Her Ambitious Career

Today's interview is a fascinating insight into the 15-year career of Sarah Cappello, a commercial litigation lawyer and Partner of Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt | Holman Webb.

My guest today is Sarah Cappello, Partner of Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt | Holman Webb, a Sydney based legal practice, working within their commercial litigation team.

In this conversation, Sarah is talking candidly about her career, taking on her first Partnership role aged just 24, becoming an equity Partner at Hunt & Hunt and how she has confidently juggled work with her personal life over the last 15 years.

Sarah shares generous advice around the importance of relationships and building your network, managing stress, sometimes prioritising your personal life over work, and gathering the right support around you throughout your career. Sarah is also sharing an intimate story about her choice to become a surrogate in the midst of her career.

Sarah, on confidence:

"Women sometimes don't believe they deserve the roles they land. There have been a couple of times when I held myself back in my career - but you have to have work on your confidence. What you have to say is important. Asking questions to get clarity is also important. And even if you're not totally sure, just making yourself sound confident can make a big difference." 

Links:

• Connect with Sarah Cappello on Linkedin
• Visit Hicksons Hunt & Hunt Holman Webb website
• Connect with Rebecca Allen on Linkedin
• For emerging leaders' coaching, visit the Illuminate Leadership Growth website 
• Listen to a previous episode with Sarah: Ep 192 – Know What Constitutes ‘Sexual Harassment’ at Work & The Action Victims Can Take, with guest Sarah Cappello

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Sarah:

Sarah Cappello is a Partner at Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt | Holman Webb who works closely with both businesses and individuals to navigate complex commercial disputes, with particular expertise in employment law and shareholder matters. She is known for her strategic, solutions-focused approach and for providing clear, practical advice that reflects her clients’ broader objectives. Whether acting for a company in a high-stakes litigation or advising an individual through a sensitive workplace issue, Sarah is deeply committed to achieving the best possible outcome. Her reputation for reliability and client care has made her a trusted advisor across a broad range of matters.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is an executive level, evidence-based leadership coach and facilitator with 14 years’ experience, coaching across a wide range of sectors including finance, professional services and energy. Her specialisms are in preparing emerging leaders for their next roles and leading through change. She combines strengths-based coaching with cognitive behavioural techniques to help her clients build self-awareness, leadership identity and to step up successfully to prepare for the next level of leadership. Connect with Rebecca today 

What if the strengths that landed you a new leadership role ultimately become a hindrance? Today I am sharing insight from a coaching session where a 1:1 client needed to work on some blind spots to move forwards.

In this episode I am talking about a particular coaching session, with an emerging leader within a professional services firm. They had received some feedback in a 360 assessment that revealed a number of key blind spots and realised these needed urgent attention for risk of further alienating the team.

Interestingly, often the very strengths that helped get someone to a new position of leadership can actually become a liability. 

For example, behaviours that previously may have been labelled as being 'highly detailed' may now be perceived as 'micro-managing'. This shift in perception is important to identify - and fix.

So how can coaching help a client like this build awareness of the gap and work honestly and successfully through making some attitudinal or behavioural shifts to help build engagement with their team?

I'm sharing some insights directly from this coaching session today.

Rebecca, on recognising your blind spots: 

"What got you here won't necessarily get you there. Sometimes the very strengths that helped get someone to a new position of leadership can actually become a liability.  High standards can become micro-management; drive can become impatience; knowledge can become superiority. These strengths, pushed to the extreme, can result in a leader alienating their team and creating deep disengagement”

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Listen to other episodes: How to Build Trust In Your Team, By Assuming Their Competence
• And this ep: Why Some New Leaders Fail to Build Engagement
• Speak to us about your leadership development objectives

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen’s coaching clients often refer to her as ‘warm’, ‘practical’ and ‘strategic’. She is an executive level, evidence-based leadership coach and facilitator with 14 years’ experience, coaching across a wide range of sectors including finance, professional services and energy. Her specialisms are in preparing emerging leaders for their next roles and leading through change. She combines strengths-based coaching with cognitive behavioural techniques to help her clients build self-awareness, leadership identity and to step up successfully to prepare for the next level of leadership. Connect with Rebecca today 

We are all in sales. Today we are discussing common sales errors that companies make and the shifts in thinking and strategy that actually build revenue.

