The one-page profile that changed everything
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief, which some listeners may find distressing.
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Eighteen years ago, Cathy took a job leading a small employment program for people with intellectual disabilities, armed only with conservation qualifications and no prior experience in disability services. She discovered that a simple tool, a one-page profile capturing what mattered to each person, their strengths, and how to support them, became the foundation for everything: building teams, matching people to roles, and later, her entire coaching practice. When initial contracts ran out, she advocated fiercely for Bushlink’s survival, facing rejection and doubt. An unexpected visit to her children’s school sparked the schools inclusion program, which grew to 30 schools and shaped a generation of young people’s understanding of disability. The weight of proving the program’s worth took its toll, sleepless nights, responsibility that felt crushing, but it also drove her deeper into the work. Today she coaches leaders in similarly complex environments, drawing on frontline experience rather than theory.
Cathy Hockey is an executive coach and leadership development specialist working primarily in the not-for-profit and purpose-driven sector.
🕒 CHAPTERS:
00:00 Who Cathy is and why she works in not-for-profit leadership
05:41 Starting Bushlink with no experience in disability, only the one-page profile
11:28 The vacuum insight: how knowing the person unlocks possibility
15:36 Building teams where everyone contributes real work, not busy work
20:02 What people with disability taught her about communication and presence
26:41 The schools inclusion program begins with a wave in the playground
31:00 A young man returns to the school that bullied him, and it transforms him
34:12 The breaking point: grant refusals and the weight of keeping people employed
38:48 Why an ally instead of just an advocate: amplifying voices that matter
43:19 From frontline struggle to coaching leaders in complex environments
46:28 The one-page profile as a principle for life and work
47:46 Closing and gratitude
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Show notes by Kintsugi Studio · Approved by Tony Bailey · Australian English
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