How to present and build culture and your competitive advantage

Everywhere you look these days there’s some kind of change on the horizon. Companies are restructuring, offshoring and battling to stay ever present in consumers’ minds to stay ahead.

The result? Battle scars that get left on teams and team members, that if not fixed, continue to eat away at your company’s culture, productivity and profits.

More and more clients and departments are waking up to the fact that a company’s performance is driven by an engaged team and culture. As Gallup states on their website: “A strong culture makes employees want to perform better and makes customers want to spread the word about you.”

But building a strong culture isn’t easy. It doesn’t mean having ping-pong tables and bean bags. It does mean making sure that everyone in the company is aligned and eager to work towards the same values and vision.

The best way to do this is to focus on how you communicate internally, whether you are a manager, leader, a CEO, or an executive.

Everyone in your company needs to feel part of the equation. They need to be clear on how their role fits into the puzzle and fulfils a greater purpose. This needs to be more than words on the wall, on posters or coffee cups.

Often, it’s up to management to communicate and motivate teams towards a new vision or higher purpose through a presentation at a town-hall style meeting. This is usually supported through crowded and boring slides full of flashy org charts, mission statements and goals that do anything but leave your team feeling energised.

If you look at the majority of presentations, the content is presenter centric. The speaker talks about how good they are, shows off all the data they have, and how much growth the organisation is undergoing.

This kind of approach instantly alienates our audience. They are left thinking, but what about me? Why is that important? How will my world be affected as a result? In a nutshell, why should they care?

Thanks to the digital world we live in, our audiences’ needs and demands are constantly changing, which is what makes communicating so hard! In general, people want a more personalised approach, a more intelligent approach, and that is why it’s crucial to put your audience and their needs first.

Your presentation is your opportunity as a speaker to connect with your audience and create a united front. This only happens when you write, design and deliver a message in your presentation that puts your audience first and includes these 3 vital things:

  1. Being honest

    We need to remember we are connecting with our teams and employees, human to human. Unfortunately, we often think that as leaders we need to be different and that can translate to being cold and insincere.Instead, just be honest. Start with the reality of the situation – what is the situation right now, how are people feeling and what challenges is everyone facing? Don’t hide any bad news. Lying or covering up the truth only makes things worse. But make sure you move to the solutions and positives, show the future opportunity that everyone can be a part of.
  1. Sharing common ground
    You need to create common ground with your audience, to really address their key concerns and show them that you understand where they are coming from. The best way to do this is by sharing stories that show emotion, that show you understand where they are at and what they are faced with, perhaps because you’ve been in a similar situation before.
  1. Putting your audience’s needs first

    Do your homework and actually research the people in the room – why are they there? What challenges are they facing? How can you help them?

Resist the temptation to just read from slides and talk profit. Help your audience to feel that you are equally invested in the same outcome, whether that is company success, profitability, or future job security. Show a weaker side and your audience will really feel like you are all part of the same journey.

 

Learning to communicate well internally is your key to communicating well externally. After all, your greatest advocates are those people working with you, alongside you, every day, always.

 

Emma Bannister is passionate about presenting big, bold and beautiful ideas.

She is the founder and CEO of Presentation Studio, APAC’s largest presentation communication & training agency, Microsoft MVP, and author of the book ‘Visual Thinking: How to transform the way you think, communicate and influence with presentations.’ Emma will be speaking at IML’s Sydney TEL Talk: Enhancing Innovation and Creativity – How to make an impact.  

https://linkedin.com/in/emmabpresents

https://www.presentationstudio.com/

From wilderness to CEO: how I started my first company

When I left my last job at Logica, it was a tough decision to make as I had to survive without income in order to achieve my dream of setting up a successful startup. But that’s what 88% of the entrepreneurs do. My parents kindly invested in the new business.

In 1995 – two years after the first web browser was released, I spent all my money on a high-speed internet connection (only 64K then) and headed out to research what business would benefit from the Internet. I’d been using the Internet since the 1987 when I did a research trip to the USA with my University. The Internet was a great solution but what was the problem?

I then tried my hands into real estate business but turned out that it was challenging as agents kept all their prices hidden and only revealed them to clients who walked in the door. The next on my list was to get into travel accommodation. After testing the market for a while I realized that people were taking a punt. I could foresee an income of around 1,000 GBP per year, but little prospect of any increase soon. So I was back to the drawing board.

After several more abortive ideas I realized the real problem was staring me in the face. Communication on the Internet was a real challenge for most companies. What was the point of a website if you couldn’t get email? I created an email solution and within a year I had seven people working for me. I remember the first customer well, like every entrepreneur does – Falmouth College of Arts. Within a few years Telstra, the US Army, and NASA made to our customer list. I ran the world’s forum for email – anyone with a question about setting up email came to me. I owned the problem to which I  happened to have a great solution.

Looking back, I was young and able to take the risk of jumping before I had an income.

