Episode 96- Upward Bullying in the Workplace: Maureen Kyne on Leading Through It
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Most conversations about workplace bullying assume the same direction: a manager bullying an employee. But there is another pattern that gets far less attention, and it can be just as damaging.
It is called upward bullying, and it happens when a leader is bullied by their own team.
In Episode 96 of the Jane Anderson Show podcast, executive coach and HR expert Maureen Kyne unpacks what upward bullying actually looks like, why leaders often fail to recognise it in themselves, and what Australia's updated Respect at Work laws mean for employers who ignore it. Kyne, who has more than 30 years of experience in leadership, HR and industrial relations, has spent the last six years focused specifically on this issue, coaching leaders (including a number of former CEOs) through it.
This article breaks down her insights into a practical guide for Australian leaders, HR professionals and coaches who want to understand upward bullying, the legal obligations now attached to it, and how Kyne herself built a coaching practice around a niche most people had not named.
What Is Upward Bullying?
Upward bullying is bullying directed at a leader by the people they manage. It runs in the opposite direction to the type of bullying most workplace policies are written to address.
According to Kyne, this is precisely why it goes unnoticed for so long. Leaders assume that because they hold the position of authority, they should be equipped to manage any conflict directed at them. That assumption gets in the way of recognising what is actually happening.
"People often think, I'm the leader, I'm the manager, so I should be able to manage this," Kyne explains. "People shouldn't be bullying me. And they often don't recognise the signs until it's well and truly escalated."
By the time it is recognised, Kyne says, it has usually become much harder to manage.
How It Differs From Traditional Workplace Bullying
Traditional workplace bullying policies and training are built around a top-down model: protecting employees from managers or senior staff. Upward bullying flips that model. The person with formal authority is the one being targeted, which means existing complaint pathways and cultural assumptions often are not built to catch it.
Kyne notes that even organisations who are otherwise proactive about workplace culture can be reluctant to accept that this is happening internally. In one workshop, she recalls a CEO stating plainly that it did not happen in their business, only for the head of production to immediately contradict him in the room. "It happens frequently," Kyne says the employee told her.
The "Conductor" Dynamic: Why It Rarely Happens in Isolation
One of Kyne's clearest frameworks is what she calls the conductor.
Upward bullying, in her experience, rarely involves a single person acting alone. Instead, it tends to operate like an orchestra, with one person effectively conducting the behaviour of a wider group.
"They actually do it in a gang or a mob," Kyne says. In some cases, she has seen this extend further, with the conductor manipulating senior leaders or even the board to become involved, an intentional strategy aimed at removing the targeted leader and gaining informal control.
Understanding this dynamic matters because it changes how the problem needs to be addressed. A single difficult conversation with one employee is unlikely to resolve something that is, in practice, a coordinated group pattern.
Why Leaders Struggle to Recognise It
Recognising upward bullying requires leaders to admit vulnerability in a role that is culturally expected to project control. Kyne's coaching work often starts with helping leaders simply name what is happening to them.
Part of this involves working directly with organisations to run what Kyne describes as a pulse check, a structured set of questions designed to surface what is genuinely happening in a team, rather than what people assume is happening.
"All of a sudden people go, oh, that is actually, that's happened to me," she says of these conversations.
How Organisations Resist Naming the Problem
Kyne draws a comparison to how organisations sometimes handle other sensitive cultural issues, such as stress management, by softening the language so it is easier for leadership to accept without admitting there is a deeper problem.
Upward bullying can face the same resistance initially. But once it is named clearly and leaders see it reflected in their own teams, Kyne says the response tends to shift quickly from denial to recognition.
Notably, she also finds value in raising awareness among employees themselves, not just leaders. When staff understand what upward bullying looks like, some recognise their own behaviour in the description. "Perhaps I've actually been bullying my manager just as much," Kyne says is a common realisation that surfaces once the concept is explained clearly.
Respect at Work: What Changed for Australian Employers
Alongside the cultural dimension, there is now a legal one. Kyne points to recent updates to Australia's Respect at Work legislative reforms as a significant shift in how seriously organisations need to treat this area.
The Respect at Work framework originally centred on sexual harassment. According to Kyne, several new inclusions have since been added.
