A Chartered Manager strengthens his commitment to the leadership profession

We recently sat down with Gareth Sipple-Asher CMgr MIML to chat about what it means to become a Chartered Manager. Sipple-Asher received the designation through IML ANZ’s Pathway Partnership with Griffith University. In this interview, he reflects on his journey, shares lessons learned and provides advice for others on the pathway to becoming Chartered.

What did you learn throughout the process of becoming a Chartered Manager?

The key learning for me is the significance of our commitment to the profession of leadership. Our conduct and the way we treat people, be they colleagues or those under our care, demonstrates our level of commitment to the wider community. If our ethical values hold no substance and we choose to flaunt them as a way of building superficial trust or recognition, then our core values are built on a lie that will eventually be discovered. If we build our values around an agreed code of conduct, as leaders, we instil a sense of personal responsibility and accountability across our community and with it a strong sense of cultural awareness.  

Gareth Sipple-Asher CMgr MIML

How has the process of becoming Chartered benefited you?

The process helped me to understand the value of committing to the CPD. We often have good intentions when considering our personal development. Unfortunately, the responsibilities we have outside of our personal growth give us an excuse to keep putting it off. I have realised a vast resource that offers an abundance of knowledge at my fingertips. All that is required is a personal commitment to continued learning as a perpetual student of leadership.

How valuable was it for Griffith to offer Chartered Manager as part of their MBA program?

I strongly believe the offer to become a Chartered Manager through Griffith provides the vital link that seeks to align hard and soft leadership skills. Becoming Chartered for me is not a badge or a membership, it’s a commitment to uphold a code of conduct that underpins sustainable leadership. Griffith University actively promotes the commercial value behind environmental sustainability. By offering MBA students the chance to become Chartered, Griffith University is also promoting the commercial advantage of sustainable leadership.

What tips would you give to others who are completing their Chartered Manager Assessment?

The opportunity to become Chartered does not only apply to individuals in leadership roles. Positive cultural change can take many forms. Effective leadership relies on the conversion of early adopters to take up a cause and build its value from within. Chartered Managers who form part of the stakeholder community and live the values through their commitment to the charter are as valuable to the organisation as the leaders above them.

Having the confidence and resolve to call out toxic leadership or unethical behaviour is the ultimate way to manage up and ensure those in charge are held accountable to the values of the organisation. Becoming Chartered will not only help you as a leader, but it will also offer a distinct advantage to your capability as a professional.


Get on the pathway to better leadership

If you’d like to find out more about how IML ANZ can support you to include the internationally recognised Chartered Manager designation as part of your curriculum, please contact our Higher Education partnership team at partnership@managersandleaders.com.au

Two ethical virtues in times of crisis

By Dr Simon Burgess

As a leader, what are the most essential qualities to possess in times of crisis? Credibility, determination, a reassuring presence, and adaptability all come to mind. After all, your team members want you to be straight with them. They want to retain a sense of purpose, and they want to be able to have confidence in you. If they don’t get clear and credible information from you, they’ll be sure to disengage and get what they want elsewhere.

Now the truth is that all of that applies at any time. Like many fundamental insights about leadership, it can be worth bearing in mind regardless of whether things are chaotic or calm. But in any case, let’s consider a couple of ethical virtues that are perhaps especially relevant in times of crisis. One of these is empathy. The other is principled integrity. Both are vital in maintaining trust during trying times.

Lead with empathy

In some ways, leading through the current coronavirus pandemic is akin to the situation faced by business and civic leaders in New York following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. While the carnage was both horrifying and bewildering, clearly those leaders weren’t responsible for any of it. Their responsibilities were entirely concerned with how best to respond. And virtually without exception, the people they led were immediately ready and willing to accept all the guidance that their leaders were able to provide. Rudy Guiliani, in particular, the mayor of New York at the time, is rightly admired for the empathic role that he performed.

Admittedly, Guiliani has never been universally admired. Moreover, his reputation has taken several serious turns for the worse since he joined the Trump administration. But without pretending that Guiliani has ever been perfect (and no leader is), let’s try to remember the kind of empathic leadership style that he showed back in 2001.

Importantly, his empathy wasn’t mere sentimentality. He didn’t cry in public or put his emotions on display. In fact, in his book Leadership, he explains that “there was no time to spend actually experiencing an emotion. There were moments of anger, fear, and sorrow, but with so much to do it was impossible to dwell on those feelings.”

But Guiliani clearly was emotionally ‘tuned in’ with those around him. He listened to the experts, and his emotional intelligence was central to the open, adaptable, and sure-footed leadership that he provided. His empathy also went hand-in-hand with his confidence that all kinds of people would rise to the occasion, and when we recognise a leader’s empathy in that form, it naturally brings out the best in us. Notwithstanding the shock and grief that were so widely shared, that empathic style actually raises morale and generates a sense of resilience, fortitude, and purpose.

Make decisions based on principled integrity

Without a doubt, something that many organisational leaders will have been quietly contemplating in recent months is the idea that one ‘should never let a good crisis go to waste.’ It’s an idea that has been most avidly promoted in recent years by Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago mayor and President Obama’s first chief of staff. And admittedly, it’s an idea that can be very tempting. When a crisis that isn’t of your own making comes along, it is often possible to exploit it. Put simply, you can use it as a pretext for something that you’ve long wanted to do (whether it be related to structure, strategy, policy or personnel) but for which you have never been able to gain support.

Crises need to be addressed squarely, decisively, and sometimes with radical action. But even in a state of crisis, our actions should be principled. They should always be based on a genuine rationale; one that can be defended with honesty and candour. If your organisation needs a restructure, argue for a restructure. If you want to reassign certain personnel, give honest reasons for your view. But if your supposed need for such changes isn’t genuinely due to the current crisis, don’t pretend that it is. Understanding the context is one thing. Exploiting it as a pretext is quite another.


Simon Burgess is a lecturer in Ethical Leadership at the University of New England Armidale.

Why soft skills are today’s most valuable leadership asset

By Greg Smith

Soft skills have long been a desired leadership capability. However, in an age where rapid advances in technology are redefining how humans add value in the workplace, soft skills will increasingly become the most sought after employee capability possibly eclipsing everything else. Our current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us into the new reality right now. And that’s just the beginning. Deloitte’s 2019 study, The path to prosperity. Why the future of work is human, predicts that by 2030 around two-thirds of jobs will be ‘soft-skill intensive’.

Sometimes when change is so rapid, it can feel like a high-speed train bearing down, and the immediate inclination is to jump out of the way. However, the best response is to understand, embrace and run with it!

Let’s see what that practically means when it comes to soft skills and the workplace.

“My boss has terrible interpersonal skills.”

How many times have you overheard one person saying this to another: “My boss is really great technically but has terrible interpersonal skills.”?  This is still a major deficit for some leaders and continues to frustrate the growth and progress of individuals, teams and entire organisations.

Leadership development programs, for some time now, have sought to improve leaders’ ability to better connect with others. However, this remains an elusive skill for many. Dial up the need for this capability many times over, and it doesn’t require much of a stretch of the imagination to see why this will become an absolute requisite and priority for effective leadership.

The notion of soft skills also implies the existence of hard skills. So what are soft skills, and how are they different from hard skills? Let’s first take a look at the sources of soft skills. These are found in personality traits, personal attributes and specific behavioural competencies. Hard skills, on the other hand, are developed through training and learning. It’s easy to see from this comparison why the nature of soft skills makes them much more difficult to impart to others than hard skills! The exciting aspect of soft skills is that they are highly transferable, which in a fast-changing employment landscape driven by technological change, makes them an extremely valuable asset and powerful differentiator when competing for jobs.

Why EQ matters

Fortunately, the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) harnesses the key suite of soft skill capabilities required by leaders and their followers alike. Simply put, EQ may be thought of as not letting your emotions stop you achieving your goals. Although this descriptor neatly packages up EQ into a simple and easy to grasp idea; it doesn’t help with understanding how to develop and enhance your EQ capability.

