Leadership Training Australia
Leda delivers leadership training across Australia. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and distributed teams nationally. Our programs develop emerging leaders over 6-9 months, not one-day workshops. 450+ programs, 150+ organisations, 88-93% completion rates.
Leda delivers leadership training across Australia. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and distributed teams nationally. Our programs develop emerging leaders and high-performing teams over 6-9 months, not one-day workshops. We've run 450+ programs for 150+ Australian organisations, with 88-93% completion rates (industry average: 3-15%).
Before you compare providers, it's worth understanding why most leadership training in Australia fails and what to look for instead. Australian workplaces are different. Generic programs imported from the US don't land here. As of December 2025, leadership capability is now a compliance issue.
The Australian Leadership Crisis
Australian workplaces are facing a leadership problem that generic training isn't solving.
Only 16% of Australian employees are fully engaged at work, down from 18% last year. For remote workers, that number drops to just 7%. That's the opposite of global patterns, where hybrid and remote arrangements typically boost engagement.
60% of Australian leaders report they're struggling in their roles. Only one in five feel they're truly thriving.
When we look at manager effectiveness, there's a troubling perception gap: 84% of managers believe they gain employee commitment effectively, but only 50% of employees agree. This comes from the University of Melbourne's Study of Australian Leadership, the largest survey of Australian leadership with 8,000+ participants.
72% of Australians have left at least one job because of poor leadership.
These numbers point to a development problem, not a talent problem.
Why Australian Workplaces Are Different
Australian workplace culture is different from the US or UK, and leadership training needs to reflect that.
The egalitarian expectation
The APS Academy's leadership frameworks explicitly emphasise psychological safety, adaptive leadership, and consultative approaches. These reflect broader Australian expectations that leaders seek input, explain reasoning, and bring people along rather than simply directing.
When leaders can't influence without pulling rank, they struggle. Their teams disengage.
The geographic reality
Australia's scale creates unique leadership challenges. Teams spread across multiple states and time zones. Remote and hybrid work more common than in many other markets. Leaders managing people they rarely see in person.
Australian remote workers are significantly less engaged than on-site workers, the reverse of global patterns. This suggests Australian organisations face unique challenges maintaining connection and culture in distributed settings.
The productivity cost
Research from Harvard Business School and the Stanford/LSE World Management Survey found that over half of Australia's total factor productivity gap with the US is attributable to weaker management practices.
The question is whether leaders have developed the skills to manage effectively.
What Australian Law Now Requires
Leadership training isn't optional anymore.
Psychosocial hazards are now a compliance issue
Employers must identify, control, and review psychosocial hazards: any factor in work design, systems, management, or interactions that may cause negative psychological responses.
The examples in WorkSafe's compliance code read like a list of leadership capability gaps:
- High job demands
- Low job control
- Poor support from managers
- Low role clarity
- Harmful behaviours in workplace interactions
When leaders can't regulate their emotions, can't give feedback without triggering defensiveness, can't create psychological safety, that's a psychosocial hazard.
Training alone isn't enough
The model Code of Practice explicitly states that training "may only be exclusively used as a risk control where none of the other risk controls are reasonably practicable."
A one-day workshop doesn't meet the regulatory standard. Building leadership capability requires sustained development.
Why Most Leadership Training Fails
Australian businesses spend approximately $8 billion annually on learning and development. Most of that spending doesn't produce behaviour change.
The completion problem
Industry data shows generic online leadership courses achieve 3-15% completion rates. Most programs fail not because the content is wrong, but because there's no structure to support real behaviour change.
The forgetting curve
Research on the forgetting curve shows learners forget 50-70% of new material within 24 hours. After a week, retention drops to 10-20%.
Two-day intensive workshops fight against how memory actually works. Information delivered in a firehose doesn't stick.
The isolation problem
Sending one person on a course creates a different issue. They return with new language, new ideas, new approaches, and a team that hasn't shared the experience.
Research shows only 10-20% of corporate training investments produce measurable behaviour change. The rest is "scrap learning": training spend that produces nothing.
The biggest predictor of whether training transfers isn't course quality. Manager support and team-based implementation matter more. Without shared language or cohort-based development, new habits don't survive.
The capability gap
The Australian Institute of Management's Management Capability Index found Australian organisations operate at only 67.7% of their potential performance.
40% of Australian businesses don't undertake mentoring or executive coaching, while 60% don't invest in formal leadership qualifications.
What Australian Leaders Actually Need
If most training fails, what actually works?
Sustained development, not events
Behaviour change happens over months, not days. Leaders start noticing shifts in self-awareness within weeks. Meaningful change in how they manage conversations and relationships typically emerges over 2-3 months. Sustained improvement that others notice requires 4-6 months of consistent practice.
Cohort-based learning, not isolation
When leaders learn alongside peers facing similar challenges, they build shared language and mutual accountability. They troubleshoot real situations together. They hold each other to commitments.
Cohort-based courses with accountability and peer support typically see dramatically higher completion than self-paced learning. Our programs achieve 88-93% completion rates.
Built for Australian culture, not imported
Programs designed for American hierarchical cultures don't translate to Australian workplaces. The egalitarian expectation, the consultation norm, the tall poppy dynamic: these shape what effective leadership looks like here.
Training that ignores these realities produces leaders who know frameworks but can't apply them.
Sequenced skill development
You can't teach feedback to someone who can't regulate their emotions under pressure. You can't teach conflict to someone who doesn't understand their own triggers.
Effective development builds the foundation first:
- Self-awareness — know what you're feeling and why
- Self-management — regulate your response under pressure
- Social awareness — understand what others are experiencing
- Relationship skills — communicate and lead effectively
Skip a step, and everything built on top becomes unstable.
