From a Twice-Exceptional Diagnosis to a Global Leadership Movement

How a family's search for belonging inspired the creation of LEA Growing People and a mission to champion inclusive leadership across the Middle East and beyond.

SPOTLIGHTS & INTERVIEWS

Elana Buriani, Leadership Expert & HR Strategist

9/14/20264 min read

1. Let’s start with the beginning. LEA Growing People was born from a deeply personal journey around your son’s giftedness and neurodivergence. How did that experience change your understanding of leadership, human potential and belonging — and ultimately inspire you to create LEA?

When people ask me how LEA Growing People was born, they often expect a traditional entrepreneurial story. They expect to hear about a market opportunity, a business plan, or a strategic decision.

The truth is very different.

LEA was born from a deeply personal experience that transformed not only my family but also my understanding of leadership, human potential, and belonging.

Several years ago, my husband Luca and I embarked on a journey to better understand our son. What initially appeared to be a series of educational and behavioural challenges led us to discover that he was gifted and neurodivergent – what specialists often describe as twice-exceptional.

While the diagnosis provided answers, it also opened the door to a reality we had never anticipated. We experienced firsthand what it feels like to navigate systems that are not always designed for difference. We encountered moments of misunderstanding, judgement, exclusion, and isolation. As parents, we found ourselves questioning how many talented individuals spend their lives feeling that they do not fit into the environments around them.

At the same time, we also discovered extraordinary support. Seven remarkable people stood beside us, helping us see possibilities where we could only see challenges. They listened, guided, encouraged, and helped us transform adversity into learning.

Those seven people became the founding core team of our business, the seeds from which LEA Growing People have grown.

What began as a personal search for belonging evolved into a mission.

2. LEA has grown from those early beginnings into a global HR consulting, leadership development and executive coaching organisation, supported by a community of more than 35 specialists. How has the organisation evolved, and what has remained constant in the philosophy and culture behind it?

Today, LEA Growing People is a global HR consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching organisation supported by a community of more than 35 coaches, trainers, consultants, and specialists working across multiple countries, cultures, and industries.

The name LEA carries special significance. A "lea" is a vast area of fertile land where growth naturally occurs. For us, it represents fertile soil where people can learn, develop, and flourish. More importantly, it represents a family. Our community was built on the belief that people grow best when they feel safe, valued, supported, and connected.

My own professional journey has shaped this philosophy. Before becoming an executive coach and leadership consultant, I worked in recruitment, talent management, business development, and corporate leadership roles. Alongside this, I was also a professional dancer, a Music Together Facilitator, as well as a Pilates and Qi Gong instructor. These experiences taught me that leadership is not purely intellectual and expand around sadety and inclusive environment. It involves the mind, emotions, body, relationships, and purpose.

3. Your experience of living and working in the UAE has clearly influenced your thinking about diversity, inclusion and belonging. What have you learned from the region’s multicultural environment, and how has this shapedthe way you work with leaders and organisations?

The United Arab Emirates played a defining role in shaping our vision. Coming from experiences that at times made us feel different, excluded, or misunderstood, we found in the UAE an environment that celebrates multiculturalism and creates opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to contribute. Living and working alongside professionals from dozens of nationalities reinforced my belief that diversity is not a challenge to manage but a strength to leverage.

This belief sits at the heart of LEA's culture. We describe our culture through four pillars: Learning, Resources, Impact, and Profitability. We encourage continuous growth, authentic relationships, collaboration over competition, and sustainable success. Psychological safety, inclusion, curiosity, and human connection are not simply values on a wall; they are principles that guide how we work with clients, partners, and each other.

4. You believe that organisations need to balance strategic vision with empathy, accessibility and genuine human understanding. From your work with leaders across the Middle East, what do you see as the biggest opportunities — and challenges — for organisations seeking to create cultures where people feel genuinely seen, valued and included?

As Founder and CEO, I have direct access to decision-making within my organisation. However, through my consulting work across the Middle East, I have also observed a positive shift in many organisations. Increasingly, leaders recognise the importance of remaining connected to employees, customers, and stakeholders. The organisations that will thrive in the future are those where decision-makers combine strategic vision with empathy, accessibility, and genuine human understanding.

5. What is your vision for LEA Growing People and for the future of leadership and the workplace? As AI and technology continue to transform work, what do you believe organisations and their people will need to embrace to create truly inclusive, human-centred and sustainable workplaces over the next five years?

Looking ahead, I believe one of the greatest challenges facing organisations over the next five years will be balancing technological transformation with human development. Artificial Intelligence will continue to reshape the way we work, but technology alone will never replace the uniquely human skills required to build trust, inspire others, navigate complexity, and create inclusive environments.

For this reason, I believe the most critical competencies for the future workforce include self-awareness, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, adaptability, resilience, inclusive and sustainable leadership, critical thinking, collaboration, and ethical decision-making. As workplaces become increasingly diverse and interconnected, our ability to understand and value differences will become a strategic advantage rather than simply a social responsibility.

This is one of the reasons I am deeply passionate about Diversity Management and the principles outlined in ISO 30415, the international standard for Diversity and Inclusion. Organisations that intentionally create cultures of belonging unlock innovation, engagement, and performance in ways that traditional approaches cannot achieve.

Today, I continue to support leaders, teams, and organisations as an ICF PCC Executive Coach while working towards my Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential and as a MCIPD HR Strategist. Yet despite the growth of our business and community, the mission remains unchanged from the day it started.

I want to help create workplaces and communities where people do not need to hide what makes them different in order to succeed.

Because when people feel seen, valued, respected, and included, extraordinary things happen.

The journey that began with one family's search for belonging has become a global movement dedicated to helping people grow. And this is only the beginning.
Elena’s profile

linkedin.com/in/elena-buriani