About us
Our vision is a thriving, safe and wise social purpose sector where individuals, organisations and communities are achieving their full potential.
Meet the Team
We’re a team of seasoned, purpose-driven Professionally Certified Coaches (PCC) and master facilitators who believe in the power of rigour, courage, potential, and joy — and we bring these to every engagement.
Over decades of practice, we’ve seen that when leaders are supported to work with clarity and consciousness, their organisations not only perform better — they become more human, resilient, and impactful.
Elise Sernik PCC
Founder & Coach-Facilitator
Elise Sernik is a globally accredited executive and team coach, facilitator, and strategist with over two decades’ experience in the social purpose sector.
Elise Sernik PCC
Founder & Coach-Facilitator
Elise Sernik is a globally accredited executive and team coach, facilitator, and strategist with over two decades’ experience in the social purpose sector. As founder of Leadership Space, she has partnered with hundreds of leaders and boards to navigate complexity, growth, and transformation.
Elise brings deep expertise in strategy, teaming, and leadership development, grounded in qualifications in brain-based coaching, gestalt psychotherapy, team coaching and mindfulness. Her systemic, human-centred approach supports leaders to deepen insight, unlock team performance and steer their organisations to the next level of impact.
Clients describe her style as dynamic and transformational - blending rigour, depth and presence to enable meaningful, lasting change.
Elise is accredited in a range of tools including the full suite of Lumina Learning, Human Synergistics, Hogan and GLWS.
Barbara Barkley PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Barb is an experienced coach and facilitator working closely with leaders and executive teams for over 12 years across the social purpose sector.
Barbara Barkley PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Barb is an experienced coach and facilitator working closely with leaders and executive teams for over 12 years across the social purpose sector. Through her executive and team coaching, Barb works at both the individual and systematic levels of organisations to support leaders to set strategy, create positive values-based cultures, build cohesive teams and increase their own personal self-awareness of their leadership impact. This work is customised to the needs of each organisation whether it be for smaller teams or highly complex multi-layered organisations.
Barb’s executive coaching style combines the creation of a safe environment for self-reflection and insight, with the use of neuro-science, team dynamics and systems models to support leaders to think differently about their current situations and consider new ways to create impact. Regardless of where and how she’s working, clients appreciate her deep commitment, kindness and care, along with her courage and sensitivity.
Barb holds qualifications in business and a range of coaching tools including the full suite of Lumina Learning, CIQ- Conversational Intelligence and Human Synergistics.
Sarit Vandegraaff PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Sarit is an ICF credentialed and highly experienced organisational coach and facilitator, with a career spanning over 15 years and a strong focus on the social purpose sector.
Sarit Vandegraaff PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Sarit is an ICF credentialed and highly experienced organisational coach and facilitator. With a career spanning over 15 years, she has supported hundreds of leaders and teams both locally and internationally (India, Hong Kong, and the UK) across diverse industries, with a strong focus on the social purpose sector.
Having led teams in the Retail, Finance, and Professional Development sectors, Sarit brings a grounded understanding of the complexities and demands of leadership in both large-scale and smaller, agile organisations navigating constant change.
Sarit is known for her consultative and tailored approach, working closely with clients to design and implement meaningful, strategic transformation. Her expertise include strategic planning, cultural change, team charter development, and leadership skills uplift, always with the goal of enhancing leadership capabilities, organisational effectiveness and impact.
Sarit is certified in Conversational Intelligence®, is a Lumina Spark, Lumina Select and Lumina Leader practitioner, and is accredited in the Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey (GLWS).
Nicola Rothmann PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Nicola is an experienced organisational coach, facilitator, and leadership consultant, passionate about helping people and organisations gain clarity on their purpose, values, and strengths.
Nicola Rothmann PCC
Coach-Facilitator
Nicola is an experienced organisational coach, facilitator, and leadership consultant, passionate about helping people and organisations gain clarity on their purpose, values, and strengths. This forms the foundation for the courageous leadership and meaningful relationships necessary to navigate complexity and allow people to perform at their edge, even when it’s uncomfortable.
With a background in psychology and neuroscience and 15 years of experience, she has worked with a broad range of organisations and industries, including the social purpose sector, both in Australia and internationally.
Guided by her belief that “a good how gives a better what,” Nicola focuses on what she calls the space between—the connective tissue of organisations—building expertise in transformational leadership, high-performing teams, culture, and resilience. Known for her curiosity, powerful questioning, and deep listening, she both challenges and supports leaders and teams to examine their mindsets, uncover blind spots, and unlock new possibilities.
Nicola is an ICF-accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and holds certifications in Lumina Spark, Lumina Select, and the Leadership Circle Profile.
Melinda Hobson
Project Manager
Mel is an experienced organisational development professional with over 20 years’ experience working in the professional services fields, in both Human Resources and Corporate Development specific roles.
Melinda Hobson
Project Manager
Mel is an experienced organisational development professional with over 20 years’ experience working in the professional services fields, in both Human Resources and Corporate Development specific roles. She has been responsible for all facets of corporate Human Resources from training and development programs, to consulting and advice on all resourcing management policies and procedures, and internal company values and corporate culture designs. Mel has gained many years of experience in the design and facilitation of organisational development practices and initiatives.
In the last 15 years Mel has moved away from generalist corporate Human Resourcing, to specialising in Project Management for boutique consultancies. Alongside her work with Leadership Space, she is a member of the team of Orijen, which is focused on empowering women to thrive in leadership roles across the private and public sectors.
Mel has worked both internationally and locally and holds qualifications in a Bachelor of Arts Double major in Psychology and German, in addition to a Graduate Diploma in Commerce Human Resource Management from the University of NSW.