Welcome to the first instalment of my new blog series, where I reflect on the previous month and share some of the themes that are common in many workplaces, lessons learned, and what’s coming up.

I want to take a moment to consider the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. It’s such an important topic, and seeing it being acknowledged is great for us all.

In the realm of leadership, you’ll often come across a range of long-standing ideas and perspectives around what leadership ‘is’ or ‘should be’.

As leaders it is important to consider how we influence how others may feel. How we deliver feedback is a great place to start. When thinking of colleagues as ‘human first’, there’s a lot we can utilise to help us as leaders ensure we’re providing feedback that supports the humans we work with.

While there seems to be some merit in the recognising that ‘new year, new me’ mindsets can set us up for failure, I think it’s all in how we think about our goals as long-term direction and progress.

During the course of 2022, the focus of self-leadership has changed.

Rather than using it to adapt to the uncertain world we were dealing with, we began tentatively using self-leadership to move beyond the day to day and shape the life, career and future we long for.

Last week was a fabulous week!

I had the pleasure of working with many wonderful people who were engaged and so positive about my work and I can't tell you how energising it was, not just to me but also to my team who I shared my experience with...

Cultivating a high-performance team through above-the-line leadership is the goal of a dedicated leader.

Once you have achieved this, how do you maintain the performance, especially as your team grows?

Even if an organisation holds groundbreaking innovations that can unlock tremendous value in the world, poor leadership can scuttle the entire endeavour.

Considering this, we must commit to, and invest in positively impactful leadership. By deeply understanding the ingredients of positive leadership, we can better inspire our teams, accomplish our goals, and feel a deep satisfaction in our work.

Whether you work for a for-profit company or a non-profit organisation, great leadership is going to separate the truly successful from those treading water.

Work pressures, interpersonal demands, and workplace culture strains can play a direct role in the future of your organisation. Because of this, it is the role of leaders to reflect on the real status of our organisations’ ecosystems.

Individually, learning is a great way of keeping us agile, humble and open.

For a workplace, ongoing learning is critical for achieving optimal service delivery and workplace goals.

Many of us think about good leaders we have had or would like to have and then try and find them.

However, how many of us look for this leader within?

Mental health through Covid-19 has certainly come to the forefront of conversations. How could we be using this insight into each other's lives beyond the office in a positive way?

How do you ensure that you go beyond role to role and relate to your colleagues as human to human?

How do you contribute to the team culture and build a healthy ecosystem?

Research shows that when senior leaders set and model high level interpersonal functioning, where values like respect, trust, kindness and compassion dominate, the tone is set for the whole organisation.

Research highlights that there are many negative factors that create risks to the health and wellbeing of an organisation or team. These include a poor interpersonal environment, poor leadership practices and poor organisational practices.

The relationships we have with our leaders and managers is pivotal to how we experience our roles at work.

Healthy interpersonal relationships at work depend on our capacity for empathy, positive relationships, self-awareness and self-management.