South Derry native executive coach and author Caroline McKenna has reached Amazon No.1 in two bestseller categories with her debut book, Lead Self First: 7 Lean-Inspired Steps to Unlock Next- Level Growth.

Following its launch, the book reached the No.1 spot in Amazon’s Small Business eBooks and Self-Employmentbestseller categories.

Published by Practical Inspiration Publishing on June 30, Lead Self First draws on McKenna’s 20 years of experience working with growing SMEs in Mid Ulster and her work today coaching leaders of growing and scaling businesses.

Originally from The Loup, McKenna spent two decades of her career working in the Mid Ulster business community, much of it within engineering and manufacturing. She later founded Lead Self Coaching and Development and has since built an award-winning executive coaching business, supporting leaders with big visions for growth.

placeholder image — Executive coach Caroline McKenna draws on personal experience and a 20-year career in Mid Ulster to help ambitious business leaders navigate the challenges of growth. Credit: RIchard Trainor Photography

The idea for the book grew from McKenna’s own experience of joining a high-performing team in a rapidly scaling business. As she stepped beyond her comfort zone, she experienced first-hand how ambition and growth, while positive on paper, can bring self-doubt, pressure and a sense of inner unrest that makes success harder to enjoy.

Years later, as an executive coach supporting leaders of growing and scaling businesses, she began recognising similar patterns. Leaders could have the strategy, experience and ambition to move forward, yet their own thinking, beliefs and behaviours could unknowingly become a bottleneck to the growth they were working so hard to achieve.

“I knew what it was like to be pursuing something I genuinely wanted, yet find the process far harder internally than I expected,” said McKenna. “Today, I work with leaders of growing and scaling businesses who have big visions for the future. My role is to help them recognise what may be getting in their way, so they can stop becoming the bottleneck to their own growth and move forward with greater clarity and confidence.

“I wrote Lead Self First to help more leaders do exactly that, so they can accelerate progress towards their vision and enjoy more of the process along the way.”

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Her debut book blends lean thinking with coaching psychology, taking principles more commonly associated with reducing waste and improving business processes and applying them to the way leaders think, behave and make decisions.

Through a practical seven-step framework, McKenna explores how what she calls the “three costs of inner unrest” can show up as wasted time and money, wasted talent and potential, and even wasted success.

The book has attracted endorsements from internationally recognised figures in leadership and coaching.

Dr Marshall Goldsmith, ranked the Thinkers50# Executive Coach, described it as: “A grounded, practical read for leaders who want to grow without becoming the bottleneck.”

Professor Jonathan Passmore of Henley Business School, who wrote the foreword, said: “My hope is that this book will help you lead yourself first, so that you can lead others with greater clarity, courage and compassion.”

McKenna later founded Lead Self Coaching and Development, which was named Professional Services Start-Up of the Year for Northern Ireland at the 2025 UK StartUp Awards.

Lead Self First: 7 Lean-Inspired Steps to Unlock Next-Level Growth is published by Practical Inspiration Publishing and is available in paperback and ebook formats.