About
ABOUT JULIA
Adapting To Change: Nothing Beats Experience
You’ve been promoted – congratulations! Now what? You could have a team who are looking for their next opportunity to enhance their core skills.
People leadership roles can come about in a couple of different ways. As an individual contributor, you’ve kicked some massive goals for the business and they are keen to reward you. You may be offered a promotion and hopefully a salary increase. People management along with a whole new set of skills come into play.
You could have applied for a management role that compliments your extensive business experience and that role comes with direct reports. This may be your expectation or it may not be your experience.
I often reference that, for me, management is the task and leadership is about the people. The attributes you have can define you as a leader. You are still accountable for the work getting done and leading the people in the most effective, psychologically safe, way.
So, what can you do to enhance the capabilities you already have? We all have core skills. Core to being human and core to being a leader. It’s how we lead ourselves and others.
What we may not know is how being aware of those skills and how to develop them can support us and the teams we lead.
Drawing on over 30 years of organisation experience, Julia Ridout, the Chief Encouragement Officer is a highly respected leadership consultant helping your teams adapting to change. Having shared her knowledge with leaders and businesses during this last decade,
Julia is dedicated to helping organisations unlock their potential through the power of their people. Julia supports individual managers in their leadership journey, showing them the leadership skills, they already have, and how to develop them. The opportunity is to trial skills in a psychologically safe space and leave the sessions with practical information. You then get to practice in your environment whilst knowing that you have the materials and information to refer to at any time.
With management roles from junior supervision to senior management, Julia has personally experienced what it is like to join a business, look for personal and career growth along with participating in numerous training programs. With experience in mergers, advertising, information technology and retail across portfolio management, strategy, sales, and operations, Julia understands the day-to-day challenges faced by leaders and individuals in the workplace.
Establishing the Chief Encouragement Officer to help organisations make the most of their greatest asset (people), Julia has a proven background in enabling people to become more effective in their roles.

An accredited counsellor for Lifeline for 6 years, Julia also has a Bachelor of Psychology with experience in trauma, positive psychology and counselling. With more than 25 years of my career in program management, I also have a Masters Certificate in Project Management.
This background together with a broad range of organisational experience across not for profit and profit organisations, gives Julia a unique insight into the workplace.
With an uncanny ability to cut through issues, connect with people and get to the heart of problems, Julia is the leadership consultant you need when guiding your organisation through change.
Julia doesn’t have the same approach as other leadership facilitators and program reviewers. Don’t be too taken in by the name of the business. Encouragement is key but not at the expense of performance. No toxic positivity or BS here.
When we work together you will receive a proposal with a clear set of deliverables for either course facilitation or consultancy work. A common sense approach to practical outcomes for you and your team
The truth is, personality beats process every time.
To get the most from your people, you need to know when to be direct yet empathetic; how to combine traditionally termed ‘soft’ (we say ‘core’) and hard skills; and when to call for backup.
These skills are not the ones you’ll find in the office manual or a set of procedures – they come from experience, empathy and understanding.
The Chief Encouragement Officer helps leaders harness these core skills and realise their potential through faciltated learning and mentoring. Drawing on wide experience and a range of different skills, the Chief Encouragement Officer helps your leaders and your organisation get the most from your people and processes.
With workshops available for business unit teams, project teams and project leaders, increase the skills of your leaders and achieve improved productivity for your organisation. Facilitated programs also available for your future leaders, allowing you to invest in your people, establish succession plans cultivating a strong organisational culture where everyone is supported.
Benefit from Proven Knowledge & Expertise
Invest in your people and reap the rewards of strong leadership and a healthy organisational culture.
Contact the Chief Encouragement Officer to discover how our workshops and project management skills can benefit your organisation.