But what was really  required for my success was to get out of my comfort zone and test my ideas with strangers.  I walked into shops, called people, sent them letters to discover what my potential customers thought and listened to the response before I built anything.

It was a great learning for me as I got to dive deep into their world and   understand  how they looked at things. By doing this I was able to quickly narrow down ideas that would really work at the end. Only after contacting and speaking to many hundreds of people did I eventually hit on a problem I could solve. That of providing communication on the internet.

The same process works now!

Statistics show that entrepreneurs over 40 have a significant advantage over the younger generations. The reason being  they already know an industry and so they can see how things can be improved. They already have a network of people who’d benefit, the confidence to go and ask open questions and listen to the response. And because they already have an income, they are not financially stressed.

When you know how, testing an idea to see if it can become a source of revenue costs very little – just a pack of business cards, some time and a little thought. Some people stumble on the process, others stand on the shoulders of the greats. Many start in their spare time and their passion takes over and customers start arriving.

Knowing you have to ask open questions and listen is the key. Listen to the answers and find others with a passion to solve the same problem as you.

Then you have the dream team…

By Brian Dorricott

Founder of two businesses exited through multi-million MBO and sale to Cisco Systems, speaker and  guide to hundreds of Entrepreneurs.

4 KEY FINDINGS THAT DEMYSTIFY OUR BRAINS

NEUROSCIENTIST DR HANNAH CRITCHLOW SAYS THAT MANAGERS AND LEADERS HAVE A DUTY TO GET THEIR HEADS AROUND HOW THE BRAIN WORKS.

By Lachlan Colquhoun // Photograph by Paul Musso

OF ALL THE ORGANS, the brain has always been viewed in a different way, and with special reverence.

Weighing only 1.5 kilograms, or around 2 per cent of our body mass, the brain is seen as the driver of our personalities, the home of our soul, the repository of memory, and the computer that keeps the whole body ticking over so that we can function in society.

While medical science has gone a long way to demystify the physiology of other organs, such as the liver and the heart, our understanding of the brain and its 86 billion neurons has remained comparatively limited until recently.

Breakthroughs in neuroscience over the past decade, however, are rapidly lifting the veil on our understanding of the body’s most complex organ and, in the process, helping us understand more about human behaviour.

“This is a great time to be a neuroscientist, we are peering into the mind as never before,” says Dr Hannah Critchlow, a British author, neuroscientist and fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. “We are learning about the brain at an exponential rate now — there are as many as five to ten thousand new research papers coming out each month.

“We still have a lot to learn of course, and there are still major problems, as we can see with mental health, but we are discovering the real underpinnings of the brain’s operation and this information will help us to better treat some of the debilitating conditions of the mind.”

1. Reality check

Dr Critchlow is at the frontline of neuroscience and is on a mission to communicate its findings to the world. Nominated as one of the UK’s Top 100 Scientists by the Science Council, she is about to follow up her first book Consciousness with a second publication on the theme of “the science of fate”. Many of the insights from neuroscience, Dr Critchlow says, have come from understanding the brain as a physical organ. Advancing technologies such as optogenetics, which uses light to stimulate specific circuits in the brain, are revealing more about the physiology of behaviours that were previously considered part of the mystery of personality. Entrepreneurs and drug addicts, for example, have particular brain anatomies, as do people with ADHD and those who enjoy socialising more than others. For managers and leaders, the challenge is to work with an understanding that everyone has a different perspective on reality and that certain acts that were previously considered voluntary may, in fact, be hardwired. Although exercise and meditation can help us grow new brain cells and the connections between them, just as chronic stress and depression can kill them off, there may be limits to the ultimate “plasticity” of what a person can achieve with the particular brain they are born with. The old adage that “you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it” may prove to have clear scientific limitations. “We can literally see how the circuit board of the mind — this amazing machine comprised of billions of nerve cells, with trillions of connections between them — shifts and changes as we make decisions and experience the world around us,” she says. “We can switch feelings of pleasure on or off, and feelings of anxiety and even addiction, so we are really starting to understand how these discrete circuit boards in our brain give rise to very particular behaviours.” Part of this is a more holistic understanding that the brain does not exist in isolation at the top of the body, and that its interactions are strongly linked with the immune system, to our gut, and to organs such as the heart.

“At its most basic, when you have a cold or the flu you feel down in the dumps and depressed, and there is a physical reason for that because your brain is almost in a depressed state at that point,” says Dr Critchlow. “There is also a lot of emerging evidence which suggests that people with chronic depression might have altered immune systems as well, so their immune system is attacking the brain. An altered immune system has even been linked to the terrifying symptoms of psychosis, and in some patients simply clearing their blood of the faulty immune cells can stop the symptoms for good.”

