How we got here
In 2018, our founder Megan Holt was running the people and culture function at a mid-size Canberra technology firm. She'd just sat through the third external leadership program that year. Each one was polished, expensive and almost entirely useless: generic slides, motivational quotes, zero connection to what her managers were actually struggling with.
She kept a notebook of what she wished those programs had covered instead. Within six months, she'd designed a two-day workshop built around real workplace scenarios. She tested it with 12 volunteers from her own team. The feedback was immediate and specific: people said they finally had language for conversations they'd been avoiding.
That pilot became the Foundations program, which is still our most-requested offering. Megan left her corporate role in early 2019 and ran the first public version of the workshop from a rented meeting room in Braddon. Word spread through HR networks in the ACT. By mid-2020, we had a second facilitator and a waiting list.
Today the company has four facilitators, an operations coordinator and a research adviser. We work with government departments, professional services firms, healthcare organisations and tech companies across Australia. The notebook Megan kept is still pinned to the wall in our office. It reminds us why we started: because leaders deserve training that respects their intelligence and addresses their actual problems.
What we stand for
These four principles shape every program we design and every interaction we have with clients. They are not aspirational slogans; they are operational rules we hold ourselves to.
Usefulness over impressiveness
A workshop that gets a standing ovation but produces no behaviour change is a failure. We measure success by what participants do differently in the weeks after, not by how they feel during the session. Our follow-up surveys ask one question above all: "What have you done differently since the workshop?"
Respect for people's time
Every minute of a workshop costs your organisation money and your participants attention. We do not pad sessions with icebreakers that serve no learning purpose or group activities designed to fill time. If we can teach something in four hours, we will not stretch it to eight.
Context matters
A hospital leadership team and a software engineering team face different pressures. We customise every program: the examples, the role-plays, the case studies. If we can't make the content relevant to your specific situation, we'll tell you before you book.
Honest feedback loops
We share our participant evaluation scores with every client, including the negative comments. If a session didn't land, we want to know why and we want you to know too. Hiding poor feedback would make us look better in the short term and worse in the long term.
The team
Every facilitator on our team has at least eight years of experience managing people in organisations before joining us. We don't hire trainers who have only ever trained. We hire leaders who decided to teach.
Megan Holt
Founder and lead facilitator
Fourteen years in people and culture leadership before starting Transform Leadership Co. Megan designed the Foundations and Strategic Leadership programs and still facilitates about half of all workshops personally. She holds a Master of Organisational Psychology from the University of New South Wales.
Daniel Keane
Senior facilitator
Daniel spent ten years as a project director in the federal public service, leading cross-agency teams of up to 60 people. He joined us in 2020 and specialises in the Strategic Leadership and team off-site programs. He has a particular talent for helping groups surface the things they've been avoiding saying to each other.
Asha Reddy
Facilitator and executive coach
Before joining us, Asha managed engineering teams at two Canberra-based tech companies. She runs our executive coaching program and co-facilitates the Foundations workshop. Asha is an accredited coach through the International Coaching Federation and completed her Graduate Diploma in Business Administration at ANU.
Ross Callahan
Research adviser
Ross is a semi-retired academic who spent 22 years at the University of Canberra researching leadership development and adult learning. He reviews our program designs, helps us interpret evaluation data and keeps us honest about what the evidence actually supports. He does not facilitate workshops but shapes every one we run.
Our timeline
2018
Megan designs the first version of the Foundations workshop and tests it with 12 colleagues at her employer's office in Canberra.
2019
Transform Leadership Co. is formally registered. First public workshop runs in Braddon with 14 participants from five different organisations.
2020
Daniel Keane joins the team. We develop a virtual delivery format in response to travel restrictions and deliver 18 remote workshops in the second half of the year.
2021
We move into our current office at 50 Kiara Summit, East David, with a purpose-built training room. Asha Reddy joins as our third facilitator and launches the executive coaching program.
2022
First interstate engagements: workshops delivered in Sydney and Melbourne. We pass 1,000 total participants trained.
2023
Ross Callahan comes on board as research adviser. We redesign the Foundations program based on two years of follow-up data, replacing two modules that weren't producing measurable change.
2024
We introduce the team off-site facilitation service and begin annual retainer agreements with six organisations. Participant count passes 2,600.
Ready to talk?
If you'd like to discuss a workshop, coaching engagement or team off-site, reach out. We respond within one business day.
Phone: +61 494 207 896
Email: [email protected]
Address: 50 Kiara Summit, East David, Australian Capital Territory 1024, Australia
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