When Nicolle Burt CMgr MIML took her first steps into her career, she could hardly have imagined where she would end up almost four decades later. Now working as a consultant to the public service, Nicolle shares her insights on developing and utilising a broad range of skills across your career.
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Craig Dredge, Principal of Taihape Area School, shares his insights from leading the school and local community through a physical and cultural rebuild.
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While there’s plenty of challenges that arise amid a crisis, there are also culture-defining opportunities. One of them is an enhanced ability to identify leadership potential. Let’s explore some of the behaviours to look out for in your team members.
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Internationally renowned speaker on the science of happiness and positive psychology, Tal Ben-Shahar caught up with IML ANZ Chief Executive David Pich CMgr FIML. They uncover the hidden strength that a positive mind can enable and why happiness isn’t as elusive as some believe it to be.
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In March 2020, Jacob Waitere was promoted to a role that looks after accomodation at the University of Auckland. Shortly after, New Zealand went into lockdown and he was faced with the challenge of supporting the residents and his staff through COVID-19.
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Click on the link below to enter your details and get access to the recorded sessions from our first ever IML ANZ Virtual Development Day. You will be redirected to the sessions upon submission.
Jasmin Craufurd-Hill FIML is a leader who wears many hats. IML ANZ chief executive David Pich CMgr FIML caught up with her to discuss leadership, volunteering and the future of energy.
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We trust engineers to design the structures that run our world. For one of the best engineers in our country, his profession is all about building a career that empowered others.
IML ANZ is tremendously proud that one of our members, Errol Milevskiy CMgr FIML, has been named one of the 100 great leaders in Australian engineering history. Milevskiy joins other notable names in the profession in Engineers Australia’s 2019 centenary book, Anything is possible – 100 Australian Engineering Leaders. These 100 leaders were nominated by their peers and include the most highly respected engineers in history.
Notably, Errol is one of the only 32 living engineering leaders in this centenary book, as well as the only marine engineer, marine surveyor or engineering technologist to be recognised among the 100 individuals.
Milevskiy’s life wasn’t always about being recognised for greatness. He has faced challenges too. As a baby he received the last rites and as a teenager lost both his parents. As if not tested enough, the North Queensland country local has suffered from the chronic pain condition Trigeminal Neuralgia, an illness with no cure, for the past 18 years.
His working life began as a labourer at the local sugar mill, which soon evolved into an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. Yet Milevskiy has not merely endured. He has thrived, becoming one of the leading worldwide marine engineers and surveyors, and preventing serious casualties and disasters through his focus on the details critical to marine surveying.
Milevskiy’s potential was recognised by BHP, who offered him a cadetship as a marine engineer. After that, he attended some of the most prestigious universities, including Harvard and MIT.
In the late 1990s he produced his prize-winning thesis, ‘Building a Foundation for a Marine Engineer’. Milevskiy wrote it as a guiding tool for cadet engineers to build practical knowledge and techniques, not generally covered in textbooks.
Joining DNV GL, an international classification society, as a marine surveyor and station manager in Newcastle rounded out his skill base. This included surveying different types of ships, certifying numerous machinery parts and systems and being the attending surveyor for the topside construction of ESSO oil platforms.
Later, he commenced auditing to certify vessels and companies to the International Safety Management code from the International Maritime Organisation. He soon became dockyard manager at the largest commercial dockyard in the southern hemisphere. By this time, he was already regarded as one of the world’s most highly qualified surveyors.
Milevskiy continued critical, sometimes dangerous surveying work, notably identifying significant safety and structural issues on an Australian crude oil tanker in 2003. Thus averting potential loss of the vessel, human life, and catastrophic environmental damage. In recognition of his expertise, he was appointed as a member of the elite group of only 20 worldwide surveyors in 2009, named the ‘Flying Squad’, tasked with handling demanding situations on vessels internationally.
A fellow at four different institutes, including IML ANZ, Milevskiy is also a Chartered Manager. Since 2014, he has mentored future leaders and managers through IML ANZ’s Member Exchange program.
The quiet achiever is pleased to have contributed to the improvement of the engineering profession – and leadership in our country.
