Performance Frontiers are thrilled to welcome our new associate, Laura Clemesha.

Laura is a former member of the Queensland Firebirds turned fully fledged psychologist. She works with organisations to make diversity and inclusion business as usual. Laura’s also got more than a few tactics up her sleeve for high performing teams.

Want to know more? Read on.

What legacy would you like to create?

My key interest area is creating inclusive workplaces and that spans across every aspect of diversity, of which there are so many. Trying to make workplaces and organisations spots where people can show up as themselves and be uniquely valued is what I’m most passionate about.

It’s about working with individuals to have the courage to show up as themselves – but the bigger piece is working with leaders to create spaces that are psychologically safe to encourage people to be their whole selves.

I think my generation, Gen Y, want somewhere we can go and be valued for who we are. We don’t want to have to put on a mask every time we walk through the door or conform to some kind of corporate archetype. And the research tells us that when organisations are more inclusive, they get more out of their people. So it’s a win all round.

What’s a project you’re proud of?

On a recent project, I was invited to develop a suite of tools for the mining industry. The goal was to work with a male-dominated workplace to get them into the diversity conversation.

So often in male-dominated industries, the onus is on women to do the work. But we tried to flip the lens – to work with men and to ask them to step up. It was just an eye-opening experience. So often people have good intent, they just have this paralysis. They want to help, but don’t know how. It helps to have tangible tools people can practically apply in their day-today.

I’d love to do more of this work, to have a greater impact more broadly in society.

What are a few things you can’t get enough of?

It’s probably a bit of an echo chamber, but Brene Brown for sure. I really appreciate her curiosity and vulnerability. How she uses her own stories to illustrate the learnings from her research makes it so clear that she’s walking a path with you. I think she is quite literally changing the world. Her “Dare to Lead” podcast is one I’ll often have in my ears when I go for a walk.

On a lighter note: I can’t get enough of Hamilton the musical – the songs are super catchy. I am also really into Harry Potter – one of my favourite party tricks I like to pull out is I can recite a sorting hat song off by heart.

What’s one thing you learnt as a Firebird that is vital to leaders today?

You’re nothing without the team. Your strength is in your people.

By design, in netball, in my position (as a defender) I could only move in one part of the court. From my position, I can’t win the game for us alone, because I can’t shoot a goal. So it’s up to me to do whatever I can to be good at my position- but then it’s my responsibility to support my teammates in other positions who do the roles that I can’t do.

You’re nothing without the team – that rules plays out every single day in organisations.That’s a living breathing thing.

 

You can read Laura’s bio here. 

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