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About Us
We are a small, specialised team, with over 40 years of collective experience in improving business outcomes through teams. We love what we do; strengthening the capacity of teams to learn and perform. Our approach is to be honest, authentic and work closely with our clients to build a great working relationship. We have an extensive, highly experienced network from which we draw additional capability when needed.
Don Lowe – Director
What moved you to do the work that you do?
I began my leadership journey in the Australian Army at 17 years of age, where I learned to value selflessness, teamwork and the power of purpose. As I grew older, and the world got more interconnected, I was increasingly confronted by novel or complex situations where there was no clear ‘answer’. For me, this raised the question, “How do you exercise leadership when you don’t know what to do?” Since then, I’ve immersed myself in the practice of Adaptive Leadership; a form of distributed leadership based on experimentation and learning, where anyone capable of asking a great question, can exercise leadership.
What experience has had the biggest impact on your professional journey?
Okay, this is the ‘honest’ part! In the latter part of my army career, I was posted to a couple of specialist staff roles for which my military training had not fully prepared me. At the time, asking for help seemed like a form of weakness, and although I kind of bluffed my way through, I was nowhere near as effective as I could have been. Mark McCormack, founder of IMG, wrote that we shouldn’t be afraid of saying, “I don’t know”, “I need help”, “I was wrong”. On that point, he did know, he didn’t need help, and he was right!!
How do others describe the way you work?
I’ve been described by others as someone who asks great questions; is relaxed yet professional in my facilitation style; an excellent teacher, coach and mentor; and is a great counsel and relaxed in a crisis.
I’d describe myself as a ‘recovering perfectionist’, who commits to and cares about the people I work with, and who loves the process of helping them discover what makes them, and their teams, ‘tick’.
Who inspires you?
- Angela Merkel: through COVID, and at a time when NATO and the EU were being challenged internally and externally, she offered courage, perspective and focus....and still did her own shopping!
- Joel Selwood: for all that he did on the football field for the Geelong AFL team, he did even more off the field, out of the public eye.
- My family: life, and the world, have been incredibly complex and daunting over the last several years, and I have been, and remain, sustained by the balance of challenge and support they’ve given me.
Sarah Lowe – Director
What moved you to do the work that you do?
I found myself in talent acquisition, accidentally, about 20 years ago. All I wanted from my career was to help people. Over the last 15 years I’ve built and led many high performing teams in a range of talent acquisition environments. I have a passion for two things; firstly, I love making connections where I can bring people together to be more effective, and secondly, I’m hugely stimulated when I can use my creativity to work through problems and learn from them. It’s often a ‘test and adjust’ process, but it’s taught me so much about the importance of keeping an open mind and seeing a challenge from a range of perspectives. These experiences sparked my passion for building and developing teams.
What experience has had the biggest impact on your professional journey?
Recruiting for and with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for the past 10 years has had a huge impact on me. I led a team of remarkable, selfless people whose powerful connection to our purpose allowed me to experiment and continually challenge them to be better. Our team achieved the highest levels of recruiting outcomes in the history of the ADF, which remains one of my proudest achievements. Since then, I’ve learned to rely on my capacity for building, assessing and refining talent acquisition systems, and to shape teams to deliver great results. I now want to bring that to my clients.
How do others describe the way you work?
Others that I’ve worked with have described me as being dedicated to what I do; that I’m inclusive, inspiring and empathic; I’m able to build trust and engagement quickly; and I’m able to combine education, experience and empathy to help others grow.
Who inspires you?
- Brene Brown: for her insights on vulnerability, her courage to put herself out there and her humour.
- Ash Barty and Jacinta Adern: for their courage in knowing when to stop and take care of themselves. This is so important.
- My sons Zac and Angus: for being true to themselves.