2. Performance enhancing drugs

These new understandings of the brain have created new treatments for depression and addiction, and perhaps controversially, opened up the potential to enhance our creative capacities through the use of smart drugs. “There is lots of information coming out now about how creativity and problem-solving in the brain is formed, and there are drugs called cognitive enhancers which seem to boost certain aspects of our alertness, or our reasoning and our concentration skills,” says Dr Critchlow. “There’s also psychedelics, which previously people were mainly interested in from a recreational viewpoint, but now small doses of these drugs have been implicated in boosting creativity and problem-solving skills, raising all sorts of considerations around whether we want people in the workplace to be taking small amounts of drugs, even if it does boost their performance.” Alongside research into drugs, there has also been work done on “brain helmets” that use mild electrical currents to stimulate specific areas of the brain to see how this can foster particular behaviours like, for example, creativity.

3. Plasticity has limits

But while this research shows that capabilities can be enhanced, and that we do each hold the scope for plasticity and flexibility within our brains, Dr Critchlow says a key finding of neuroscience is that many of our behaviours are “ingrained” because of how our brains process the vast amounts of information from the outside world, and accepting this has particular relevance in the workplace. “So rather than trying to make somebody fit into a role and a set of expectations, it may be more productive to just create the environment that will help them to flourish and make use of the skillsets they bring,” she says. “Although our brain has a huge scope for plasticity and we can learn new things, emerging neuroscience is showing that people have specific strengths and weaknesses that sometimes you just can’t change.” People whose brains have a larger prefrontal cortex, for example, with many “slots” for beta-endorphins, are “almost hardwired” to need a wide number of different friendship groups. “They are like conduits which let information be exchanged from clique to clique, so that is a very important role within society,” says Dr Critchlow. “And then there are people with a much smaller prefrontal cortex and they have a much smaller group of friends, or they spend more time with each of their friends in closer relationships. “There is a hypothesis that because these people have fewer beta endorphin spots they don’t need to go around filling them up by meeting lots of other people.” These two types of people respond differently to the workplace. The first type, with the larger prefrontal cortex, may be more comfortable working in an open plan office where they can mix with larger number of colleagues, while those with the second brain type may prefer to work in smaller groups.

4. Entrepreneurial thinking

Neuroscience is also beginning to understand the brains of entrepreneurs, which can sometimes be similar to people with ADHD. “People who are entrepreneurs and who are thriving in taking risks in business have an evolutionary drive to do so and that is based around their brain biology,” says Dr Critchlow. “Much of this is intuitive, of course, and we have talked about this for decades but neuroscience is now demonstrating how this has a basis in the brain.” In her next book, Dr Critchlow is focusing on the subject of “the science of fate,” looking at the extent to which our behaviours are predetermined by the brains we are born with. “I am interested in understanding how much of our behaviour is ingrained,” she says. “We are seeing now that a lot of what we do is predetermined, so that opens up the question on whether we actually have any agency, or any free will at all. We have been sold this concept that the brain is highly plastic and that we have the power to change our behaviours if we can put our minds to it, but this may not necessarily be the truth.” The take out from all this is one of acceptance and tolerance. People have strengths and weaknesses and need to work with them, but at the same time environments need to be sensitive to this to help a diversity of people flourish. “For leaders and managers there is a responsibility for acceptance, but also to use this to be the best person they can be and look after the mental health of their teams,” says Dr Critchlow. She says that she personally has “appalling spelling” as a result of dyslexia, “but I’m okay with that.” Everybody is on a spectrum for every different kind of behaviour, and although there is some wriggle room for moving, we must accept that we need an environment which can nourish us. “Our individuality is a beautiful thing, and it’s the brain which produces that individuality.”

MINDBLOWING EVENTS

Dr Hannah Critchlow will be speaking at a series of IML Leadership Impact events, exploring the neuroscience behind leadership. To find out more and book your seats in Brisbane (8 November), Melbourne (13 November), Sydney (14 November), and Canberra (15 November) visit managersandleaders.com.au/leadership-impact-series/

LEADERSHIP IN 60 SECONDS:

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, SNAPCHAT OR LINKEDIN?

Facebook.

PHONE, EMAIL, TEXT OR FACE-TO-FACE?

Face-to-face. No question! Interesting face-to-face communication helps to synchronise brain waves. Your brain takes snapshots of the world at regular intervals.

WHICH LEADER HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM MOST DURING YOUR CAREER?

Trevor Robbins, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Cambridge. He is good at long-term strategy. A junior chess champion, he places people like chess pieces, to make sure his ultimate aim is realised. It’s beautiful to watch. He’s also very kind and generous with is time.

WHICH LEADERSHIP BOOK DO YOU MOST RECOMMEND?

My next book! It will be about the science of fate.

WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF LEADERSHIP ADVICE YOU WERE GIVEN EARLY IN YOUR CAREER?

Always have a Plan A, B and C.

NAME THREE QUALITIES THAT A LEADER CAN’T SUCCEED WITHOUT

The ability to take other people’s thoughts and perspectives on board; pragmatic and practical problem solving; to know when to relax and stop stressing.

