My Blog

Hiring mistakes are costly, especially in leadership positions. It affects the performance and morale of the entire team and organisation, not just the individual role. If you want to get better at identifying, hiring and promoting talent, especially if you want true diversity in your teams, consider questioning the following myths:Read more...

To my daughter’s utter disappointment, her ballet school closed on Tuesday in line with the Victorian school closures. One of the biggest challenges for her and her ballet friends, as well as worry for their teachers, is that without regular, deliberate exercise, the muscles they have built over many years can deteriorate in weeks. While many competitions and auditions have been cancelled, they will be back at some point and the dancers need to be strong enough and ready.Read more...

In times of uncertainty like we are experiencing now, worry, panic and chaos can set in. These are the times when tapping into our quiet power will help us find calm in the chaos. By accessing our inner calm, we can respond creatively rather than react. Find opportunity in what seems like a crisis.Read more...

The Golden Key RMIT chapter (a collegiate honour society that invites the top 15% of college and university sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well as top-performing graduate students) asked me to explore “leading without authority” with their students and a panel of experienced leaders: Dr Wendy Harding, CEO of the National Institute of Organisational Dynamics Australia; Professor Ron Wakefield, Dean, School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University; and Gary Novak, Partner at KPMG. It’s an important concept if you are new to an organisation or do not have positional authority - that is, authority by virtue of your job title or where you are in the hierarchy.Read more...

Some of you may be thinking “I know quiet leaders or quiet people who are not effective. They don’t talk to people, they go off and do their own thing and we don’t know what they’re thinking most of the time.”Read more...

Communication would cease to be a monologue and the number one complaintRead more...

Quiet still gets a bad rap. I have never heard anyone say “Oh, she’s a bit quiet” with a positive tone. I hear about quiet achievers being great contributors who get overlooked or ‘used’ for their ability to deliver, rather than recognised as they should. It is only when prompted that people start to think about those quieter people who add a lot of value.Read more...

Who is best placed to determine whether someone is a good leader? And who usually decides who gets promoted / appointed?Read more...

Having interviewed 26 quietly powerful leaders* and reflected on what they told me, what struck me was that some were reluctant leaders.Read more...

My last article Quietly Powerful Leaders – who are they and why don’t we have enough of them outlined the key attributes observed in Quietly Powerful Leaders whom I interviewed and why we don’t have enough of them, based on conversations and research.Read more...

Since starting the Quietly Powerful movement just over 2 years ago I have had the pleasure of interviewing 24 Quietly Powerful leaders so far, to understand what makes them quietly powerful and how their natural tendencies have been their leadership strengths (join the Quietly Powerful LinkedIn Group to access the recorded interviews). A few patterns started emerging, which I have been sharing more of in my talks.Read more...

In conversations with quieter professionals, I hear examples of how they have felt disadvantaged in the workplace. It is surprisingly common place and yet often not seen as a problem. It is more often seen as the problem for the quieter professionals to fix and fit in. While I have the view that the individuals can develop to overcome some of the disadvantages, I also believe that organisations are wasting talent by not being aware of or addressing these disadvantages.Read more...