My guest today is Susan Englehutt, Founder of The Way Buyers Buy. 
Susan is often brought in to work with a Sales Division when revenue has slumped and panicked, knee-jerk, tactical responses are being employed such as hiring more (or different) sales people; seeking more leads; or re-training salespeople. All costly approaches that don't necessarily build revenue.

In this interview, experienced sales expert Susan Englehutt explains how she helps businesses shift from these tactics to becoming more strategic about the long game of building revenue in the business. 

If you're leading a business, in a sales team, or simply want to understand how to think in a fresh way about building revenue, this is the episode for you.

Susan, on selecting the right buyer to speak to from the outset:
"You have to increase your probability of winning a sale by being with a 'WHY' buyer during the 'WHY' part of the sales process and also asking the strategic question upfront, 'What has changed for this company to need us (and our product) now?' If nothing has changed for the business, you won't convert any sale." 

Links:

• Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
• Visit The Way Buyers Buy website
• For emerging leaders' coaching, visit the Illuminate Leadership Growth website or connect with Rebecca Allen on Linkedin

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Susan:

Susan Englehutt is the founder and creator of The Way Buyers Buy: the program growing and shifting companies actually need when they have hired more sales people, or purchased sales training and it didn’t work. A born simplifier and visual thinker, Susan is an expert sales consultant and trainer. Her specialty is helping the leaders of B2B companies and their teams. Susan has been a consultant to huge Fortune 50 companies like Verizon, IBM, Microsoft, and Dell and to small and medium companies too. Today, she loves working with nimble and innovative companies and teams who need quick shifts and lasting change in the way they think, behave, market and sell.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen’s coaching clients often refer to her as ‘warm’, ‘practical’ and ‘strategic’. She is an executive level, evidence-based leadership coach and facilitator with 14 years’ experience, coaching across a wide range of sectors including finance, professional services and energy. Her specialisms are in preparing emerging leaders for their next roles and leading through change. She combines strengths-based coaching with cognitive behavioural techniques to help her clients build self-awareness, leadership identity and to step up successfully to prepare for the next level of leadership. Connect with Rebecca today 

Today we're exploring one of the most overlooked challenges in mergers and acquisitions - not systems integration, not organizational structures, and not even culture. But a turnover of your highest performers.

One of the biggest risks in a merger is not losing poor performers - it's losing your best people. 

Research shows that highly skilled employees and managers are the most likely groups to leave after a merger because uncertainty about their future, status, and career opportunities makes external options more attractive.

A significant merger has just taken place. 

Within the first weeks and months you’re starting to see your best people leave. The truth is while leaders have been focused on strategy, synergies, and culture integration , many of your best employees are asking a very different question:

"What does this mean for me?"

And if that question remains unanswered for too long, organisations often experience disengagement, declining productivity, an erosion of trust - and turnover.

So today we'll unpack the psychology behind this phenomenon and explore how leadership coaching can help leaders guide people through uncertainty and toward a meaningful future.

Rebecca, on asking yourself different questions as leader: 

"Mergers can result in high turnover of your best talent which often stems from uncertainty. Rather than focusing on tasks and productivity, your people are consumed with thoughts that question their identity in your new culture. They worry about their growth and if there will be opportunities for them moving forward.”

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Speak to us about your leadership development objectives

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-potential emerging leaders and their teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached emerging and senior leaders at companies including Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching program. Connect with Rebecca

Today we are talking about what leaders can do to foster deeper inclusion and empower Asian women in their teams.

My guest today is Natalie Wong, an experienced HR professional with 25 years experience with a passion for seeing more Asian women progress in their careers.

Natalie is sharing practical advice to outline how may women are juggling multiple identities at once at work and the impact that can have on them, whether those identities are about ethnicity, gender, or otherwise. 

