From childhood tantrums to mastering communication, Anneli Blundell shares her personal journey and why great conversational skills are learned, not born.
A simple airport moment reveals a powerful truth: communication fails when itโs not designed for the listener. Anneli Blundell shares how to make messages land.
When one lift breaks down, human behavior powers up. Communication expert Anneli Blundell explores leadership, fairness, and what we do when rules are tested.
Discover why everyday conversations feel risky at work. Learn how leaders can shift from Dangerous Dialogue to Deliberate Dialogue and build safer team cultures.
It was never my intention to be an advocate. It was never my intention to be a feminist, and nor was it my intention to run a Leadership program for Women. And yet here I am.
A gender advocate, a feminist, and founder of the award-winning program Women at Work (not to mention the author of a book to help women navigate a male-dominated leadership landscape - The Gender Penalty, but I digressโฆ)
I always thought women could look after themselves. I thought the hard work of picketing and marching and striking was over. That we had fought for equal rights, and won. And we did. Sort of.
Whilst we have come along in leaps and bounds in terms of women's rights in society (at least in the Western World); we also have a way to go for the cultural norms to catch up. And part of those norms are the messages we send girls and women about how to fix themselves in order to get ahead.
Thatโs why I designed my Women at Work program.
In the workplace, confidence is a critical launch pad for new skills, new opportunities and new jobs.
Confidence for women is a conundrum, however.
Women are told to be more confident, yet when they display more confidence, they are seen as arrogant, and when they downplay their confidence, they become invisible.
Simply telling women to โbe more confidentโ, it seems, misses the point.
As a result of being conditioned to show less confidence, and being penalised for being overly confident, women are more likely to wait too long before acting and putting themselves forward.
Women hold back while men push forward โ and so men are rewarded with jobs they have little experience in, assignments that will stretch them and opportunities they might not be ready for.
What are the unwritten rules women are supposed to follow at work?
And what is the resulting backlash when these rules arenโt followed?
๐๐ญโ๐ฌ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐! ๐๐ญโ๐ฌ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐! ๐๐ญโ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐!
I am so thrilled to share my latest book with you ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฒ: ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐๐ญ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค.
Do you...
๐น ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ?
๐น ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ?
๐น ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ค๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ?
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฒ is a playbook for navigating career success in a male-dominated environment. If you want to stand out without stepping on toes, get what you want without compromising who you are, and make your mark without becoming someone youโre not, this book is for you. (Plus you can take men with you on the journey. Hooray!)
Packed with easy-to-follow practical strategies, insights, case studies and stories, (and a bunch of bonus resources) this book will help you not only overcome the gender penalties on the field, but also change the game of work for good โ for yourself and other women.
๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐?
I recently walked around with a bunch of bananas on my head in the supermarket (as you do). I did this as part of a challenge issued at the last Professional Speakers Australia event. We were challenged to walk around the supermarket with bananas on our head and take a picture of it. Why? I hear you ask. To show how little others care about or take notice of what we are actually doing. To face into our fears of judgement and to know that they are usually unfounded. This is about freeing us up to be perfectly imperfect humansโฆ and embrace it.
There is much being written right now about employee burnout. And for good reason. Employees are burning out. Thereโs been a lot going on. A pandemic. A shift to remote work. The flu season. A shift back to the office. Travel back on. More pandemic. Travel off. A shift back to remote workโฆ oh, and the great resignation, which means new jobs, new expectations, new workloads or (for those left behind) shrinking teams doing expanding work, and less people delivering more projects. And so on it goes.
All the while, dedicated and committed employees have been working their butts off to keep up. People are trying to stay on top of the rising pressures of โjust getting on with itโ. But they are struggling.
Donโt let the experience of burnout be your teacher. Let the idea of burnout be your preacher. Let it be the motivational speech that spurs you into action, before itโs too late.
Now we are back in the office (in some way, shape or form) we need to decide what comes back with us, and what stays on line. This is particularly important for training and development and team building. Over the last few years, we have proven that not only can we work remotely, we can also learn remotely.
So, should we go back to doing these things in person now that we can?
Read the full article to know more.
The secret to getting people back to the office, is not to get them back to the office. Yep. You read that right. It might not be the answer you want to hear, but itโs the reality.
Of course, thereโs a little more to the story but letโs start by ripping the band aid right off. Blanket mandates forcing people to come back to the office, will have dire consequences. Not only will your people resist coming back, they are likely to leave altogether.
Thankfully, over 15 years of studying human behaviour and obsessing about why people do what they do, has shown me that there are other options.
๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ โ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐โ, ๐ญ๐ก๐ '๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐ฆ'? Do you believe in the power of diversity to deliver results? Do you believe in a champion team, or a team of champions? Do you pick the best person for the job even if they are not the best person for the team? Maybe โbest personโ for the job, isnโt the best person for the team. And maybe that's an equally important measurement. Food for thought. Perhaps we need to broaden our definition of best person for the job, to account for the actual impacts we have on one another โ it's how we work together; how we deliver results together; it's how we are made better together that will get real results.
