PROFILE
Dr Gemma Munro is a performance psychologist who speaks about genius. Not the Einstein type: the unique genius that lives in every human, ready to be unlocked. For over two decades, Gemma has worked with leaders and changemakers across the globe to help them see who they’re here to be, release what’s in the way, and live their genius with courage and joy.
Gemma has ignited transformation in workplaces across the planet. She has spoken at Google, Amazon and PayPal, and worked with the top 200 women at Qantas and Vodafone and the top 21 women in the UK’s NHS. Her keynote at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters was livestreamed to every Google office in the world.
As a classically trained singer, she has performed in Westminster Abbey, Radio City Music Hall, and as a backing vocalist for the Rolling Stones.
Gemma was the founder of Inkling Group – known across Australia, Asia and the UK for rapidly lifting the percentage of women at leadership level – and sold it in 2019. Before that she was a tremendously serious management consultant and a recovering academic, having completed her PhD at a young and impressionable age.
A two-time Telstra Businesswoman of the Year finalist, Gemma has been called “a human alarm-clock” and “a cross between a switched-on psychologist and a fairy godmother”. After seeing her speak, people say things like “the wonderful Dr Gemma Munro makes everything seem possible. I now believe I can do anything I put my mind to.”
Gemma lives on five acres in the Adelaide Hills with her husband and their exceptionally loving, occasionally exhausting and usually hungry blended tribe of three teenagers and a farm dog called Lucie.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Unleash your genius
Genius isn’t rare. Seeing and living your own genius is.
Most people in the room are far more capable, courageous and clever than they know.
But in the way is their armour: the protective blocks that keep them from seeing who they’re here to be and what they’re here to do. These blocks take the form of fear, self doubt and exhaustion, and they’re entirely understandable. They’re also fully dismantlable.
Dr Gemma Munro is a performance psychologist who speaks about genius. Not the Einstein type: the unique genius that lives in every human, ready to be unlocked.
Drawing on two decades of work with leaders and changemakers across the globe, Gemma takes audiences through three shifts – from fear to bravery, self-doubt to belief and exhaustion to brightness. Each shift comes with practical, evidence-based habits, and a room full of people ready and excited to put them into practice.
Audiences leave braver, clearer about what they’re here to do, and with permission to live their genius.
And courage is catching. When one person is brave enough to be exactly who they are, the people around them notice – and start doing the same.
Peaceful Peak Performance
From chaos to calm. From exhaustion to energy. From reasonable results to peaceful peak performance.
A typical day in the life of many leaders:
Wake up. Feel tired. Drink coffee. Check emails. Feel overwhelmed. Drink more coffee. Attend back-to back meetings. Put out a fire. Answer three of seventy-eight new emails. Deal with a people issue that could be an opportunity but just feels like another fire. Crave sugar. Attend a meeting. Look at missed calls. Roll eyes. Play phone tag. Eat sugar. Feel fried. Scroll phone. Get home. Watch TV. Go to bed. Sleep fitfully. Wake up. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It’s time to get off the hamster wheel.
Most high performers have quietly accepted that this is the cost of doing well. It isn’t. Peace and performance aren’t a trade-off – and the people producing their best work are rarely the ones running hardest.
Dr Gemma Munro is a performance psychologist who speaks about genius – and this keynote is about the conditions that let it out. When people are at peace and performing at their peak, their genius becomes very difficult to hide.
Gemma shares the five shifts and seven tools that have taken over 10,000 leaders from frazzled and burned out to energised and inspired – igniting their performance, their purpose and their peace along the way. Audiences leave calmer, clearer, and with practical tools they can use before they get home.
Joyful Change Leadership
Our brains are wired to avoid change and uncertainty. Almost everything worth doing runs right through them.
Most leaders are feeling fried. Years of restructures, reorganisations and upheaval – and along comes another change program and the need to get excited about it. So leaders avoid change, resist it, or grit their teeth and survive it.
This isn’t weakness, laziness or lack of motivation. It’s just what brains do. But it’s costing leaders the things they actually want: meaningful work that energises, and collaborative teams that thrive.
Dr Gemma Munro is a performance psychologist who speaks about genius – and this keynote is about the skill that makes it possible. Learning to meet change as an opportunity rather than a threat isn’t a nice-to-have any more. In a world going quantifiably bananas, it’s how you get through a Tuesday.
Drawing on two decades leading transformation across Australia, Asia and the UK, Gemma helps audiences understand how they lead under pressure – using a framework people recognise themselves in immediately, and keep using long after the day. She then hands over the tools to shift both mindset and behaviour, so leaders can move through change with grace and energy, and take their people with them.
Audiences leave steadier, clearer about how they lead during change, and genuinely looking forward to what’s next.