We are talking a lot about the default communication styles of many Asian women and some practical ways leaders can support women of Asian descent to progress more rapidly, such as:

• Helping people promote their impact
• Listening to understand, rather than listening to reply
• And looking out for affinity bias in recruitment

Natalie, on leading with a DEI lens: 

"It's important to have a diverse perspective and that can be challenging when other leaders don't have that lived experience too. Sponsorship, mentoring and allyship are all really powerful in supporting Asian women to succeed in their careers. And that includes understanding their values and cultural background and what might be holding them back from voicing their concerns." 

Links:

• Connect with Natalie Wong on Linkedin 
• Connect with Rebecca Allen on Linkedin
• Get a copy of Rebecca's guide, 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader 

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Natalie:

Natalie Wong is a strategic and empathetic HR leader with over 25 years of experience spanning global multinationals, financial institutions, and professional services across Asia and Australia. Renowned for her collaborative approach and deep expertise in talent acquisition, executive recruitment, employee relations, business partnering, and learning and development, Natalie brings a wealth of insight to every engagement.
 
As a culturally diverse leader of Asian descent, Natalie is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, and  has consistently championed the creation of inclusive workplace cultures throughout her career; as well as supporting the development of female leaders.   Leveraging her legal and business background, she is focused on delivering pragmatic, people-focused solutions that align with strategic business goals.
 
Natalie’s thought leadership and commitment to elevating the employee experience make her a compelling speaker and trusted voice in the HR community.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-potential emerging leaders and their teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached emerging and senior leaders at companies including Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching program. Connect with Rebecca

Productivity, competence and trust are all intertwined And today, we are exploring how essential it is for a leader to identify where people are strong, rather than to assume they will fail.

It is easy to slip into negative habits that erode trust in the team. Habits such as:

• Excluding people from decision making
• Talking over them
• Not delegating and micromanaging
• Delegating only low-impact tasks
• Telling people how to do things
• Assuming they will fail or make a mess of things

Today we are taking a step back and looking at the power of the question:

"How is this person smart?" *

Thus identifying the strengths of your team and then playing to them.

* A question posed by Liz Wiseman in her book, Multipliers

Rebecca, on building trust in the team: 

"When you assume someone is capable on your team, you help them focus. They are not distracted, worrying about how they will be perceived or if their work is valuable and valued - they simply get on with the task and are highly productive."

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Visit Rebecca's website and develop your leaders and teams
• Connect with Rebecca on Linkedin

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-performing leaders and teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached managers through to CXOs at Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching programs. Connect with Rebecca

As Rebecca's client Jen nears the end of her coaching program, she opens up about her coaching experience, what she learned and the benefits of working with Rebecca.

• What is a career and leadership coaching session like?
• What outcomes might a client get out of a coaching session, or program?
• Is coaching worth the investment? 

These are just some of the questions Rebecca's client Jen is talking about in today's episode.

If you have ever been curious about how a career and leadership coach could partner with you to help you realise new levels of fulfilment and success in your career, this is the episode for you. 

Jen, on her coaching experience with Rebecca Allen: 

"When thinking about working with you, I saw the value in speaking to someone external to my industry. To grow, you really do need to open up and not shield yourself, which is easier to do with someone outside. As well as getting a pay rise the coaching also freed up a lot of time I was wasting procrastinating - there's no dollar value you can put on that."

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Visit Rebecca's website 

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Jen:

Dr Jennifer Snaith is a Sydney based Endocrinologist and clinical researcher. She did her PHD on non-insulin treatments for people with type 1 diabetes. This is something she is passionate about, and she now leads type 1 diabetes clinical trials.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-performing leaders and teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached managers through to CXOs at Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching programs. Connect with Rebecca

In today's episode we are exploring the primary role of a team leader and I am sharing some of the coaching questions I might ask a leader to help them develop team capability.

Today we’re talking about a question every corporate leader eventually faces:

“What is my primary role as a team leader?”

