Blog - Madeline McQueen

Lifestyle / 02 March 2026

They Said It Was Progress. Then They Took It Back.

I remember the conversations in 2020. Every single organisation I was working with suddenly wanted to talk about women. About inclusion. About equity. About “doing better.” There were town halls. There were pledges. There were budgets appearing from nowhere for women’s networks and leadership programmes and keynotes about the gender pay gap. I was getting […]

Lifestyle / Wellbeing / Work / 04 February 2026

Prioritise Annual Leave – Now Not Later

So many women in leadership do the same thing every year: they earn annual leave… and then don’t properly use it. Or they take it “on paper” but stay mentally on the job, checking emails, solving problems and carrying the team or the project from a sun lounger. One senior woman, discussing a much-needed holiday, […]

Lifestyle / 09 December 2025

When Fear Is In The Driving Seat And You Ask It To Leave.

She came to me because she’d been stalking me for a year, and she knew that I was the one, but she wasn’t used to betting on herself. What she was used to was betting on everyone else. They got the best of her. Don’t get me wrong, she was and is outstanding as a […]

Lifestyle / 17 November 2025

What Stop’s You Connecting With You

You’re numb. That’s why you are so busy. That’s why you drink so much. That’s why you invest your every waking moment in supporting everyone but yourself. That’s the conversation I had with a woman recently. She knew it was true. Because she told me clearly, she was afraid of her own thoughts. It’s not […]

Lifestyle / 02 November 2025

Impossible Possibilities

I’ve been considering Impossible Possibilities. Asking myself what I would like to achieve, setting all parameters aside, letting go of biases, ignoring the voice that says keep it small and being incredibly focused on the one thing I want to use to achieve massive success. It has been fascinating. I’ve been reading a book called […]

Lifestyle / 03 October 2025

The Grief We’re Told to Hide

Why women in leadership must be allowed to speak the truths no one wants to hear. There are things we carry that we were never meant to carry alone. Loss. Shame. Grief so intimate it changes your breath before you can even think. And yet, in boardrooms, team calls, and performance reviews, we continue to […]

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