Behind the Transcript: Coaching, AI, and the New Language of Meetings with Dr. Laura Hefer
Dr. Laura Hefer is a researcher, consultant, and speaker whose PhD from the University of Sydney Business School focuses on the organisational use of AI meeting assistants. Her work uniquely blends information systems, organisational psychology, and identity theory to explore how AI technologies are shaping workplace dynamics.Originally trained in coaching psychology, Dr. Hefer later became fascinated by how digital tools—especially those that record and summarise meetings—change the way people manage impressions and identities at work. Her PhD investigates not only the technical implementation of AI meeting assistants but also the social and psychological consequences for those who use or are affected by these tools.She has published papers in top-tier conferences (PACIS and ACIS), exploring the unacknowledged assumptions baked into AI meeting assistant designs and their effects on productivity, fairness, identity construction, and power.
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Behind the Mask: Coaching Through Impostorism with Erin Buttermore
Erin Buttermore is a Hobart-based strategy consultant and executive coach with a rich 20+ year career spanning export trade, climate change, tourism, education, international relations, and skilled migration. She’s held senior roles across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Erin is particularly passionate about leadership, organisational behaviour, decision-making, and behavioural economics.She holds a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney, an MBA in Policy Management, and other business qualifications. Her coaching integrates cutting-edge research, practical leadership experience, and mindfulness (she’s also a certified vinyasa yoga teacher).Erin is currently pursuing PhD research with Dr. Gordon Spence exploring how perceived organisational support and psychological capital relate to the impostor phenomenon—a topic she has both personally experienced and deeply studied. Her work challenges the notion that impostorism is an individual flaw, instead framing it as a systemic, organisational issue that demands more nuanced and evidence-based coaching interventions.
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"Beyond the Mindset: Coaching, Leadership, and Performance with Dr Travis Kemp"
Dr. Travis Kemp is recognised by both industry and professional peers and clients internationally as being amongst Australia's leading practitioners and thought leaders in the fields of executive coaching, strategic leadership, peak performance, and organisational psychology. His work focusses on identifying, developing, and optimising performance and impact of enterprise leaders, their teams, and their organisations, diagnosing and solving complex leadership and organisational performance challenges and refining, communicating, and executing enterprise strategy through effective leadership and evidence-based practice.
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Scalpels, Sailors & Coaching: A Surgeon’s Journey into Leadership Psychology with Dr Martin Richardson
Dr. Martin Richardson is a highly decorated Orthopaedic Surgeon with over three decades of clinical, educational, and military service. His roles have ranged from Director of Orthopaedic Trauma at Royal Melbourne Hospital to Co-Director of the Fundamentals of Clinical Coaching at Monash University. As a Surgeon Commander in the Royal Australian Navy, he’s served in Afghanistan, participated in humanitarian missions across the Pacific, and played a pivotal role in Navy Health Training. In 2024, he completed a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology at the University of Sydney, deepening his commitment to leadership development and organisational coaching across healthcare and defence sectors. Today we talk about why he chose this unusual path, what it gave him and how he is working with the Australian Navy as a leadership advisor. And a little bit on singing…!
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Coaching for Hope: Clive Leach on Leadership, Youth and Burnout
Clive Leach had an extensive background in teaching, youth services and University education in the UK. Then, while teaching in Bangkok, he discovered he was spending more time on assisting students with life choice points and decisions than in their education, but he enjoyed it. That led to a search to find a degree that would support his personal education and in 2008 Clive graduated from University of Sydney. Clive collaborated in writing an important paper positioning positive psychology in assisting disaffected youth and youth workers with Dr. Anthony Grant and Dr Suzy Green, when studying in Sydney. He has since built a career in organisational based coaching with a specific interest in positive psychology.
The University of Sydney established the world’s first Masters of coaching psychology degree in 2001. USCMA (University of Sydney Coaching and Mentoring Association) was set up a year later as the place for students of the degree to meet up, share ideas, organise guest speakers, establish peer supervision groups and conferences.
Almost 25 years later the degree has close to 1000 graduates and USCMA continues to be the place for students and graduates to congregate.
In our post pandemic world, USCMA has established this podcast as a way to connect its members together and back to the source.
Ireland