COMPLETE THE SENTENCE. LEADERSHIP MATTERS BECAUSE…

Looking to the future, as a species, we are going to be exposed to many problems. We need leadership to help solve them so that we can survive.

SNAKES AND LADDERS: What not to do when taking a sideways or downward career step

FIVE THINGS NOT TO DO WHEN TAKING A SIDEWAYS OR DOWNWARD STEP IN YOUR CAREER.
Margot Smith

Careers can sometimes be like Snakes & Ladders. You take on a high profile project and overachieve, and you climb up the ladder. Next thing, you realise you are becoming too technically specialised, and you decide to take a step down to get more experience in a broader range of management and leadership skills, and down the snake you go.

When people take a step down or sideways, even if it’s for very strategic reasons, the biggest success factor is attitude. As in Snakes & Ladders, different roles (both paid and voluntary) are steps towards your ultimate destination. This is never a straightforward path.

If you’re faced with a sideways or downward career step, my advice is to put you big girl (or boy) pants on and make the most of it. See it is an opportunity. After all, many other people would probably be grateful to have the role you’ve just secured.

LONDON CALLING

I moved to the UK at the start of the global financial crisis. I considered myself quite the catch from an employer’s perspective and thought it would take me days, not weeks or months to land a role in London. But it took me two months to secure a three-month contract position. I went from managing a team of 20 in Australia to flying solo in a project-based role. But I embraced it and, before long, I was offered another, meatier role.

It’s fair to say that I went to London to add global experience to my CV and also to enjoy living and working in Europe. During these two years, I travelled more than I have ever had the pleasure of doing before or after. I also met some lifelong friends.

So my priority was living life to the fullest, not just career development. But it took me several years to get back to the responsibility levels of my pre-London role.

FIVE TIPS

Informed by my experiences, and also those of friends and colleagues who have also taken a perceived sideways or downward career step, I can share the following tips.

  1. Don’t remind everyone repeatedly that this is a step down for you. Whether or not the decision to take this career move was your choice, be mindful of those around you. Reminding everyone around that you are “better than this” doesn’t reflect well on you. If you are humble and show colleagues what you can do, they will see how much value you can add.

2. Don’t treat the role as beneath you. Give the role 100% and approach it with a positive and proactive attitude. That is the best way to demonstrate that you can add more value. You have made a choice to take this role (whether or not the path that led you here was of your choosing), so do your best and overachieve, if that’s what you have the potential to do.

3. Don’t fail to respect the people around you in similar roles or circumstances. Be aware of those around you, and how your language and behaviour could be interpreted by them. If they are both fortunate and happy with their role and position within the organisation, your comments about this role being a step down (for you) is not particularly sensitive. So zip it, and get on with it.

4. Don’t ditch the role as soon as you can. I can think of too many circumstances where people have taken a role for the right reasons at a point in time, only to resign within a few weeks when something else comes up. Yes, you have your career to think about and you are only answerable to yourself, but think about the organisation you have made a commitment to. They have inducted you, spent time and resources to get you up to speed and, if you make a fast exit, you’re leaving them in the lurch. Think carefully about your reasons for taking the role in the first place. Are they still valid? If so, don’t jump ship for the sake of it. Consider if there is still growth in this role.

There are times when the role advertised doesn’t match the reality you find once inside (and probation exists for both parties). But if you made a choice to take this role and if it’s exactly what they advertised it to be – you should consider honouring that commitment for a reasonable period of time.

5. Don’t be smug when you move onto the next opportunity. Okay, so you’ve given the role a red hot go, and a new opportunity has opened up internally or externally. Everything is finally falling into place. Be gracious, be grateful for the opportunity and thank everyone who supported you in this role. Time for your next adventure!

 

Margot Smith is the General Manager Membership at IML.

MENTAL HEALTH MEDIC

Dispelling stigma around mental health issues helps those suffering seek help, and Phillip Thompson AFIML, 2018 Queensland Young Australian of the Year, R U Ok? Ambassador and special projects manager for selectability, has dedicated himself to that cause.

  

Phillip Thompson has made it his personal mission to break the stigmas associated with mental illness. More than eight years ago, at the age of 20, the former serving soldier was wounded in Afghanistan, while serving with the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.

Thompson, of Townsville, suffered a traumatic brain injury, lost hearing in his right ear and was diagnosed with mental illness.

 

The experience and his road to “wellbeing” dramatically changed his life and outlook. Once Thompson started to work again, he threw himself into philanthropy, volunteering and advocacy work for people who have a mental illness, and those affected by suicide.

His dedication earnt him the accolade of 2018 Queensland Young Australian of the Year and led him to being chosen as an ambassador for well-being and suicide prevention organisation R U Ok? . He was also appointed as the organisation’s Special Projects Manager for Selectability.

 

“Friends of mine from the service have died by suicide and I think it’s important for me to advocate for them and for people who are still struggling,” he said.

He is honoured to be an R U Ok? ambassador and says the role is a perfect fit, as the organisation’s mission to reduce the stigma of mental illness and stop suicide aligns with his personal values.

“I am a hands-on ambassador,” he says. “I try to do all of it every day. I try and lead by example because in the veterans’ space, veterans under the age of 30 have a higher risk of dying by suicide than the general public.

“Townsville has the largest veteran arena in the southern hemisphere and the largest veteran cohort per capita in Australia. With R U OK?, what I do every single day is talk about suicide prevention, where to get help and how to break the stigma.”

 

Thompson’s role as Special Projects Manager for Selectability involves handling the organisation’s special projects. These can involve anything from organising government grants to project works; like a recent initiative that involved sourcing a building to create a purpose-built clubhouse to help teach workforce skills to people suffering from mental illness.

Thompson says it is important to him to lead a meaningful life. “Everyone asks, ‘How do we reduce stigma and how do we slow rates of suicide and combat mental illness?’ I think it’s about having purpose and meaningful engagement,” he said.

“Also, I think that’s what gets me out of bed. I get out of bed because if I don’t, I feel more friends of mine could succumb to their wars within.”   LM

 

THE BAD SMELL IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

MANAGERS AND LEADERS IN SOME OF AUSTRALIA’S MAJOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE LEARNING SOME PAINFUL (AND VERY PUBLIC) LESSONS

 by Sam Bell FIML

IML’s general manager – corporate services and research

  

They say a fish rots from the head. If that’s true, the stench coming from the top of some of Australia’s largest financial services companies is overwhelming. As with many pundits looking from afar, I’ve been appalled by the findings unearthed by the ongoing Hayne Royal Commission into the financial services sector. Not that it should come as a shock; over many years the industry has repeatedly broken laws and acted immorally, from the bank bill swap rate scandal to the anti-money laundering case, lax compliance breaches, poor financial advice and criminal cartel charges – these are systemic problems across an industry rather than one-off bad eggs acting in isolation.

Of course, the tax payers of Australia would be pleased to know they offer the worst offenders – the four major banks – an implicit government guarantee over their deposit base. A luxury afforded to no other non-government private or public company.

It’s an indictment on the leaders of these organisations that they accept, or willfully ignore inside their organisations, a culture that permeates “poor financial advice, dubious lending practices, mis-selling of financial products, ongoing compliance breaches and an undermining of community trust” (The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s words, not mine). How did it come to this?

 

leaders asleep at the wheel

The recent APRA report that examined the frameworks and practices in relation to governance, culture and accountability within CBA was a particular eye-opener – and a must-read for all directors and management executives. It was scathing of a board asleep at the wheel, with inadequate oversight and challenge by board members, unclear accountabilities on executive committees, overly bureaucratic decision-making that favoured collaboration rather than effective outcomes, a poorly practised risk management framework that was under resourced, and a remuneration structure that offered little punishment for senior managers when poor risk or customer outcomes materialised. 

Interestingly, the APRA report found an organisation where everyone said yes to each other. While a collegiate and trusting environment was established, it appears there was little enthusiasm to constructively challenge decisions or raise alarm at matters going on inside the bank. As a result, the report concluded, “the senior leadership was slow to recognise, and address, emerging threats to CBA’s reputation”.

 

we can’t trust the cosy club

No wonder community mistrust of large business is so widespread. They see enormous salaries being paid (the former AMP Chair was on $660,000 per year) to some individuals who are seemingly unaware of commonly accepted moral standards. All this at the same time as wage growth is barely outpacing the inflation rate for the majority of workers.

There is also a perception of a “directors club” operating in Australia and a raft of senior board appointments selected from a small gene pool. As Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison put it, “the public sees a club that comes with directorships in Australia that creates a coziness that’s not very helpful”. While there’s community outrage, the public are not demanding blood on the streets just yet.

It might all be too late for the younger generation. The latest Deloitte Millennial Survey identifies some worrying views on business motivations and ethics. This year’s results show that fewer than half of respondents (45%) believe business has a positive impact on society. In other words, 55% of millennials believe business has a net negative impact on society. I’m in no doubt the headlines, scandals and rotting fish that’ve been widely broadcast recently have contributed to these disturbing results.

The belief that businesses behave ethically suffered a 19% fall in the survey. Deloitte also uncovered a 30% decline in the belief that business leaders are committed to helping improve society. This all coming from our next generation of leaders.

The final outcome of the Hayne Royal Commission is anyone’s guess. There’s no doubt that as the Commission traverses its way through winter and spring there’s going to be a lot more pain inflicted on what were once some of Australia’s most trusted brands. The revelations of customer mistreatment and illegality will continue to dominate the 24-hour news cycle and further erode the community’s confidence in many of our business leaders.

 

RADICAL RESTRUCTURE REQUIRED

Further unpacking APRA’s report into the CBA, it made 35 recommendations (all have been accepted by the CBA’s leadership team) including a more rigorous board and executive committee level governance of non-financial risks, embedding accountability standards, raising the authority of the compliance functions, and making two key changes to culture: asking the question of “should we” in relation to all dealings with and decisions on customers, and a cultural change that “moves the dial from reactive and complacent to empowered, challenging and striving for best practice in risk identification and remediation”. Sound advice.

So where to from here? Malcolm Broomhead, Chair of Orica and a non-executive director of BHP summed it up well when speaking to the Australian Institute of Company Directors, noting: “We need to somehow rebuild that trust and significant radical restructuring of boards and companies – particularly in relation to remuneration structures – is central to that process”.   

 

MAKE YOUR MARK. GO CHARTERED 

Chartered Manager (CMgr) is the internationally-recognised professional designation accrediting management and leadership excellence.
The highest status that can be achieved as a manager and leader, it allows managers to professionalise their leadership skills and stand out in a competitive global market.
Focused on Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Chartered Manager is awarded on experience, expertise and a commitment to management and leadership.

For more details visit Chartered Manager

Everything you need to know about Member Exchange

The Institute of Managers and Leaders’ Member Exchange mentoring program.

  

The four-month program is a fantastic opportunity for IML members to share their knowledge and skills, while giving something back.

 

Since the complimentary program’s inception four years ago, some 2,000 mentees have benefited from being paired with a mentor – a role which about 1,500 members have taken up, many several times.

Margot Smith FIML, General Manager, Membership – Strategy and Engagement at IML, says Member Exchange pairs up professionals from a broad range of industries, which can range from the resources, education, finance and not-for-profit sectors to name a few, to help with a range of career aspects.

“It could be for coaching purposes. For one person new to the workforce, they might need help enhancing their LinkedIn profile. For others, they might need advice about talking to their manager about a change in role and responsibilities. It could be a raft of things, but it is usually about general management and leadership development,” she says.

 

Smith explains the key competencies of being a mentor are listening, developing a mentee’s confidence and providing a different perspective.

“You are not there to give answers, you are there to coach and lead mentees to solutions,” she said. “It could be providing clarity with goal-setting if they are having difficulties. Or helping them to see a pathway if they are currently feeling blocked.”

The program requires contact between the mentor and mentee once or twice a month.

A desire for career development and an eagerness to learn are Smith’s top tips for mentees wanting to get the most from their mentoring experience.

 

“Don’t be shy about what you would like to get out of the program,” she adds. “You need to be mindful that the mentors are volunteers and that they are giving back. But your career development is no one’s responsibility but your own — so be hungry for management and leadership development. Take the mentor’s advice and run with it. And importantly, do any ‘homework’ recommended – whether it’s reading an article, freshening up your LinkedIn profile or catching up with someone new to your network.

“Make sure you are honest with yourself, that you are setting goals and challenging yourself to learn.”

 

   

An opportunity to give back was what spurred Barry Gordon CMgr FIML to share his wisdom and knowledge as a mentor. Impressed by his experiences, he recently completed a stint as a mentee.

 

Humbling, positive and rewarding are the words Barry Gordon uses to describe his involvement with Member Exchange.

Gordon, a contracts and compliance director with Transport for NSW, said volunteering as a mentor felt like an obligation he should meet.

As he puts it, “If you have achieved some positive outcomes in your life, it is up to you to give back to others who may be struggling.”

 

His two mentoring experiences involved coaching and guiding a young woman in taking over a family business, while the other stint saw him assist an engineering project manager in ways to secure project director roles, via help with cover letters and networking.

He has remained in touch with both mentees, and says seeing the positive changes to their careers was rewarding.

“I have had nice thank you emails and we’ve caught up for a meal and coffee to see how things are settling in,” he says. “It’s rewarding seeing posts on LinkedIn of past mentees’ achievements.”

The positive mentoring experiences led Gordon to consider how he could personally benefit from Member Exchange.

“I started to think, ‘what else can I learn from this and what is in it for me on the other side?’” he says. “I probably looked at it like, I am in the same boat as my mentees. I am in position ‘x’ and looking at what is position ‘y’ for me.”

He said his journey as a mentee helped with gaining a different perspective, while also providing him with a sounding board from his mentor; a semi-retiree who worked in consultancy.

 

Gordon believes Member Exchange is successful because it bridges a gap. “I have found, and certainly with the mentees I have been linked to, that there is just a big gap. People want help but don’t know where to get it,” he says. “These networks don’t necessarily exist in their day-to-day roles.

“As a mentee — reach out, there’s a powerful network of people in IML that are willing and able to help where possible. So make use of it.”  

 

  

About the program:

 • All IML individual members are eligible (excluding IMLa members).

• Apply via the website: managersandleaders.com.au/mentoring-program/mentees

• Mentees must provide information about what their objectives are. E.g. Career development, returning to the workforce after having children, assistance in
career development.

• For more information please email mentoringmanagersandleaders.com.au or phone 1300 661 061.

