Leadership & Workplace Consultation
Working with You to Meet your Leadership Goals
Leadership today is more demanding than ever. Leaders are asked to navigate constant change, balance competing priorities, manage increasing client loads and support their teams while also delivering results. The most effective leaders are person-centred—authentic, self-aware, and able to build trust. First-level leaders, who guide the everyday work and interactions of their teams, shape culture, morale, and performance more than anyone else. Yet they’re often caught between senior management and staff and may receive the least support.
Leadership consultation gives you space to reflect, grow confidence, and strengthen practical leadership skills. By investing in focused leadership coaching or monthly leadership supervision, you can expand your leadership capacity, address potential burnout, and build a workplace where both you and your team can thrive.
Leadership Coaching
6-8 sessions-Goal-focused development
In a focused series of 6–8 sessions, we’ll clarify your professional needs, explore your leadership style, and build on your strengths using a solution-focused approach to a professional goal you want to achieve. Coaching offers the space to pause, reflect, and reset while developing strategies that grow your confidence, hone your skills, and clarify your purpose and career direction—so you can lead more effectively and feel more fulfilled in your work.
See FAQ : Process for Leadership Coaching.
Take the next step. Contact me to start your leadership discovery journey.
Leadership Supervision
Monthly ongoing – Reflective support in practice
Monthly leadership supervision provides ongoing support to strengthen you in your role by helping you build self-awareness, grow confidence, and develop clarity in decision-making. Together, we reflect on the dynamics of leading people and teams, explore strategies for building effective workplace relationships, and consider broader organisational issues—such as culture and systemic thinking—so you can navigate challenges and lead with greater confidence, purpose, and integrity.
See FAQ: Process for Leadership Supervision.
Contact me now to develop trauma informed leadership.
“Melinda was a wonderful mentor to me from early on in my career. I appreciated Melinda’s reflective and clinical approach that was flexible to my learning needs and goals. She encouraged me to think in alternative ways, challenged me in areas I sought to develop and created a supportive space to progress my career much quicker than anticipated. She will support you to get where you want to be! whether in direct practice or leadership.” — Maddison C, Team Leader, Foundation House.
How Leadership Consultation Can Help You
1. Enhance Self-Awareness
Understand your strengths, competencies & areas for development to make better decisions, improve communication, and lead with confidence.
2. Strengthen Leadership Skills
Hone decision-making, conflict resolution & team management, while boosting emotional intelligence to build empathetic, effective relationships.
3. Increase Job Satisfaction
Align your values with professional goals to create meaning, boost motivation, and engage fully in your leadership role.
4. Address Stress
With support & practical strategies, handle high workloads, client caseloads & workplace pressures while navigating challenges confidently.
5. Communicate & Collaborate
Improve your ability to listen, connect & collaborate—from managing difficult conversations to fostering a culture of open dialogue.
6. Navigate Change
Stay focused, grounded & make clear decisions to guide yourself & your team through leadership transitions, restructuring, or other changes.
7. Build Leadership Confidence
Overcome imposter syndrome by recognising your strengths & capabilities, setting clear goals, and taking decisive action.
8. Develop your Career
Whether seeking promotion, moving into a new role, or starting a private practice, get support to explore options, make decisions & create professional success.
“Melinda has a unique combination of counselling expertise and workplace consulting skills. I gained tools and techniques to address my blocks and make significant progress on projects I had been struggling with. Melinda is able to listen, notice subtle cues, and reframe discussions in a way that brings clarity and self-awareness. Melinda helped me clarify my strengths and values, enabling me to tackle procrastination and prioritise work that aligns with my purpose. I highly recommend Melinda to anyone seeking transformative coaching.” — Tara W, Business Owner, Parent Connections.
My Approach
In both leadership coaching & leadership supervision, I use a solutions-focused coaching approach, grounded in positive psychology. I work collaboratively with you to identify your needs, strengths and goals to build your leadership capability & confidence, to help you thrive in your role and foster a healthy and productive work environment.
