In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with strategic advisor Lisa Gamboni about strengthening your voice, holding clarity under pressure, and leading in ways that create space for others to succeed.

Drawing on decades in high-stakes commercial environments, Lisa reflects on self-belief, empathy, and discernment as essential capabilities for clear thinking and grounded leadership. This is a practical conversation about agency, courage, and effective leadership.

This episode explores:
• Strengthening your voice in complex environments, being your own snowflake: doing “you” (uniquely)
• Self-belief under pressure, and saying what others won’t
• Calling out bullying
• Developing capability: high performance teams, senior leaders, new consultants
• Deep empathy and natural instinct as core advisory capabilities
• The conditions that let executive teams “make room” for each other
• Lisa's observations of successful, high performance teams and leaders from her time as a senior partner at KPMG, Deloitte, and boutique consultancies, working with private equity firms and businesses across the globe

Guest links:
• Lisa Gamboni: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-gamboni/
• Dealside: https://dealside.com.au/

Chapters:
02:06 Thinking for yourself, and backing your own view
06:50 Empathy and the human context behind performance
10:27 Challenging unacceptable behavior in leadership
15:40 Lisa’s sixth sense in assessing leaders capabilities
24:20 “Big buckets of cold water” to calm inflamed, high-pressure situations
30:10 Telepathy and flow in high performing teams
35:00 The “Mickey Mouse” approach: listening more
38:20 Leadership that makes room for everyone’s success
43:49 Under pressure: “Do you want the answer or the lesson?”
48:00 Highly valued advisory: one slide, one phrase, one story

Explore further:
Book a Lab: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Subscribe to hear future episodes.

Credits:
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Melbourne, 16 January, 2026
Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au