Daniel Goleman described EQ competencies as “how leaders handle themselves and their relationships” in his book, The New Leaders.  He explains EQ competencies in two domains:

  • Personal competence: Self-Awareness and Self-Management
  • Social competence: Social Awareness and Relationship Management

It’s immediately apparent that EQ competencies cannot be ‘codified’ or automated and therefore replicated by AI or machines, making them solely the domain of human beings. However, if AI and machines take over routine tasks (e.g. technical support, bricklayers or administration) then non-routine roles (e.g. social workers, emergency workers, teachers or chief executives) become a natural place for humans to gravitate towards, an essential transition for secure employment in the longer term. 

Three navigation steps for the workplace

There are three key steps to navigate and take advantage of the wide array of exciting roles that will open up as a result of technological change. These are:

Step 1: understand and internalise the new reality of the transition that’s afoot showing where human beings will add value in the workplace of the future. It’s just around the corner, so it’s worthwhile considering how this may impact your career in terms of risks but more importantly opportunities.

Step 2: reflect on where and how you add value now in your current work role.

Step 3: identify your transferrable skills and consider how you might align these to the jobs of the future. This includes exploring what further training and development you may need to optimise these skills fully.

Start preparing now!

It’s highly likely that you could be drawing on soft skills to drive your future career even if you don’t use or need these skills in your job right now. My advice is to start preparing now for the future that lies ahead. The future is sure to be full of boundless possibilities as new jobs unfold that have not yet been invented or even conceived!


Greg Smith is an expert in career development, talent management and organisational leadership. He is the author of Career Conversations: How to get the best from your talent pool (Wiley).

Personal, organisational and national resilience: lessons from three African nations

By Sam Durland FIML

A few years ago, I had a brief encounter with Julia Gillard, during which I asked her how she had managed to cope with the rough and tumble of politics during a particularly tumultuous time in Australia’s recent history. She answered with one word: resilience. Indeed, in her autobiography, Gillard devotes an entire chapter to resilience, which she ascribes to a sense of purpose.

For me, resilience means the ability to overcome major challenges or setbacks. Over the past 20 years, working as an international development consultant and adviser in several African countries, I have encountered numerous examples of resilience at an individual, organisational and national level.

Personal resilience: a lesson from Uganda

In Uganda, I worked with a local entrepreneur who was developing several enterprises based on primary production. The aim is to enable his poor district in the west of the country to become self-sufficient instead of importing foods and raw materials from elsewhere. He was not driven by a need to generate wealth for himself; instead, a burning desire to provide employment and a secure future for his people. He faced many obstacles, from government officials trying to exact bribes for the services they were charged with providing, to a system of land ownership that made it difficult to obtain secure title to agricultural land.

My client was dogged in his resistance to illegal payments and unrelenting in his efforts to register his land title. I especially marvelled at how he dealt with public servants, who put my client at risk of not receiving the requested service, or more alarming, put his safety in danger. In the end, sheer persistence won the day, and the service was rendered without the payment of a bribe.

The lesson: In reflecting on my client’s character, which I believe formed the foundation of his success, I would describe him as exhibiting resilience based on a strong sense of purpose and an overwhelming desire to be of service to his people.

Organisational resilience: a lesson from Lesotho

In the small African country of Lesotho, I worked with a dedicated group of local and international consultants and advisers on a United States-funded project to develop a new government agency that would provide secure land ownership for the country’s citizens. This agency was intended to replace a government department that was widely thought to be both corrupt and inefficient in its dealings with the general public. Members of the project staff faced a major obstacle in the form of pushback from political interests who appeared reluctant towards change.

Project staff found that they were prevented from meeting with key public servants, they had their furniture removed from their offices, and there was even an attempt to confiscate their computer equipment.

The lesson: Despite these and other setbacks, they were resolute in their determination that the project should succeed (and it did), knowing that there was widespread community support for the initiative, as well as obvious benefits for the country’s economy. In the face of strong opposition, this group displayed resilience based on a sense of integrity and a commitment to do what is right.

National resilience: A lesson from Liberia

Finally, I turn to the West African country of Liberia, recently wracked by an Ebola-virus epidemic and still recovering from a 14-year-long civil war. As a consequence of the war, much of the country’s infrastructure had been decimated and government departments’ records destroyed or rendered incomplete. Here, my role was to work with a team of international and local consultants and advisers, and their counterparts in the public service, to develop a new authority designed to oversee land administration and land management in the country and overcome a fragmented and dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Both the war and the epidemic had significantly touched virtually every Liberian whom I came into contact with that time. Yet, despite the distinct challenges, they exhibited both an enthusiasm for our project and a positive outlook on the country’s future.

The lesson: I ascribe their resilience to a sense of positive leadership at the national level (their President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, had won the Nobel Peace Prize), a strong sense of national purpose, and a national character grounded in hope.

For me, an underpinning sense of hope is present in all of these examples of resilience. Hope’s power is epitomised by Desmond Tutu when he said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”.


Sam Durland is a Fellow of IML ANZ. Sam’s consulting work has taken him to more than 20 countries in Asia, the Pacific, Africa and South America. He previously held senior executive positions with private enterprise, statutory authorities and government departments in Australia and overseas.


Strengthen your resilience

Leaders need resilience to cope with the daily stresses of work and life. But when the work environment has changed and you face new challenges, what can help you perform at your best?

Paralympian and corporate high-performance coach, Katrina Webb OAM MIML  will help take you through a three-phase process to manage your priorities, energy and your mind in our upcoming Virtual Event,  ‘The Road to Resilience’.

Mentoring: Support and advice during these tough times

When we are all surrounded by so much uncertainty, it helps to find someone we can trust.

From a professional perspective, a mentor can be just that – someone who has our best interest at heart. Although a manager might seem the best placed to provide work-related advice, sometimes it helps to get a different view of things.

Mentoring provides a safe sounding board

As the University of Melbourne’s Mobile Learning Business Manager, Edwina Coller AFIML explains, “There are often areas that mentees don’t want to discuss with their manager because it’s about them personally and not relevant to their role.”

During these tough times, we are all inundated with things that have changed, that we aren’t sure of and things that cause us to be fearful. We may not be comfortable discussing those things with our manager.

Fresh perspectives during tough times

Surviving through difficult circumstances can take a toll on our ability to think and make decisions. That’s why Onno Van Es FIML, Manager HR Strategy and Engagement at Mackay Hospital and Health Service, makes sure his mentees are clear about how the mentoring process can benefit them.

“My style of mentoring is based around adult learning principles. It’s not a lecture style of learning, where I provide all the answers. Rather, I focus on the mentee taking ownership of their learning by being internally motivated and self-directed,” says Van Es.

Whether you are looking for new perspectives, want a sounding board you can trust or simply need to expand your social and professional connections, mentoring can help you.


Become a mentor or mentee now

IML ANZ Members enjoy complimentary access to the Member Exchange mentoring program.

Now is your chance to give and gain support from other managers and leaders during this extraordinary period. A new mentoring cohort starts in mid-May. To take part, register here before 24 April.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Tools and resources to get ahead

In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Jim Bright, professor of career education and development at ACU, discussed how to get ahead in your career and leadership. Bright states, “If you want to get ahead, work with what is in front of you, not what you think should be in front of you. Great leaders are great improvisers in the sense that they make do… with whatever is at their disposal”.

Indeed, it can be so easy to blame others or external circumstances for your situation – but leaders are decisive and get on with it regardless of the situation. They take limitations and turn them into opportunities to innovate and collaborate.

That’s why having the right tools or resources at hand matters. Depending on the situation you face, there is a wealth of materials leaders can draw upon to help them tackle the challenges.

Constructive criticism

Bright also discussed the need to surround yourself with “people who care enough to be critical in a positive way”. If leaders only surround themselves with “yes” people, a toxic environment can result as colleagues and staff resent the narrow view and are frustrated with their own inability to make changes. The “yes” people can be reasonably safe, but only for so long. Good leaders need people they can trust, who keep them honest, question, critique and explore opportunities.

Soft skills

Effective leaders need to have a vision, but the vision is limited if it can’t be communicated effectively. Effective leaders are hard on themselves in a way that creates growth rather than destruction. Effective leaders are flexible and adaptable enough to seek solutions to challenges and strong enough to hold their vision and include others in their successes.

Analytics tools

As a leader, it’s very important to have a grounded assessment of your strengths and areas of challenge. There are many psychometric tools available and if used as a tool, rather than a prescription, are very effective to know what strengths you play to and where your areas of growth could be. The list below is just a sample of what’s available – all have similarities and it’s really a matter of personal preference, access and cost.

  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – personality tool
  • DiSC – behavioural profiling tool
  • Print – Unconscious Motivators tool
  • Strengths Finder (Tom Rath)
  • Life Styles Indicator (LSI) – underlying thoughts and motivations leading to behaviours
  • Enneagram – personality tool
  • Harrison Assessments – talent management tool

Books on leadership

There is a huge spectrum of leadership books on the market. The following list is a small introduction to get you thinking about different leadership elements and approaches.

  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, continues to be a very powerful self-development tool for leaders, especially if you are new to leadership.
  • The Truth about Trust (in Business), by Vanessa Hall, provides practical and anecdotal insights on how to increase results, retention and improve business relationships.
  • The Five Literacies of Global Leadership by Richard David Hames focussing on authentic leadership in a changing, and frequently challenging time.
  • Primal Leadership: Realising the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman who builds on his Emotional Intelligence book and specifically looks at its application to leadership.
  • The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximise Your Potential by John C. Maxwell explains how leadership doesn’t come from a title, but it’s about the ability to inspire and build a team that produces not only results but also future leaders.
  • Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. Explores beyond what and how we do our roles and delves into the Why – because this is the thing that inspires us and those around us.
  • Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer who explore the need for shifting from an “ego-system” focussed on oneself to an eco-system which emphasises the well-being of the whole.
  • Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together by William Isaacs. This book, based on over ten years’ research, discusses the value within organisations to use language and listening successfully to build positive cultures.
  • The Leader’s Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success by Jim Clemmer is a series of insights and bite-sized briefings on the timeless principles of leading people.
  • Clear Leadership: Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work by Gervase R. Bushe who provides interesting and challenging insights into how to build organisational cultures without fear, creating a culture where healthy partnerships and collaboration are organised and sustained.
  • Leadership Matters: 7 Skills of Very Successful Leaders by David Pich and Ann Messenger. IML ANZ’s Chief Executive, David Pich and Board Chair, Ann Messenger provide insights on leadership shaped by practice rather than theory – the ‘perspiration’ rather than the ‘inspiration’.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Successful careers through solid planning

Gone are the days when careers meant moving straight up a ladder. These days, career paths have become more like a lattice – you might take steps upwards, sideways or even downwards.

That’s what makes career planning a crucial step in managing your learning and development. Regardless of where you are in your career, it’s useful to explore the path that you’re on. By developing new knowledge and skills, you’ll be well equipped to move into that new opportunity, no matter where it is on your career lattice.

Think of career planning as a continuous process of:

  • Reflecting on your interests, values, skills and preferences
  • Exploring the life, work and learning options available to you
  • Ensuring that your work fits with your personal circumstances
  • Fine-tuning your work and learning plans to help you manage changes in life and work

You can revisit and use this process at any stage of your career.

Start at the step that is most relevant for you now.

Planning cycle

The career planning process has four fundamental steps:

Step 1: knowing yourself

Step 2: finding out

Step 3: making decisions

Step 4: taking action

Let’s take a look at each step.

Step 1: knowing yourself

Ask yourself:

  • Where am I at in knowledge and skills now?
  • What do I want out of a job or career?
  • What do I like to do?
  • What are my strengths?
  • What is important to me?
  • Where do I want to be?
  • How will I get there?

After this, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests and values.

At the end of this step, you will have a clearer idea of your work or learning goal and your individual preferences.

The SWOT analysis in Article 1 can also be of great use to you at this point. You can use this information about yourself like your personal ‘wish list’ against which you can compare all the information you gather in the next step: finding out. Your personal preferences are very useful for helping you choose your current best option, which you can do in Step 3: making decisions.

Step 2: finding out

This step is about exploring the roles and learning areas that interest you. Once you have some idea of your job preferences you can research the specific skills and qualifications required in those professions.

  • Explore. Ask people around you about their roles, how they achieved success in their career. This mentoring program is an excellent forum for learning about others’ stories how they built their career.
  • Identify. Pick out roles that interest you. Assess whether your skills and interests match up with the job’s requirements. Do you have skills that are transferrable for this particular role or profession?
  • Develop. Taking on projects in your current workplace is a great way to close any knowledge and skills gaps to further your career journey. Also, look at developing skills outside of work. Sporting, community and charity groups always need people with a vast range of skills.
  • Locate. Do research not just on careers but on companies who you think you’d like to work with and where your interests and values align. Find out where your preferred roles are on offer.

At the end of this step you will have a list of preferred roles, companies you’d like to work with and opportunities for further learning.

Step 3: making decisions

This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what currently suits you best.

Ask yourself:

  • What are my best work or training options? How will these currently impact on my work and life situation? How long will it take to get appropriate knowledge or qualifications and how do I manage my career in the meantime?
  • How do they match with my skills, interests and values?
  • How do they fit with the current labour market? What’s happening in the economy and politically? Is there opportunity for career growth within my current organisation or region?
  • How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
  • What will help and what will hinder me?
  • What can I do about it?

At the end of this step you will have narrowed down your options and have more of an idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals. We would recommend that you use the Kolb Action Learning model in your Mentoring Resource book. This will provide an excellent tool to assist you at this stage of planning.

Step 4: taking action

Here you plan the steps you need to take.

Use all you have learnt about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan.

Begin by asking yourself:

  • What steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals?
  • Where can I get help?
  • Who will support me? Who can give me a reality check about my choice at this stage? What might be some of the barriers moving forward and how will I overcome them?

At the end of this step you will have:

  • A plan to help you explore your options further (work experience, work shadowing or more research); or
  • A plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal
  • Decide which step is relevant for you right now and start from there.

In all of this you need to remember that your career doesn’t happen in isolation to other aspects of your life.

As you work your way through the model ensure that you’re taking your entire life circumstance into any decisions you make.

Empathetic and factual communication during uncertain times

By Peter Russo FIML

In front of you lays an ever-increasing amount of distressing news, and growing uncertainty. It’s hard to see what your workplace tomorrow, let alone later today, will look like. Your staff are also confronted by this, becoming increasingly apprehensive, which weighs heavily on them – a knot is building in your stomach. The obstacles perhaps seem insurmountable, and your attempts to find answers just create more questions. You are dealing with an unprecedented event in modern times, and it is now, more than ever, a time to become people-centric as a leader. When the mechanical aspects of business seem to be in seizure, you need to draw on the more visceral attribute of leadership – being human.

Throughout history there are multiple examples where collaboration underwrote the resilience for a group to overcome adversity. The remedy to our current state of affairs is no different. Therefore, it’s vital that you are engaging your staff about not only the economic realities facing your business, but the human aspect. The only way to do this is by showing empathy and dealing with facts.

Why empathy and truthfulness matter

In today’s world people are faced with an incredible number of opinions, some of which are generated with the intent to sensationalise. This creates anxiety, and only acts in the interest of derision as a community.

Your message must be clear, empathetic and constructive. No one has all the answers, but you – as a leader – can provide them with a feeling of security, and you shouldn’t be afraid to admit you don’t know. It’s support, not false-hopes, that will bind your team and ensure you’re moving together in the right direction.

The 24-hour news cycle, and the relentless bombardment of news only acts to aggravate fear and panic. What your staff really need is a clear, concise and candid outlining of facts.