New Inclusions: Sex Discrimination, Sex-Based Harassment, and Hostile Work Environment
Kyne outlines the key additions to the legislation:
Sex discrimination
Sex-based harassment (what was previously referred to more broadly as sexism)
Hostile work environment
Positive duty
Together, these inclusions mark a shift in how the law treats this conduct. As Kyne puts it, it is "now not just inappropriate to sexually harass somebody, it's actually unlawful."
Positive Duty Explained
Positive duty is one of the more significant additions Kyne highlights. Rather than only responding after an incident has occurred, positive duty obligations place an active obligation on employers to prevent this conduct from happening in the first place.
This changes the compliance conversation for organisations. It is no longer sufficient to have a policy that addresses complaints after the fact. Employers now need a genuine prevention plan.
How This Intersects With Psychosocial Health Regulations
Kyne also connects Respect at Work to newer psychosocial hazard regulations being introduced in parallel. In her view, organisations are now navigating the intersection of several regulatory areas at once: Respect at Work, psychological work health and safety, and Fair Work obligations.
"You've got all of these heavies out there at the present moment," she says, describing the pressure many workplaces are under to figure out what a genuine prevention plan actuall
y looks like in practice.
The Cost of Ignoring It: Legal and Cultural Risk
For employers, the risk of inaction is not just cultural. Kyne is direct about the legal exposure involved.
If an organisation is not actively addressing this issue, she explains, it can become liable as an employer. Both the Australian Human Rights Commission and Fair Work can become involved in a business that fails to meet its obligations under the updated laws.
This creates what Kyne frames as a dual incentive for leaders. There is the compliance risk of doing nothing. But there is also a genuine performance upside to getting it right, since a healthier culture tends to support better business outcomes more broadly.
Maureen Kyne's Path Into This Work
Kyne's move into consulting was not a planned career step. It followed a health crisis.
Twenty-one years ago, Kyne was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her treatment, the organisation she worked for made her role redundant. Once she had completed treatment and recovered, she returned to her home region and began considering what came next.
"I said, I don't know," Kyne recalls of a conversation with her father at the time. "But I think I could set up a consultancy practice and help businesses through all of the things that I've learned in my leadership roles."
Kyne credits part of her comfort with entrepreneurship to growing up around parents who ran their own businesses. She says this gave her early exposure to both the appeal and the genuine hardship of running a business, rather than going into consulting blind.
Her focus on bullying specifically developed over time. Around 17 years ago, Kyne recalls telling her then business partner that she believed bullying would eventually bring businesses to their knees. The pair began designing programs and speaking on the topic around Australia. Following her business partner's death, Kyne continued the work alone, and over the past six years has increasingly specialised in the upward bullying niche specifically.
How Kyne Works With Organisations
Kyne's current practice spans several formats rather than a single offering.
One-on-One Coaching for Leaders
Kyne provides individual coaching support to leaders, including a number of former CEOs, both within Australia and internationally.
Workshops for Leaders and Employees Together
She also delivers upward bullying content as part of broader Respect at Work workshops, engaging both leadership and employees. Kyne finds particular value in involving employees directly, since it often prompts self-awareness that leadership-only sessions do not surface.
Community Building and Publishing
Beyond her direct client work, Kyne also invests in her local professional community, having helped establish a regional HR group that meets monthly to discuss issues like this one.
Kyne is also currently working on a book, Tranquil Leadership: Three Steps to End Upward Bullying, which she describes as being back with her editor for further chapters.
Building Visibility Without a Big Team
Beyond her subject matter expertise, Kyne shared a detailed look at how she has grown visibility for her practice, primarily through LinkedIn.
Why Kyne Personally Answers Every LinkedIn Message
Kyne treats LinkedIn as a core part of her working day, dedicating the first hour of most mornings to it. Notably, she responds to every message herself rather than delegating it to her team.
Her reasoning is not just about personal touch. She says handling responses herself gives her direct insight into the conversations happening around her content, insight she would lose if the task were outsourced or automated.
"This isn't AI," she says of her approach. "This isn't getting someone else to do your engagement for you."
Kyne notes the volume involved has grown significantly, describing periods where she received close to 200 personal messages within a couple of months, and nearly 101 more shortly after. Her team now tracks this information to support consistent follow-up with potential clients.
A Simple System for Engaging Likes, Shares and Comments
Kyne also described a specific, repeatable system she uses:
When someone likes a post, she thanks them the following morning and invites them to connect
When someone shares a post, she thanks them directly
She also follows and connects with people who engage with her connections' shared posts
When someone connects, she asks what specifically piqued their interest, which she says is often where genuine conversations begin
Kyne reports roughly half of the people she thanks for liking a post respond and connect further.
