Learn a bit more
Kia ora koutou
I hope you are all fabulous. My name is Melanie Beirne, and I’m thrilled you are curious enough to learn more about my work and how I empower and enable women to reach their true potential.
Getting straight to the point… I have clocked up well over 20 years of leadership experience working with, advising, and delivering to Chief Executives, senior leaders, and more recently, new people leaders, always focusing on coaching and building high-performing leaders and leadership teams. I have been living my dream fully immersed in the fascinating world of leadership.
In 2016 a spark ignited in my belly. It was time to reassess my career and reflect on my future. I have always been an advocate, coach, and mentor for wahine but I suddenly realised it was time to honour my joy and purposefully pursue this path. My soul had its call to action, I was excited, and Women Step Forward (Wāhine Mā Rere Ki Runga) was launched.
We are fortunate to have two generations of highly educated and ambitious women dominating our workforce. By embracing generational changes and providing Millennials and Generation Zs with the necessary knowledge, expertise, and experiences, we can prepare them to become future leaders. This offers a real opportunity to increase female leadership throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand.
I empower women to take the initiative and navigate a successful career in leadership. It is time to maximise women’s potential and know that anything is possible, including having dual roles if that is your desire. I am a mum and a leader. Ko Amber rāua ko Sophia āku tamāhine - Amber and Sophia are my daughters.
Yes, the juggle/struggle is real, but my daughters are a blessing. They inspire me to work hard to ensure that when they enter the workforce, they do not experience some of the gender and age discrimination barriers and misogynistic attitudes/behaviours that I had to navigate.
I bring my full self to my mahi, and while you will benefit from my experience of these challenges, let’s empower wahine and build an awesome workplace for our tamariki.
I look forward to connecting with you all on this journey. It is time for all of us to step forward and create a robust women-in-leadership pipeline. Wahina toa!
Ngā mihi nui
Mel Beirne
Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu (with feathers a bird can fly)
Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach
As a Gallup-Certified Strengths Leadership Coach. I am passionate about bringing the best out of people through strengths based leadership development. I provide individual or leadership team based coaching to enable people to value and develop their talents into powerful strengths, thereby achieving higher levels of engagement, well being, performance and ultimately success.
Leadership Development Centre
Melanie is a senior leadership practitioner and coach with over 22 years’ of leadership experience working with, advising and delivering to chief executives and senior leaders in the public service. She is a Pre-qualified facilitator for the Leadership Development Centre to deliver New People Leader (NPL) and Leaders of Leaders programme to member agencies.
We make it simple
Invest in yourself
Access best practice tools, expertise, know how and programmes tailored to the needs of young women looking to develop their skills and take on future leadership roles. These programmes are designed to empower you to Step Forward, harness your potential and maximise your performance, while working and connecting with an amazing community of like-minded women.
