Anita Kotla

Senior Consultant

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Anita Kotla is an experienced Business Psychologist with more than 25 years’ experience across assessment, selection, talent, leadership development and organisational behaviour, including two decades in global roles with Shell and an independent practice supporting a growing portfolio of international clients. Anita is recognised for building trust-based relationships with senior business leaders, combining psychological insight with a commercial and pragmatic mindset. She works with leaders from mid-level to C-suite across sectors including energy, manufacturing, technology, trading, private equity, healthcare, finance and retail. Her work spans executive assessment for selection and development, assessment of potential, succession, psychometric feedback, leadership development programme design and facilitation, assessment centre design, assessor training, coaching and team effectiveness.

BACKGROUND & INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Anita leverages deep experience in business psychology and organisational behaviour to help organisations make better leadership decisions and build leader effectiveness. Since establishing her independent practice in 2022, she has focused particularly on senior executive assessments, including C-suite selection, development, succession and assessment of potential. She uses psychometrics, in-depth interviews and, where appropriate, simulations, role-plays, case studies and other assessments to develop clear, evidence-based insights into an individual’s fit for role, readiness and priority development areas.

Prior to becoming independent, Anita spent more than two decades with Shell in a succession of global roles across leadership development, learning, talent, assessment and selection. As Global Programme Manager for the Asset Management Academy, she created, led and delivered a suite of senior leadership programmes for Production, the company’s largest technical function. Her work required complex learning needs analysis, diagnosis of critical capability gaps, close partnership with VP-level business faculty and delivery to a global population of senior asset leaders. Earlier Shell roles included the global Leadership Development practice and Assessment centre of excellence, as well as roles in the Trading & Shipping and Gas & Power businesses.

Her corporate background gives Anita a strong appreciation of the realities of global business: large-scale transformation, matrix decision making, technical and operational complexity, safety-critical environments, commercial pressure and the human dynamics that influence execution. She has worked with leaders and teams facing complex leadership challenges in areas such as safety leadership, psychological safety, operational excellence, continuous improvement, non-technical risk, decision quality and the translation of strategy into effective leadership behaviour. She has delivered work across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and is fluent in English and Polish.

Anita’s industry experience includes energy, renewables, manufacturing, technology, trading, private equity and professional services, with additional client work in healthcare, finance, retail and defence-related contexts. She is particularly effective where leadership capability needs to be understood in relation to a specific business context.

Executive Assessment Approach

Anita’s assessment approach is rigorous, balanced and practical. She is interested not only in what the data says, but in how the findings can be translated into useful decisions, meaningful feedback and high-quality development planning. She combines psychometric evidence with behavioural interviewing and, where relevant, bespoke exercises or simulations. This enables her to triangulate evidence, test hypotheses and provide clients with a nuanced view of strengths, risks, motivators, derailers, learning agility and contextual fit. Her report writing is known for clarity, balance and attention to detail; she adapts readily to client house style and is often asked to provide quality assurance on other assessors’ reports.

Coaching, Leadership Development & Facilitation Approach

Anita’s leadership development work is grounded in diagnosis. She invests in understanding the business context, the leadership challenge and the success factors that matter in a particular environment. Her design approach is creative but disciplined: she blends evidence-based frameworks, adult learning principles, behavioural practice, reflection and pragmatic tools that leaders can use immediately. As a facilitator and coach, Anita is credible with a variety of audiences, drawing on her corporate background while creating enough challenge and psychological safety for leaders to examine their impact honestly.

Team Effectiveness & Business Partnering Approach

Anita brings a systemic lens to work with leaders and teams. She is skilled at helping clients bring clarity to ambiguous and complex issues, particularly where organisational dynamics, leadership behaviour and commercial priorities are interdependent. Her style is inquiry-led and collaborative. She listens carefully, builds trust quickly and acts as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders. Whether supporting a leadership team, a population of senior leaders or an individual executive, Anita looks for the practical points of leverage that will improve decision quality, relationships, alignment and execution.

