Gwen Meyer: Journey from Corporate Disillusionment to Empowerment
In November 2023, Incremental Steps was recognized as the top leadership development services provider in Australia by global Manage HR APAC Special Magazine, after being listed in the top 5. But it wasn’t always like this for the CEO and Founder. There was a moment when she and her son were eating tins of beans in the kitchen and wondering what the heck had happened to her life.
After three decades navigating the corporate maze, I became deeply disenchanted by the pervasive acceptance of mediocre and toxic leadership. This norm made many dreads, or even despise, their work. One glaring instance of this was during a high-profile consulting project where a young, unprepared mining engineer was promoted. Her insecurity led her to undermine our expert team, creating a toxic environment of fear and mistrust. Despite overwhelming feedback, the executive leadership refused to act, resulting in the resignation of our entire, highly skilled team of ten.
This was a pivotal moment for me. I decided to become the CEO of my own life and invest thousands of dollars and countless hours in my personal and professional development. This investment sparked a profound transformation for me. As I delved into my inner world, my external life flourished. I surrounded myself with the right people, places, and environments, becoming happier, fulfilled, and more productive.
I forged deeper relationships, achieved more in less time, and received increased recognition and financial success. The most rewarding changes were internal feelings of peace, calm, and increasing joy. I shared my insights with my son, friends, and colleagues, witnessing their positive transformations too.
In 2018, a year before the pandemic, I founded Incremental Steps.
Our vision: to nurture the next generation of inspiring leaders and change makers.
Our mission: to cultivate thriving cultures of learning, development, and empowerment through technology, mental fitness, well-being, and excellence.
Since then, we’ve personally served over 300 individuals through coaching and leadership workshops. We’ve coached aspiring leaders in global organizations, CEOs, business owners, students, professionals, and community leaders. And this is just the beginning.
One of the major success stories is about a CEO who came to us in deep depression despite his business success and wealth. Over 18 months of coaching, he transformed his life, now thriving as a stand-up comedian, radio show host, MC, speaker, and business mentor. Incremental Steps is committed to creating meaningful and fulfilling realities for all our clients. The ROI is reflected in Priceless transformation.
From Turbulence to Triumph: A Journey of Resilience
Growing up on a tobacco farm in Zimbabwe during turbulent times was anything but ordinary. My father’s untimely death at 39, when I was just 14, left our family grappling with profound grief and new responsibilities. My mother, suddenly a widow with four children, faced the dual challenges of personal loss and escalating political unrest.
Amidst civil war and economic upheaval, farm invasions were rampant. As a young girl, I learned to handle a rifle for our safety. Our home was fortified with grenade screens, and travel was conducted in convoys to evade landmines and potential attacks.
My life took a pivotal turn when my mother remarried. I pursued higher education in South Africa, spent a year in Paris, and travelled extensively. Marriage and family brought me back to Zimbabwe, but the deteriorating conditions compelled me to seek a better future. Immigrating to Australia, I founded Incremental Steps to empower others to embrace change, inspired by hard fought lessons that I have learnt. My mission is to support leaders and change makers in finding joy, uplifting performance, and fostering human connection and fearless communities. Through my experiences, I have learned the importance of resilience, adaptability, and the power of incremental progress.
Empowering Leaders with Neuroscience
For business leaders, success hinges on a practical, proven toolkit that offers insights and methodologies to connect deeply with team members, foster genuine relationships, and inspire transformative change. Effective leadership begins at the individual level, fostering culture change and transformation within organizations from the roots up.
Incremental Steps integrates the latest neuro change techniques into personal and leadership development frameworks, revolutionizing leadership perception and education. Neuroscience research reveals that understanding new sciences—beliefs, mindsets, the subconscious mind, emotional intelligence, neuroplasticity, quantum physics, psychology, philosophy, epigenetics, and the mind-body-soul connection—unlocks immense personal and business potential.
By opening minds to curiosity and powerful insights, leaders realize their power, sparking creativity and innovation. Incremental Steps offers consulting, coaching, and workshop facilitation services, available both face-to-face and through state-of-the-art online platforms. This approach empowers leaders to cultivate a transformative, connected, and inspired organizational culture.
Transformative Workshops for Leaders: Top 3 Products and Services
Our top three products and services—
The Inspired Leader,
The Change Maker,
Awesome Culture Workshops.
are designed to tackle prevalent issues in the workplace: mediocre leadership, disengaged employees, and toxic work environments.
These workshops aim to instil individual and team confidence, enhance collaboration and connection, and boost productivity and performance. Participants experience increased personal and workplace satisfaction and fulfillment, gaining the wisdom to trust the process of leading both themselves and others. Moreover, they develop the courage to take the next step in their personal and professional evolution, achieving higher consciousness and awareness.
