Golden Key Spotlight: Gabriele Angelo Ciminelli

Aloha. My full name is Gabriele Angelo Ciminelli and it has given people enormous trouble over the years! Though it might be a name that sounds like it is from the renaissance era, I can assure you I do love my name. To make things happier between you and I, I insist on you calling me Gab! 

I joined the Golden Key National Honor Society on June 9th, 1997 after graduating from La Trobe University, Australia. It was a huge boost to my personal confidence at the time, but it wasn’t until my international travels brought me to Hawaii and Japan that I realized the true essence of its mission. Let me tell you a story.

I consider myself having a successful career. From Australia to Taiwan, to Japan and Hawaii, my travels have seen me work in some amazing roles (Leadership, Communications, Emotional Intelligence Trainer, People Strategist, HR Development, Technical Writer, Relationship Manager and Engineer) with top Fortune 500 companies (Ericsson, Nokia, Alcaltel-Lucent, Rakuten).

Along the way, I have won awards for employee of the year (2010 Hawaiian Telcom) to Leadership awards. I’ve managed small to medium-sized multicultural teams in Japan and even found time to invent a Japanese<->English SMS text message translation service found on most phones today.

Yet, there was one thing that constantly disappointed me in all my career positions: how people were being managed (or mismanaged). I repeatedly saw signs of micromanagement, employees being burned out, yelled at, mistreated and ultimately isolated. I experienced all of them to the point where I too became depressed and needed to consider turning things around, Mahatma Gandhi-style: “Be the change you wish to see”!

So, I consulted with 3 people at the time when my family and I were enjoying life on the beautiful Hawaiian islands: My Leadership mentor at the time, a Buddhist monk, and my incredible wife. To cut a long story short, my wife took me on an amazing spiritual journey (still on that path today); the Buddhist monk taught me how to live in the here and the now; my leadership mentor changed my life when he said, “Awards are a sign of a great achiever; but to be a great leader, you need to give back- what are you doing to give back?”.

Thus, in 2017, I founded the Silent Leadership Institute – a global training and coaching practice that focuses on executive coaching, coaching for unconditional self-compassion, providing essential soft skills programs in leadership, creativity, mindfulness, and well-being. The Silent Leadership Institute is based in Tsukuba, Japan, and offers online training and coaching across the globe. 

My why?

I’m here to help people unleash a life they love through the art of self-compassion and mindfulness, whether at work or in their personal missions. Everyone deserves to love, live and learn.

By Gabriele Angelo Ciminelli

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrieleciminelli/