Category: New In Leadership

A lot can happen in a workplace in a year. People join, people leave and whole businesses can be restructured. But when those big changes happen, employees who are absent on parental leave are often an afterthought. Quite a few managers have tripped up by denying these parents their legislated rights when their jobs are […]

Despite my nerves, the day went well and I returned home rather pleased with myself. The workshop had made a positive impact – of that I was sure. Indeed, the feedback forms were filled with praise. I was positive they’d use my services again. Then I didn’t hear anything from them – for years. Perhaps, […]

Australian salaries aren’t going anywhere fast. In its latest figures, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says the nation’s wages grew by just 2.2 per cent in 2015, the lowest rate of growth since it started publishing these numbers in 1998. The IML 2016 National Salary Survey confirms that people’s pay packets haven’t put on […]

Indian restaurant Pappadavada and Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya join Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on this month’s thumbs up list for effective leadership. Thumbs down goes to 7-Eleven, Priceline CEO Darren Huston, and Portico/PwC high-heel scandal in the UK. Pappadavada Many food retailers and wholesalers donate unsold produce to charities but Minu Pauline’s Pappadavada restaurant in […]

The problem is the word “impact” tends to be intrinsically linked to size. Impact is only viewed positively when it’s big. In fact, big is often not enough. It needs to be bigger than big. It needs to be HUGE. A small impact is basically no impact. A tiny impact isn’t worth the paper it’s […]

Today a worker who returns a positive drug and alcohol test faces the risk of losing his or her job. This is not a new phenomenon; over the centuries the law has allowed employers to penalise workers for out-of-hours behaviour they don’t approve of. A 1777 English court case upheld a master’s right to dismiss a […]

The fallout from corporate ethical breaches can be distressing. Just ask Ian Shepherd, chief executive of international engineering/architecture/construction company GHD. In 2013, despite an otherwise exemplary 90-year history, the private company received a 12-month ban from tendering for World Bank aid projects after a senior staff member in GHD’s Indonesian office defrauded a fund that […]

If the study of ethics is as old as Socrates, business ethics is still in its infancy. Ethics in business was only generally considered during the Cold War era, although some robber barons saw this development as the antithesis of an entrepreneurial mindset. Ethics was added to business degree syllabi in the 1970s and 1980s. And […]

Who says nice guys always finish last? As the reach of ethical investing grows, figures from the 2015 Responsible Investment Australia Benchmark Report reveal that core responsible investment funds surged 24 per cent in 2014 to $31.6 billion. A broader definition in the report, factoring in managers who integrate ESG principles (environmental, social, governance) into their […]