About Justine
I didn't set out to challenge how organisations think about leadership development.
I set out to make it work better. Through leaders.
For more than 25 years, I've worked alongside organisations designing leadership strategies, frameworks and programs.
Across different industries, organisational contexts, and leadership levels, I've had the opportunity to see leadership development from many angles.
Some initiatives created lasting change.
Others generated plenty of enthusiasm but shifted little once people returned to work.
Like many practitioners, I initially looked to the quality of the program for the answer.
Was the content right?
Were the facilitators engaging?
Did participants enjoy the experience?
Those questions mattered.
But I became increasingly curious about another question.
Why did some well-designed leadership programs create lasting change while others, equally well designed, struggled to maintain momentum?
Over time, I began to realise that the answer didn’t lie in the program alone.
It was found in the organisation surrounding it.
Looking beyond the program.
Leadership development doesn’t happen in isolation.
It happens within an organisation that is constantly shaping leadership behaviour.
Through the expectations leaders are held to.
The opportunities they have to practise.
The conversations they have with their managers.
The feedback they receive.
The behaviours that are recognised and rewarded.
The systems and practices that either reinforce new ways of leading or quietly pull people back towards old habits. The more I observed this, the more I kept coming back to the same idea:
Leadership development creates its greatest value when it becomes something an organisation does, not simply something it buys.
That changed how I thought about leadership development.
And ultimately, it changed how I design it.
A more complete way to think about leadership development.
Today, I believe every investment in leadership development should achieve two things.
It should develop better leaders today.
And it should strengthen the organisation's ability to develop leaders tomorrow.
Many organisations invest successfully in the first. Fewer deliberately invest in the second.
Yet it's the interaction between the two that creates the greatest long-term return.
When leadership programs strengthen an organisation's capacity to develop leaders, every future investment starts from a stronger foundation.
Leadership development stops feeling like a series of disconnected initiatives. It becomes an organisational capability.
That's the work I love.
Helping organisations think differently about leadership development so they can invest more confidently, act more intentionally and create greater long-term impact.
From observation to methodology.
Over time, these ideas evolved into two interconnected frameworks that now guide me and my clients:
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It helps design development experiences that move beyond knowledge transfer and support meaningful behaviour change through application, reflection and reinforcement.
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It helps to understand and intentionally strengthen the conditions of the leadership development system that enable leadership capability to grow and endure over time.
Combined, these frameworks form the Leadership Development Blueprint™.
A design methodology that creates leadership programs that develop leaders while strengthening the organisation's capacity to develop leaders.
One framework designs the change.
The other designs the conditions that allow that change to last.
Together, they help organisations get more from leadership development.
The way I like to work.
The best leadership development solutions are co-designed, not prescribed.
They're developed through thoughtful conversations, healthy challenge and close collaboration with the people who know the organisation best. That's why I prefer to work alongside clients rather than simply deliver to them.
Sometimes that means reviewing a leadership development system.
Sometimes it's co-designing a leadership program from the ground up.
Sometimes it's simply helping an HR Director think through an important leadership development investment decision.
Whatever the engagement, my role is the same:
To bring together research, experience and practical judgement so organisations can make better decisions - and act on them - with confidence.
A little about me.
I'm a registered psychologist with two Master’s degrees - one in Organisational Psychology and another in Applied Positive Psychology.
Over the past 25 years, I've partnered with organisations across the public and private sectors to strengthen leadership capability, through designing custom leadership strategies, frameworks and programs.
I've always been drawn to the intersection of evidence and practice. I enjoy translating research into practical approaches that fit the realities of organisational life. Perhaps that's why clients often describe my work as both thoughtful and practical.
I enjoy asking good questions, exploring ideas together and helping organisations find solutions that fit their context - not someone else's.
Because while some leadership development principles may be universal, every organisation is different.
And I think the best solutions recognise that.
I'm forever curious about how organisations become better at developing leaders.
If that's a question you're exploring too, I'd love to think it through with you.
Let's work out what will create the greatest impact.
Organisations that have got more from leadership development:
