Michelle T Holland is an international best-selling author, speaker, consultant, and the Founder and Creative Director of Synergy IQ. With over 20 years of experience and as a leader in creating business excellence through people, Michelle has helped thousands of leaders to build their confidence and skills in change. In addition, she is an experienced culture change expert, a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator, an accredited Human Synergistics practitioner, and a strategic advisor. The author of 3 books, including the best seller “Culture Inc”, Michelle speaks at conferences, runs workshops, consults and challenges thinking.

Michelle dreams of a world where people are accepted and valued for their unique contributions, feel safe to be who they authentically are, and are inspired to fulfil their potential.

In this episode, Michelle gives us a sneak peek into her upcoming book Imperfect Leadership, which is an invitation for leaders just to start looking at leadership differently, start looking at this perfect version of leadership that they've created in their head and start unpacking why we're striving for this perfection of leadership.

More about the Imperfect Leadership book:

“You will always fail when you are trying to be a perfect leader; you are a human after all.” Said, my mentor. After a particularly challenging week trying to be everything to everyone, I was ready to give up. This was the beginning of my journey to embrace imperfect leadership.

Imagine a world where people are able to give their best every day and reach their full potential. A world where we leverage strengths so that our leaders can be inspiring, caring and successful, and workplaces that support our well-being and emotional lives…

Contrary to this utopia, we have created a world where our good leaders feel they are failing because they are not great. They look at the textbook leader with shame and longing and work themselves to exhaustion trying to meet this perfect yet unrealistic view of leadership. This talk explores the phenomenon of working extremely hard, compromising our wellbeing, and trying to be the perfect leader. It’s time for a revolution in leadership that appreciates us for our fallible humanness.

Key takeaways:

Where the pressure for perfect leadership comes from and why it's harmful to business success
What is an “imperfect leader”, and why it's the only kind of leader for the future
How embracing your own imperfection will create strength and courage you never knew possible
Four (4) pillars of an imperfect leadership mindset and skillset so you can be a successful (and healthy) leader now and into the future.

Where to find Michelle T. Holland

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.

Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.

Do the Woo Media Channel

The Web Agency Summit 2025 with Andrew Palmer

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts