Top five gifts of an exceptional Mentor

By Duncan Fish, Executive Coach & Interpersonal Skills Expert at The Engaging Executive.

The term Mentoring is quite popular, but what does it mean to you? In my opinion, the role of a Mentor is to espouse wisdom from a position of experience. The term ‘Mentor’ is derived from the story of Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, King of Ithaca, had to leave his son to fight in the Trojan War, and entrusted the care of his household to a man named Mentor, who served as teacher and overseer. I have both had Mentors and been a Mentor to others in my career. It is a very rewarding process, and I have often learned as much from the Mentee as he or she has learned from me. So in this article I wanted to define, what I believe, are the top 5 gifts of an exceptional Mentor.

 

Sharing Wisdoms

Often I get asked, ‘What is the difference between a Coach and a Mentor’. Depending on the style of coaching in question, I would suggest that a Coach does not need to be an expert in the topic of a coaching conversation.  A Coach’s role is to use thought provoking questions and structure to enable someone to come to his or her own conclusions. Whereas a Coach will not usually give ideas or suggestions, a Mentor is expected to do this.

I currently have a Mentor, named David. This man is several stages more advanced in his business thinking than I currently, and has wisdoms well beyond mine. In fact, I chose this man to be my Mentor as he works in a similar style of business to mine and has traveled the same road. What are currently hurdles and challenges for me, are things he has already overcome. So the first gift of an exceptional Mentor is ability to pre-empt future roadblocks and help you circumnavigate them.

 

Challenging Limiting Beliefs

I see my life in two halves: before I met John and after I met John. John was the man who became my Mentor when I was 25 years old. Having not done very well at school, I was still carrying a lot of baggage and believing I was an academic idiot. As I had not gone to university at that point in time, I used to feel intimidated by anyone who had a university degree.

One day John took me to one side and had a conversation which changed the entire course of my life. He could see I was passionate about helping people, and he could see something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. One day he said, ‘Duncan, you would make a great Psychologist’. I replied, ‘I can’t, John. That would mean going to university and I am too old, too dumb, too poor and too scared’. However, John was an exceptional Mentor and he could see that I was being held back by my limiting beliefs. So he challenged me on all of these issues; he challenged me until I started to think differently. One by one he questioned my beliefs and probed and disentangled the story I had been telling myself all those years. That challenging  my beliefs about myself gave me the impetus to go to university, become a Psychologist, start my own business and go on to become an Author. The second gift of an exceptional Mentor is to enable a winning mindset.

Join the Institute of Managers and Leaders mentoring program

Opening Doors

Another role of a Mentor is to create networks for the Mentee. It can be hard work for Mentees to get access to the people they need to advance their careers. In a world of email and geographical dispersed teams, you can’t always just ‘bump into’ the people you need. Although this is a rule of thumb, a Mentor is normally at least two levels above the Mentee. As such, a Mentor is normally well connected due to his or her more strategic role. That often means operating beyond his or her own silo and forming relationships more broadly.  Whilst we like to believe, and should, in meritocracy, if you can’t get on board with the fact that having the right connections help, you are missing 50% of the equation. So the third gift of an exceptional Mentor is to open doors and enable connections.

 

Being Impartial

With the role of a Mentor comes great responsibility. It can be easy to get wrapped up in the role of being the ‘wise sage’ and living your life vicariously through the Mentee. However, you always need to remember, it is not your life and you are not the one who has to live with the consequences.

A Mentor always needs to appreciate that they are an outsider in the scenario. As such, they may only ever hear one side of the situation – that of the Mentee. Part of the role of the Mentor is to question this version of the truth to ensure that the Mentee is thinking from a number of perspectives. It can be dangerous for a Mentor to take sides. In fact, it could put them at odds with the Mentee’s own manager, especially if the Mentor and manager both work in the same organization. Hence, the fourth gift of an exceptional Mentor is to be objective and not take sides.

 

Goal Setting and Follow Up

When becoming a Mentor it is important to have an objective of the sessions. One of my personal gripes is seeing Mentoring sessions turn into coffee catch ups that go nowhere and then fizzle out. I have helped several organisations to set up formal Mentoring schemes and the ones that work are nearly always the ones that adopt a goal setting philosophy.

I always advise that the first session is a planning session, and that there should be an agreed number of sessions that the Mentor and Mentee contract to keep. This can be revised on an ongoing basis. In the same way as coaching, the Mentee should be required to set goals for between the sessions and to be accountable for completing the tasks agreed with the Mentor. The Mentors role is to help refine these goals, based on their wisdom, but not to set them absolutely. After all, they are a Mentor not a Manager. Saying that, the Mentor needs to ‘keep the Mentee honest’ and ensure they follow through on the agreed goals. So the fifth gift of a Mentor is goal setting and accountability.

 

 

Duncan will also be speaking at the Canberra Masterclass event ‘Decoding Leadership: From Specialist to Leader’ on the 15th September 2017.
Book Now to hear more from Duncan and many other professionals from the Canberra area at this full day interactive event.
Be quick! Early bird pricing is available until Friday 18th August 2017.

 

 

 

Leadership and implementing creativity in the symphony orchestra

By Vincent Ciccarello, Managing Director, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

For decades, leadership and management literature has pointed to the relationship between the conductor and members of a symphony orchestra as a commendable paradigm of organisational teamwork, collaboration and the alignment of resources to a common vision.

But when it comes to implementing creativity, an orchestra is actually more akin to a team of elite athletes: spectators (the audience) may long for flashes of individual brilliance (for example, a breathtaking solo) but, at the end of the day, it’s the ability of the team to execute the game-plan (score or composition) as envisioned by the coach (conductor) that really matters.

Similarly, the sporting team’s coach and players, and the orchestra’s conductor and musicians, must ultimately deliver performances in line with goals and strategies set by the Board and management.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with conductor Nicholas Carter.

The sporting analogy doesn’t end there: most sporting teams and orchestras have a well-established hierarchy and leadership group; and there are the expectations of a host of internal (staff, volunteers) and external stakeholders (fans, subscribers, sponsors) to consider.

It is the primary responsibility of the leadership of these organisations to create the conditions and environment for peak performance – through the recruitment and retention of the right people to the right roles; by making available the necessary physical resources; developing a strong organisational culture; the careful management of workload and injuries; and so on.

ASO Managing Director Vince Ciccarello congratulating Juris Ezergailis at the Adelaide Town Hall stage – following the 2016 final Master Series.

Fostering a climate of trust and excellence encourages individuals to realise their potential; but, in reality, sporting teams and orchestras must demonstrate an extraordinary collective discipline to succeed. A champion team will always beat a team of champions…

Symphony orchestras primarily exercise creativity through the music they choose to perform, the composers they choose to commission and in the way they respond to the conductors they choose to lead them.

In most cases, this is a consultative and collaborative process, in which the musicians – collectively or through their representatives – have a voice in the orchestra’s artistic program and ambitions.

It’s a process that usually starts with the orchestra’s senior management and chief conductor but it’s not entirely straightforward. It requires a vision for the business, the ability to clearly articulate it and the skills to build a case to bring people along with you; while at the same time being open to the aspirations of the team, being willing to listen to feedback and recognising that not all of the company’s knowledge, history and wisdom – or even good ideas – reside in the C-suite.

In order to balance the artistic health of the playing group with the organisation’s commercial imperatives, a long-range view is required – and that means no matter what happens on the stage or on the field, for the leadership team, it’s not enough to take it one week at a time.

 Vincent Ciccarello will be speaking at our Adelaide TEL event ‘Lifting the Curtain on Leadership in Arts and Entertainment’ on the 23rd of August 2017.

 

Book Now to hear more from Vincent and others about what is needed for leadership in the arts today.

 

 

 

 

 

10 signs you lack emotional intelligence

Good leadership relies on high EQ. But how do you know if you are an emotionally intelligent leader? By Nicola Heath

It’s not just a buzzword. In the modern workplace, emotional intelligence often outranks technical ability.

“Businesses don’t want to hire people just based on their IQ,” says Ushma Dhanak, a HR specialist who runs Collaborate HR, a consultancy offering HR support to SMEs. “It’s all about how to manage people, how to lead people, how to read your own emotions and how to use that skill to read the emotions of others and respond accordingly.”

EQ is the “X-factor” that creates effective leaders, says Dhanak. Studies have established a strong link between emotional intelligence and business performance. It’s also linked to employee engagement. “If a business has a highly-engaged workforce, it means there are more people or leaders managing them with higher EQ,” she says.

