Briony Bennett
Briony is a registered Psychologist with over fifteen years experience in private and public organisational settings, delivering psychological, human resources and organisational development solutions to her clients. Briony has managed her own psychology consulting practice for the past four years, and across her career has held positions at Chandler Macleod, Department of Defence, Davidson Trahaire Corpsych, BHP, and Morgan and Banks.
She is an experienced and dynamic practitioner, coach and group facilitator, specialising in the areas of leadership, change and transition management, career development, workplace relationships, professional communication, employee well-being and team effectiveness.
Across her career, Briony has consulted to a range of industries and organisations. Her clients have included Telstra, Coles Myer, Qantas, Boral, Suncorp, Westfield, Energy Australia, Toyota Australia, Melbourne Airport Corporation, Robert Bosch Australia, Department of Defence, Australian Department of Customs and Border Protection, Spotless Services, Downer EDI, Sydney IVF, and more recently Hastings Deering, Queensland Health, Department of Transport and Main Roads (QLD), Queensland Police, Queensland Sugar Limited and a number of consultant engineering / mining organisations.
All Briony’s individual, team and organisational interventions are underpinned by her strong interest and expertise in workplace well-being, performance optimisation and psychological health. Currently, Briony is partnering with a number of corporate organisations as an executive coach, where she works with leaders across a diverse range of industries. Complimenting this, she is frequently requested to facilitate leadership development programs, including 360 processes and executive team building, with a focus on change leadership, culture and engagement, people management, team dynamics and emotional resilience.
In 2013, Briony was one of the leading facilitators and executive coaches for Queensland Health’s Clinical Redesign change and process transformation program, which involved the facilitation of project management, change and leadership development workshops, in addition to executive coaching for high performing, senior clinical staff (Directors of Surgery and Nursing). This program won the 2013 Premiers Award for Innovation.
Briony has consulted to Australian Customs to conduct psychological screening for Border Protection Marine Officers, involving detailed assessment regarding preparedness for use of force, verbal commands and critical incident coping. She has provided consulting advice in the design of the psychological screening process for Queensland Ambulance Services. Other projects include the delivery of a psychological assessment and development program to a major transport and infrastructure organisation’s executive leadership team, including change readiness, leadership derailers and individual coaching.
Briony began her career as a psychologist at Department of Defence (Army, Navy, Airforce) where she provided counselling, post-operational debriefing, psychological screening, and emotional well-being education. In this role, and also in her work as a psychologist for an Employee Assistance Provider (EAP), she supported individuals in their recovery from significant life events and critical incidents.
Her career highlights include partnering with the executive team of a leading telecommunications and infrastructure organisation to facilitate workshops on influencing, stakeholder relationships, and team synergy. She also implemented an Emotional Intelligence and Leadership program for RAAF officers, and received a commendation from the Commanding Officer for her work. Early in her career (2005), she was invited by Coles Myer to address their Leadership Conversations Seminar (comprising CML’s top 50 senior executives) on leadership and emotional intelligence.
She has extensive experience in career transition management including the delivery of support programs for significant workforce reductions. Briony has partnered with a number of corporate organisations to provide immediate counselling support post-redundancy and the delivery of high quality, longer-term career programs.
Briony’s expertise in psychological assessment methodology includes reporting on leadership success profiles and psychological derailers. She has managed numerous large volume assessment projects, including the design and facilitation of assessment and development centres. Briony is trained in a wide range of individual and team diagnostic tools, and frequently uses assessment methodology in executive coaching and leadership development programs.