Reviews & Testimonials

A brilliant and genuine coach with a passion to help and listen. Michael empowers thought leadership through unbiased perspective while ensuring a comfortable space to express and bounce ideas. I was very much looking forward to our sessions together, bouncing ideas and challenges.  I also really connected and enjoyed Michael’s distinctive approaches to visualising problems through aviation and his Air Force experience. I would highly recommend Michael to any executive/manager wanting to enhance their senses and build on their managerial career forward

After officially taking on the role of COO in our company with no prior professional experience in such a role, I knew I would need a hand getting up to speed if I was to do the best job I could. He’s an incredibly genuine person with a wealth of experience in the field that has really helped me find my feet in this role. Michael has also been instrumental in helping me reclaim my time which I’ve been able to use to make better decisions and return to a much healthier work life balance.

Michael not only helped me identify these areas, but more than that grounded and rooted me in my own values, strengths and purpose which has helped realign me with my own goals and direction. The tools Michael introduced to me were so simple and effective I can recall them daily allowing me to put them into practise instantly when I recognise the disruptive behaviours in myself, my team and others around me.  Would definitely recommend working with Michael if you are looking for a clear, compassionate and effective leadership coach.

Leadership coaching with Michael Peiniger has helped me more than I thought it would, I wasn’t sure what to expect but his coaching brought out the leader who was always in me, but perhaps was a little afraid. Michael has taught me to be assertive, organised and efficient, he also guided me to be more open with my team which sometimes means being vulnerable which is a strength I never recognised.

In his Executive Coaching program Michael has operated as a wingman for me – helping me see things that I would otherwise miss, helping me see things on the horizon and helping me coach and develop my own team. Not only has Michael helped me develop professionally, he has also helped me create more time and space to spend with my young family. I cannot recommend Michael highly enough for anyone considering an executive coach.

Highly recommend the Developing Leaders’s leadership program. This program helped me rediscover what I am passionate about and my tolerances. Michael has been very helpful and I was able to motivate myself in dealing with different challenges. I felt positive and was very keen to take challenges, open to more discussion then coming up with conclusions. Michael’s way of delivering was friendly and I was able to know myself more.

I had the privilege of working with Michael as my executive leadership coach during the first half of 2023, and I can confidently say that he has been a transformative force in my professional journey. Michael’s coaching style was personalised and tailored to my specific needs, encompassing a wide range of essential leadership skills, productivity enhancement, and addressing challenging behaviors. Through his guidance and expertise, I acquired a fresh perspective on leadership, enabling me to approach it with renewed passion and confidence. I highly recommend Michael to anyone seeking to enhance their leadership potential.

It was a great journey going through the Executive Leadership coaching with Michael. I was able to explore a lot of new ideas and look at situations from a new perspective. The most important lesson for me was “Don’t assume”. Differences arise because we assume rather than ask questions and Michael helped me recognise all the different ways we assume instead of getting curious and asking questions.

I admit I started on the path of coaching with a healthy dose of scepticism, which I suspect is not unlike many others before me. However, I happily confess this was misplaced. Working with Michael has been both a pleasurable and valuable experience. Michael was able to look through some of the symptoms and help me identify and start to address some of the causes of hurdles in my path to greater satisfaction in my work place.  I would have no hesitation in recommending Michael to others in search of a similar coaching experience and indeed I suggest most people I know would benefit from the experience of working with him.

Michael is a fantastic coach. He’s very personable, open and approachable. He effectively engages participants and takes great care to tailor the program and his
approach to suit the students. He makes learning fun and enjoyable and helps foster a learning environment where everyone is encouraged to share their ideas, insights and experiences. What I appreciate the most is the way you skillfully hold a mirror to each of us so that we can better understand our strengths and weaknesses, develop our self awareness and awareness of others. Anyone engaged in coaching/training with Michael will get a lot of if it and will walk away not just a better leader/team member but also a better person.

I’ve trained with Michael as both part of group sessions within our company, and one-on-one executive coaching. It was time well spent. The coaching process was an enjoyable way to learn a better attitude and approach to work that resulted in lifting myself and the team, fostering a productive culture of ownership and accountability. We worked on, and I made gains in the following areas: managing tricky work relationships, developing good behaviors with respect to time management & planning, becoming aware of my own habits & self monitoring for what works/doesn’t, and big picture thinking. I now find myself more able to get the results I want from myself and others. Michael’s manner is personable without letting you ‘off the hook’; his feedback oftentimes insightful, he’s heavily invested in helping you find your way to achieve the outcomes you want.

I have recently worked with Michael for continuous training and mentoring to become a better leader. I learned a lot from Michael on dealing with my leadership challenges, how to start building a high performance team and in general find better ways to improve in my day to day business.

Michael was unbelievably helpful – not only for my day to day work interactions, his insights also help in my personal life. Admittedly I went in [to coaching] with some skepticism, but it wasn’t long before his way of explaining things gave me some real life helpful training that I reflect on and utilise daily.
I highly recommend!!

Michael has helped me immensely in dealing with difficult situations over the last 18 months. His coaching has given me confidence in myself to have the difficult conversations which have resulted in improved performance in myself and my team. One of Michaels strengths is his ability to adapt his coaching session to what is happening at the time rather than working to a script which has been appreciated. Michael is easy to talk to and keeps everything in confidence. I highly recommend Michael to anyone to wants to improve and work on their leadership and interpersonal skills.

At first I was a little reluctant to enroll in a leadership course. As I have continued to work with Michael I have definitely reaped the benefits of Michael’s coaching and ongoing support, especially in dealing with difficult situations. I would happily recommended Michael to anyone who is looking for a leadership coach.

Michael won me over in the first session with his positivity and his ability to make the training relatable. Michael’s coaching style is 10 out of 10 and his passion is infectious. He challenged me both professional and personally and with his frameworks I have been able to utilise these lessons in all parts of my life. Michael has gifted me the tools to have open, honest and constructive conversations and I now have the confidence to not only move forward with my career but to acknowledge my own vulnerability and areas of improvement.

‘I have worked with Michael for around the last 12 months and have found his coaching to be invaluable. The level of support and understanding along with the strategic business knowledge he has shared has not only helped me manage my team but also assisted in my own time management, efficiency and professionalism and as a result have exceeded and doubled my sales KPI’s set out for my role. I highly recommend Michael’s expertise to anyone who is considering taking on his services and see him as a valuable asset to any person or business he works alongside.’

Worked with Michael at Developing Leaders over the past 12 months and would recommend. Provided some fantastic and practical tools for managing team and developing my own skill set in leadership and personal development. Highly recommend thanks Michael

‘I engaged Michael as a leadership coach for 3 months. I found his guidance and perspective very insightful. For some aspects of leadership I had basic hands on experience with but it was good to formalise my understanding of it and develop it further and fill in some gaps. Michael created high quality, custom program content based an initial assessment to identify potential growth areas. He also had great flexibility in adjusting the content as my requirements changed during the coaching period due a change in my job environment.’

Michael Peiniger provided executive coaching utilising the latest behavioural and leadership development methodologies which improved our leadership impact within CSIRO’s Mineral capability area. We had the pleasure of working with a coach who truly understands our strategic and operational drivers as well as how to unlock potential in our employees in a time of great change. I would highly recommend Michael for coaching and learning interventions.

I worked with Michael Peiniger as he helped me to confront some career challenges I was then facing. He stretched my thinking, was kind and considerate, and he really made me work hard! In the end, I have been able to move to that next stage in my career, and I am so grateful for his sage advice at the time and pragmatic approach. I would recommend Michael to anyone who asked me – he is a great mentor!

During the 12 months that I worked with Michael I found him to be a extremely effective Leadership coach and would highly recommend him. Through safe and thought provoking sessions Michael demonstrated a unique ability to accurately hone in on areas we needed to develop. Michael’s insightful coaching, together with an array of practical tools such as the ‘inoculation’ have enabled me to become a more balanced leader.

I have known Michael in a professional capacity during which time he personally delivered professional training services to the REA Group over a period of a year. He delivered his sessions to the highest standard, has been reliable, professional and provides out of the box methods. He also offered one-on-one support after hours. I would have no hesitation in recommending Michael to lead and facilitate training sessions.

‘Michael recently delivered a Leadership Development Program for us and has done a super job. He is a passionate and knowledgeable coach who has the ability to apply solid leadership tools into practical every day scenarios.’

I have participated in a few of Michael’s programs and will keep returning. Michael’s natural enthusiasm, and willingness to always step out of his own comfort zone, made it easier for everyone in the courses to follow his lead. A natural leader with an obvious passion for what he does, I would recommend Michael to any Leader / manager / business owner.

The Developing Leaders course was so beneficial for our team. I loved the velocity checkpoint insights into my personality and management style, and found the advice on how to hold difficult conversations to be particularly valuable. It’s not always easy to approach sensitive topics, but the course provided some practical tips on how to navigate those conversations effectively. Some of the key takeaways included providing clear and direct feedback, active listening, working collaboratively to find a solution, accountability to ourselves and our team, and emphasised the importance of being respectful of your and others time. Highly recommend.

Working fulltime and also studying is not an easy task, Michael’s coaching methods were easy to follow, engaging, fun and he also made availabilty outside class hours for additional help that was needed. I would recommend Michael’s services to any organisation.

