So You Got the Big Job. Now, Please, For the Love of God, Don’t Blow It Up in Week Three.
Congratulations. Genuinely. You got the title. The bigger patch. The seat at the table you’ve been circling for years. Someone shook your hand and said “we’re thrilled to have you,” and you went home and poured a wine and let yourself feel it for about eleven minutes before the panic arrived. Because here’s what nobody […]
Stop Promoting Half-Humans Into Whole-Human Jobs
We keep doing it. Someone is brilliant at the technical work. The best engineer. The sharpest accountant. The lawyer who never loses. The salesperson who smashes every target. So we promote them. Into a job that isn’t technical at all. Leading people is a whole-human job. And we keep filling whole-human jobs with half a […]
The 100 Best Leaders in Australia Right Now
A LinkedIn newsletter by Sonia McDonald ❤️ and LeadershipHQ I’ve spent 35+ years studying leadership. Teaching it. Coaching it. Watching it up close in boardrooms, site sheds, cockpits and kitchens. Here are The 100 Best Leaders in Australia Right Now… So here’s my list. 100 leaders. Not ranked — leadership isn’t a leaderboard. Not all […]
How to Bring Neuroscience-Based Leadership Into Your Organisation
How to Bring Neuroscience-Based Leadership Into Your Organisation Neuroscience is the most overused word in leadership development — and the most underused science. The gap between “we mentioned the amygdala on a slide” and “our leaders behave differently under pressure” is where most programs die. Here’s how to actually embed brain-based leadership in your organisation. […]
How to Choose an Executive Coach: A CEO’s Checklist
How to Choose an Executive Coach: A CEO’s Checklist Executive coaching is unregulated in Australia. Anyone can print the title on a business card, and most use the same promises: clarity, confidence, transformation. If you’re a CEO or senior leader choosing a coach, the polished bio tells you almost nothing. This checklist tells you what […]
The Best Women in Leadership Speakers in Australia
The Best Women in Leadership Speakers in Australia Booking a women-in-leadership speaker is one of the highest-stakes decisions an event organiser makes. Get it right and the room shifts. Get it wrong, and you get 45 forgettable minutes of borrowed quotes. This guide covers Australia’s most impactful women in leadership as speakers, what each is […]
Nobody Toxic Ever Got Promoted, Sounding Unsure
Let me ask you something, and be honest. Have you ever watched someone toxic get promoted? I already know the answer. Every time I ask this question — in keynotes, in boardrooms, on LinkedIn — it’s a wall of yes. So this week, I want to give you the why. Because it’s not bad luck, and […]
Best Leadership Training Companies in Australia (2026)
Best Leadership Training Companies in Australia (2026) Updated July 2026 · By the LeadershipHQ team Choosing a leadership development partner is one of the highest-leverage decisions an organisation makes — and one of the hardest, because the Australian market spans global franchise programs, boutique consultancies and everything between. This guide profiles eight of the strongest […]
Leading Through AI Without Losing Our Humanity
JULY 2026 · Leading Through AI Without Losing Our Humanity THE EXECUTIVE BRIEF BY SONIA McDONALD Hello, Welcome to the very first edition of Leadership Intelligence™. Every month, I’ll bring together the best thinking from around the world — Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, MIT Sloan, Deloitte, Gartner and leading researchers — then share what it […]
FOBO: Leading When Your Team Fears Becoming Obsolete
The story of 8,500 phone calls, a robot named Billie, and what neuroscience says about the fear quietly killing your AI strategy. How do we get here? FOBO: Leading When Your Team Fears Becoming Obsolete. In 2021, IKEA’s parent company faced a decision that thousands of businesses are now staring down. They had built an […]