Emotional intelligence has been on the radar since 1990, when psychology professors John D. Mayer of University of New Hampshire and Peter Salovey of Yale coined the term in a research paper.

In 1998, Rutgers psychologist Daniel Goleman linked emotional intelligence to leadership in an influential article published in Harvard Business Review titled ‘What Makes a Leader’. Without emotional intelligence, he wrote, “a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.”

Today Dhanak runs EQ workshops for a range of clients including the Australia Federal Police, marketing and advertising companies and dental practices. “We use emotional intelligence techniques to help the business manage HR issues, and focus on the leadership teams to really make them aware of how they’re feeling and what that impact is having on their team.”

 

What’s your EQ?

Workplaces lacking in emotional intelligence are often plagued by problems such as micromanagement, a lack of trust and bullying.

To help leaders gauge their own emotional intelligence, Dhanak has created a list of 10 signs that an individual lacks EQ:

  1. You are easily stressed and irritated
  2. You treat people rashly and unfairly
  3. You are wrapped up in your own world
  4. You are over-confident
  5. You fear change
  6. You take failure badly
  7. You get into conflicts easily
  8. You interrupt and don’t listen
  9. You find fault with others easily
  10. Your relationships break down

 

The first step of Dhanak’s training is a self-assessment, a 10-minute online test that scores respondents across 26 competencies of emotional intelligence, including innovation, creativity and service orientation.

Based on those results Dhanak develops a coaching plan that can be delivered one-on-one or in a series of workshops run over a six to 12-month period.

Many traits contribute to emotional intelligence – empathy, flexibility, honesty, resilience, positivity, the ability to listen – but one of the most crucial is self-awareness. It’s important to understand your strengths and weaknesses and be better prepared for situations when these will be exposed, says Dhanak.

“Can you name the emotions you’re feeling? If you are not aware of what emotion you’re feeling you are not going to be able to read it and explain it to other people.”

Want to know more about Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

Join our webinar on the 30th of August where we discuss the neuroscience behind WHY Emotional Intelligence is so important, as well as practical tips to boost your EQ & take your leadership to a new level.

Book today

 

 

Freedom Fighter

 

In the Institute of Leaders and Managers new book, Leadership Matters, Transparency International boss Cobus de Swardt explains why he’s just as passionate now about combatting corruption as he was fighting the scourge of apartheid in the 1980s.

 

Transparency International is a global movement that brings together companies, governments and business to fight corruption on a worldwide scale. Operating in more than 100 countries, its headquarters are in Berlin. Managing director Cobus de Swardt was born and raised in South Africa, where he was jailed for refusing to undertake compulsory army service. He eventually fled South Africa for Australia under significant personal danger. He has headed Transparency International since 2007.

 

David Pich: I think in future years people will look back on this decade and the word corruption will be commonly used. What do you define as corruption?
Cobus de Swardt: I view corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private and personal gain. This comes in many forms. One of the most significant ways to fight corruption is to fight for greater transparency – that’s why we’re called Transparency International.

 

DP: What do you define as transparency?
CDS: Definitions of concepts such as transparency, corruption, accountability and integrity are actually dynamic and evolving. It comes back to your opening question really. The last few years have seen definitions shift and transparency [as a concept] is developing faster than all the others. Some people [now] refer to a much more radical transparency. I believe that in five to 10 years’ time from now, this will, again, move quite dramatically. Five years ago, little attention was being paid to things like statutes of limitations, so governments could relatively easily do deals on arms or whatever [in the knowledge that] the statute of limitation would last for 30 years or more. But if that statute of limitation is five or 10 years, it becomes a very different issue even at a government level. So transparency is about making things much more difficult to hide and bringing things out into the light. In South Africa, as young [anti-apartheid] activists in the 1970s and 1980s we always wanted to have the right to speak the truth to those people in power, but now I think that [situation] is being reversed. We now want those in power to speak the truth to us! The notion of transparency being much more instant, much more direct, and dramatically more open. For example, if you look at corporate reporting, even four or five years ago companies didn’t want to report on their activities on a country-by-country basis. They would say, “Here’s our overall global financial statement”. It was very difficult to tell what was happening at a country level. That debate about transparency now seems like it happened two decades ago, but it didn’t, it was only five years ago. And now country-by-country reporting has become project-by-project reporting.

