Dr. Kirstin Ferguson is a globally recognized leadership expert, ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world. With a career that began as an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, Kirstin has gone on to become a CEO, board director, and acting chair and deputy chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Kirstin brings decades of leadership experience across a variety of sectors—public, private, military, and media—combined with deep academic expertise, including a PhD in leadership and culture. Kirstin is the author of three acclaimed books, including Blindspotting (2025), Head & Heart (2023), and Women Kind (2018), which have influenced leaders around the world. During this episode of "Experts Unleashed," Atlassian's Dom Price chats with Kirstin about the idea of Blindspotting – the topic of Kirstin’s latest book – and how being honest, curious, and flexible can change the way we lead, work, and live. Kirstin shares how taking a “seeker” vs a “knower” perspective can enable you to find new answers to old problems, as well as create more teachable moments for the people around you. Kirstin’s straightforward approach to upgrading the way we show up as leaders is so simple, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing it all along! They also discuss the "My User Manual" Play from Atlassian's Team Playbook. It's an exercise designed to help leaders share with their teams and teammates HOW they work. Think of it like this: when you buy a TV, it comes with a User Manual. But when you hire a human, there's no such helpful guidance. Kirstin takes us through her User Manual and shares three unfiltered truths…you’ll never guess what they are! More about Experts Unleashed: The world feels full of thought leadership and frameworks, when we’re actually hungry for lived experience, science, and pragmatic insights. Experts Unleashed seeks out amazing minds from their specialty fields and brings them to you, to unleash their wisdom in a way that will help you put it into action. Each episode aims to educate, provoke, inspire, and then activate… to give you the confidence to try someone new. In this episode: My User Manual Play: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/my-user-manual More about Dr. Kirstin Ferguson: https://www.kirstinferguson.com/ Lifeline: https://www.lifelinesupport.org/ Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 3:27 - Welcome leadership expert and author, Dr. Kirstin Ferguson 4:01 - Three unfiltered truths about Kirstin you don’t know 8:37 - What is Blindspotting? 10:27 - Becoming a seeker vs a knower 15:08 - Adaptability, disentangling our ego, and self-awareness 24:30 - Don’t just value curiosity – BE curious! 28:52 - How leaders can start Blindspotting 33:04 - Using questions to learn and teachable moments 36:25 - Why NOW is the right time for Blindspotting 43:25 - Applying Blindspotting to all aspects of life 46:10 - Amplifying your curiosity and vulnerability 49:06 - Dive into Blindspotting at https://blindspotting.com/au 51:28 – Donating to Lifeline charity About Atlassian: Behind every great human achievement, there is a team. From medicine and space travel to disaster response and pizza deliveries, we help teams all over the planet advance humanity through the power of software. Our mission is to help unleash the potential of every team. Connect with Atlassian: Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Atlassian Follow Atlassian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlassian Follow Atlassian on Instagram: https://instagram.com/atlassian Follow Atlassian on X: https://twitter.com/atlassian Follow Atlassian on Facebook: https://facebook.com/atlassian

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