She'd answered a job ad for station leader on the 12-month Australian Antarctic expedition of 2005 because she was interested in how they recruited for resilience, empathy and integrity.

Her plan, she told the Mercury, was to win an interview then take the questions, and use them in her management role. She was managing customer service staff and wanted to know how to recruit people with the vital quality of empathy.

Turns out the Antarctic mission was doing just that. Skills in the cold or in science were valued less than the qualities required to make it through the year at the end of the earth - particularly the all-dark winter. And there was no interview for this - it was a boot camp.

"I was on this week-long boot camp, myself and 13 men, competing for a job I didn't want." She got the job. Robertson knew she was a leader, but was this the right move?

"I thought, I'd rather regret what I did, than regret what I didn't do. I was 35 years old and I never knew this was where my life would take me. Women can have these opportunities - look for them, and back yourself."

Robertson will be the keynote speaker at the International Women's Day lunch in Wollongong on March 6, and she will launch her new book - Respect Trumps Harmony: Why Being Liked is Overrated and Constructive Conflict Gets Results.

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"It doesn't work," she explained. "When you focus on harmony, a few things happen. Any bullying or harassment still goes on, it just goes underground, because people get too scared to put their hand up and report it.

"Second, you don't get innovation, because people are polite - they don't want to have a conflicting opinion.

"Third, people get hurt ... if someone is doing something unsafe people don't step in, they don't want to rock the boat. It's all harmony, 'all wonderful, we all love each other' - no-one puts their hand up to say 'actually, I'm not wonderful right now'.

"It's just an illusion. You're better off having respect. My team in Antarctica, we didn't all love each other ... but we treated each other with respect. I wanted them to speak up, so we can deal with stuff. Raise it, sort it, move on.

"I didn't want anyone exploding with anger, or spiraling into depression, so I thought 'how do I create a culture where we speak up and deal with it?' And that's what it was."

Tickets are still available for the lunch at the WIN Entertainment Centre, via iwdillawarra.com.au