Unleashing Brilliance

Joining me on the podcast this month is Michelle Sales

Michelle is passionate about helping people tap into their true potential –in leadership and in life.

As a highly sought-after speaker and trainer Michelle has helped thousands of senior leaders and their teams learn to show up as the best version of themselves, to build their confidence and influence with others, and to maximise their leadership and performance. Michelle has worked with some of Australia’s most respected businesses, including ANZ, NAB, Telstra, Australia Post, Department of Defence, AFL andTennis Australia and prior to doing her own thing she worked for 28 years in corporate roles –with many of those being senior and executive leadership roles in financial services –before establishing her own leadership business in 2012.

She believes that stepping up with real confidence takes work –both to build confidence and, more importantly, to sustain it.

In this podcast we chatted about her bookThe Power of Confidence: Learn How to Lead to Your Full Potential and the key principles she identifies around:

1.Show Upas the real you, and the best version of you as a leader.

2.Stand Up for yourself, your team, your values and your point of view.

3.Speak Up and have a voice and be able to influence.

4.Step Up your performance, your impact and ultimately how you exercise. leadership.

Fragrance aficionado Nicole Eckels launched Glasshouse Fragrances in 2006 with a spark of imagination and a belief in the power of fragrance to transform the everyday. Since it's launch nearly a decade ago, Glasshouse Fragrances has quickly grown to become a leading brand in the Australian fragrance market.

Nicole was born and raised in New York and began her career as a makeup artist in SAKS Fifth Avenue. After a stint in San Francisco in corporate business and sales, Nicole decided she needed a more challenging outlet. She flew to the sunny shores of Australia with her son, looking for a sea change. It was in Australia that she found her 'true calling'. I really loved this conversation with Nicole as we discussed how she found her own brilliance.

Some of the nuggets included discussion around:

-Overnight success is actually a decade

-Working hard to maintain a leadership position

-Considering outcomes not just from a financial basis but also from the longer lasting effect it has on people and business

-How luxury is beauty and how we cannot create excellence without beauty

Listen in and enjoy

With over two decades of Visual Design experience, and ten years as founder and CEO at Presentation Studio, Emma Bannister’s view is radically different. Passionate that powerful presentations consist of more than just visual design – she teaches a new way of thinking – Visual ThinkingTM.

Emma’s journey from the kitchen table to building a business that is now the leading presentation studio in Asia is inspiring. Presentation Studio’s clients include working with companies such as Telstra, Westfield, Microsoft, Qantas, Yahoo, NAB, CommBank and Pepsico.

Listen in as Emma shares:

-Her rebound strategies

-Her lessons as a introverted CEO

-The importance of being yourself

-The need to stretch and contract the business in line with industry demand.

Originally from the US, Jack Story is the Chief Technologist for DXC Technology’s Public Sector in Australia and New Zealand.

Jack’s experience in strategy development spans the global needs of outsourcing service providers and the unique strategies required to address those clients’ business challenges and capabilities.

Prior to his corporate career, Jack served in the USAF flying the F-4G Wild Weasel. He was the Tactical Air Command Instructor EWO of the Year in 1988 and was Distinguished Graduate for several USAF service schools and programs.

Jack serves on the Board of Directors for a data centre focused advisory company, and has previously served on numerous advisory councils/boards. He regularly speaks at technology seminars, public sessions and advisor/analyst meetings on topics spanning innovation, outsourcing, alternative user and data experience, cloud computing, virtualisation and hybrid compute models.

-Listen in for his thoughts on leadership, the future and in particular the conversations we had around:

-Don’t judge others solely on output – consider intent

-The need to challenge our mindsets for the future

-Being reluctant to say NO to opportunity

Grab a cuppa, download and listen in.

Simon Dowling is a leading thinker on creating collaborative teams and workplaces. As a speaker, facilitator and educator, he works closely with leaders and teams from some of Australia’s most interesting organisations, equipping them with the inspiration and know-how to build strong, highly engaged teams.

He began his career as a as a commercial lawyer, and is also an experienced improviser, regularly performing with leading improvisation company Impro Melbourne. He was a regular cast member on Working Dog’s hit TV show Thank God You’re Here.

As the founder and Managing Director of training and development company 2engage, Simon has nearly two decades experience working with senior executives groups to build their communication and leadership effectiveness.