Contact
Contact me for an initial 15-minute phone consultation. This gives us a chance to clarify your professional needs and expectations and determine if I am the right fit for you.
To schedule a call or to make an appointment, please click here or email : melinda@melindaausten.com.au
Take the next step to increase your confidence in your leadership role.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the process for 6-8 session Leadership COACHING?
Leadership coaching is more intensive than monthly leadership supervision. It is offered in a 6 to 8 session block to address a specific goal, issue or need. Sessions are typically scheduled every 2 to 4 weeks to allow time to work on your goals between sessions.
- Introductory Consult: In the initial 15-minute phone consultation we will clarify your professional needs and expectations, discuss how leadership coaching works, answer any questions and determine if my style suits your needs.
- Initial Assessment Session: In the first consultation (60 m), we will reflect on the situation that brought you to leadership coaching (an aspect of your work you want to change or develop) , discuss your career history and trajectory, clarify what you would like to achieve, explore your strengths and areas for leadership development, and establish a goal and a plan for working together. A self-awareness leadership assessment tool can be completed before the next session.
- Sessions: In the following 4 to 6 sessions we will continue to work together to help you move toward realising your specified goal using reflective discussion, homework tasks and regular review. We drill down to help you discover your leadership style and develop a greater understanding of the values that drive your work. I will give you a written summary of each session and follow-up activities between sessions to keep you focused on your goal.
- Final Session: In the final session we will review where you are in relation to your goal, review your progress and set future steps.
What is the process for monthly Leadership SUPERVISION?
- Introductory Consult: In an initial 15-minute phone consultation we will clarify your professional needs and expectations, discuss the process of working together, answer any questions and determine if my style suits your needs.
- Initial Assessment Session: In the initial consultation (55 min) we will reflect on your current leadership role and career history, clarify what you would like to achieve in sessions over time, explore your professional strengths and areas for development and establish a working contract and goals.
- Ongoing Sessions: Sessions are four weekly at a regular time that is convenient for you. Sessions are online.
What topics are usually discussed in Leadership coaching and/or leadership supervision?
Managers attend leadership and workplace consultation and/or supervision for many different reasons. The focus of sessions may be:
- developing leadership confidence and addressing imposter syndrome
- building people-focused leadership
- managing team dynamics and team building
- managing mental health in the workplace – stress management and burnout
- managing-up
- communication and conflict resolution
- career development
- stakeholder management
- understanding your own leadership style
- change management
- navigating organisational systems
- any other area of concern or interest as it relates to your leadership role.
Is my director involved in my Leadership Coaching?
That is up to you. Some leaders are encouraged to attend leadership coaching by their senior manager/director to help them work on a skill, gain confidence or address an issue, especially if they are emerging or developing leaders, or a workplace issue has been identified by you both. You may choose to involve your director in the initial and review sessions, or not. Some people find it useful, others don’t. And you decide how much you would like to report to your senior manager/director about your progress in the sessions. I do not coach people around performance management issues unless they specifically request it and sessions are confidential unless agreed otherwise.
Directors do not attend ongoing leadership supervision sessions.
What are the fees?
Leadership supervision fees align with the AASW recommended fee schedule for individual supervision and are reviewed annually. Discounts are available for private fee-paying supervisees. Leadership coaching fees align with the standard coaching fees with International Coaching Federation. A Leadership coaching package includes a standard 10% discount for upfront payment.
What is the difference between counselling, mentoring, supervision, coaching and consulting?
Counselling focuses on your emotional responses and needs. Mentoring involves problem solving, sharing of experience and advice from someone more experienced in your specialist field e.g. senior social worker to social worker or senior lawyer to lawyer. Supervision offers regular reflection on clinical work (clinical supervision) and other organisational and workplace situations (leadership supervision). Consulting provides external subject matter expertise and advice to individuals and organisations, such as on leadership development and managing organisational systems. Coaching is a methodology for reflecting on a specific issue, drawing out a person’s knowledge and skills, and targeting attention on achieving a goal.