Leadership Development Assignments

  • Senior leadership development programmes: At Shell, created and delivered a suite of senior leadership development programmes for senior asset leaders in the Production function, with 400+ alumni over eight years. This work required full accountability for needs analysis, diagnosis, design and delivery in partnership with senior business faculty.
  • Global leadership learning: Managed a global project to strengthen the leadership and behavioural components of approximately 50 business learning programmes. The work involved multiple senior stakeholders and global delivery through business learning counterparts, and received recognition from HR leadership for impact and excellence in delivery.
  • Leadership framework application: Contributed to comprehensive guidance for leaders at all levels on development against Shell’s Leadership Framework. This guidance supported individual development planning and helped translate leadership expectations into practical behaviour.
  • Business-context-led programme design: Designs leadership interventions by first diagnosing the capabilities that matter in a particular business context, then translating those requirements into focused learning journeys, workshops or facilitated sessions.
  • Virtual and global delivery: Experienced in leading programmes and interventions across geographies, cultures and delivery formats. Successfully virtualised senior leadership programmes during 2020 while maintaining engagement and relevance for global participants.

Relevant Assessment Assignments

  • Executive assessment for selection and development: Delivers in-depth executive assessments for selection, development, succession and assessment of potential. Recent work includes C-suite assessments for PE-backed clients across a range of sectors; partner promotion assessments for a Big 4 organisation; business-unit leader development assessments for a major UK plc.
  • Assessment of potential and succession: Conducts succession-mapping and potential assessments for senior and mid-level leaders, integrating psychometric insight, behavioural evidence including 360-degree feedback, and contextual understanding to support promotion, readiness and development decisions.
  • Psychometric feedback: Provides feedback using Hogan, Saville Wave, OPQ, 16PF and other tools. Has held British Psychological Society Ability and Personality Testing qualifications for two decades and is comfortable becoming certified quickly in proprietary client instruments and methodologies.
  • Assessment report writing and quality assurance: Produces clear, structured reports that bring together evidence, judgement and practical recommendations. Frequently asked to review or quality assure reports because of her attention to detail, balanced tone and ability to adapt to different client house styles.
  • Assessment strategy and methodology design: Advises on assessment approach, tool selection, exercise design and reporting formats. Her work includes bespoke selection and development methodologies, interview guides, simulation design and standards for assessor practice.

Relevant Coaching, Facilitation & Team Effectiveness Assignments

  • Executive coaching and development planning: Supports leaders across levels with professional and personal effectiveness challenges, often linked to assessment feedback, development planning, leadership transitions, stakeholder impact and behavioural change.
  • Behavioural change: Has worked with hundreds of senior and mid-level leaders on behavioural change in areas including safety leadership, psychological safety, operational excellence, continuous improvement, non-technical risk and other complex leadership challenges.
  • Team effectiveness and facilitation: Provides bespoke support to leaders and teams facing complex change. Her facilitation experience includes senior leadership programmes, structured individual development sessions, assessor training and interventions focused on team clarity, alignment and leadership behaviour.
  • Transformation and change support: Supported leaders and teams undergoing major global transformation at Shell, bringing leadership development, coaching and organisational behaviour expertise to help leaders navigate uncertainty and maintain focus on execution.

Assessment Centres & Assessor Training Assignments

  • Assessment centre design and delivery: Designs and delivers assessment centres and virtual AC-style development assessments (including simulations, role-plays, case studies and interviews) and integrated feedback processes. In-person and virtual delivery across multiple industries (including major public sector organisations) and geographies.
  • Assessor training at scale: Previously designed, programme managed and delivered two global assessor programmes for Shell, supporting selection and assessment of potential, with more than 1,500 assessors trained per year and a budget of more than USD 2 million.
  • Talent pipeline and readiness: Led project to define entry routes, selection processes, development requirements and sign-off standards for Trader talent. Developed an assessment-based approach to Trader readiness and implemented a challenging assessment centre for new Trader selection.

Education & Professional Affiliations

  • Postgraduate Conversion Diploma (Hons) in Psychology: London Metropolitan University, 2006; British Psychological Society accredited; thesis on cultural and organisational influences on leadership prototypes within Europe, based on Shell data.
  • MA in Applied Linguistics: University of Warsaw, Poland, 1996.
  • British Psychological Society: Graduate Member since 2006; Member of the BPS Division / Special Group for Coaching Psychology.
  • Psychometric qualifications: BPS Level A and Level B (Intermediate Plus) Ability and Personality Testing qualified.
  • Selected psychometric certifications and tools: Hogan Assessments, Saville Wave, MBTI Step I and II, OPQ, 16PF, EQ-i and multiple proprietary client instruments.
  • Languages: Fluent English and Polish; reading French.