 

DP: What do you think can be done to see ethics and integrity placed at the heart of decision-making in leadership?
CDS: I think that it starts with the leader. Regulation and rules need to be in place of course, but leaders must constantly think about the values they want to promote. This question is at the heart of sound leadership. It’s much easier for a leader to think about the outcomes they want to deliver, but leaders need to constantly think about the underpinning values to these outcomes. If you think about social policy in general, I would argue that most social policies are often quite devoid of a strong value-driven framework. It’s often the same with leadership. Many leaders are driven by outcomes rather than values. That needs to change.

 

DP: I agree that many organisations are focused on outcome and output. A lot of a leader’s decision-making is linked to output, not to value. I think that ethical leadership is about a much stronger link between outcome and value. Decision-making is such an important part of successful leadership, don’t you think?
CDS: I do think there’s a very strong element that whatever you do you should at all times feel comfortable with that decision. If, for whatever reason, your decisions were to become public knowledge, would you feel comfortable with that? That’s the test of sound decision-making. In my role at Transparency International, I often have companies say to me, “Oh, this corruption thing, it’s so complicated, our people don’t know what to do because the laws are so . . . ” And I typically say, “Just use common sense”. I recommend using ‘The New York Times test!’ Ask yourself, if the decision I make were to appear on the front page of The New York Times, would I still do it? Probably 99 per cent of times you would say yes, but it’s the other one per cent that you need to think about. Being an ethical leader is about passing The New York Times test 100 per cent of the time.

 

Take Two – Asterisk and Reward

Ben Luks MIML had just been appointed as marketing, product and client liaison manager at Adelaide-based IT company Comunet when he joined the Institute’s mentoring program. He was teamed up with Bob Schroder FIML, managing director of consulting firm Asterisk management, and says the experience gave him the confidence he needed to become a successful manager.

Why did you join the Institute’s mentoring program, Member Exchange?

Ben Luks: I’d recently been appointed to a new management position and it was the first time I’d been a manager. I realised I had to learn as much as I could as quickly as possible. The chance to join the mentoring program came at a very crucial point in my career. Bob was very generous with his time and was willing to meet with me every fortnight for about six months, which was fantastic.

Bob Schroder: I’ve been mentoring business leaders for quite a few years, mostly in the area of small-to-medium-sized businesses. This was my first experience with the mentoring program and I joined because mentoring challenges my own thinking. I find that an emerging manager sometimes faces the same issues I faced in the past as well as many different ones. Also, some challenges just look different, but are really the same ones in disguise.

What did you get out of the experience?

BL: I feel more confident in my management role compared to where I was when I started. The mentoring program gave me the skills and the ideas I needed to perform effectively as a manager and the confidence that comes with that is very important. It also gave me the opportunity to see the next steps forward in my career and to think about the bigger picture. Bob really opened my eyes to what is possible beyond my current role and where I could go from here.

BS: Well, it sounds a little bit corny, but I like to give back. I think that’s really important. I’ve had a career in management and consulting over the past 30 years. It’s been interesting and exciting and rewarding for me and I want others to have a similar experience in their own careers.

What did you learn from each other?

BL: Bob provided a different perspective on management and shared insights from his vast experience as a management consultant. The team I manage includes people quite a bit older than me, and Bob emphasised that anybody can be a manager – it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you have the ability to work effectively with people and to give them the opportunity to grow into their roles and the space they need to perform to the best of their abilities, then you can be a manager. That was a lesson I learned from the outset and it was really empowering for me and very inspiring.

BS: I enjoy interaction with bright young managers. Ben, particularly, is a bright young chap who’s on the growth path. I gained a better perspective on the way in which emerging managers think and the perspectives of the new generations of employees who will shape business in the future. That’s particularly important.

Would you recommend the mentor program to others?

BL: Absolutely. For any new manager, or any aspiring manager, the program enables you to learn skills and insights that really can only be gained from years of experience. You can’t put a price on having access to that knowledge and experience.

