Leadership Academy Breakfast Club: Leadership & Trust

Our next episode of the Breakfast Club is going to look at an interesting topic, Leadership and Trust.

Trust is a BIG word and it and be a tough one to navigate as a leader. With so much talk around psychological safety for employees, the topic of trust is an important one for leaders. Trust comes at different levels; trust in the organisation and its mission for its people, fostering a culture of trust amongst colleagues and teams and even developing trust in individuals to help them believe in their own competence. It’s a lot.

We’re curious to have a discussion on all the different ways leadership and trust intersect and we have questions like:

How do we foster trust in our working relations and what are the advantages and risks of building trust?

What role does trust play in psychological safety and why it is so important for leaders to understand?

How do we navigate discretion, confidentiality and transparency?

Well, we don’t know the answer, but we found two people who do!

We will be joined on the morning by two people with a great insight on how Leadership & Trust interact. Austin Campbell is the CEO of The Liberties Community and Aoife O’Brien is the founder of Happier at Work and host of the award-winning Happier at Work podcast and recently published her first book, Thriving Talent. You can read more detailed bio’s at the end of the page.

As always, this event is free to attend but registration is required.

Who should attend

The Leadership Academy Breakfast Clubs are available to anyone in the community, voluntary, nonprofit, or social enterprise space at any level, from volunteer to CEO.

How to register

You can book places for yourself and/or colleagues by clicking the button below.
This event will take place online
Please email [email protected] if you have any special requirements or accessibility needs.

Your speaker(s) / trainer(s)

Speakers: Sharon Hughes Leadership Academy Manager, The Wheel

Speakers: Austin Campbell

Speakers: Aoife O'Brien

Sharon Hughes

Aoife O’Brien is the founder of Happier at Work and host of the award-winning Happier at Work podcast, ranked in the top 2% globally with nearly 200,000 downloads. She works with leaders across tech, finance, pharma, FMCG, and professional services to strengthen performance, engagement, and retention by focusing on what truly enables people to do their best work.

After two decades in the corporate world, Aoife saw first-hand how misaligned culture, unclear expectations, and poor leadership eroded potential and results. Determined to address this, she completed an MSc in Organisational Behaviour and developed the Thriving Talent framework, an evidence-based approach that helps organisations align culture, drivers, and capabilities to create sustainable performance.

Aoife’s insights have been featured across national media and shared on over 100 podcasts worldwide. Her first book, Thriving Talent, was published by Blue Goat Books in March 2026, was featured by Forbes, and is an Irish Times bestseller.

Austin Campbell

Austin Campbell is CEO of The Liberties Community Project, an amalgamation of two community development organisations- Robert Emmet CDP and SICCDA- committed to developing the conditions for empowered and resilient communities in the Dublin 8 area. Austin is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine where he speaks on the subject of Health Equity and a Board Member of the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA) where he also serves as a member of DHDA’s Audit and Risk Subcommittee.

He has previous experience as a resettlement officer in homeless services where he also co-founded and served as a director of My Streets Ireland.

Austin is passionate about social justice and innovative in his approach to ensuring the attainment of individual and collective rights for underserved communities.

Austin likes having adventures, and, in spite of having a very poor sense of direction, has walked 10,000 kms around Europe.

Aoife O'Brien

Sharon Hughes is the Leadership Academy Manager in the Skills Team of The Wheel. Sharon has been involved in membership organisations for over 20 years. Before working for The Leadership Academy, she was C.E.O. of a nonprofit.

Testimonials

"For me personally, the benefits to the Breakfast Clubs have been many but key are the value of think-time, the cross sectional networking and having a product to offer staff looking to consider upskilling – in this regard promoting the breakfast club internally in Trócaire, in particular to my own team, is very relevant to the area of continuous leadership learning and development."

Karen Casey - Head of Community Engagement & Outreach, Trócaire

"As a young professional in the sector, it seemed as though there was ‘in theory’, a lot that this kind of idea sharing and information website could offer the sector although it seemed slightly wishy washy; just another website with links and articles. The Breakfast Clubs created a networking space that feels open to all leaders, future and established, so that we can meet and make connections. Sharon encourages the early career professionals in the room to be the leads for discussion and she connects people with such ease who may have been to shy to make an introduction before... I have found TLA events extremely interesting and engaging, having enjoyed the variety of topics covered in sessions and the space to network freely. I would encourage anyone who is thinking of attending a Leadership Academy breakfast to attend and get involved."

Amy Ennis, former Recruitment Coordinator at 2into3

"The Leadership Academy is a wonderful initiative and space to foster leadership and personal growth for those of us working in the nonprofit sector. It is great to be able to share insights but also to learn and gain new insights from fellow participants in the events. I really enjoyed my involvement as a panellist on a Leadership Academy event, which was wonderfully organised by Sharon with great support from her colleagues in The Wheel. Would highly recommend getting involved and responding positively if asked to be a speaker, panellist or facilitator at one of the Academy events. Ní neart go chur le chéile – There is no strength without unity."

Diarmaid O’Corrbuí - CEO, Carmichael

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