This consistency has had some notable outcomes. Kyne mentions a strong following that developed in Ireland after a post was shared there roughly three and a half months prior to the episode, along with interest from professors overseas sharing her work.
Advice for Coaches and Consultants Wanting to Grow
Toward the end of the conversation, Kyne offered broader advice for coaches and consultants at earlier stages of building a practice.
Find Mentors, Stay in Your Lane
Kyne is candid about the distractions that come with running an independent practice, describing them as "shiny balls" that can pull focus in too many directions. Part of her advice is straightforward: decide what your lane is, and stay in it.
She also emphasises the value of ongoing mentorship, noting that she has worked with a range of mentors over more than 20 years in business, with varying results. She credits having the right structure and support around her as essential to sustaining her practice long term, including strategically outsourcing parts of her work rather than trying to do everything herself.
Build Community Instead of Competing
Kyne's approach to competition is notably generosity-oriented. She recounts a conversation where a contact admitted to recommending competitors alongside her. Rather than treating this as a threat, Kyne's response was that this is simply how the work goes, and that there is enough work for everyone.
Her broader point is that being open to learning from others in the same space, rather than guarding territory, has widened her own perspective and, in her view, contributed to her positioning as a leader in the conversation rather than just a participant in it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is upward bullying?
Upward bullying is bullying directed at a leader by the people they manage, rather than the more commonly discussed pattern of a manager bullying an employee.
Is upward bullying illegal in Australia?
Upward bullying itself sits within the broader landscape of workplace misconduct that Australia's updated Respect at Work laws address. According to Maureen Kyne, recent changes mean conduct in this space is not just inappropriate but can be unlawful, and employers who fail to address it can face involvement from bodies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission and Fair Work.
What changed under the Respect at Work laws?
Kyne identifies four key inclusions added to the legislation: sex discrimination, sex-based harassment, hostile work environment, and positive duty.
What is positive duty under Respect at Work?
Positive duty places an active obligation on employers to prevent misconduct before it happens, rather than only responding to complaints after the fact.
How can a leader tell if their team is bullying them?
Kyne notes that leaders often fail to recognise upward bullying until it has already escalated, largely because they assume their position of authority should allow them to manage it. Structured pulse-check conversations within a team, of the kind Kyne runs in her workshops, are one way this pattern gets surfaced.
Who is Maureen Kyne?
Maureen Kyne is an executive coach, advisor and speaker with more than 30 years of experience in leadership, HR and industrial relations. She specialises in upward bullying and workplace misconduct, and is the author of the upcoming book Tranquil Leadership: Three Steps to End Upward Bullying.
Where can I learn more about Maureen Kyne's upcoming book?
Kyne's book, Tranquil Leadership: Three Steps to End Upward Bullying, was in the editing process at the time of this episode. Updates are expected to be shared through her LinkedIn newsletter and posts.
Conclusion
Upward bullying is not a new problem, but it is one that has largely gone unnamed, particularly at the leadership level. Maureen Kyne's work makes the case that recognising this pattern, and understanding the group dynamics often behind it, is now paired with genuine legal obligation under Australia's updated Respect at Work laws.
For leaders and HR professionals, the message is direct: this is not something to manage quietly on your own, and it is not something the law now allows organisations to leave unaddressed.
For coaches and consultants more broadly, Kyne's journey also offers a useful reminder that a specific, well-defined niche, paired with consistent and genuinely personal engagement, can be enough to build a practice with real reach.
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Key Takeaways from Today’s Episode:
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Jane Anderson opens the podcast by acknowledging the challenging and uncertain business environment heading into 2025. She notes that successful practitioners are those focusing on what they can control—especially around sales, business development, and tracking key metrics. She encourages listeners not to wait for uncertain client decisions but to actively manage their pipeline and performance. Jane also stresses the importance of demonstrating ROI (Return on Investment), encouraging her audience to capture data and evidence of transformational impact, especially in leadership development and change management.
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Jane continues by sharing the overarching theme for her work with clients in the current year: a strong focus on ROI. She urges consultants to go beyond simply asking clients to "invest in me" and instead frame the value proposition as a business investment with tangible results. She advises practitioners to lead strategic conversations using data, showing how their work directly contributes to organisational performance. This framing is essential to win work in a cautious market.