BS: Yes, absolutely. I’d say to anyone who’s considering becoming a mentor in the program that if you’re doing it for the expectation of significant personal or financial benefit, you need to re-examine your motives. Those things will happen, but they’ll happen by making you into a better and well-rounded manager.

Transparency Will Get You Everywhere

 

Thinking about a rebrand? It’s time to listen to consumer and become the consumer. By Candice Chung

 

Here’s a question every customer wants to know about a company’s rebranding campaign — what’s in it for them?

The ability to answer this question at each stage of a rebranding exercise is key to retaining customer loyalty and creating ‘good news’ narratives.

“Once you’ve worked out your vision, mission and direction, the next step is to put yourself into the shoes of the consumer [or member],” says Barbara Pesel, Managing Director of communications agency Pesel & Carr. “In other words, you need to become the consumer and work out what they want to hear about your brand.”

Strategic empathy is crucial to getting stakeholders on side with branding initiatives. “It is really about saying to the market, ‘We’re here, we’re listening to you. We’re still relevant and this is what we’ve come up with,” says Pesel.

Some of these perceived benefits might include new product offerings, better customer access, or improved services. “Ultimately, people care about the quality of the product and their overall customer experience,” says Nicole Hartley, Senior Lecturer of University of Queensland Business School.

Transparency is another key factor. “Try to be transparent about the need to re-brand,” says Hartley. “That is, don’t just spring it on your customers, introduce it to them and let them know why this is a benefit to them.”

Above all, customers want to feel respected. According to a 2016 customer quotient study by Harvard Business Review, “Customers trust companies that they feel understand them. They respect companies that they believe respect them in return.”

This overall sense of trust can be broken down in five main elements: openness, relevance, empathy, experience and emotion. And a company’s performance on these key indicators “predicts loyalty outcomes and is clearly correlated to profit and growth”.

“The way in which brands have become very smart over the years is that they’ve stopped talking how wonderful they are, and started to focus on what makes their customers unique,” says Pesel. In the end, companies that demonstrate an ability to listen actively and apply strategic empathy will win them the kind of loyalty they need.

 

 

 

Let’s Talk Leadership: With Stephanie McConachy MIML

Stephanie McConachy MIML is part of the new generation of leaders and is passionate about equipping young managers with the knowledge and skills to manage staff and develop further in their chosen careers.

Having recently joined the Institute of Managers and Leaders Board of Directors after three years on the Emerging Leaders Board, McConachy is highly qualified to offer advice to aspiring managers and her thoughts on leadership make compelling listening.

With an established background in marketing, communications and branding, Stephanie’s experience has been varied from working in a small start-up to national law firm Minter Ellison and global firm PwC. Currently at PwC Stephanie operates in a national role acting as an advisor to senior leaders across the business on all matters of marketing.

“When I think about the leaders I admire I think, ‘who would I like to follow?’ I like leaders who take you on a journey,” says McConachy, who features in the August issue of Leadership Matters. “The best leaders are charismatic and they are great communicators.

Stephanie McConachy from the Institute of Managers and Leaders Board of Directors

“They care about the cause and they care about the organisation and they care about the people and they are great communicators. They take you on a journey and you want to follow them.”

In her current role, McConachy is responsible for driving the PwC marketing initiatives and presence in the South Australian market across a range of end-to-end marketing campaigns that build brand awareness and support client acquisition and retention initiatives.

McConachy believes “everyday leadership is the purest form of leadership” and she lives by the mantra of “just do it”. In other words, don’t get too caught up in the pursuit of perfection but rather just throw yourself into tasks and show people the way forward with your passion and dedication to a common cause.

Take Two – Distance Education

 

Anthony Vassallo is the business manager at Redeemer Lutheran College in Brisbane. His mentee, Jennifer Bisley, is based in Bundaberg as regional manager, curriculum support (North Coast region) at Queensland’s Department of Education and Training. Despite being 380km apart, they have been talking together each fortnight for the past year to set goals, discuss challenges and share ideas. Vassallo says mentoring is “a valuable refresher course” and Bisley believes it’s an essential part of professional and personal growth.

 

Why did you join the mentor program?

Jennifer Bisley: Most leaders have mentors – some have more than one. I wanted someone totally impartial to talk to on a professional level who had nothing to gain from our conversations. When the opportunity presented itself, it was great timing because I was experiencing enormous changes at work. Anthony wasn’t playing in my sandpit, so I could say what was on my mind.

