Why staying grounded in who you are might be the most underrated leadership skill of all.
Most leadership advice is about what you do: the decisions, the strategy, the output. Far less is said about who you are while you do it, and whether you can hold on to that as the pressure and visibility grow. For leaders who also carry the weight of representing a community, staying anchored in your own identity is often what makes everything else possible.
That was the thread running through a recent fireside chat with Jessica Mauboy at our Indigenous Leadership Summit. A proud Kuku Yalanji and South Sea Islander woman, she has spent almost two decades on stages here and around the world while staying close to her culture, community and Country. Her reflections reach well beyond music.
Jessica grew up in Darwin surrounded by family, music and noise. The confidence it gave her was not the loud kind, but the quiet sort that comes from feeling held and knowing you belong somewhere safe. That is more than a nice idea. BetterUp's research found people with a strong sense of belonging show a 56% lift in job performance and a 50% lower risk of leaving. People do their best work when they feel they belong, so creating that safety for others is not soft, it is performance.
Courage, Jessica says, is often misunderstood. It is not the absence of fear. At eleven she walked onto a country music stage in Adelaide River, the only child in the line-up, and sang Celine Dion to a crowd expecting country. She won. She calls it "scared courage", feeling the fear and stepping in anyway. Every reinvention since has followed the same pattern. Waiting to feel ready is not the move. Acting while still afraid is.
A long career means constant change, new rooms and new people, each wanting something different. What kept Jessica steady was a clear sense of her own centre. "You are the centre," she said, "so if you remain that, you can get through anything." She adapts for each room without losing her anchor of family, community and culture. The lesson for any leader: change your approach when you need to, but not your core.
Asked how to bring people together when the country can feel divided, Jessica's answer was to lead with purpose. Knowing why you do what you do is what carries you through resistance and the stretches where progress feels slow. For her, that purpose has always been unity through music, watching a room shift around a single song. Purpose is the thing that keeps you going when the work gets hard.
As one of the most recognisable Indigenous women in the country, Jessica carries something most leaders never face: representing a whole community while protecting her own identity and wellbeing. She has felt the weight of being the only person in the room who looks like her. The context matters. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up around 3.8% of the population and remain significantly under-represented in senior leadership, so visible leaders carry an outsised load and an outsized influence. Jessica anchors herself in family and culture when it gets heavy, and channels it into her work. Carrying that well is its own form of leadership.
Build belonging. People, including you, do their best work when they feel safe and accepted.
Act before you feel ready. Courage is feeling the fear and stepping in anyway.
Know your centre. Adapt for each room, but hold on to your core.
Lead with purpose. Let your "why" carry you through the hard stretches.
The thread in Jessica's story is that she never did it alone. "I get to take everyone with me," she said of walking on stage. Leadership, in her telling, is not about standing apart. It is about staying grounded in who you are, carrying your people with you, and making space for others to rise. Stay anchored, lead with purpose, and you can go anywhere.
More information about the summit
With thanks to Jessica Mauboy for joining us at The Leadership Institute's Indigenous Leadership Summit.