SOLVING THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PUZZLE

WHEN YOU NEED TO PERFORMANCE MANAGE AN EMPLOYEE, PUT A CLEAR AND THOROUGH PROCESS IN PLACE. Photo by Sally Elford.

 

Performance management appears to be universally despised. From the employees who are subjected to it, to the managers who have to carry it out, it seems no-one enjoys the process of documenting an employee’s failings and trying to force an improvement. At best, it may be deemed a necessary evil that most managers will have to face, sooner or later in their careers.

The process of performance management is also a hotbed for all kinds of disputes, with bullying and harassment allegations and stress-related claims a not uncommon outcome. With this in mind, how can managers safely navigate the performance improvement process while protecting themselves and the company from liability? A key fact to keep in mind is that “reasonable management action, carried out a reasonable manner”, is expressly excluded from the definition of workplace bullying1. Similarly, a worker’s compensation claim for psychological injury can be defeated if the condition has resulted from “reasonable action” of the employer with respect to performance appraisal or discipline2.

The recent case of Miroslav Blagojevic v AGL Macquarie3 provides some useful examples of how to ensure that a performance management process is carried out in a reasonable manner. The complainant in this case was an engineer who was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP) for three months. Over the course of the PIP, the manager realised that the engineer’s health was being adversely affected by the PIP process. The manager attempted to address this issue by:

  • Reiterating to the engineer that the PIP was not a formal warning, but a process to assist him in improving his performance and output;
  • Offering the engineer access to the employer’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Offering the engineer the manager’s personal support and coaching
  • Referring the engineer to the employer’s return to work co-ordinator
  • Obtaining information from the engineer’s treating doctor about his mental health, and
  • Allowing the engineer to take an extended period of annual leave.

 

When the engineer’s performance did not improve to the required standard, the manager implemented a revised PIP, for another three month period. The revised PIP was ultimately never completed, as the engineer was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder and became unfit for work.

The engineer then filed an application with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for an order to stop bullying. He claimed, amongst other things, that:

  • His performance was not deficient in a way that justified being put on a PIP
  • The PIP was unreasonable because three of the five areas of underperformance identified by his manager were not within the scope of his role, and
  • Many of the actions contained in the revised PIP were impossible for him to execute.

 

The FWC denied the engineer’s application and found that although the engineer had a reasonable belief that he had been bullied, the employer had engaged in “reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner”.  Management action does not have to be perfect, or the most acceptable course of action, it need only be objectively reasonable in the circumstances. The steps that the manager took throughout the process to take into account the engineer’s health demonstrated that he had, in fact, implemented the process in a very reasonable manner.

It is worth noting that the manager in this case also took detailed notes of performance conversations that he had with the employee. These notes were submitted as evidence in the bullying case, and helped to prove that the steps he had taken were reasonable in the circumstances.

 

Lessons for the Performance Management Process

  • The PIP should be carefully drafted to specifically identify areas of underperformance and relate them to the job description for the relevant position
  • Notes should be taken of performance conversations with employees
  • Support should be offered to the employee in the form of an EAP or personal support and coaching
  • If the employee is affected by medical issues, seek further medical advice and modify the PIP if appropriate.

 

ELIZABETH TICEHURST IS SPECIAL COUNSEL

– EMPLOYMENT AT KPMG.

 

1 Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s789FD(2)

2  Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) s 11A

3 [2018] FWC 2906

 

When fiction masquerades as fact

The Cambridge Analytica scandal left ethical questions for all marketers and business leaders to ponder.

By JANE CARO

When I first started out in advertising back in the Stone Age (the 1980s), I remember having to deal with clients who wanted me to guarantee that my little 30-second TVC, radio spot or print ad would infallibly convince anyone who watched it to buy their product. My stock answer was to say that I never gave guarantees. I couldn’t even guarantee that my kids would grow up to be worthwhile human beings, I’d tell them, but I was still in there pitching. I’d finish up by saying that there was no foolproof method of getting people to part with their money against their will and, if anyone ever came up with such a thing, it would soon be illegal to use it. My, how times have changed!

If the fuss about data crunching, opinion manipulating organisations like Cambridge Analytica is correct, it seems someone has come up with such a method and it is not – as yet – illegal. The company itself is now defunct but no doubt others will use their techniques to undermine political candidates or influence purchase decisions (a vote is a purchase decision) in ways we previously thought impossible. Given the grilling of Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg by the US Senate committee looking into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, such opportunists had better move fast. As lawmakers gather in the wake of the scandal it looks likely that my decades-old prediction that such sophisticated manipulation would get banned may be vindicated. However, wherever there is demand, there is supply, so illegal or not, I suspect such techniques – now tried and tested – may prove too tempting for some.

And you can understand that temptation. Along comes a whizz bang organisation incorporating the name of a world-famous university (no actual connection, of course, just the same name), offering you the opportunity to understand what motivates consumers in ways marketers have previously only dreamt about. And I have heard at least one well known Australian business leader admit they were approached by Cambridge Analytica about a project. Sensibly they declined the approach (anything associated with Breitbart founder and ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon smells pretty stinky). I’ll bet they are deeply relieved they did now.