Anthony Vassallo: I worked for many years in German banks where they had traineeships, and I was a mentor then. I found it very satisfying to help people in their career. When the opportunity came up again, I decided to become involved.

 

What is the value of a mentoring relationship?

JB: When you commit to having a mentor, you commit time to do something for yourself. It means you can’t take that phone call or check your email during the hour that you’ve dedicated to mentoring. It’s an investment in your personal and professional growth and in your overall wellbeing.

AV: Discussions generally start with leadership and management strategy, and then evolve into personal reflection, which is important for any leader. My discussions with Jenny included the things she wanted to achieve as a person; hopefully that was rewarding for her.

 

What did you learn from each other?

JB: What didn’t I learn! I learned practical applications for my role. Through Anthony, I was able to look at challenges or problems through a different lens.

AV: Jenny thinks a lot about the kind of leader she wants to be and this made me think what kind of leader I am and how I can improve.

 

What did you get out of the program?

JB: I was able to establish clear goals and values. I also learned that I’m my harshest critic and the mentoring relationship involves a lot of self-reflection.

AV: Mentoring is like a refresher course. When you’re recommending books or papers or TED talks, you revisit them yourself and it helps to refresh your ideas.

 

Would you recommend the mentor program to others?

JB: Absolutely. It has been a key component of my leadership journey. Everyone should have a mentor.

AV: It’s been very good for me and I’d certainly recommend it. Like a lot of things in life, it’s good for you but you don’t often make time for it. If you’re going to do it, be strict with yourself about making the time.

Embracing Change: Hot Tips from Young Leaders

 

The new leaders: how they think and why they’re totally suited to these times

 

By Nicola Heath

 

Change. It’s the greatest challenge young leaders face today.

“In one year, the amount of change we are exposed to is probably equivalent to 10 to 20 years of our parents’ generation,” says Luke Higgins, a Managing Director and Technical Architect at global professional services company Accenture.

In the past, change was optional. Organisations could maintain the status quo and remain successful, says Higgins. “Now we don’t have a choice. We have to change one way or another, to survive. You can see that with the Fortune 100 companies, every 10 years, you look at them and many drop out because they haven’t changed.”

As technology and methodology constantly evolves, the trick is identifying the right one to adopt. Which change will drive enough value to justify the investment? “That’s always the hard part,” says Higgins. “You need to be sure the change is worth the effort.”

Disruption is part of the architecture at Accenture, where Higgins runs two strategies in parallel. The first is an emerging strategy that tests new ideas and technologies. If successful, they are then incorporated into a deliberate strategy, where assets are scaled, refined and eventually rolled out.

AIM Emerging Leader board member Bec Hovey is Associate Director of Online Marketing at University of Southern Queensland. Change is so important to her team, it has its own catchphrase: ‘positive reframing’.

“It’s part of our team DNA,” she says. If something goes wrong – a ‘curveball’ in the team’s parlance – the first questions are, “‘How can we reframe this? How can we bring back the positivity to this situation, and what can we do, and what can we control at the end of the day?’”

Bec Hovey . . . mastering the art of dealing with ‘curveballs’

In this environment, the ability to adapt is fundamental. Success lies in being “resilient enough to be continuously improving and continuously adjusting what that end goal might be,” she says.

Jess Ferguson AIMM, Manager at EmploysurePLUS Services, agrees. The challenge, she says, lies in “building enough agility to flourish in a disruptive time.”

“My team works in a constant space of learning and adapting. This is particularly necessary when you’re working in the business of disruption,” Ferguson says. “We don’t take things for granted or get complacent. We know that things could change and evolve at any point and we embrace the growth that comes with that, and support each other in whatever way we can.”

Many of us are resistant to change – not so Ferguson. “I don’t like being stagnant. I’m a total optimist and believe I can make the best of anything that comes my way,” she says. “Being agile and flexible and open to the shifting direction that we move in is something that I’m very comfortable with it. Actually, I really enjoy it.”

In an age of volatility, Higgins believes an effective leader needs clear direction. That means evolving and adapting to new technologies at a micro level, but, Higgins says, “you have that over-arching macro view that is always consistent.” As a leader, you need to be open to finding new ways to achieve the end goal.