Our approach is rooted in scientific, evidence-based mind and brain sciences. We incorporate a blend of the most effective personal and professional development frameworks, models, methodologies, skills, techniques, and exercises. This comprehensive strategy is informed by extensive research and study, ensuring that our delivery systems are both innovative and impactful. Through these workshops, we empower leaders to transform themselves and their organizations, creating a thriving, positive work culture.
Upcoming Services
Two other services we intend to offer are The Kaizen Leadership Community of Practice and Your Best Year.
The Kaizen Community: These workshops are intense, immersive, and experiential, creating immediate change. To ensure lasting impact, we offer group coaching and a community of practice for ongoing growth and support. This community is for leaders, aspiring leaders, and change makers committed to continuous improvement, limited to 20 participants.
Your Best Year: This one-on-one experience allows you to focus on the next 12 months only, understand your values, intrinsic motivation, purpose and goals for the short term. This starts with a trickle of interest, and increased clarity and can build into a tsunami of enthusiasm and action.
Benefits include:
– Connecting with like-minded thought leaders and change makers
– Continuous growth and support throughout the year to overcome those mental barriers
– Access to valuable resources, maintaining momentum for lasting change
Vision: We aim to create the next generation of inspiring leaders and change makers to help progress solutions for the world’s most complex challenges.
Together, this community imagines and acts towards creating a world where everyone is inspired to co-create and contribute in ways that showcase their unique strengths and skills, achieving outcomes for the highest good of all.
We face a crisis of leadership globally, yet the skills of inspirational leadership can be learned. To drive change, we must acquire knowledge and understanding that lead not only to insight and paradigm shifts but to action and expansion. Accountability for positive change lies within each of us individually.
Embracing technology and harnessing its power for good is crucial. Mental fitness and well-being programs should be fundamental in school curricula and standard in corporate and government development programs. By fostering these elements, we can empower individuals to become durable, collaborative, and innovative leaders capable of addressing the world’s most pressing issues.
Empowering Leaders with Evidence-Based Tools from Out of the Lab for Transformative Change
For business leaders, this translates to a practical, proven toolkit offering insights and methodologies to connect deeply with team members, foster genuine relationships, and inspire transformative change at the individual level first and then within organizations.
Culture change and transformation originate at the roots – with individual leaders and their teams. By integrating the latest neuro change understanding and techniques in personal and leadership development frameworks, Incremental Steps is transforming how leadership is perceived and taught.
Neuroscience research shows that when people understand new sciences—beliefs, mindsets, the subconscious mind, emotional intelligence, neuroplasticity, quantum physics, psychology, philosophy, epigenetics, spirituality, and the mind-body-soul connection—they realize their immense power. This opens minds to curiosity and powerful insight, leading to personal and business empowerment, countless possibilities, and human potential. Creativity and innovation are sparked!
Consulting, coaching, and workshop facilitation services are available both face-to-face and via state-of-the-art online platforms.
AI Revolution: The Super Skill for the Future – Adaptibility
The rapid advent of artificial intelligence demands an unprecedented pace of change from society. Unlike past technological shifts, the integration of AI requires us to adapt at an exponential rate. Thus, the ability to embrace and manage change becomes crucial for personal and professional success.
My research and development efforts focus on maintaining this pace through continuous learning and the principles of Kaizen, which emphasize incremental improvement. As the CEO and founder, my journey has been guided by leading experts in various domains, including personal and professional growth, technological advancements, and spiritual development. Recently, my learning has been enriched by mentors from the knowledge industry, AI, community leadership, and noetic sciences.
Ensuring the quality of our services is paramount. We achieve this by selecting top-tier materials, tools, and techniques curated by field experts, including PhDs, professors, and prestigious institutions. Personally, testing these resources guarantees their efficacy. Our company, Incremental Steps, forms strategic alliances and partnerships with organizations that share our values and purpose, ensuring quality and a transformative return on investment.
We constantly seek feedback, evaluation, and testimonials as integral components of our delivery process. This commitment to excellence and continuous improvement ensures that our clients experience profound and lasting transformations. The future belongs to those who can adapt, and we are dedicated to equipping individuals with the super skill needed to thrive in the AI-driven world.
Elevating Marketing through Transformative Experiences
My top marketing strategy is delivering such a powerful client experience and unparalleled value that referrals become inevitable. Complementary approaches include leveraging social media, public speaking, and strategic articles. Building relationships and forming alliances further amplify our reach. A key partnership with the Neuro Change Institute, where I am a certified Neuro Change Practitioner, Master Trainer, and Mentor, enables me to deliver certification courses and mentor future trainers, solidifying our industry leadership.
Navigating Change with Courage and Authenticity
With over 30 years of consulting experience across diverse businesses, industries, and countries, my journey has been marked by challenges and triumphs that many can relate to. This breadth of experience equips me to assist individuals from all walks of life, both personally and professionally. At Incremental Steps, we empower leaders to navigate significant life and career transitions through change management, transformation consulting, and change facilitation.