What you can do as a leader

Here are some ideas on how to provide empathetic and factual communication during uncertain times:

  • Give regular updates. Do it often and in simple digestible portions. As a suggestion, at least every second day and more often for staff who have been isolated or working from home for an extended period.
  • Provide timely information. Tell your teams what you know now rather than waiting until you have all the answers. Use all appropriate channels to communicate new information regularly.
  • Do not exaggerate. Whether it is good or bad, stick to the facts. Do not simply look for a positive spin.
  • Use a collaboration of ideas. Often staff have sound ideas that can help. Be prepared to unpack those ideas and push them up the organisational chain. In adversity, very few ideas are considered bad ideas as everyone has a part to play.
  • Recognise and acknowledge emotions. Understand the behaviours we see are the proverbial tip of the iceberg; the result of the underlying emotions, including fear, doubt and concern. Have open conversations to help allay fears.
  • Be open and honest. It is very important to ensure you keep your staff in the loop on how decisions are made and what considerations are being taken.
  • Make yourself available. Finally, check-in with your staff. Sometimes a simple ‘how are you?’ can break down barriers resulting from isolation.

The challenges we are facing are unprecedented in modern times. The foundations of our society are being tested, and we ought not forget that. Social distancing is impacting the fabric of our communities and how we collaborate. For many, the work environment, whether it be virtual or physical, is now their sole community linkage and it is essential they maintain a sense of belonging in such an environment. Remember, adversity builds character and over the longer term can bring people together. Create the work community that helps bring staff together and that has some semblance of normal, in a not so normal world at present.

No matter how this turns out, your business will invariably reshape. You therefore are tasked with quite an exciting opportunity – to use a crisis to embed humanistic leadership practices.


Peter Russo is a sessional lecturer at RMIT University and the founder of Engaging Leaders, a  professional training and coaching consultancy.


The value of self-discovery for leaders

By Wayne Smithson CMgr FIML

 

After a 40-year career at senior finance positions and having studied in some form for most of that time, I didn’t think I needed to learn anything about my leadership style.

So, when I was asked to consider becoming a Chartered Manager, I thought that this would be a relatively easy and quick process – a first misconception. I also thought that in my position as program director, there would not be any real obvious benefits for either myself or the organisation – my second misconception.

 

A journey of self-reflection

When I commenced the process of becoming chartered, I thought that leadership, a complex and well-covered academic topic, really comes down to experiences and self-anecdotal evidence.

However, these anecdotes and experiences are only valuable if they are intentionally recalled and put into practice. There’s no point assuming that the skills can be stored and accessed on demand.

The process appeared simple. Although in my current role, some of the leadership questions in the submission did not seem relevant at first glance.

 

Reflecting on the reality of one’s unique role

As a program director for the Bachelor of Accounting program for Universal Business School Sydney, I didn’t realise that the current business model I work within called for a different approach to leadership. Call it a transitional contingency approach to leadership if you will.

As with many private higher education providers and universities, the business model involves the tensions created by contractual employment. It can be called a “sessional” workforce, with ongoing employment determined by the demand for the subjects being offered.

This factor alone presents several unusual leadership challenges, not the least is developing and implementing a coherent business unit plan.

By comparison, this would have been a more manageable task had I applied my experiences in a commercial context which mostly meant management of permanent staff. However, with some critical thought, the contingent nature of my leadership role became evident.

 

The value of self-reflection

So what were the benefits for me?

The combination of my written reflection document and the probing questions were the catalysts for leadership self-discovery. It revealed my leadership style and attributes that I apply in my daily management and leadership role.

The three main benefits of self-reflection include learning about:

  • The known – the affirmation of leadership skills of which I was consciously aware and practised well.
  • The unknown – identification of in leadership skills in which were weak and requiring more attention and focus.
  • The unknown unknowns – highlighting leadership traits of which I was not aware I was employing.

 

Of these, the last two were the real eye-openers concerning my role, with the potential to ultimately benefit my team’s effectiveness.

Overall this exercise alone heightened my leadership awareness and intensity, in particular, the “contingent” nature of the leadership skills I have applied in my role.

Identifying where I could improve the application of those skills, however, was eye-opening. Identifying the skills I was employing and was not consciously aware was the big win.

I have now taken these learnings forward in the workplace and generally reflect across the areas of focus required to be a leader.