• Is it simply to deliver results?
• Is it to control outcomes?
• Or to take responsibility when things go wrong ?
• Or, is leadership actually about developing people so the team can consistently perform at a higher level and behave autonomously?

This is what we are talking about today on the podcast - what the primary role of the leader truly is.

I am also sharing 3 powerful coaching questions I might ask a leader, working with me for executive coaching, to help them develop team capability.

Rebecca, on asking yourself different questions as leader: 

"A leader who only focuses on targets may get short-term performance - while a leader who develops capability builds long-term performance. The question shifts from: “How do I get this done?”, to “How do I help my team become capable, confident, accountable, and high performing?”

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Book a free 15 minute Career Strategy call with Rebecca to get your career off to a fresh start. Don't stay stuck - get new thinking and new action to move forward in your career

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-performing leaders and teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached managers through to CXOs at Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching programs. Connect with Rebecca

Have you ever had a proactive recruiter on your team, advocating for you in the background? Today I am talking with Jonathan Foxley about how to stand out in an increasingly competitive recruitment market.

In this practical episode, experienced recruiter Jonathan Foxley and I are talking about a range of different topics including:

1. Getting hired in today's market

2. The impact of AI on your application and how to circumnavigate that

3. Real-world stories about how candidates have stood out amongst a sea of candidates

4. The critical advantage having an experienced recruiter advocating for you

Jonathan, on the value a proactive recruiter can have on your career: 

"My role is to advocate for candidates, understand their drivers, enthusiasm and ambition, where they want to go, and the impacts they've made in previous roles so I can talk to that when I'm advocating for them to my clients and essentially getting them a foot in the door."

Links:

• Visit the Fox Talent website
• Connect with Jonathan on Linkedin
• Connect with Rebecca Allen on Linkedin
• Get a copy of Rebecca's guide, 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader 

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Jonathan:

Jonathan Foxley is the founder of Fox Talent, a boutique search firm based in Sydney. Originally from England and raised in South Africa, Jonathan began his career as an accountant before moving into the talent sector in 2008. With over 17 years’ experience, he partners with growing businesses to find great people across finance, operations and beyond. He also leverages this experience to support senior professionals in navigating their career moves. Known for his strong networks and straight talking style, Jonathan is passionate about delivering a genuinely personal experience for both clients and candidates.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-performing leaders and teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached managers through to CXOs at Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching programs. Connect with Rebecca

Today we’re talking about a situation that comes up sometimes in leadership coaching engagements - a newly appointed leader who inherits an existing team and then struggles to establish credibility.

This is one of the reasons organisations bring me in as a leadership coach. On paper, promoting this person to leader makes sense. The leader is capable, experienced, technically strong, maybe high-performing in previous roles.

But then they step into a new leadership position with an inherited team… and things start to wobble.

Maybe the team doesn’t fully buy in. Momentum slows. Relationships become strained. The leader starts second-guessing themselves.

In today’s episode we are exploring why this transition can be so hard and how coaching can help the leader build engagement and thrive.

Rebecca, on taking a step back in the first few days and weeks of your new leadership role: 

"What makes it particularly difficult is that many new leaders think they need to prove themselves quickly. So they overcompensate. They move too fast. And they try to establish authority before establishing trust."

Links:

• Get a copy of Rebecca's 7 Strategic Shifts to Position You as a High-Impact Leader
• Book a free 15 minute Career Strategy call with Rebecca to get your career off to a fresh start. Don't stay stuck - get new thinking and new action to move forward in your career

Rate, Review, & Follow our Show on Apple Podcasts:

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. We air every week and I don't want you to miss out on a single broadcast. Follow now!

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Allen is a warm and dynamic Leadership Coach who helps build high-performing leaders and teams by working on 4-core pillars: how do we want to show up; how do we want to add value; how should we elevate our thinking; and how should we elevate our communication? Rebecca has coached managers through to CXOs at Woolworths, Coles, ANZ, RBA, J.P. Morgan, PwC, ANSTO, Ministry of Defence, Frontier Sensing and abbvie through her Roadmap to Senior Leadership coaching programs. Connect with Rebecca