Leadership Training Across Australia
We deliver leadership training across Australia. We're not just shipping the same content to different postcodes.
Melbourne
Melbourne-based organisations benefit from our strongest local network of case studies and institutional relationships.
Brisbane & Gold Coast
We have team members based in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and regularly deliver in-person sessions across Queensland. For organisations that want face-to-face workshops alongside the online program, we're on the ground. Not flying in.
Sydney
We work with organisations across Sydney, combining our online cohort-based program with in-person delivery where it adds value. We travel to deliver workshops, facilitation sessions, and program kick-offs.
Perth & National
For teams in Perth, Adelaide, and beyond, the online format means consistent delivery regardless of where people sit. One healthcare tech client runs fully remote across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK: three countries, three time zones. Both their cohorts hit 100% completion.
Whether your emerging leaders sit in one office or span multiple states, the experience is the same.
Our Approach
Leda's programs develop leaders over 6 or 9 months, not 2 days.
Daily practice, not content dumps
Each day includes a short activity, around 10 minutes. Not busywork. Real practice tied to the skill being developed. Over weeks and months, small actions become habits. Habits become how people lead.
Cohort-based, not isolated
Participants learn in small groups of 8-12. They share experiences, troubleshoot real challenges, build a network that outlasts the program. When everyone speaks the same language and faces the same growth edges, change gets easier.
Monthly mentoring that creates accountability
Monthly sessions keep participants on track. They reflect on progress, work through obstacles, prepare for what's next. This isn't something people complete and forget. The structure holds them through the hard parts of behaviour change.
Completion rates that prove it works
Two flagship programs
Emerging Leaders Program — For first-time managers, team leads, and frontline leaders stepping into people leadership. Develops emotional intelligence, feedback skills, and the fundamentals of leading others.
Explore the Emerging Leaders Program →
High Performing Teams — For leaders building team capability. Covers psychological safety, team dynamics, and the characteristics that distinguish high-performing teams from average ones.
Explore High Performing Teams →
Results From Australian Organisations
MYOB, Melbourne
Tech | 5-year partnership
- 264+ participants developed
- 50% of 2020 cohort promoted
- 98% completion rate (2023)
We saw results within the first year, and now in our 5th year it has become part of the calendar.
— MYOB Leadership Team
Supagas, National
Industrial | 4+ years
- 150+ participants developed
- 10% of total organisation developed
- 70% increase in internal applications
The transformation in their leadership styles has been remarkable, leading to increased productivity and engagement.
— Luke Wilson, National Learning and Development Manager
Camp Quality, National
Non-profit
- 21 team leaders trained
- 30% of participants promoted
- +5% organisation engagement score
- 90% completion rate
It's been amazing, you've made an amazing contribution to the organisation.
— Natalie Gallagher, GM People & Culture
Build leaders who actually lead.
Australian workplaces need leaders who can influence without authority, build psychological safety, and develop their people.
Let's talk about your team.
About the author
Ashley Leach is Founder of Leda. Leda's leadership development methodology was co-developed with Professor Anne Lytle (Monash Business School, Kellogg PhD) and has been recognised by AACSB's Innovations That Inspire. The platform has supported thousands of emerging leaders across Australia and New Zealand, with completion rates of 88-98% — compared to 3-15% for typical digital learning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Australian workplace culture operates differently from the US or UK, and leadership development needs to reflect that. Australia's "fair go" culture means leaders are expected to act as first-among-equals. Command-and-control leadership styles imported from American programs don't land well here. Australian employees expect consultation, explanation, and the chance to be heard before decisions are made. There's also a regulatory difference. As of December 2025, Australian employers have specific legal duties around psychological health under WHS laws. Poor leadership behaviours are explicitly listed as psychosocial hazards. This isn't the case in the US or UK to the same extent. Our program was built in Australia, for Australian leaders. The methodology was co-developed with Professor Anne Lytle at Monash Business School and draws on 18,000 leader reflections, predominantly from Australian workplaces.
Training alone isn't mandated, but managing psychosocial hazards is. Under WHS laws, particularly Victoria's new Psychological Health Regulations, employers must identify and control factors that harm psychological health. Poor leadership behaviours (emotional dysregulation, lack of support, harmful interactions) are explicitly listed as psychosocial hazards. Developing leader capability is one way to reduce these risks.
Leaders start noticing shifts in self-awareness within weeks. Meaningful behaviour change typically emerges over 2-3 months. Sustained improvement that others notice requires 4-6 months of consistent practice. This is why our programs run 6-9 months rather than concentrated workshops.
Training delivers information: frameworks, models, techniques. Development builds capability through sustained practice, feedback, and application. Research shows training alone produces behaviour change in only 10-20% of cases. Development that includes accountability, practice, and peer support sees dramatically higher impact.
Yes. Our program combines online cohort-based learning with live mentoring and optional in-person delivery. We work with organisations across all Australian cities and support distributed teams across multiple time zones. Our Melbourne connections are strongest given our Monash Business School partnership and long-term clients like MYOB. We have team members based in Brisbane and the Gold Coast for in-person delivery across Queensland. For Sydney, Perth, and other locations, we travel to deliver workshops and facilitation sessions where face-to-face adds value.
We track behaviour change, not just satisfaction. This includes: leader reflections showing new patterns, completion rates (88-93% vs industry average of 3-15%), manager feedback on observable behaviour, and outcomes like promotions and engagement scores. At MYOB, 50% of their 2020 cohort was promoted. At Camp Quality, organisation engagement increased 5%.