Karen Bushnell MCIPD

Leadership Trainer with over 30 Years of Experience

Leadership & Team Development Trainer | Behavioural Specialist | Learning Design Expert

Karen Bushnell is a highly experienced leadership and development professional with over two decades of expertise in training, organisational development, and behavioural profiling. A Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (MCIPD), Karen specialises in helping leaders and teams elevate performance, strengthen communication, and build effective workplace relationships across organisations throughout the UK and EMEA.

Professional Background

Karen’s career began in frontline sales with major companies in the UK and Bahrain, where she built a strong foundation in commercial performance and people development. She subsequently served as a Sales Training Manager and Management Development Consultant at Yell.com for more than 14 years, a period during which she developed and delivered impactful training programmes that blended practical commercial insight with skills‑based development.

Over the course of her career, she has worked with a diverse range of organisations—including Bryant Homes, Red Funnel Ferries, British Telecom, Reed Business Information Services, and Bendicks of Mayfair—supporting them in leadership development, team effectiveness, performance management, and other core people‑centric initiatives.

Areas of Expertise

Karen’s deep expertise spans several interconnected areas of professional development:

Leadership & Team Development: Designing and delivering programmes that build leadership confidence, collaboration, and team resilience.
Behavioural Profiling & Psychometrics: Skilled in using tools such as Tracom Social Styles, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Step I & II), Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32), and Firo‑B to enhance self‑awareness and interpersonal effectiveness.
Instructional Design: Creating learning experiences founded on accelerated and brain‑based learning techniques that maximise engagement, retention, and practical application.
Communication & Performance Skills: Facilitating workshops on presentation skills, assertiveness, dealing with difficult conversations, time management, and customer care.

Training Philosophy

Karen believes that effective development combines self‑awareness with real‑world skills application. Her programmes utilise behavioural insights and structured profiling tools to help participants understand their own style and adapt more effectively to others—leading to improved collaboration, productivity, and leadership impact.

She is known for creating supportive learning environments where individuals are encouraged to reflect, practice new behaviours, and build confidence that translates directly back into their workplace roles.