Virginia Scully
Executive Leader | People and Culture Consultant
Virginia Scully spent nearly 30 years in media and advertising doing what ambitious women in this industry learn to do early: performing brilliantly while quietly carrying everything else.
She rose through the ranks to Managing Partner. She won awards. She built teams. She showed up. And along the way, she realised: most women in this industry don't have a confidence problem or a capability problem. They have a seeing-the-truth problem. The cost of hiding it is real, and it compounds quietly until someone pays it all at once.
She now runs her own successful business on her own terms — working at the intersection of workplace mental health, psychosocial safety, and the honest conversations most organisations are still too afraid to have. She's writing The Dimming Effect — a book about the 60–70% of employees quietly disengaging while everyone looks the other way — and runs workshops for creative and media businesses who want to lead differently.
Career & Background
What inspired you to do what you are doing now?
Lived experience, values of kindness and justice, working in and on my own mental health, freedom from some of the systems.
What was your journey and where are you headed in your career right now?
Your favourite food for thought
Books
This working life (book) by Lisa Leong – practical and useful.
Power by Kemi Nekvapil (follow her podcast too).
The Leading Edge – Holly Ransom
Podcasts / Thought Leaders
This Working Life (podcast) by Lisa Leong.
Imperfects
Corporate rebels.
Love Mondays – Holly Ranson
What drives and inspires you
What are your core values?
- Courage
- Justice
- Kindness
- Grace – definition humanity: forgiveness, kindness, openness to the sheer wonder of the natural world and the gift of life.
- Phosphorescent – radiant, glowing or infectious quality, in terms of a person’s aura and energy.
- I would probably replace justice with fairness (it feels kinder).
Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
My mum, and all of the special women/people in my life I have lost (far to early and too young).
You as a Mentor
Why have you decided to become a mentor?
I’m a mentor because sustainable success needs a translator. Someone who helps you see what’s really happening, not just what the noise says is happening. Who spots the moment “I’m so lucky to be here” quietly becomes “I’m too scared to ask for what I need.” Who knows that learning to listen to yourself — really listen, over the noise of everyone else’s expectations — is the most underrated career skill nobody teaches women in this industry. This isn’t mentorship as navigation advice. It’s permission to stop performing someone else’s version of success — and start building your own.
What are the top 3-5 skills or qualities you bring to mentoring?
- Collaborative
- Generous with time
- Knowledgeable
- Non-judgemental
- Willing to be vulnerable
Ready to apply?
The best time is right now. Take a chance – you never know where an Assisterhood mentor can take you.