Hi, my name is Grant Withrington. For many years I’ve witnessed first-hand so many good people struggle to achieve success as leaders because they were not adequately prepared or supported to lead and manage others, something which ultimately costs their organisations in lost productivity, poor culture and high turnover. I know because that used to be me. This is why I founded Ascent Leadership back in 2012 and dedicated myself to helping frontline and emerging leaders find, hone and express their inner genius so they can take their place as authentic, empowering and inspirational leaders in their own right.

When I transitioned from a 12-year career in the Australian Defence Force to the corporate world, I initially struggled to find my feet as a leader. Since age 17 I’d been learning how to give and follow orders, but I quickly learnt that is NOT how the corporate world works.

One day as I was pondering how to become more effective as a leader, I read a quote that was to become the catalyst for my transformational change: “You cannot put into people that which has been left out. You can only work to get out of them that which has been left in.”

This led me on a journey to learn as much as I could about how to engage, motivate and inspire others, and it also taught me a great deal about the importance of developing self-mastery. I discovered that when you work at becoming the best version of yourself, leading others is not only highly rewarding professionally and personally, but you get to change the lives or others in a meaningful way as well.

This experience is the reason why my third career transition in 2012 was into the role of leadership coach, mentor and trainer. Since then, I’ve used my experience to help emerging and established leaders to get the very best out of themselves and those they are privileged to lead. The skills and knowledge I share with my clients is also what enabled me, in 2017, to take on the role of President of the Board for a national Not-For-Profit, as a volunteer, and turn around 5 years of continuous decline to achieve consistent growth during my term.

In 2015 I became a certified practitioner of the Everything DiSC® model of DISC profiling and the Genos® Emotional Intelligence profiling tool, and in 2018 I was proud to become an Internationally Certified Results Coach. Today, I continue to learn – to “sharpen the saw” – so I can bring you the very best of my 30+ years of experience, coupled with the latest research into cognitive psychology: the science of how we think and its impact on performance.

Through this I help leaders at all stages of their career, from emerging leaders to SLT, to hone and express their personal style in a way that engages, empowers and inspires those they lead.

My personal mission is to educate, empower and inspire a global community of difference-makers to become transformational leaders and be the change they want to see in the world.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

—John Quincy Adams