and gratitude

When I asked her the last piece of advice for people looking for direction, Kenza said what “really helped me is to completely commit to two small routines that are helping the journey and helping the process. The meditation routine of 20 minutes really helped me. There is [also] a gratitude routine that is embedded in our lives. So every evening before we go to bed, we say thanks to each other, for something that we have appreciated.”