Michael’s facilitation style allowed for honest, open and powerful conversations amongst our group, often taking people out of their comfort zone to gain a deeper understanding of what drives their own behaviours and thoughts. Upon completion of the course I was able to take several key learnings, new strategies and communication tools from the course that I still utilise in my day-to-day management of my team. I learnt how to be more assertive whilst engaging with my team, and how to connect with people on a better level to ensure buy-in and loyalty. I rate Michael 10/10 for his facilitation style and would recommend Michael’s skills and teachings to any organisation looking to build on their current leadership base.

Michael led a leadership and culture program within my organisation. He was very relatable and effective with our group of leaders, who were each from diverse backgrounds and professions. Michael’s facilitation style unified the group and broke down any actual or perceived barriers. Personally, Michael gave me the confidence to share my vulnerabilities and learn and grow from them. He taught me to share my stories with people to enable a genuine learning experience. I would highly recommend Michael to any organisation who is looking to create a culture of integrity, accountability and transparency.

There are many leadership programmes out there, but Developing Leaders is a cut above the rest. Previous programmes I’ve been involved with simply discuss your strengths and weaknesses, but don’t really give you anything to build on. Michael shares information on your strengths and weaknesses with you, but also discusses how your traits interact with each other. Under his coaching, I’ve become more aware of my behaviours both personally and professionally, which has resulted in my being better able to handle problems when they arise. I highly recommend Developing Leaders to any business or team leader who wants to learn how to build a strong, resilient, high functioning team.

Easily one of the best facilitators I have ever come across. His depth of experience and ability to get straight to the heart of things is first class. I still use a key facilitation and reflection technique I learned from Michael over 10 years ago. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

I’ve trained with Michael as both part of group sessions within our company, and one-on-one executive coaching. It was time well spent. The coaching process was an enjoyable way to learn a better attitude and approach to work that resulted in lifting myself and the team, fostering a productive culture of ownership and accountability. We worked on, and I made gains in the following areas: managing tricky work relationships, developing good behaviors with respect to time management & planning, becoming aware of my own habits & self monitoring for what works/doesn’t, and big picture thinking. I now find myself more able to get the results I want from myself and others. Michael’s manner is personable without letting you ‘off the hook’; his feedback oftentimes insightful, he’s heavily invested in helping you find your way to achieve the outcomes you want.

Michael took the team to a new place during his workshop – the response and feedback from the whole group was amazing and they all took things away with them. Becoming Accountable is now a positive message – not a negative feeling! Can’t wait to take the team through more work with Michael and his team.

Michael was a very engaging facilitator, and was incredibly creative with his activities and delivery style. He had a sound knowledge of management and frequently used incidents that had happened to him to bring life to the training. He always encouraged discussion and was great at summarising the group’s responses. I really enjoyed Michael’s sessions and would highly recommend him as a trainer.

‘I recently participated in a series of leadership development workshops run by Michael. Michael was an engaging, personable facilitator and I walked away with some really valuable takeaways from the sessions.’

The Executive Leadership Program is a well compressed program for current and new leaders are willing to step forward to work as a team who are thinking outside the box to achieve the goals in a strategic and organized way. Michael Peiniger is a very experienced professional to train the multiskilled team to work as a team, and to understand the pros and cons of the current strategies. This can re-shuffle the skills and goals to achieve the targets to forecast in a strategic way. Also, this is a great platform for you to share your values and know your team in depth. There are some great tools that will help to rethink ourselves individually/team where are we now and who are the key people in the team for specific roles to take the stewardship to drive the business to great success. I strongly recommend this program for medium sized businesses to get a good traction between the team.

Michael worked with us at realestate.com.au facilitating Management Development programs for our managers and team leaders. He is a great facilitator and highly competent in the core management disciplines.

Michael’s approach to leadership development is unique to all others ensuring that his content & techniques have genuine cut through and enduring behavioural influence on leaders for such a mission critical challenge facing all organisations.

The Emerging Leaders training has been full of practical strategies and ideas that I can implement immediately with my team and has made me a much more efficient and impactful leader. Michael facilitates in a way that demonstrates the content first hand and he encourages participants to be authentic leaders!

Michael was brilliant in course planning, execution and communication. His sessions were well planned and executed brilliantly. Lots of knowledge and learning for me. Well Recommended !

Michael took the team to a new place during his workshop – the response and feedback from the whole group was amazing and they all took things away with them. Becoming Accountable is now a positive message – not a negative feeling! Can’t wait to take the team through more work with Michael and his team.

Michael took the team to a new place during his workshop – the response and feedback from the whole group was amazing and they all took things away with them. Becoming Accountable is now a positive message – not a negative feeling! Can’t wait to take the team through more work with Michael and his team.