We had such a fabulous conversation and there are gifts galore:

How to manage the “dirty rotten planning” brain

How slowing down is actually your friend

The power behind the question “what does this moment need right now?”

The 4 questions decision framework of whether to collaborate or not

Enjoy

In her words Paula Kensington is “a CFO on a mission to empower others to unlock their potential, confidence and belief in their ability to succeed”.

Impact is Paula’s reason for living. In everything that she does, her primary driver is 'what impact am I having on others, how can I help others to become successful and can I leave people feeling better about themselves, having belief that they can achieve more.”

Having spent 20 years in corporate roles in Australia and UK, she has seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Through her courage, grit and determination for a better work place, Paula continues to call out standards that are not acceptable without being fearful of the outcome. She is an authentic, heart driven finance leader who balances the big picture strategy and thinking with realism for treating everyone with respect. She says 'I strongly believe that when we align big picture strategy with individual performance, this heart mind connection is what brings out the best in people.’

High five to that Paula! Our conversation included creating workplaces that are places of joy, the need to develop a strategy of you and how learning all the time are key elements of unleashing your own inner brilliance.

Grab a cuppa, download and listen in.

Weh Yeoh is the founder of OIC Cambodia, an initiative that aims to establish speech therapy as a profession in Cambodia. He has a BA in Physiotherapy from the University of Sydney and an MA in Development Studies from the University of NSW. He has volunteered with people with disabilities in Vietnam, interned in India, studied Mandarin in Beijing, and milked yaks in Mongolia. He started OIC in 2013, and handed over leadership to a local Cambodian team in 2017. He is now co-founding Umbo, a social enterprise bridging the gap for rural children to access allied health services. So many nuggets in this conversation as Weh shares his inspiring story and courage to step out and do something that matters to so many others:

-the choices that we all have to help others

-success is measured by what happens after you leave

-setting up your own redundancy

-asking the uncomfortable questions.

Grab a cuppa, download and listen in.

Donna McGeorge makes work work.

She is passionate about enhancing the large amount of time we spend in our workplace (too much, for many) to ensure it is effective and productive, as well as enjoyable. Donna has worked with managers and leaders throughout Australia and Asia–Pacific for over 20 years such as Nissan Motor Company, Jetstar, Medibank Private and Ford Motor Company — so they learn to manage their people well and produce great performance and results. Her CV reads like her eclectic record collection (yes, classic vinyl): Manager of Theatre, Sports & Concert Tours for the UK-based Keith Prowse; Asia–Pacific Organisational Development Manager for Ford Motor Company in Shanghai, China; as well as roles at Telstra, Qantas, Ernst & Young and Ansett. Donna believes that workplaces are complex, but not hard. More often than not it’s getting the simple things right, consistently, that has the greatest impact. She also knows that when we decide to be intentional, we can surprise ourselves with what we can achieve. Listen in for our discussion around:

 The challenge of work is that people have to work with people and learn how to navigate the relationship stuff

 The importance of hitting the pause button to map out the territory you are playing in

 How to create your best self.

Grab a cuppa, download and listen in.

Kieran Flanagan is an expert in harnessing commercial creativity to help people become better problem solvers and ultimately drive more success in business and life. Whether it is success by design, rethinking thinking, creative leadership or making change positive and positive change Kieran can help you change your thinking (and change your world). A rare female leader in the world of MadMen, Kieran was also of the youngest Creative Directors to lead an award-winning advertising agency. She was the strategic and creative mind behind the most successful product launch in Australian history, has headed up Australia’s premiere creative school, won awards all over the planet for her thinking and effectiveness and is on the faculty at Thought Leaders Global. Kieran regularly writes for Success and CEO magazines in the US and has had her thinking published in over a hundred titles all over the globe. She has appeared on Sunrise, Sky Business and SBS and is often heard on ABC 702 on Wendy Harmer’s morning show. She was also recently voted as one of the USA’S C-suite speakers to look for. In her words, her mission is to, “change the way we think for the better”.Listen in for her insights and story around; - backing yourself – always - that we all have a super power - the forever skills that we already have for the future of work. Grab a cuppa, download and listen in.

Ep 033 - Conversations with Kieran Flanangan Co-Founder The Impossible Institute by Janine Garner