4th Public Sector Executive Assistant Congress | Canberra

April 11, 2019| Katrena Friel

Dealing and working with different personalities

  • Understanding and working with different personalities

  • Respecting individuals with different working styles

  • Building interpersonal skills and learn to respond to difficult situations




How to Become an Expert in your Field of Excellence

April 11, 2019| Katrena Friel

Discover the 10 Secrets to being a Superstar EA and bring out your potential to be seen, step up and be more productive in a sea of distractions and non-strategic to do lists.

Based on Katrena’s 15 years of insights through training more EAs than anyone else in the world, this workshop has been specifically customised to target the challenges faced by EAs in their career.

You will be able to discover your true power as an organisational strategic partner rather than a transactional resource that is easily replaced.

This highly engaging and fully Interactive session will enable you to:

  •  Learn how to leverage your Strengths

  •  Uncover your specific Challenges and what to do  about them

  • Understand what has been holding you back all along from true success

  • Learn how to release the four main EA Psychological Problems from your Mindset

  • Be one step ahead and bring the most strategic value to your executive, your team, your department and your company.

  • Become more Strategic in your Thinking

  • Build your confidence, assertiveness while eliminating perfectionism dis-ease and step up and claim your expert status.

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Katrena Friel

Australia's Leading Success Coach for Intrepreneurs

Katrena Friel is one of the brightest minds in training, coaching and corporate consulting today.

She incorporates three key aspects, one being life-transforming skills, training and professional development programs as well as professional coaching and mentoring.

For over 25 years, Katrena has worked in most industries, specialising in leadership management development.


Her sound knowledge of business, plus her ability to put ideas into action through planning, training and development ensures her clients success.

She has contributed to the success of thousands of companies, consulted to hundreds of CEOs and senior management teams and guided tens of thousands of EAs, inspiring them to their next level of development.


Refresh our Leadership Performance as an Entrepreneur

July 1, 2018 | Katrena Friel


Katrena Friel, the CEO at Refresh your Thinking that provides training and coaching for entrepreneurs with her world renowned signature program a 2-day Leadership Management Masterclass again joins Enterprise Radio.

This episode of Enterprise Radio is working in conjunction the Leadership Channel.

Listen to host Eric Dye & guest Katrena Friel discuss the following:

  1. How do you recommend we Refresh our Leadership Performance as an Entrepreneur these days?

  2. What do we need to do to develop High Performing Self Managing Teams?

  3. Why do Entrepreneurs struggle with the “staff issue” or as you call it the “People Piece”?

  4. As a Leader, CEO, Founder, Director, Manager or whatever we call ourselves, how is leadership different from management?

  5. What is your number one tip for Entrepreneurs to remember about engagement and keeping staff focused, motivated, productive and happy to come into work every day to perform their role?

As an entrepreneur, you are constantly seeking to increase sales, lift customer service levels, improve your people skills, achieve increased productivity, reduce staff turnover and effectively manage change, then take a listen to Katrena Friel who will be talking about how to achieve your objectives, while balancing retention and engagement as you continue to build your team.


Katrena has been supporting Creative Thought Leaders to fulfil their vision and build outstanding teams, with pragmatic skills that have a long-lasting impact.  Katrena develops a true strategic partnership with her clients to invigorate and refresh you and your team ensuring you resolve conflict easily and make sure your teams bring out the best in each other through fresh leadership management skills that create sustainable results for your business.


Katrena Friel from Refresh your Thinking is your answer. She delivers innovative and powerful programs that allow you and your teams to walk away with absolute clarity about the future.


Katrena is an expert with over 30 years of experience in understanding people and what makes them tick. She ensures your teams will be self-motivated, self-managing and high performing.

So, if you want to be INSPIRED, ALIGNED and ACTIVATED, then listen in to Katrena and Refresh your Thinking.


Website: www.refreshyourthinking.com.au


Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RefreshyourThinking
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActivatedLife


Becoming the Expert Podcast

March 13, 2017 | Katrena Friel


Becoming the Expert in your field of Excellence

May 13, 2017 | Katrena Friel


How writing a series of books improves your visibility

March 13, 2017 | Katrena Friel


refresh your thinking

What Managers Hate About Themselves

January 28, 2016 | Katrena Friel

In my 15 years training leaders and managers, one of the amazing things that I found across the board, was that they are insecure and lack confidence.


Managers are generally planning to change or desperately want to eradicate, that feeling of being inadequate and constantly feeling like an imposter.  The imposter syndrome is a real thing and holds managers back, wasting time and energy when they could be getting on with doing the job.


Another thing I noticed, was that most managers are promoted to managers because they were originally great technically (not people managers).  Things are changing a bit now, however not enough has improved over the last 20 - 30 years as it could of, if individuals and companies had invested in formal leadership and management training and coaching.  If managers could invest in their development from the start of their career, they would be way, way more effective as managers and save a lot of time and money, by not destroying staff through their ignorance.  So a lack of formal management training is what makes managers insecure, lack confidence (self belief, self worth, self assured) and feel like an imposter.


Makes sense why they feel that way, however it is easily fixed through personal and professional development.  But hey, I'm bias right????


After my two days Leadership Management Masterclass, most managers say to me (thinking that they are giving me a compliment), "I wish I knew this stuff 20 years ago".  My answer to that is, "why didn't you???".


What I hate about training and development, is everyone is waiting for the company to pay!  In most cases you will be waiting around a long time.  Why don't people invest in themselves?  It is a good deal, you get the benefit for a lifetime, the company only gets the benefit while you work there. All the most successful people, invested in themselves.  They didn't wait around for someone to pay.  They are called "Activated Life Long Learners", coined by me.  These people make up only 10% of the world's population.  Meaning, proactive with their personal and professional development. These people are the high performing, self managing types. They invest in themselves and love to learn.


The rest of the world’s adult population are called 90%ers (Life Long Learners). Those that are reactive with their development. They will only upgrade, or update their skills and mindset when they have been retrenched, sacked or miss out on a promotion. These people also, only go to training or coaching if the organisation pays for it. They would never pay for their own development, they think it is someone else's responsibility to train them. They don’t understand that the benefit is to them, who will leverage the training for many years to come.


Which One Are You? 


There is good news, if you’ve had the realisation that you have been reactive with your development. You can shift quite easily into being an activated life long learner, by taking responsibility for your career and being curious about your true capability and potential.

Image what you may be capable of and what you could achieve if you had experienced great training events from the beginning.

The reason most people are not proactive, is because they didn’t have a good school experience, and came out of school without a love of learning.

That is unfortunate, however we were all subjected to boring classes throughout our school life. Activated Life Long Learners, simply didn’t use that as an excuse to not find out how learning could be fun, interesting, amazing, incredible, dynamic, life changing, inspiring, motivating and self perpetuating, driving you on to the next level and the next level of development, quickly and easily.


If you are saying to yourself, geez!!!  Who cares!!!  Then you are going to be a 90%ers, which is where most people sit, it is called "main stream" for a reason.  The 10%ers are exceptional and what I like to call "sparkly eyed people", you know the ones, that 90%ers roll their eyes at.