By Karyl Estrella MIML
Nowhere else can you find orangutans in the wild except in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. So the rare opportunity to see these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat is a genuinely thrilling prospect. A privilege that Core Laboratory Manager at Pathology Queensland, Lara Keller CMgr FIML, enjoyed as a Regional Representative for The Orangutan Project (TOP). “In May this year, I saw the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem in Central Sumatra. That was absolutely amazing because only eight people a year enter this conservation site,” recalls Keller. The area is inaccessible to tourists with visits reserved for those able to travel with TOP founder and President, Leif Cocks, while he monitors and evaluates the organisation’s work there.
Visits to the orangutan’s rainforest homes are exciting, but that’s not the primary motivation for Keller to volunteer. “In 2017, during a fundraiser for TOP, I got to hear Leif speak about the work they were doing. I’ve always been a massive animal lover and am fascinated by orangutans. They are intelligent, peaceful and sentient creatures, and are Critically Endangered. At that point, I wanted to do something to help, so I decided to volunteer.”
When not visiting remote rainforests, Keller’s activities are less adventurous, albeit very crucial. “Our main goal is to raise the profile of orangutan conservation,” says Keller. “So we do market stalls, attend festivals and visit schools to talk about how people can support the work. We also sell cookies, cakes, books and orangutan toys to raise funds on top of inviting people to adopt rescued orangutan orphans.”
Not only have these activities supported the charity’s ongoing efforts to rescue and rehabilitate orangutans, but they have also opened Keller up to a variety of audiences. “Recently, we visited a kindergarten. I wouldn’t be speaking to kindergarten children in my day job! But it’s a different kind of leadership experience for me.”
Volunteering has indeed helped Keller view leadership from a different lens. “It’s taught me a lot about how to adjust my leadership style and to take into account people’s motivations.” Contrasting her role as a health sector leader to her role as a volunteer leader, Keller hones in on the need to become a positive influence.
“Volunteers have no obligation to meet any targets as paid employees do. Ultimately, I must make them want to join me. They have to feel that we are all working towards something important together.”
Although given TOP’s unique position, it can be difficult to get a real sense of their work’s impact. Unlike most Australian charities whose work is based on home soil, all the results of the organisation’s efforts are only seen and felt in Indonesian rainforests. That’s why meeting the orangutans was a truly memorable experience for Keller.
On one outing to Central Kalimantan in Borneo last year, she witnessed the rehabilitation of young rescued orangutans in what TOP affectionately calls ‘jungle school’. “They were learning to climb trees, and one of them fell out of the tree and cried out like a baby,” Keller recalls. “It looked like he’d broken his arm, so they put on a splint and took this little one to the closest town, which is an hour and a half away. He got x-rayed, and fortunately, he didn’t fracture his arm and was back to climbing trees in no time.
“During the trip in May this year we saw mothers and babies who have been released back into the rainforest. When we reached a different part of the camp, I recognised one of our adopted babies, Citrawan, as she attended jungle school. I’ve seen so many photos of her and spoke about her to so many people. It was amazing to see her face-to-face. These are the moments not many people get to experience.”
Keller considers her volunteer work as a privilege, offering a unique sense of fulfilment. “You can go see orangutans in captivity, but seeing them in the wild is a completely different experience,” explains Keller. “I’ve looked them in the eyes and seen the person inside. And that’s how I view them, as persons.” Almost literally true when you consider that the word ‘orangutan’ in the Malay language translates to ‘person of the forest’.
It’s no surprise then that Keller recommends volunteering for all leaders. Her advice, “Find something you’re passionate about.” She also recommends doing your research and finding out what the commitment involves. The effort, Keller believes, is all worth it. “It’s been a marvellous thing for me. I feel this is something I do to reach my potential as a person. Giving something back and doing something for my soul makes me feel refreshed and excited. I love it!”
Today, there are only 104,700 Bornean orangutans, just 7,500 Sumatran orangutans and no more than 800 Tapanuli orangutans – the most endangered of all the great apes.
For more information about The Orangutan Project and their conservation work visit orangutan.org.au.
This article originally appeared in the December 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s exclusive Member’s magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.
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Please note during the holiday season our offices will be closed from the 22nd of December 2023 to the 2nd of January 2024.
For all enquires please refer to the contact us section of the website.