And therein lies the trick. If something looks too good to be true, we used to say it probably was. Now, given the apparently limitless abilities of technology, it may be true but it is probably a very bad idea.

Anything that can manipulate people without their knowledge, anything that masquerades as editorial, or a comment with no hidden agenda but which is actually a commercial message that has been bought and paid for is unethical. Anything that presents lies as facts, that sets out to distort and undermine without clearly identifying its source and agenda, anything that calls itself news, but is, in fact, propaganda, is unethical. If you write an opinion piece (I write them all the time, see this column) that is fine, as long as it is presented as such.

There is nothing new about people flying very close to the wire pretending advertising is editorial. I once complained to the Press Council about a regular insert in a major newspaper that called itself “a special supplement”. It was clearly an advertising supplement and, I believe, should have been labelled that way. Advertising supplements are a revenue earner for media publications, and that’s fine, as long as they are clearly identified. The publication writes editorial about a particular sector or industry (travel, real estate, private schools) in return for members of that industry taking paid ads in the supplement. As you can imagine, the editorial is rarely critical and the more an advertiser pays, the more mentions they get. No problem, but a “special” supplement it wasn’t. Sadly, my complaint was not upheld.

I have always argued that advertising is the most honest of the dishonest professions because you all know we’re trying to sell you something. Or you used to know. I am not so sure now and I am glad that I am no longer in the industry because the lines have become so blurred. Indeed, I am so paranoid about this that I refuse to boost my posts on my public Facebook page (oh, OK, I am too stingy, as well), because I don’t think they are ads.

I have been asked to use my social media following to promote services occasionally (reminding older women to get a mammogram and younger women to look to their superannuation so far) and I’ve been paid to do so, but I have been punctilious about making that clear when I send a tweet or write a Facebook post about them.

For me, the line is clear. It’s fine to sell so long as you are upfront about it and – this is crucial – do not set out to gain an added advantage by deceiving. The minute you hide something – who is paying you, that anyone is paying you, or that what you are publishing is false – then you are being unethical.

It’s fine to research your audience. It is important to understand them and learn how they see the world. If your work, skill and insights help you to attract their attention to your message, I have no problem. But the minute you hide your commercial agenda or conceal your ulterior motive, not only is it wrong but one day – and this is the only guarantee I’ll give you – it’ll come back and bite you on the bum, hard.

Jane Caro runs her own communications consultancy.

She worked in the advertising industry for 30 years and is now an author, journalist, lecturer and media commentator.

Breathing new life into a regional community

By Nicola Field 

In country towns the local school is often a pivotal hub. So when the public school in Learmonth, located 130 kilometres west of Melbourne, closed its doors for the last time in 2012 the 400-strong community felt the pinch.

Fortunately, Rob Sorros FIML and his colleagues at Mapfort Consulting have now found a novel solution that will breathe life into the site of the former public school – and create a new hub for the community at the same time.

Part of this solution will be a small scale cidery with capacity for end-to-end production – from apples grown at the onsite orchard (currently the school oval), through to processing and retailing of cider and related products at various other facilities on the school grounds.

The other part of the solution, Soros explains “is the provision of vocational training, where students can learn a variety of skills from propagation to retail trades in a hands-on environment.”

The venture will be run as a social enterprise with a charitable foundation established to create social impact through social seed venture capital, advocacy and local economic development work. A total of $250,000 of direct social impact is expected to be realised locally (outside of the operation) in the first year of operations.

Not surprisingly, Soros describes the local community as “very supportive” of the project, which is still waiting on government funding to determine the scale of production.

For Soros, the project involves some unique challenges. “We’re effectively taking three businesses and putting them into one – a philanthropic foundation, cidery, and learning centre.”

The nature of the undertaking as a social enterprise brings its own set of hurdles. “I believe social enterprises need to be nimble and agile while striking a balance between purpose and profit,” notes Soros.

He continues: “A minimum of 50 per cent of our profits must directly address the social issues the foundation was set up for. That effectively means we need to be able to survive on the remaining surplus.”

In addition to juggling commercial viability and sustainability, Soros points out that social enterprises have quite different benchmarks compared to profit-based organisations.

“Profitability is key but we must also ensure our dual mandate to model replicable social impact and rejuvenate a regional community is met. This raises the question how we measure the success of the venture. We are measuring financial and social risk-adjusted returns using the latest social impact measurement frameworks developed at the Asia Pacific Social Impact Centre at the University of Melbourne. Having metrics that matter is very important to us.”

With production planned to kick-off in early 2019 one thing is for sure: the community has a brighter future ahead, and it’s a fair bet the townsfolk of Learmonth will be celebrating with a glass of the newly minted local drop.

MAKE YOUR MARK. GO CHARTERED 

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