 

‘We are more adaptive to technological change’ – Bec Hovey

 

Viewing change as an opportunity, not a threat, is what sets young leaders apart from older generations, suggests Hovey. “We are more adaptive to technological change.”

Hovey introduced Facebook Workplace to her team in 2016 as way to improve inter-campus communication. Using the tool – particularly video chat – has improved collaboration and transparency between the Brisbane and Toowoomba offices.

Ferguson, who also uses Facebook Workplace at Employsure, says the tool has been crucial in helping leadership communicate vision and other important insights to teams. “It’s been a huge connection tool for the entire business.”

Jess Ferguson . . . constantly learning and adapting is the key.

Technology permeates everything Higgins does at Accenture too. “Every decision I make is data driven,” he says. He is also always asking how technology can improve the way his team operates. “How do we introduce automation, AI, robotics to do our job in a better way so we don’t have to use manual labour to do that work anymore? That’s where we leverage technology a lot.”

At Thankyou, a Melbourne-based social enterprise, team members use task management tool Asana and video-conferencing service Zoom, which Managing Director Daniel Flynn (pictured at top) says has proven useful in connecting teams on the road. “We’re setting up to launch in New Zealand so we have teams that live in different countries. It helps us connect and keep moving at a fast pace.”

It’s important to continue to evolve, be open to new ideas and new technology, says Flynn. “We try and fail until we find a good fit.”

 

‘It’s not about me, it’s about us’  – Daniel Flynn

 

If today’s leaders want to solve the world’s problems – poverty and climate change among them – Flynn believes focus needs to switch from the self to the collective. Where we look inward, we must look outward, he says. “We need leaders who are focused on things greater than themselves and not just career progression.”

In this quarter, social enterprises like Thankyou are leading the way. Its mission is simple: to empower people to help end poverty. Thankyou’s leadership team tries to embody the organisation’s ‘we, not I’ ethos. “It’s not about me, it’s about us and how we can create change outside of our scope,” says Flynn.

“If I see people who are just trying to build their careers, step on people to get ahead, to be honest they don’t last long at Thankyou. It’s just not the culture we’ve created.”

 

Building resilience and confidence

When Vicky came back to her Victorian State Government position after maternity leave, it was tough. Getting back in there and leading her team again required renewed confidence in her abilities and a strong mental attitude.

Marion King FIML

Vicky was matched with Marion King FIML, from Conocer Consulting, specialising in Workforce Planning and HR Consulting. This turned out to be a very successful team relationship, where the opportunity to really get to what mattered and turn around perceptions worked exceptionally well.

 

Why did you join IML’s mentoring program?

Vicky: As part of an organisational leadership program, I identified mentoring would be beneficial. It seemed like a better long- term option to look externally and focus on less technical skills and more widely at management skills.

Marion: I think it’s a very valuable opportunity for me to use my experience as a leader to guide others. It’s great that IML offers this service, as it’s not always possible to find the right match within an organisation.

 

What did you get out of the experience?

Vicky: After a year of maternity leave, my confidence was low and my self-doubt was high. It was great that I had the opportunity to take time to explore different areas I felt I was weak in. It made me feel more confident about my skills and abilities. I also gained a better understanding of what I want from my career, time to reflect on my skills and work on my weaknesses. This isn’t something I have time for generally, so it felt like a luxury.

Marion: It was very rewarding. Vicky and I had great rapport from the very beginning, it was a very good match. She was very open about what she wanted from the program, where she was to begin with and where she wanted to go.

 

What did you learn from each other?

Vicky: Don’t be afraid to take risks. Consider what are the consequences of something not going to plan and weigh up whether it is worth taking the risk.

Marion: Work life can be pretty tough and is rarely predictable.  Vicky is very emotionally intelligent and uses these skills to be a very aware manager and understand what her staff are going through. I also learnt about some issues that are facing the public sector generally.

 

Would you recommend the mentoring program to others?

Vicky: Yes, it’s a great opportunity for self-reflection, which is something you don’t generally have time to do. Do it with an open mind and don’t be afraid to openly and honestly tackle issues that may be holding you back.

Marion: Absolutely. It’s a rare opportunity to really discuss openly where you are in your work, (and personal) life and to get some practical advice on how to build a pathway to success.