 

What are the benefits for the organisation?

Although, from an organisational perspective, the benefits can be somewhat intangible, all management and leadership training results typically in a positive cascading effect throughout all levels of the organisation.

Arguably the potential organisational benefits relate specifically to:

  • Highly effective team management
  • Improved team focus and direction
  • Greater productivity

 

I recommend the Chartered Manager program to all those in the academic field, not just for the internationally recognised accreditation, but also for the self-discovery in leadership that it provides. It’s an excellent opportunity for leadership awareness and practical course correction.


 

Wayne Smithson is Program Director of the Bachelor of Business Program at Universal Business School Sydney (UBSS). He is a Fellow of IML ANZ and a Chartered Manager.

Five tips for successfully managing people

As told to Andy McLean MIML

In a leadership career spanning five decades, Chris Golis FIML has learned a thing or few about managing people. In this article, he shares five tips for a successful life and career.

1. ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS MATTER

In 1973 I was flown twice to New York by McKinsey & Company and offered a job – but I must be one of only a few people to ever turn them down. My MBA tutor was Charles Handy [who later became a world-famous management guru] and he said to me, “Chris, I’m not sure I’d take that if I were you. I’ve been thinking about what makes business success and have come to the conclusion that it’s being able to handle yourself in a one-on-one meeting. That’s when you get the job, hire someone, get fired, secure the funding, come up with a business plan, and so on.” I took his advice and instead pursued a sales career. I arrived in Sydney the same week that the Sydney Opera House opened.

2. PEOPLE DRIVE PERFORMANCE, EMOTIONS DRIVE PEOPLE, TEMPERAMENT DRIVES EMOTIONS

In sales I learned that we sell to people’s heart, not to people’s head. Understanding someone’s temperament is absolutely vital if you want to get the best out of them. The problem is most managers do not have a scientifically valid model of temperament to help them determine their own and other people’s core emotions. I practise and teach the most practical temperament tool available, the 7MTF which can dramatically lift your emotional intelligence. In the same way the Humm-Wadsworth temperament model is built on the earlier work of Rosanoff, the 7MTF builds on the work done by Humm and Wadsworth. All three models conceive our temperament traits as based on one’s position on the various spectra of mental illnesses.

3. ABOVE ALL, PEOPLE SKILLS MATTER

In 2005, my elder daughter Louisa was asked to run a team of 30 people at Perpetual before she was 30. She asked me a good question: “Dad, you have read all the business books, what do you recommend I read?” I began by referring her to research among Australian managers that showed ‘people skills’ ranked as far and away the most important leadership capability. So I said to Louisa she should read a book that would improve her people skills. After some thought, I realised that there was no practical handbook written to help new managers develop their people skills so I decided that I had to write one myself. Thus The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence was born and published in 2007. (Read details of the book at emotionalintelligencecourse.com.)

4. LEADERS CAN LEARN A LOT FROM THE CLASSICS

At the end of my book, I analysed five classic plays as business case studies. Why? Because theatre gives us a picture of what we are and what we want to be. It helps us to find out about ourselves and others. So I analysed three Shakespeare plays, as well as Death of a Salesman and Antigone, through the prism of emotional intelligence. In each play, the hero suffers a terrible reversal of fortune and loses everything they hold most dear. We can see how their personality traits inform the decisions they make, and can draw business lessons from these to enhance our own emotional intelligence. (For more, read this article listing five leadership lessons from Shakespeare)

5. PRIORITISE WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU

I survived cancer in 2000, 2014 and 2019 (my daughters say I’m now a cat with six lives!). Facing your own mortality changes your outlook on life. When I realised there was a chance I was going to die, I decided to empower the people around me to let them make decisions. I loved my work in venture capitalism but also knew business life would one day have to continue without me. I also asked myself: “What do I want out of life?” In 2000, my wife and I drew up a bucket list of places we wanted to visit and, since then, we’ve been on two overseas trips every year.


Chris Golis FIML is the CEO and lead presenter at Emotional Intelligence Courses.

Andy McLean MIML is the Editorial Director of Leadership Matters magazine.


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.