Plum Leadership Group

I have a challenge for you. If you can, right now, stand up with your feet planted firmly and your hands by your side.

Is this a normal posture for you? Or does it feel uncomfortable? So often, we try to exude executive presence with our attire or the way we communicate. But our body language does a lot of the work for us.

In our episode with Elle Zimmerman, we break down what executive presence actually is, and what you can do to build this skill. Give it a listen here:

The rink teaches you something no leadership book can.

It’s easy to show up on a good day but when you’re part of a team you also have to show up on your bad days. How you and your teammates react to those bad days is leadership in action.

Full episode linked in bio and it’s a good one.

Culture is not built just by the people at the top.

It is built in the small moments between the people standing next to each other every shift. The check-in before service starts. The acknowledgment after a hard table. The two words - good shift - at the end of the night.

This time last week, I had the privilege of spending 90 minutes with the incredible team at Richmond Golf and Country Club talking about just that. Connection, compassion, and why your energy is more contagious than you realize.

Every single person in that room - from the GM to the newest team member - has a role in how this season feels. That is the message. And it lands differently when the whole team hears it together.

If you want to bring this conversation to your team, I would love to hear from you.

In sport and at work, I have seen a lot of teams suffer.

And the ones that struggle? It almost never comes down to talent or strategy.

It comes down to how they handle mistakes.

The gossip starts. Emotions go unmanaged. And slowly the culture erodes, sometimes without anyone realizing it’s happening. Before long the culture is the problem, not the person who made the mistake.

Simple shifts change everything. But someone has to be willing to lead them.

You’ve probably sat across from someone in an interview and thought: this person is a lot.

Too scattered. Too intense. Too in their head.

Dr. Áine O’Dea wants you to reconsider that instinct.

The person with 15 thoughts at once? That’s your creative problem-solver. The one who’s painstakingly thorough? That’s your internal auditor. The one who questions everything? That’s your innovation engine.

Hiring for sameness feels safe. But it’s a slow drift toward groupthink — and groupthink doesn’t build businesses.

Cognitive diversity isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a competitive advantage most leaders are leaving on the table.

Listen to the full conversation with Dr. Áine O’Dea on Grown to Lead. Link in the bio.

You can tell everything you need to know about a leader by how they treat the people who can do nothing for them.

It sounds simple. It is also one of the most consistently overlooked leadership signals there is.

Dr. Áine O’Dea on the advice that has stayed with her longest — and why it still holds up.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.