PROFILE
Andrea encourages people to be ‘future fit’ for their careers – through writing, speaking, and delivering high-impact leadership programs. She founded Future Fit Learning in 2012 – a small business that builds leaders who drive innovation, growth and cultural change by accelerating the ‘real skills’ needed to lead with impact. Through her programs, Andrea and her team have helped major businesses and global organisations (Rio Tinto, NBN, THALES, Orora & Austrade) develop leaders at all levels.
Prior to her move into learning, Andrea was a career television news reporter based in Washington D.C., covering major breaking news for major media outlets including Reuters, the Seven Network and Al Jazeera English. While in the US, she also worked across human rights; firstly helping to generate grants to rebuild Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan & Georgia with funding from USAID & the US State Department. And secondly; leading the communications team when the ‘Save Darfur’ advocacy movement lobbied the Obama administration to appoint a US Special Envoy to end the genocide in Darfur, which was achieved at the UN General Assembly in New York in 2009.
One year before the pandemic, Andrea released her first award-winning book, Future Fit: How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in the Future of Work’ – winner of the Australian Business Book of the Year 2019 and finalist in the UK Business Book Awards 2020. Andrea has been a member of the Australian HR Institute’s Future of Work Advisory Panel and is currently working on her second book, to be released in March 2025.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Future Fit Leadership
As traditional workplace models give way to new rules of engagement, the role of ‘leadership’ is being drastically redefined. In the past, leadership was simply about authority, top-down decision making and never showing vulnerability. Today, many of us are showing up for the same job – but finding that the position description now includes ten times the workload.
New technologies, exponentially more people problems, new obligations to shareholders and less time to look up and out at what’s really changing around us.. all while still trying to find stability in a new hybrid work routine. So what do leaders need to know TODAY – to provide direction, protection and order – to themselves and their teams, as we face into the future of work? What is no longer ‘fit-for-purpose’ and what are the key skills that we need to prioritise?
The Adaptability Advantage
Our ability to adapt has been widely acknowledged as perhaps our greatest asset through time. But not until now, has it been recognised as a core competency for leaders and employees, who now find themselves playing an active role in driving teams through large-scale transformations. What’s required of leaders now more than ever, is a mindset that has the capacity to fully engage with change and see it coming before it lands. So, what does it really mean to be adaptable – and how can we develop our AQ in our everyday lives to be better prepared for change?
What is my Future of Work?
The ‘future of work’ is an intimidating and overwhelming subject. For many of us, we don’t know what it means, or where we fit into it. But is it really that complicated? Andrea provides a simple and clear definition for you, and practical ways to plan for your own future. She believes 'the future of work’ is about our talent: the way we negotiate change, actively pursue transformation and create value – both for ourselves and the organisations we work for.
Andrea wants to talk to you about the power of building personal agency to effectively organise yourself around change. Andrea challenges people to be their own futurist, because when we understand what’s changing around us, we can make decisions that create the kind of future we want.