Our competitive advantage lies in authenticity—being ourselves in ways that can’t be replicated. By viewing challenges from multiple perspectives, Incremental Steps plays the infinite game, fostering collaboration and forming relationships with a broad spectrum of companies and individuals. While we embrace healthy rivalry, our true strength is our collaborative approach.
Driven by a passion to shape the next generation of world leaders, we prioritize collaboration, connection, and belonging. As a certified practitioner in several peer-reviewed coaching programs, I’ve coached and educated hundreds of emerging leaders, ensuring our methods are both evidence-based and psychologically sound.
Thriving Through Change: A Journey of Corporate Excellence
With over 25 years in business and IT consulting, I have held various roles across a diverse range of projects in Australia, the UK, Southern Africa, and France. My extensive management consulting experience spans industries such as banking and financial services, mining, manufacturing, health, and port services.
As a long-term corporate contractor and business owner, constant change has been a defining feature of my work and personal life. This relentless evolution has driven me to make incremental improvements, becoming adaptable, flexible, and resilient. These experiences have honed my life skills, essential for success.
I have delivered multiple successful projects through leadership marked by empowerment, collaboration, and connection. My deep understanding of human behaviour fuels my passion for working with individuals and teams. By mentoring and coaching, I help people develop leadership skills and navigate change, supporting them through transitions.
I have consulted for major performance-driven corporations, including Accenture, IBM, PwC, Anglo American, KPMG Risk Advisory Services, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, CSC (DXC), Rio Tinto Coal Australia, BHP, Minerals Australia, One Steel, SA Health, SMR Automotive (part of the Motherson Group), Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, and Flinders Port Holdings. This diverse experience enables me to guide others in achieving their potential through collaborative and transformative leadership.
The Neuroscience of Inspirational Leadership
Leadership isn’t merely about title, rank, or authority. Many leaders ascend to their positions through long service and accumulated knowledge, not necessarily through a conscious choice or innate leadership skills. In contrast, those who truly lead inspire others, driven by a purpose greater than themselves, rooted in service and contribution. People follow these leaders because they resonate with their cause and purpose.
Leaders who inspire are often motivated by social impact. They care deeply about people, exhibit empathy, and possess high emotional intelligence. Our brains, while similar in structure, are uniquely wired through individual connectomes—the intricate network of neurons firing together. Studies of leaders reveal that those with more coherent brain networks are perceived as visionary and inspirational.
Inspirational leaders, with well-connected brains, also connect better with others due to higher empathy and emotional intelligence. The right-hemisphere thinkers stand out as visionaries. The Dalai Lama, for instance, excels in neuroscience, rewiring his brain daily through mindfulness and meditation. Remarkably, up to 70% of brain coherence and connection can be achieved through these practices.
For aspiring leaders, these three actionable practices are foundational:
1. Writing down an inspiring vision for yourself or your company.
2. Adopting a mindfulness or reflective practice.
3. Pausing to ask, “How may I powerfully serve and help this person or business?”.
First, look to be inspired ….and then embrace these steps to become a leader who truly inspires!
Connecting with Thought Leaders in Leadership and Change
Change making is an approach to leadership and is integral to effective leadership. Leaders benefit profoundly from understanding brain, mind, and spiritual sciences, adopting an inside-out approach that fosters self-awareness and consciousness.
By cultivating a community of highly qualified change facilitators and leadership coaches, we aim to shift paradigms and mindsets, especially among logical, left-brain thinkers in corporate environments. Our goal is to rethink change and inspire transformation.
We introduce high-ticket, life-changing experiences for leaders and philanthropists, including travel to third-world countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, or other adventurous destinations of their choosing. These experiences are designed to broaden perspectives and foster deep personal growth.
Call to action: Join us in supporting and collaborating with bold, conscious, self-aware change makers and entrepreneurs committed to their growth and to solving the world’s greatest challenges. Let’s create a wave of impactful change together.
Founder’s Tips – Self-Discovery
This journey can make you feel isolated, but you are never truly alone. Learn to ask for help and seek out inspiring leaders, change makers and role models willing to support you. They’ve already navigated the pitfalls and can guide you in a positive direction towards your own dreams.
Gaining the perspective of a coach or mentor can powerfully shift your mindset, allowing you to see life more truthfully, playfully, and joyfully. We all need to discover our unique blueprint—what ignites our passion and drives us intrinsically. By uncovering our gifts and strengths, we can create a positive impact, becoming role models and influencers for good.
Let’s navigate the trials of the world with bravery, strength, and spiritual confidence, infused with instinctive, intuitive wisdom. As an activator, visionary, changemaker, connector, and co-creator, what inspires me most, is dedicating myself to supporting others, alongside me, on this transformative journey.
