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Kate Billing is a human obsessed, leadership pragmatist with 25+ years in the people, culture and leadership space. She is the Co-founder & Executive Development Director of Blacksmith and New Zealand’s leading voice on human-centred leadership and the intersection of gender/age equity in our workplaces.
Inspired by her personal experience of navigating the midlife turning point, and supporting other senior women leaders through her executive development work at Blacksmith, Kate has added midlife activist to her description. She feels called to take a stand: to make visible the challenges and opportunities midlife offers a new generation of women, and the life and leadership impact they can create in the second half if they better understand themselves, connect deeply with each other, and decide that the best is yet to come.
With 40-50+ years of life under our belts, making it to midlife means we have accumulated vast experience, honed our skills, and navigated numerous professional and personal challenges and milestones. Yet, at a time when we should be at the height of our powers, women run headlong into a maelstrom of obstacles specific to this life stage that can knock us off course, hinder our progress, and undermine our confidence.
From the subtle biases and stereotypes that persist in our own minds and our workplaces, to the societal expectations that shape our roles as women, parents and caregivers. From balancing responsibilities and priorities across multiple (often conflicting) domains of life and leadership, to juggling career aspirations with our partners or doing it all alone. Not to mention dealing with the stigma and symptoms of peri/menopause!
Midlife Leadership offers an opportunity to develop the capabilities, capacities, and community of shared experience this time of liminality requires. The old maps of midlife don’t fit the women and leaders we are, in the world as it is. It’s time to create a new path forward.
A fortnightly update from Kate on all things midlife and leadership.
An engaged, supportive and ‘Ad Free’ on-line midlife leadersihp community, an ever evolving ‘learn from anywhere’ curriculum, and annual in-person Summit
Unlock the power of your self-talk to quieten self-doubt, increase self-confidence, and improve wellbeing.
“Kate is a marvel and the best leadership specialist I’ve worked with. Kate brings an incredible level of energy combined with groundedness, humour and pragmatism. She masterfully gets to your innermost triggers and enables you to move through your own dawning reality, identifying what needs to be true to make significant and impactful changes. I can’t recommend her enough.”
Nic Simpson
Chief People Officer
“Working with Kate changed my life forever! Kate’s way of facilitating appears effortless. She gently but firmly challenged us to stretch our minds, step out of our comfort zones, and take a good long hard look at the relationship we have with ourselves. If I could do this programme annually I would!”
Deb Elliot,
Contact Centre Manager
“Kate is an impact player and an incredibly gifted facilitator who is curious about everything. What I love about her, (apart from being super cool!) is that she cares deeply about people and is passionate about connected leaders and fully human organisations. Kate is simply one of the best humans I’ve worked with.”
Nicky Ashton
Managing Director
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Paul is our first point of contact for all enquiries.
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