What nearly three decades in front of the camera taught one of Australia's most recognisable journalists about staying calm, using your voice and knowing which battles to fight.
Few people have led under more public pressure than Samantha Armytage. Across nearly thirty years in Australian media, from political rounds in Canberra to fifteen years hosting Sunrise to covering major world events, she has built a career on trust, credibility and the ability to hold her nerve when everything around her is loud. She brought all of it to our Women in Leadership Summit in Melbourne for a candid conversation about leading when the world feels louder and more divided than ever. Here is what stood out.
Reporting live from a square in Paris during the terror attacks, Samantha heard a car backfire. It sounded like gunfire, and the crowd, journalists included, started screaming and running. In that moment she found a calm she cannot fully explain, and made the call: you stay here, you come with me, everyone who does not need to be in danger gets to the car. Real leadership often shows up in the moments you did not plan for. Her point was that composure is a decision, and in a crisis the person who can steady themselves becomes the one everyone else looks to.
Early in her career the women in the newsroom were handed the soft stories while the men were sent to the big ones. Learning to push back took time, and what she landed on was not anger but a calm, firm clarity: "I'm not doing that. What else is there?" You do not have to raise your voice to use it.
The research shows why this matters. Catalyst found that 45% of women business leaders say it is difficult for women to speak up in meetings, and study after study, including a meta-analysis of 43 separate studies, finds that women are interrupted and talked over more often than men. A calm, measured "no" is a skill worth practising before you need it.
Sent early in her career to door-knock a grieving family for an interview after their son had died, Samantha could not do it. She sat outside, decided it was wrong, and refused, even with the professional pressure to deliver. Credibility, she made clear, is built on knowing where your line is and holding it when it would be easier not to. People trust leaders who are consistent about their values, especially under pressure.
A long career in the public eye means a steady stream of things written about you, much of it wrong. Samantha's approach is to choose which hill to die on. The nonsense she laughs off. The genuinely damaging she will act on. Everything else she lets go. Not every slight deserves a response, and knowing which ones to release protects the energy you need for the things that actually matter.
In a famously blokey industry, Samantha watched many women shift into a harder, more aggressive style just to survive, and at times did it herself. What she is proudest of is holding on to her own way of leading rather than copying the room. She also made the case for a bit of healthy bravado: be brave and confident even when you do not feel it, then work it out as you go. Leading as yourself, rather than as a version of someone else, is what makes people believe you.
Asked what she would tell her younger self, Samantha's answer was simple: back yourself. It is advice with weight behind it. LinkedIn's data shows women apply to around 20% fewer jobs than men despite searching just as actively, often screening themselves out before they begin. Confidence, in other words, is not something you wait to feel. It is something you decide to act on, calmly and on your own terms, until the rest catches up.
Upcoming Women in Leadership Summit
With thanks to Samantha Armytage for joining us at The Leadership Institute's Women in Leadership Summit, Melbourne.