About Me
Trevor Hudson
I’m the founder, managing director, and lead coach & facilitator at Woden Consulting.
Taking Knowledge for Granted
It might seem strange to go back this far but I was born with a heart defect. The treatments they gave me to keep me alive at the time changed my life - rapid brain growth through oxygen dosing meant I learnt VERY fast. Talking 13-word sentences by the time I was 9 months old.
It meant that (naively) I undervalued knowledge and to a lesser extent intelligence. Instead, from a young age, I was fascinated with the ideals of wisdom.
It also meant I always struggled a bit with education. I did OK at school as my supercharged brain still had some juice left and I acquired knowledge more from curiosity than anything else. But I really struggled with being taught to pass exams rather than explore the world.
My curiosity took me far and wide, in numerous industries and I voraciously consumed knowledge and qualifications in as diverse disciplines as Shiatzu massage, Chi Kung, Alexander technique, self-hypnosis, NLP, Kung fu, Taichi, Buddhism, Taoism, western philosophy, psychology, shamanism and psychometrics. I was accepted onto an MSc course despite not having an undergraduate degree and published my dissertation research in international publications.
Despite accumulating a lot of knowledge I retain my obsession with understanding wisdom - how it is created, how it is transformative and how valuable it can be to leaders.
Through the Eyes of Children
In my late 30’s, my wife and I decided to adopt. They arrived. A ready-made family that now included two curious question-firing strangers. One day they were asking me about what I did. They reminded me of the power of genuine curiosity but more than that held up a mirror.
I realised as I spoke that I was frustrated as an employee. I hated politics, I hated how hard I had to convince people to do the ‘right’ thing. I realised that the joy I got was from helping other curious leaders explore more than skill development. I realised I enjoyed helping people transform to be able to do things they couldn’t do before.
Likewise, I could find dozens of examples of the many organisations I had worked in that made me unhappy - where I had been asked to compromise my integrity. I’d been asked to give someone a warning for taking parental leave, lie about an initiative being based on employee feedback and to stop doing something that changed lives because it wasn’t specifically asked for by the CEO.
I looked at my kids and realised that I wanted to be someone that they looked up to. I wanted to work with leaders that want to do the right thing. I wanted to be happier more often. I wanted to seek out individuals and organisations ready for transformation. Ready for more wisdom.
Making it Spiritual
In 2019, just before the pandemic, I realised that was I had been about my whole life was pursuing higher levels of understanding this crazy complex world. I also realised that helping others do the same was what gave me joy. Whilst we have been indoctrinated in the West to see this kind of growth as an intellectual pursuit, it’s actually a spiritual one. Becoming the best leader I could be, the best dad I could be and the best person I could be (so far) has as much in common with spiritual disciplines as it does my research on the psychology of wisdom.
So my work now is about growing people and organisations without shying away from the difficult painful stuff needed for true transformation. In fact, that’s why my company is called Woden (Odin) who had the Truth (the runes) revealed to him after much suffering.
I can’t say I have had any more hardship than most. But have plunged headlong into uncomfortable truths to grow and think differently and I enjoy helping others who are up for the challenge.
If you would like to join me on my journey to build wiser leaders and more human-centric organisations then get in touch (trevor@wodenwisdom.com) or subscribe using the link at the top of the page.