Michael was great to deal with throughout the duration of the Emerging Leader program we took part in. Was always available outside of sessions to offer assistance and paced the course well to allow those in the room to follow/absorb the content.

Worked with Michael at Developing Leaders over the past 12 months and would recommend. Provided some fantastic and practical tools for managing team and developing my own skill set in leadership and personal development. Highly recommend thanks Michael

Going through Michael’s Emerging Leaders program has been fantastic. I came out of the program with a new sense of what leadership meant and a new repertoire of tools and techniques to use with my team. Attending Michael’s fortnightly sessions was something to look forward to as he is an amazing presenter and educator – nothing was ever dry or boring! Michael also made himself available outside of scheduled sessions for 1 on 1 advice, which was helpful! Highly recommend!

Michael is someone who can make learning fun and yet very effective. He walks the talk. The training manual just a reference to me but my learning comes mostly from what he said and practiced in the session. His action and behaviours in the class reflect exactly what he preached in the programme. The activities done in the programme all relevant to the topic and it makes the topic easy to remember and apply back at the workplace. He is such a great facilitator and he inspired me a lot!

If you are looking to maximise the performance of your team/s (even some of your best one/s) I cannot recommend Michael highly enough to build on what you already have.  The CheckPoint profiling report that I completed was one of the best leadership profiling tools that I have come across. I was actually surprised at how well it reflected me, and in a number of areas I had low self-awareness of. As a result I have really been able to move forward and address/tweak how I lead with a much better understanding on the impact of my style (negative and positive) on others. 10/10 rating from me and my team across all fronts!

The Checkpoint process was well worth my time. It’s provoked a lot of thought about how I work with the team. I took some practical suggestions on getting better performance from direct reports as well as working more effectively with people who don’t report to me. Michael was willing to challenge me to highlight places where my assumptions are harming my team, yet it was done in a respectful and educational way. I’m sure I’ll improve as a leader and as a team player from more time with Michael.

I have just completed the VLC (Velocity Leadership Checkpoint) with Michael and found it to be an enlightening process. As a photographer I have more than a keen interest in psychology and have researched at length what makes people tick. Having experienced Myers Briggs and Extended DISC analysis, I found the VLC process a really specific and insightful assessment of areas I can work on. Not only is the unique metaphor around flight really positive, it has many aspects that embedded at a deeper level. The results were very personalised with positive positioning of areas for further development. The VLC is a great way to create insight around behaviours that can be elevate and landed well! Thanks Michael!

I took the Velocity Leadership Checkpoint just as I was taking charge of a new team, it provided me valuable information about the areas I’d need to be wary of and those in which I excelled – helping me know where I needed to depend on other people more/less, and the kind of skills I’d be looking for the team to provide as well as what I’d have to work on to ensure I was providing enough for them. The Checkpoint report that Michael provided and his overview of what it includes have been really useful when checking back in for/on myself. I’d recommend the Checkpoint for anyone leading a team to get some valuable insight on you and where you’re at.

I’ve been privileged to work with Michael for many years as I’ve grown my small business into a large company. Michael has been inspirational in supporting me through my management issues, my own confidence, and how to be a better leader. I’m also lucky to have been an initial client for the new velocity leadership checkpoint tool, it’s a recent initiative and it’s really powerful and insightful. I’ll be spreading it across all my senior managers in the coming year – reflecting on the way I do things, and then understanding areas of strength (and opportunities for growth) – all just just so valuable.

Wow, this Checkpoint is something, it was a super eye opener! A deeper level of insight, knowledge and understanding of how I worked and more importantly a greater appreciation of my areas of genius. Michael really quickly identified my strengths, things I can improve and more importantly which areas I need to stick to, to get the most productivity out of myself and others around me. Honestly one of the most valuable assessments I’ve done so far… I believe everyone should do it – my team sure will ???????? thank you!

I recently did the Velocity Leadership Checkpoint Assessment which was very comprehensive and covered 25 Leaderships behaviors across the five Capabilities. The Assessment report gave me deep and meaningful insights, both at a personal and professional level. But the highlight for me was the debrief and results analysis session I had with Michael following the survey. Michael shared the information very candidly with me as per my request and helped me identify tangible actions to hone my leadership skills. Michael was very professional and thorough in the entire session and made me feel at ease! It was a pleasure working with Michael! I would highly recommend the Velocity Leadership Checkpoint Assessment if you want to increase your self-awareness as a leader or help develop other leaders at your organization.

The Checkpoint process was a brilliant insight into my strengths and weaknesses, and how I have been dealing with numerous issues and pressures in my business and working life – and how this has impacted on my personal life as well. Having worked with Developing Leaders over a number of years, I have found Michael’s approach to be personable, professional and of the highest integrity at all time. I highly recommend their services to you if you want real direction in your business and managerial activities.