Episode 9

full
Published on:

20th May 2025

Why Workplaces Need Both Women’s and Men’s Leadership Styles; with Ros Cardinal

In this episode, Aveline Clarke welcomes Ros Cardinal, workplace consultant and author of "The Resilient Employee," for a powerful discussion on women’s leadership, purposeful work, and reshaping organisational cultures. Ros shares her journey from breaking ground with flexible work arrangements to designing the Women’s Leadership Archetypes model, recognised by the International Alliance for Women. 

Together, they examine authentic leadership, overcoming systemic barriers, and how purpose fuels resilience and transformation. 

This inspiring conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking to activate their mission, promote equity at work, and lead with impact.

Here’s a summary of what they discussed:

04:52 Ros recalls creating one of the first part-time maternity roles at age 19.

08:40 Insights into why women often choose to leave rather than “break the glass ceiling.”

13:34 The growing trend of women exiting corporate life to launch their own businesses.

17:40 How organizations are reacting to the Women’s Leadership Archetypes model.

24:59 Vision for a balanced, human-centric world of work and its positive effects.

...and much more.

Enjoy!

YouTube episode:

https://youtu.be/mtvbOkKbkRw


Here's some information about our guest:

Ros Cardinal, Founder Coach & Consultant

After more than 20 years in corporate human resources and organisational development roles, a successful battle with cancer gave Ros the nudge to take her passion for transforming leaders and organisations and established her business, Shaping Change.


She is also a talented and multi-award-winning executive and leadership coach, with senior coaching clients in Government agencies, private enterprise, and the community sector. Her expertise spans leadership development, organisational culture, change management, EQ and employee engagement.


In 2016, Ros felt compelled to look deeply at the differences in the leadership styles of men and women. The result was the Women’s Leadership Archetypes model, now being used worldwide by women to discover how they can better leverage their natural strengths to lead with purpose, authenticity, and integrity. In 2022 Ros was recognised with a World of Difference Award by the International Alliance for Women (TIAW) for this work. Ros now licences other women coaches, facilitators, mentors, and trainers to use the WLA in their work, creating a ripple effect across the globe.


Ros is a blogger and the author of The Resilient Employee. In addition, she contributes regular articles to Leaders in Heels, The Huffington Post, and People Development magazine.


Something Interesting About You

Fun fact - I'm a retired kickboxing instructor and martial artist. I won the women's open division in the State all-styles martial arts competition in 2001.


Website URL

https://www.shapingchange.com.au/ https://www.womensleaderarchetypes.com.au/


Your Social Media URLs

LI: @rosalind-cardinal-62520315/ 

FB: @RosCardinal

X: @CardinalRos


The purpose of the Mission Activated podcast is to inspire people with the stories of people who are activated on their mission, and are living a life of purpose, passion and alignment. Being in business is not just about money: it's about bringing our genius and our gifts to the world to impact others.


If you'd like to get in touch please contact us at contact@6starleaders.com

Show artwork for Mission Activated

About the Podcast

Mission Activated
Conversations and reflections on living your purpose and leading from alignment
Mission Activated is a podcast about living with purpose and leading from alignment.
Hosted by Aveline Clarke, founder of 6 Star Leaders, the show moves between two kinds of episodes: conversations with people doing meaningful work in their own way, and solo reflections drawn from her work coaching conscious leaders through what gets in the way and what's possible on the other side.
This isn't a podcast about hustle, performance, or scale at all costs. It's about the inner work that makes the outer work matter. Self-trust. Clean communication. Owning your part. Becoming someone others can safely navigate by.
If you're tired of leadership content that's loud and shallow, and you're looking for something quieter, more honest, and more useful, this is for you.
New episodes fortnightly. Stay aligned.