Renee Murray, chief of staff at Half Dome is this week’s guest writer in the latest instalment of the IMAA’s Female Leaders of Tomorrow program, following on from last year’s series. Murray, reflects on the value of informal mentorship and why challenging your own assumptions is essential to navigating the next stage of your career.
1. How did you get involved (and why) in this program specifically?
Renee Murray: I got involved because mentoring has become a really important part of how I lead, even though I didn’t always recognise it as mentoring. Some of the most influential people in my career weren’t formal mentors. They were leaders and peers who created space for me to think differently, challenged my perspective and helped me find clarity when I felt stuck.
That’s what appealed to me about this program. It creates that space deliberately. I know firsthand how powerful one conversation or a different perspective can be in changing how someone sees their career, their capability or the options available to them. If I can provide that clarity for someone else, particularly when they’re questioning what comes next, then investing the time isn’t just worthwhile, it’s a responsibility. We owe it to our future leaders.
2. Why is mentoring women in the industry so important for its future success?
RM: Because we can’t build a strong future for the industry if talented women can’t see a future for themselves within it.
I’ve mentored people who genuinely believed their only option for growth was to leave their organisation. What they were missing wasn’t capability or ambition. It was clarity about the opportunities available to them and confidence in how to navigate the next step.
Mentoring can help make some of those invisible barriers visible. It gives women access to perspective, experience and conversations they might not otherwise have, while helping them build the confidence to challenge assumptions about what leadership looks like or what they are capable of.
There’s also a broader responsibility here. If we want more diverse leadership in the future, we have to actively develop the people who will become those leaders. That doesn’t happen by simply waiting for talented people to rise through the ranks or putting them through leadership training.
3. Who are/were your mentors, and what did you learn from them?
RM: I definitely had mentors, but they were largely unofficial. They were great people leaders I worked with every day, and I deliberately sought out people who had skills I wanted to develop.
During my retail years, I worked closely with other department heads to understand their roles and what success looked like for them. That broader perspective made me better at my own job because I could influence with context and knowledge, not just from my own lens.
I also put my hand up for working groups led by GMs and CEOs, which gave me invaluable exposure to how senior leaders thought, communicated and made decisions.
I was particularly drawn to leaders who led with conviction, brought people with them and balanced motivation with accountability. That shaped me enormously.
In short, I found mentors by looking for people who had something I wanted to learn, then finding ways to get closer, ask questions and learn from how they led.
4. If you could offer one piece of advice to all future leaders, what would it be and why?
RM: Ask yourself: “What if it doesn’t go that way?”
It’s a question I use constantly, professionally and personally. Leadership isn’t about having a perfectly rehearsed answer or being able to predict every outcome. It’s about having enough perspective and self awareness to navigate what happens when reality differs from the plan.
The best leaders I’ve encountered are curious enough to challenge their own assumptions, seek perspectives different from their own and prepare for possibilities rather than becoming attached to a single outcome.
If future leaders can learn to do that early, to stay curious, ask better questions and create clarity for themselves and the people around them, they’ll be far better equipped to lead through complexity.
