Unprofessionalism
Most career advice tells you to hide uncertainty, perform confidence, and never let them see you sweat.
This podcast is about what happens when you ignore that advice.
Unprofessionalism is a series of conversations with people who broke professional conventions and discovered something better on the other side: the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours. The founder who built a practice by openly admitting gaps in expertise. The consultant who called out dysfunction everyone else had learnt to work around. The people who recognised that professionalism had become performance theatre: a mask hiding the messy, human work that actually creates value.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of a global leadership training practice—each conversation dissects a specific moment where someone chose effectiveness over appearance, then reverse-engineers what made it work.
You'll hear the friction before the decision, the immediate aftermath, and what changed months later. The pattern recognition across these moments becomes your playbook.
If you've ever sat in a meeting thinking 'this is broken but I can't say it', this podcast tells you what happened to the people who did.
New episode every week.
Unprofessionalism
348 - Reclaiming Indigenous Wisdom in Facilitation with Katerina Kupenga
Carrying the wisdom of five generations before her, Katerina Kupenga inherited a special legacy from her ancestral namesake: the gift of Māori facilitation.
And as a proud wahine Māori from Ngāti Porou, Katerina joins me to share this rich wisdom with us all. She guides us through the sacred welcoming rituals of the Pōwhiri, the complexities of tribal relations, the spiritual intimacy of exchanging breath, and the energy work that takes place as people, ancestors, emotions, and tension are invited into being.
This is a truly special conversation about what it means to be Māori, and the unique indigenous methods that acknowledge the Māori people of the land.
Find out about:
- The traditional Māori rituals, chants, and the guidance of the gods that take place during workshops
- Katerina’s journey to relearning the wisdom and culture of her people
- The importance of honouring Māori practices and language – free of Western agendas, structures and timeframes
- Facilitating conversations and tensions around intergenerational, ancestral traumas
- The unconscious biases that exist in the facilitation sector, and the alternative perspectives we need
Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.
Links:
Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.
Connect to Katerina Kupenga:
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You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/
