Leading From The Dreaming By Dr Paul Callaghan

Bestselling author Paul Callaghan returns with a powerful exploration of leadership, learning and mindset grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems, continuing the conversation that began with his acclaimed book The Dreaming Path.

In Leading from the Dreaming, Callaghan invites readers to reconsider how they understand leadership, lifelong learning and personal responsibility. Drawing on First Nations wisdom passed down for tens of thousands of years, he reminds us that learning is not confined to classrooms or career stages, but is a lifelong practice shaped by every person, place and experience we encounter — from Elders, children and teachers to strangers, nature and life itself.

The book centres on the 8 Rs of Leadership — responsibility, relationships, respect, recognition, reflection, results, resilience and renewal — offering a framework that blends cultural knowledge with contemporary leadership practice.

Paul Callaghan is a Worimi man from the coast of New South Wales, just north of Newcastle. He has spent decades working in senior executive roles across Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal service sectors, before establishing his own cultural consultancy to focus on community and individual wellbeing. Today, he is widely recognised as a leading voice in cultural education, leadership and social responsibility. Callaghan is also a motivational speaker, storyteller and dancer, known for his generous and engaging communication style. A Worimi Elder, Callaghan co-authored Leading from the Dreaming with Dr Paul Gordon, a Ngemba Elder. Between them, they bring together millennia of cultural knowledge, decades of lived experience and extensive Western academic training, with both authors holding PhDs. The book reflects a rare depth of cultural authority combined with contemporary leadership insight. Callaghan’s professional background spans executive roles in both the private and public sectors, alongside his ongoing work delivering keynote speeches and cultural training for government bodies and major organisations, including Woolworths and Tennis Australia. He is widely regarded as an Australian expert in diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as corporate social responsibility.

Leading from the Dreaming grew directly from the leadership chapter in Callaghan’s first book, The Dreaming Path, which generated more reader response than any other section. Since its release in 2022, The Dreaming Path has sold more than 22,000 print copies and won the 2023 ABIA Small Publisher Book of the Year. Its younger readers companion volume, Adventures on the Dreaming Path, followed in 2025.

With Leading from the Dreaming, Callaghan continues his mission to share Indigenous wisdom in ways that are accessible, relevant and deeply human — offering readers not only a leadership framework, but a lifelong way of learning, relating and leading.

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