We’ve all been there, that awkward space where you can see  what needs to happen, but you don’t have the title or the authority to make it so. Maybe your boss is the bottleneck. Perhaps your colleague is holding onto a decision, like fine wine🍷. Maybe you’re leading a project where everyone has an opinion but no one has accountability. Welcome to the world of influencing without authority , also known as “herding cats in a suit.” The ability to manage up, down and sideways  

In past roles, I spent years as a firefighter — not the hose-and-helmet kind, but the kind who ran toward every “ASAP,” “urgent,” and “quick question” like it was a five-alarm blaze. The truth, I eventually realised, was that 90% of those fires weren’t real. They were just smoke from someone else’s stress. Those years taught me a valuable lesson: reacting fast isn’t the same as adding value. True effectiveness comes from knowing which fires are worth fighting — and which are

If there’s one thing we hear from clients across the APS and corporate world, it’s this: “We’re all running flat out.” Deadlines. Competing priorities. Meetings that stretch the day and minds that don’t switch off at night. But here’s the thing — resilience isn’t about running faster, working harder, or pushing through. True resilience creates the space to recover, reset, and refocus  — to sustain high performance without burning out. Resilience is more than coping. Many peop

Whether you’ve spent years working FIFO in mining or serving in Defence, one thing’s certain — you know discipline, routine, and teamwork...

As we all know, Artificial intelligence isn’t on the horizon — it’s already at our desks. AI is reshaping how we work at a speed few...