We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nyam Adodoadji a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nyam, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
Unfortunately I most definitely did not avoid burnout in my career, but I have redeemed my experience with it via the inception of my sabbatical coaching business. As a quiet, creative, introspective 22 year old, I unexpectedly started a tech career at a Silicon Valley startup. Working 14 hour days and often crying in the single stall office bathroom, it was my first burnout experience and initiated a pattern of it in my product manager career. After that first job, I left multiple subsequent jobs due to burnout.
In 2021 during the pandemic I sat in front of my computer while working for my remote job, wrestling yet again with burnout. As I looked out the window of my apartment, I asked myself, was my life just going to be one debilitating job after another until I died?
This question propelled me into a year long self-made sabbatical in 2022, and in 2024 I launched my sabbatical coaching business. More than just time away from the workforce, my career break restored my connection to my body and intuition. After 14 years of burnout in my tech career, the intentional time away from work resting and reflecting was the reset I needed to start my act two in life. I knew that many others in tech were wrestling with burnout and disconnection from themselves. Using my experience as a blueprint, I invite my clients to craft intentional sabbaticals in order to come home to themselves and build lives and careers that feel aligned and resonant.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
By the time I had a moment of reckoning during the pandemic about recurring burnout in my career, I felt like all ashes. I couldn’t figure out why work, something that was a necessary part of being an adult, was so painful for me. I felt a deep desire to use my creativity and positively impact others, but, while I excelled in my product management career, I always felt like something was missing. I had to hide the parts of me that were gentle, creative and “too sensitive” in order to force myself into an external version of success.
Through my 2022 sabbatical, I alchemized my ashes into a soulful ambition. Reclaiming all the parts of me I hid earlier in my career, as a contemplative sabbatical coach, I now partner with mid-life tech professionals to craft intuitive, creative & joyful sabbaticals as an avenue for inner change. In a driving industry where slowing down is viewed as a setback, I invite techies to embrace the power of rest and reflection, not for the sake of being more productive, but in order to reconnect to themselves and realign their lives and careers to what resonates within them.
We’re living through times that are dark and chaotic, and with the rapid advancement of AI technologies and mass layoffs, the tech industry is changing. The rules and systems we’ve become accustomed to are fracturing; in a context where the only sure thing is uncertainty, connection to one’s intuition will be a beacon through the turbulence.
I don’t view sabbaticals as an escape route from collective distress, but rather as a chrysalis for contemplation about the direction of one’s life. If one feels engulfed by the world’s sorrow and danger, how can one become even more clear on what is most important and the part that they play in the world’s healing? The myths tech leaders have believed about climbing ladders, the empty tall tales about success, are turning into ashes in a world on fire.
Through my latest offering, the Trusting the Wisdom of Your Story 1:1 intensive (https://www.nyamadodoadji.com/trusting-your-story), I work with professionals to uncover and trust the spark, however subtle, within themselves. Via visualization, poetry, music, insightful questions and journaling, together we reflect on the arc through their lives and careers that has brought them to their current moment of transition. We unearth clarity and their next chapter. This work cultivates rooted, heart centered leaders ready to navigate careers, lives and the shifting world with intuition, insight and joy, rather than fear.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
From when I was young, I’ve been sensitive and attuned to subtleties in people or environments that others might not notice. Things like slight shifts in tone or facial expression, what’s not being said beneath the surface or how a physical space feels. I now recognize this quality as a superpower that is vital for my coaching business, but working in the rapid, chaotic context of tech, I often felt overwhelmed by everything I was taking in or like I couldn’t trust my intuition. To make it through, I started overriding this quality, which I now know was a contributing factor to my burnout. I was working in environments not built for sensitive souls like mine, and I couldn’t give myself the respite I needed in order to feel grounded and refueled. Having this insight about myself, I realized that working for myself would be an important part of long term sustainability in my career.
While I experienced challenges in my product management career, one skill I cultivated and appreciated is the ability to ask the right questions at the right time. My work involved wading through ambiguity to help clients and users clarify the problems they were trying to solve. I learned to ask exploratory questions during the beginning stages to uncover root issues and to ask detailed questions to ensure that solutions addressed the important aspects of the problems we were solving. It’s a different context, but I still use this skill in coaching. Timely and insightful questions uncover the truth that isn’t always readily apparent for clients.
Another skill for which I’m grateful from my product management career, is the ability to organize teams and projects towards an end goal. I can look at a goal and intended outcome and know the steps to take and how to mobilize people in order to bring the outcome to life. I know how to spot potential pitfalls and problem solve in order to get projects in motion again. This skill is a phenomenal gift as I navigate the administrative aspects of running my business. After coordinating digital product launches with unrealistic deadlines involving dozens of people, managing my solo business seems easy in contrast!
For folks early on in their journey, I’d actually advise them to identify and invest in honing the skills and qualities that come naturally to them. In order to do that, they might need to do assessments or ask the people in their lives what they do well, as sometimes when something comes easily to us, we take it for granted. To cultivate the qualities I’ve mentioned above though, I’d recommend reducing the amount of time that they consume digital content and focus on creating quiet space, reading and writing. This practice will help them observe, clarify and articulate questions. To grow in organizational skills, take on small projects in your family or with friends or see if you can shadow someone more experienced at work to see how they approach things. I learned so much from getting to work with more senior folks at my jobs.
How would you describe your ideal client?
Externally, my ideal client is someone who has 10 plus years experience in the tech or corporate world. They are at a moment in their lives where they’re asking questions about the next stage of their lives and careers. Internally, they’re deeply driven by purpose, integrity and kindness and they have a desire to create positive change in the world. They see the world through a creative lens, even if via their job title they’re not “a creative.” They’re willing to ask hard questions and navigate discomfort in order to experience personal alignment and authenticity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nyamadodoadji.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyamado/
- Other: Substack: shespeakssoftly.substack.com
Image Credits
Karen Santos
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