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How much of ourselves do we give up just to fit in? And what happens when we finally find the courage to be ourselves? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I speak with Premila Jina, CEO, board leader, transformation specialist and author of The Leader Unwritten and The Trusted Operator. Born in India, raised in Kenya, and having built a career in London's investment banking and technology sectors before moving to Australia, Premila shares the personal and professional cost of constantly adapting to belong. From changing her accent and appearance to fit into corporate environments, to finding the courage to wear a sari at a major technology event, her journey is one of reclaiming identity, confidence and voice. We explore why highly capable people are often overlooked for leadership, the difference between being a trusted doer and a trusted leader, and why organisations need to stop fixing people and start addressing the systems holding them back. Premila also shares her perspective on the global backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion, what that means for Australian workplaces, and the risk of artificial intelligence reinforcing existing bias. In this conversation, we explore: The hidden personal cost of fitting in and the importance of belonging. Why technical excellence doesn't automatically translate into leadership. The systemic barriers facing women of colour. What genuine inclusion looks like beyond policies and corporate statements. Why trust, courage and human-centred leadership matter more than ever. This is a candid conversation about identity, ambition, the courage to challenge expectations and what it will take to build workplaces where people don't have to change who they are to succeed. Because perhaps the future of leadership isn't about teaching people how to fit in. It's about creating workplaces where they no longer have to. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when you've built successful businesses, earned recognition and achieved the things you once dreamed of, only to discover that success doesn't necessarily bring happiness? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, Sadhana Smiles sits down with entrepreneur, author and business mentor Kate Toon for an honest, funny and refreshingly human conversation about business, leadership, reinvention and knowing when enough is enough. Kate shares her unconventional journey from corporate advertising to building successful digital businesses, including the loneliness of starting out as a new mother, the financial mistakes that changed her approach to business and the courage it took to stop trying to fit in. They explore what Kate has learned about leadership, why sharing failures builds more trust than celebrating achievements, the impact of AI on business and why human connection matters more than ever. And then there's the bookshop. After years of teaching people how to make money while they sleep, Kate bought a struggling coastal bookshop and discovered a different kind of success. Perhaps the most powerful moment comes when Kate reflects on years spent chasing recognition and the realisation that the applause that matters most is your own. A conversation about embracing who you are, finding your people and recognising that success isn't always about achieving more. Sometimes it's about learning to enjoy what you've already built. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What separates a team that performs well from one that consistently delivers exceptional results? And how much of that comes down to the person leading it? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with Curtis Sprouse, Founder and CEO of Eureka Connect, who has worked with more than 5,000 individuals, including senior executives and business leaders, helping them better understand themselves, strengthen their leadership and build high-performing teams. Curtis brings a fascinating perspective on the relationship between self-awareness, behaviour and performance. We explore why talented people sometimes struggle to work together, the blind spots that hold leaders back and what it really takes to create a culture where people can do their best work. We also discuss his work developing young people, the lessons he has learned supporting entrepreneurs and innovators, and why understanding people remains one of the most important skills any leader can develop. Because high performance isn't simply about hiring the best people. It's about creating the conditions that allow them to succeed together. A conversation about people, potential and the leadership behaviours that make a difference. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The way we work has changed dramatically. But has the way we lead kept pace? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with Jennifer Selby Long, founder and CEO of Selby Group, who has coached senior leaders and executive teams across organisations including Airbnb, LinkedIn, Cisco and Nestlé. Jennifer has spent years helping leaders navigate organisational transformation, rapid growth, acquisitions and the complex human dynamics that can make or break a leadership team. Together, they explore why organisational change often needs to begin with personal change, what happens when leaders become the biggest barriers to their own success, and why emotional intelligence is no longer a nice-to-have but a critical business capability. They also unpack what really happens behind closed doors in executive teams, the uncomfortable conversations leaders avoid, the everyday habits that build trust, and how to measure whether leadership coaching is actually making a difference. And as AI reshapes the workplace, Jennifer challenges us to consider what technology can do for leaders and what must remain fundamentally human. If the world of work is changing faster than our leadership behaviours, what needs to change first? Please enjoy this conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do good people sometimes become leaders they never intended to be? