Brisbane’s self-styled leadership coach Sonia McDonald plans to launch the inaugural ‘Outstanding Leadership Awards’ at a gala dinner in September

Her plans to honour outstanding leadership were thwarted this month but a Brisbane life coach has pinned her hopes on a gala night in September, but do we really need another awards ceremony?

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Do we really need another awards ceremony?

Brisbane’s self-styled leadership coach Sonia McDonald thinks so.

McDonald had hoped to launch the inaugural “Outstanding Leadership Awards’’ this month with a knees up at the Royal International Convention Centre in the RNA showgrounds.

Of course those plans were tossed out the window as all of our lives got up-ended by COVID-19.

Sonia McDonald

But McDonald, an award-winning speaker and author who runs an outfit called LeadershipHQ, has displayed some of the stuff she preaches about and rescheduled the event.

It will play out September 4 at the RNA with plenty of the social distancing, hand sanitiser and other life-altering tweaks that have become the new abnormal.

COURAGE AND KINDNESS

McDonald told us yesterday that more than 100 figures in the private and public sectors, as well as community and not-for-profit groups, became finalists this month after getting nominated by their colleagues.

The awards, across nine different categories, all aim to recognise what she calls “exceptional achievement by courageous and kind leaders’’.

While that’s rather subjective and hard to quantify, most of us know it when we see it. McDonald certainly does.

“They are leaders who have courageous conversations and strive to lead by example,’’ she said. “They are leaders that make employees happy to come to work each day because they feel valued. Above all, they are the leader whose example others strive to replicate.’’

Since notifying the finalists, McDonald revealed that her inbox has been “flooded with messages of gratitude’’ from the nominees.

“On quite a few occasions, finalists have literally burst into tears after being notified they had made it to the final round of judging,” she said.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to be the bearer of good news at a time when leaders are facing the biggest crisis of their lives. 2020 has indeed become the year we need courageous leadership.”

SHORT LISTED

So by now you’re wondering who might get the gongs.

Well, we had a scan of the list and didn’t recognise many of the names but there are a few that jumped out.

Among them are Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett, two best mates who launched Orange Sky, the innovative charity that helps homeless people do some laundry and have a shower.

Orange Sky co-founders Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett

Netball Queensland boss Catherine Clark is in the mix, as is Brisbane Junior Chamber of Commerce president Nathan Schokker, Grant Thornton boss Tony Markwell, Queensland Steel and Sheet chief Cecily McGuckin and Wyndam Vacation Clubs head Barry Robinson.

The judges tasked with picking the winners include the likes of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland head Stephen Tait and Austrade’s Fiona De Jong.

THEATRE PERIL

The State Government wheeled out a $500,000 grants program this week to help struggling folks in the arts, such as producers, designers and technicians.

It’s in addition to more than $10.5 million already handed out to the embattled sector.

But statutory bodies such as Queensland Theatre can’t tap into the JobKeeper lifeline and that has already forced them to cut loose a bunch of their casual staff.

Artistic Director Lee Lewis told us that nearly 80 per cent of the theatre company’s workforce are casuals and she urged the Federal Government to broaden access to the JobKeeper scheme.

“All the artists, designers, directors, stage managers, technicians and specialty makers who create our productions are necessarily freelance so that they can work across many companies in their career. And therefore, 80 per cent of our industry cannot be allowed to ‘fall through the cracks’ created by politics,’’ Lewis said.

“I refuse to believe that our Federal Government wants to abandon artists, but that is what they are doing by refusing to extend the scheme.’’