About Me
For over two decades, I’ve been working with senior leaders, executive teams, and the organisations they lead to build practical leadership capability and the inner foundation it requires.
Companies I've worked with
I started meditating as a struggling undergraduate psychology student. Within a few months of daily practice, my focus, performance, and wellbeing transformed. Mindfulness became central to my life, and eventually to my work.
After my undergraduate degree, I went travelling and went deeply into the practice. I did silent retreats and trained with some of the world’s leading meditation teachers. During that time I came across a book on contemplative practice and neuroscience that connected the practice to the rigorous psychology I’d been studying. The two worlds came together. I came back to Australia with a clearer direction.
I returned to psychology with a focus on mindfulness research and became one of Australia’s early researchers in the field. I went on to complete clinical psychology training, which gave me the depth I needed to understand what’s really going on for people at a more fundamental level. That depth still informs everything I do today.
I spent more than a decade at Monash University, leading a world-first initiative to embed mindfulness into the core curriculum and developing performance, wellbeing, and leadership programs across the institution. I taught mindfulness-based tools to students and staff in 22 academic units, from engineering to law to medicine. Each audience needed the same body of work translated for their specific context. That’s where I learned how to make psychologically rigorous work land with any audience.
Over time, I started working more with leaders. Senior leaders are highly leveraged, time-poor, and they respond well when complex ideas are presented in a practical, evidence-based, contextualised way. The work I’d been developing for years was a strong fit. I moved my practice in that direction.
Then I burned out.
It was a turning point. I’d built a career around work I cared about deeply, with values I genuinely believed in. And it still wasn’t enough to protect me. I had to look at how I was actually operating, and I started to see patterns I hadn’t noticed before. Patterns of overworking, perfectionism, and saying yes to too much. They weren’t bad. They were running me harder than I should have been running.
A difficult professional experience years later forced me to do the deeper inner work I’d been avoiding. I had to learn to recognise those patterns, work with them rather than against them, and lead from a more grounded place.
That experience reshaped my approach. I realised that practical tools and frameworks are essential, but they aren’t enough on their own. The patterns running underneath are what determine whether new behaviours actually take hold. Working at both layers, the practical and the psychological, is what produces lasting change.
That’s the work I now do with leaders and organisations.
Most leadership development produces a great day in the room and very little change six months later. The work I do is built around what actually changes behaviour, supported by systems that make new ways of leading stick.
Senior leaders don’t usually struggle for lack of knowledge. They struggle because the patterns running underneath pull them back into old ways of leading, especially under pressure. Practical tools and frameworks address one half of the picture. Working with the patterns underneath addresses the other. Both halves are necessary.
When leaders do the deeper work on themselves, they make wiser, more grounded decisions, build healthier teams, and create organisations that perform sustainably and contribute positively to the world. This is the highest-leverage work I know.
I draw on clinical psychology, behavioural science, adult development theory, and neuroscience. The depth is real. But the value of that depth is only realised when it’s translated into language and tools that leaders can actually use. That translation is part of the craft.
Career highlights
Testimonials
Richard's programs have equipped our senior leaders with essential tools that help to build and sustain high performance. They are now a key component of our leadership development offer at Bunnings.
Head of Leadership Development, Bunnings
Working with Dr Richard Chambers has been a game changer. We have now established an ongoing partnership with Richard and I can't recommend him more highly.
CEO, SHK Global
Richard creates a safe space that makes it easy for leaders to engage, open up, and lean into discomfort, creating lasting impact. His authenticity, flexibility, and genuine care make him a pleasure to work with.
Victoria HR Manager, Bunnings
The workshops were by far the best I've ever attended. Every team member walked away with practical tools they immediately implemented.
CEO, Legalite
Richard's engaging presentation resonated deeply with our audience, resulting in overwhelmingly positive feedback.
CEO, Risk Management Institute Australasia
Richard's session was really well received. Feedback included 'Best session of the conference! Excellent examples and practical solutions.'
GM, Financial Advice Association Australia
Media and research
Over the past two decades, I've been a regular voice in leading media globally on topics including leadership, performance, wellbeing, and mindfulness. I'm the author of three books, have appeared on television, radio, and podcasts, and have contributed to publications including The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Review, Vogue, and ABC.
I was an early pioneer in mindfulness research, with my work published in some of the world's leading academic journals, including the British Medical Journal, Clinical Psychology Review, and Mindfulness. My most highly cited papers are within the top 0.1% of all mindfulness research.
If you're a senior leader, executive, or recently promoted leader looking to lead at the next level, executive coaching and the Leadership Circle Profile are likely the right starting points.
If you're a CPO, senior HR, L&D, or OD leader building leadership capability across your organisation, programs, workshops, and keynotes are where most engagements begin.
In either case, a 30-minute call is the best place to start.