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Jane introduces her guest, Maureen Kyne, as a foremost authority on upward bullying. Maureen is an executive coach, advisor, speaker, and author of the upcoming book Tranquil Leadership: Three Steps to End Upward Bullying. With over 30 years of experience in leadership, HR, and industrial relations, Maureen is a passionate advocate for raising awareness about upward bullying—an often overlooked but pervasive issue in workplaces globally. She regularly appears in major media across Australia and works with organisations to restore calm and confidence through tailored coaching, workshops, and advisory services.
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Jane welcomes Maureen, who begins by recounting the unexpected circumstances that led to her consulting career. After a breast cancer diagnosis 21 years ago and being made redundant during treatment, Maureen decided to return to her hometown of Shepparton. Encouraged by her father and inspired by her prior leadership roles, she established a consultancy focused on supporting businesses with strategy, people, and culture. Coming from a family of small business owners, Maureen already had firsthand insight into the realities of running a business, which informed her pragmatic approach to entrepreneurship.
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Maureen shares how her practice evolved from general business support into a specialised focus on workplace bullying. Seventeen years ago, she predicted that bullying could become a serious organisational threat. Alongside her then-business partner, she began designing programs and speaking events to raise awareness of its impact. After her partner’s passing, Maureen leaned further into this work, expanding her focus as she began to recognise different types of bullying, particularly the upward bullying of leaders by their teams.
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Maureen explains that over the past six years, she has intensified her exploration of upward bullying, a form of misconduct where team members undermine or target their leaders. She recounts an early workshop where a CEO initially denied such behaviour existed in his organisation—until a senior team member publicly disagreed and confirmed its prevalence. This pivotal moment gave Maureen the conviction to continue advocating for the issue. She stresses that upward bullying often goes unrecognised because leaders assume they should be able to manage all team behaviour. By the time patterns emerge, the damage is often significant and harder to reverse.
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Jane and Maureen discuss the current shape of Maureen’s work, which includes coaching, in-house and public training programs, and an upcoming book. Her coaching engagements range from local businesses to global CEOs, reflecting the widespread nature of upward bullying. In addition to leader-focused interventions, she works with entire teams, helping employees recognise their own roles in negative dynamics. This fosters greater self-awareness and accountability, especially when employees realise they may be contributing to toxic behaviours unknowingly.
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Maureen outlines how upward bullying is rarely the work of one person. Often, she explains, it’s orchestrated by a "conductor" leading a group effort to destabilise leadership. These mobs may manipulate other leaders or board members into supporting their cause. Their ultimate goal is to remove the leader and take informal control. She underscores how such targeted, coordinated efforts can create toxic environments if left unaddressed.
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Maureen closes this segment by addressing recent legal updates in Australia under the Respect@Work legislation. The reforms now include sex-based harassment, sexism, hostile work environments, and a concept called “positive duty,” which legally obliges employers to prevent harassment. Sexual harassment is no longer just inappropriate—it’s now formally unlawful. This new legal framework calls for a significant cultural shift, urging organisations to proactively reassess and reform their internal practices and policies.
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Maureen explains that organisations now face significant legal consequences if they fail to address inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, especially under new laws like the Respect@Work legislation. In addition to sexual harassment, there are now legal obligations around sex-based harassment, hostile environments, and broader psychosocial risks. These are enforced not just by one body, but collectively by Fair Work, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and workplace safety regulators. Organisations must have clear prevention plans in place to comply with these overlapping requirements. Maureen notes that many workplaces are struggling to understand and implement what’s now required, which elevates the urgency for leadership to act—not just because it’s legally necessary, but because it's also good for business performance.
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Jane asks how Maureen is increasing visibility and getting her message heard. Maureen describes how she has initiated a local HR network in her community that meets monthly to discuss emerging workplace issues. This initiative has helped her both educate others and stay connected. In addition to local engagements and speaking opportunities on various committees, Maureen credits LinkedIn as one of her most powerful platforms. She is deeply engaged on the platform daily—responding personally to comments and messages—to ensure authenticity and insight. She believes this hands-on approach gives her richer understanding of global trends and client challenges.
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Maureen shares her LinkedIn strategy, which involves dedicating an hour every morning to respond personally to all comments and private messages. She insists on doing it herself rather than outsourcing to her team because it gives her critical insight into her audience's mindset and needs. This has resulted in a significant number of meaningful connections, often leading to coaching engagements globally. Maureen describes the volume and depth of these responses—sometimes upwards of 100–200 private messages per post—and how her team tracks and follows up with those interactions. This level of engagement has been pivotal to building trust and growing her practice.
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Maureen explains her thoughtful and strategic approach to LinkedIn engagement. When someone likes a post, she follows up with a thank you and invitation to connect, often initiating a conversation by asking what piqued their interest. She also tracks who shares her posts, connects with their networks, and thanks them for their support. This targeted effort not only expands her network but builds strong, authentic connections. Jane praises Maureen’s deliberate and consistent strategy, noting that her success on LinkedIn is the result of sustained, human effort rather than automation.
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When asked about challenges, Maureen confesses that "shiny ball syndrome"—the allure of new ideas and crisis opportunities—can be a big distraction. Known for her crisis handling skills, she often gets pulled into urgent situations, which can derail her focus. She stresses the importance of staying in one’s lane and maintaining clarity of purpose. Jane acknowledges Maureen’s evolution in focus and notes how much cleaner and more defined her brand has become, especially with her book and positioning around upward bullying.
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Maureen attributes much of her business success and longevity to the support of mentors and coaches. Over her 20-year career, she has worked with a range of mentors—some excellent, others less so—but each has shaped her journey. She credits Jane in particular with helping her bring more structure and strategic clarity to her business. Beyond mentorship, Maureen highlights the importance of having a team and outsourcing key tasks. Although she runs her business independently, she relies on a support network for execution, which in turn gives her the freedom to focus on the work she loves most.
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For Maureen, freedom and lifestyle have always been part of her business vision. She celebrates being able to travel and meet clients globally, including during her holidays. What once seemed like a dream—combining work and travel—has become her reality. Her genuine enthusiasm and love for her work are evident, as is her global reach. She mentions a particularly strong following in Ireland, where professors at universities have shared her work, amplifying her impact.
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Maureen reflects on how a single post shared on LinkedIn helped her gain traction in Ireland, opening doors to new connections and academic attention. Jane commends her intentional strategy, daily discipline, and close attention to audience insights. While others may dismiss LinkedIn’s effectiveness due to inconsistent effort, Maureen proves that authentic, sustained engagement leads to meaningful results. Jane quotes Seth Godin—“We’re waiting for you to lead us”—emphasising that Maureen is indeed doing just that. Her ability to capture attention, start important conversations, and build a community around critical workplace issues is a model for others in the consulting and leadership space.
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As the conversation nears its close, Jane invites Maureen to share advice for consultants who are either just starting out or feeling stuck in their business journey. Maureen emphasises the importance of not going it alone. Whether you're just getting started or facing growth hurdles, having a coach, mentor, or advisor is essential. She also underscores the value of engaging with your local community—not for the sake of selling, but for building trust. She notes that much of her own work has come from being a visible and supportive member of her local network.
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Jane points out that Maureen hasn't simply joined communities—she's taken the lead in forming them. By doing so, she has positioned herself as a central figure and leader of practice in her field. This leadership role has generated trust and referrals, even from competitors. Maureen agrees, sharing that even people who don't currently engage her services still acknowledge her as a valuable resource. She also reiterates that there is enough work for everyone and that being generous with learning from peers, even competitors, broadens her own perspective and benefits the whole industry.
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Maureen reflects on the importance of generosity and shared learning within the professional community. She embraces collaboration over competition, believing that a rising tide lifts all boats. Jane praises her for modelling a spirit of leadership that's grounded in community and the collective good. This mindset not only benefits those around her but has also helped position Maureen as a trusted thought leader. Her ability to lead conversations around cultural change and workplace wellbeing is rooted in her commitment to creating real, systemic improvements.
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As the episode wraps up, Jane congratulates Maureen on her work and acknowledges her role in leading conversations that matter. They mention the upcoming release of Maureen’s book, Tranquil Leadership, and encourage listeners to connect with her on LinkedIn, where she posts regularly and shares a newsletter. Maureen expresses her enthusiasm for ongoing engagement and future opportunities to share her work. The interview closes with mutual gratitude and a sense of shared purpose in continuing to uplift and guide leaders around the world.
Most of the guests interviewed are current or alumni members of the Women With Influence community. Click here to find out more