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with Preetie Boler, founder of Empowered by Design and creator of the Shiftcode™ methodology, to explore what really happens to our behaviour when pressure rises. Preetie’s work focuses on the gap between intention and impact - the space between the leader we believe we are and the leader other people actually experience. We talk about why capable leaders can become reactive or controlling under pressure, whether the accelerating pace of work is making leadership behaviour worse, and why organisations continue to promote technical excellence without paying enough attention to behavioural capability. We also explore Behavioural Intelligence, whether it can and should be measured, the hidden commercial cost of poor leadership behaviour, and why behaviour deserves a place alongside financial, operational and governance risk in the boardroom. And as AI and constant connectivity reshape the workplace, we ask an increasingly important question: are leaders becoming so busy responding that they are losing the space required for reflection and self-awareness? Perhaps the biggest question of all is whether people can genuinely change. Can a leader who has behaved a certain way for decades reinvent how they lead, or does pressure simply reveal the patterns that were there all along? This is a conversation about leadership beyond titles, frameworks and good intentions. It is about how we show up when things get hard, because ultimately, that is the leadership the people around us experience. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does Olympic-level performance teach us about leading people through pressure? Drew Ginn OAM is a three-time Olympic gold medallist, a member of Australia’s legendary Oarsome Foursome and now General Manager of Marshall White Bayside. In this conversation, Drew takes us behind the medals to explore the trust, honesty and discipline required to build a team capable of performing when the stakes are high. Drew reflects on joining an already successful Olympic crew at just 21 and questioning whether he was good enough to belong. He shares how the team practised difficult conversations before they reached breaking point, why immediate feedback matters and what leaders can learn from people who understand that discomfort is part of growth. We also explore the difference between sustainable performance and expecting people to operate at 100 per cent every day. Drew explains why recovery is not a reward for finishing the work, but part of the work itself. He discusses how leaders can remain steady while their people experience the inevitable highs and lows of performance, and why knowing when to challenge someone and when to support them is a critical leadership skill. The conversation also examines resilience, reinvention, coaching and the loneliness that can come with leadership. Drew shares why culture cannot sit with one person, why everyone must become a culture keeper, and what changes when leaders move beyond their own success and take responsibility for the performance of the whole team. Originally recorded for Behind the Numbers ahead of Drew’s appearance at the RISE Leadership Breakfast, this is a practical and deeply human conversation about leading under pressure without losing sight of the people beside you. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When people struggle at work, organisations often respond by trying to make them more resilient. But what if the problem is not the person? What if it is the way the work has been designed? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, Sadhana Smiles is joined by organisational psychologist Dr Kat Page, author of Good Work: Transform Your Work from the Inside Out. Drawing on almost two decades of research, Kat challenges leaders to look beyond wellbeing programs and examine the systems shaping people’s daily experience of work. She explains why resilience should not be used to help people tolerate preventable dysfunction, and how load, latitude, love and leadership can create healthier, more sustainable workplaces. Kat also shares how being made redundant forced her to confront how closely her identity had become tied to her career, and how reconnecting with her values helped her redesign her own relationship with work. Together, Sadhana and Kat explore whether performance should be measured through energy rather than hours, why psychosocial safety risks becoming another compliance exercise, and who should benefit when AI gives us time back. Because good work is not simply about preventing burnout. It is about creating workplaces where people have agency, feel that they matter and can perform without sacrificing their health to do it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if positive thinking isn’t always the answer? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, Sadhana Smiles sits down with speaker and author Chris Helder for a wide-ranging conversation about the beliefs we carry, the stories we tell ourselves and how both shape the way we live and lead. Chris shares his concept of Useful Belief, a practical alternative to forced positivity. When circumstances are difficult or outside our control, the question becomes: what is the most useful belief I can choose right now? They explore Chris’s GOGI philosophy - guilt out, gratitude in, controlling the controllables, authenticity, influence and why leaders need to become more comfortable saying, “I don’t know.” They also discuss designing a life for excellence across work, family, health, friendships and self, rather than allowing success in one area to come at the expense of everything else. Chris also opens up about how his understanding of resilience has changed, his own struggle with feeling “enough”, and why reaching the top of one ladder led him to choose a new one centred on helping people. A thoughtful, funny and deeply human conversation about mindset, uncertainty, resilience and one deceptively simple idea: we may not control what happens next, but we can be intentional about the story we tell ourselves about it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the biggest leadership problem isn’t your people, but the system they’re working within? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, Sadhana Smiles speaks with engineer, entrepreneur, author and founder of five businesses Felicity Furey about what it means to design leadership for impact. Felicity shares how being one of the few women in engineering shaped her early career, why she once hesitated to put her hand up despite managing $45 million worth of projects at just 23, and how one decision to step forward ultimately changed the direction of her career. They explore why culture is revealed through everyday behaviours, how workplace systems can unintentionally create barriers to performance and belonging, and why leaders need to understand people's individual strengths rather than make assumptions about what motivates them. The conversation also turns to AI, our growing obsession with speed and the human capabilities Felicity believes we cannot afford to lose: judgement, curiosity, imagination, relationships and genuine care. And ultimately, Felicity poses a bigger challenge for leaders: what if we moved beyond measuring productivity and started measuring impact? Impact on the business. Impact on people. Impact on communities. And impact on what we leave behind. A thoughtful conversation about systems, belonging, AI, legacy and designing a more human future of leadership. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Domestic violence is not a fringe issue. It is not a private matter. And it is not someone else’s problem. In this episode, I sit down with family lawyer Cassandra Kalpaxis for a direct and deeply confronting conversation about domestic and family violence in Australia. Cassandra shares that in her practice, around 95 percent of her cases now involve domestic violence. Not always physical. Often invisible. Coercive control. Financial abuse. Psychological harm that slowly strips away identity and autonomy. We discuss the warning signs many people miss, what meaningful support actually looks like, and why pressure can push survivors further into danger rather than towards safety. We explore where our systems are falling short, from policing to prevention, and the accountability that sits not just with government, but with workplaces, leaders, communities and men. As International Women’s Day calls us to Balance the Scale, this episode asks a harder question. Where are we still failing? And what responsibility do we each carry to change it? If you need support, confidential help is available through 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leadership is often measured by what we build: the business, the team, the results and the growth. But Kenny Lange believes there is a more important question leaders need to ask: Who are you becoming while you build it? Kenny is a leadership and scaling coach, entrepreneur and host of How Leaders Think. His path to coaching came through experience rather than theory. After being let go twice in four months, he started a digital agency almost by accident, grew it into a successful business and eventually sold it. He then helped the acquiring company nearly double its revenue while expanding its workforce across six US states and four countries. In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, we talk about what happens when founders become the "chief everything officer", why scaling requires leaders to surrender some of the things that made them successful in the first place, and why self-awareness needs to come before strategy, systems and accountability. Kenny also shares the deeply personal story behind his commitment to fostering and adoption. Together with his wife, he has fostered 18 children and adopted two, alongside their three biological children. That experience has shaped his understanding of vulnerability, responsibility and what it means to use leadership in service of something bigger than yourself. This is a conversation about business growth, identity and the inner work of leadership. Because sometimes the biggest challenge in scaling an organisation isn't what needs to change in the business. It's what needs to change in the leader. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when highly capable people can solve complex problems but struggle with tasks the workplace considers simple? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I speak with executive coach Frankie Berkoben about neurodiversity, executive functioning and what leaders misunderstand about people who think differently. Frankie’s own career has crossed geology, engineering, product and program management, endurance cycling and executive coaching. Following her experience of burnout and a later ADHD diagnosis, she began to recognise that many talented people spend years believing they are inconsistent, unfocused or somehow broken, when the real issue may be the fit between the individual and the system around them. Frankie explains why systems thinking, pattern recognition and intuition can be significant leadership strengths, even when traditional workplace structures fail to recognise them. She also explores the shame created when people are repeatedly told they are too much or not enough, and the impact this can have on identity, confidence and belonging. The conversation moves beyond diagnosis. Stress, uncertainty, overload and constant context switching can affect executive functioning in any of us. Frankie and Sadhana discuss what neuro-inclusion looks like in practice, why psychological safety requires more than a policy, and how small changes to meetings, communication and work design can help different minds perform at their best. This is a conversation about building workplaces around humans, rather than expecting every human to fit the same system. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to build a career that spans some of the world's biggest technology companies before launching your own AI start-up? For Anya Cheng, it wasn't a perfectly mapped career plan. It was curiosity, resilience and an unwillingness to accept the first "no." Born and raised in Taiwan, Anya arrived in the United States with little more than a marketing degree, limited English, and no professional network. Finding work after graduating during the Global Financial Crisis meant knocking on countless doors, creating opportunities where none existed, and refusing to let rejection define her future. That determination led to leadership roles at Target, Facebook, eBay and McDonald's, where she helped shape global digital products, launch Facebook and Instagram Shopping, expand e-commerce, and rethink customer experiences at scale. Today, she's the founder and CEO of Taelor, an AI-powered platform transforming how men discover, rent and buy clothing while helping fashion brands reduce waste through real-time customer insights. In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, Anya shares why curiosity has been the greatest driver of her career, why the best leaders stop thinking about their job title and start solving problems, and how every setback became an opportunity to think differently. Whether you're leading a team, building a business or navigating your own career, this conversation is a reminder that extraordinary opportunities rarely begin with certainty. They begin with asking better questions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Technology is changing faster than leadership. As AI reshapes the way we work, many organisations are focused on becoming more efficient. But what if they're asking the wrong question? In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with executive coach and former Google Ventures leader Maximos Lih for a thoughtful conversation about what leadership looks like when AI does more of the thinking, and why the future belongs to leaders who become more human, not less. Maximos shares the remarkable story of his grandfather, an orphan who taught himself to read before rising to become a four-star general, and the leadership lesson that has shaped his entire career: great leaders are remembered not for the positions they hold, but for the lives they change. Drawing on years of coaching founders and high-growth companies, Maximos explains why leaders become the bottleneck in their own organisations, why start-ups should think more like Olympic teams than championship teams, and why copying companies like Google often leads businesses down the wrong path. Together, we explore why trust, storytelling, imagination and clarity will become the defining leadership capabilities of the next decade, why AI should free people to do more meaningful work rather than simply make them more productive, and why the most important question every leader should ask is not "What can AI do?" but "What can only humans do?" If you're leading people through growth, change or uncertainty, this conversation will challenge the way you think about leadership and leave you with a simple but powerful reminder: the future may be powered by AI, but it will still belong to leaders who know how to bring out the very best in people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, the debate around working from home has centred on one question: where should people work? But perhaps we've been asking the wrong question all along. As Victoria moves to legislate new work-from-home rights, the conversation has shifted beyond organisational policy and into public policy. Supporters say the changes protect flexibility and improve work-life balance. Critics argue they risk removing the very flexibility they are designed to create. In this episode of Future Fit Leadership, I sit down with leadership and organisational change expert Karen Ferris to explore what these changes really mean for leaders, businesses and employees. Together we unpack whether flexibility can or should be legislated, the unintended consequences of a one-size-fits-all approach, and why the future of work is ultimately a leadership conversation rather than a workplace policy debate. They also explore what the best organisations have learned since the pandemic, why trust has become one of the most valuable currencies in leadership, how hybrid work has exposed both great and poor leadership, and what leaders need to do to build culture, connection and accountability when work no longer happens in one place. Whether you lead a team, run a business or are simply trying to navigate the changing world of work, this conversation offers practical insights into leading with trust, creating genuine flexibility and building workplaces where both people and performance can thrive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.