Small business, huge climate impact

By Amy McShane

This year has certainly seen a shift when it comes to how businesses are approaching climate change. Recently, Qantas piloted the world’s first ever commercial flight with zero landfill. Paper straws are now commonplace in McDonald’s and 7-Eleven even offered free coffee to customers who brought their own reusable cup for a month.

But how can small businesses in rural areas – with less resources and less time than the big corporations – do their bit to tackle climate change? It was this very question that Jayne Thorpe CMgr MIML was asking herself last year.

And so her new business, Stablish, was born.

Stablish provides small businesses and not-for-profits with climate change business development services, grant and tender preparation and sustainability assessments.

“There’s so much business development work that you can put in to [grants and tenders] to make yourself more competitive,” says Thorpe. “I use this as a starting point to talk to businesses about their business plan, what their future is about and their supply chains. This translates over to sustainability assessments, so there’s a real overlap there.”

Innovation and positive change

It was the combined love for innovation and the earth that led the southern Queensland native to take the leap and self-fund her business.

Thorpe has been green fingered since her university days, with a Bachelor of Ecology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Ethnobotany from the University of Southern Queensland under her belt. She’s also a certified Environmental Practitioner and the current President of the Darling Downs Environment Council.

“Innovation to me is all about getting started with positive change to what’s happening now,” says Thorpe. “There are definitely changes that need to happen now around climate change, so they kind of tied up together. There’s lots of applications of innovation through all the work that I’ve done. So I was building on that, but offering it as a consultancy service.”

That previous work was done during her time at Condamine Alliance and Notomys Seeds and it was that experience that helped spark the inspiration: “When everybody is delivering current projects and services it can be quite difficult to figure out what innovations would be of benefit… so having someone look at those collectively was of really high value.”

Contributing to the local community

Thorpe is running Stablish along with her role at CatholicCare Social Services, where she works part time in business innovation. Having also run a habitat reconstruction business with her husband for the past 15 years, juggling different roles is something she is used to.

And it’s the impact on her community in Toowoomba that makes it all worth it.

“I was born here, worked here all of my career and went to university here,” says Thorpe. “It’s being able to recognise that I have something to offer that not everybody is across. Seeing people pick up on what I’m able to share and take things forward for their own business is very rewarding.”

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.

How Cricket Australia bounced back from defeat

By Anthony O’Brien

 

For many sports fans and members of the media, 24 March 2018 is a day that will forever live in infamy for Australian cricket.

To recap, Australia was playing a crucial test in Cape Town, South Africa, and the locals were on top. To try and stem the flow of runs, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft hatched a plan to use sandpaper on the red ball to help it swing. Simply put, a swinging cricket ball is harder to hit or can increase the chances of getting unwary batsmen out. The bottom line, whether you take sandpaper, dirt, or Brylcreem to a ball, is that it’s a form of cheating. In other words, it’s just not cricket.

After a couple of false starts, the game’s peak body Cricket Australia (CA) accepted the behaviour of Warner, Bancroft, and skipper Steve Smith, who appeared to condone the ball-tampering by his inaction, was unacceptable. The trio were given lengthy suspensions. Cricket Australia Chairman, David Peever said at the time, “The CA Board understands and shares the anger of fans and the broader Australian community about these events.”

CA CEO and former professional cricketer, Kevin Roberts, admits the national game found itself in this parlous predicament because, “cricket’s part of the fabric of our culture”. Roberts took over as the boss of Australian cricket in October 2018.

To provide some perspective about how important the red ball game is for Australians, Roberts compares the national cricket team, which is famous for its Baggy Green cricket cap, to the mighty All Blacks of New Zealand. “From a cultural perspective, cricket is a national sport just as rugby is New Zealand’s national sport.”

Before working in cricket full time, Roberts had about 20 years in sports sponsorship working with the likes of Adidas and Kiwi sportswear giant Canterbury. He continues, “When people see an example of the spirit of cricket not necessarily being demonstrated in the national sport that’s part of our nation’s culture, it becomes a big issue.”

The long and challenging journey that CA has travelled in the past two years offers a fascinating case study in organisational culture for leaders in all industries.

 

CRICKET AUSTRALIA’S RESPONSE TO CAPE TOWN

In April 2018, CA commissioned the Ethics Centre to conduct an independent review into cultural, organisational and governance issues in cricket following the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal. The evaluation aimed to establish a charter setting out standards for improved player behaviour and expectations of the Australian men’s national side.

The review featured a panel of past and present players including national test captains Tim Paine and Rachael Haynes, who was deputising for the legendary Meg Lanning. Others on the panel included former internationals Shane Watson and George Bailey, the world’s best fast bowler Pat Cummins and men’s team coach, Justin Langer. Also an Ethics Centre survey garnered responses from 450 CA executives and employees, current and former players, state and territory association staff, and representatives from sponsor and media organisations.

Running parallel to this process was an examination of team conduct contributing to the events in South Africa. There has been a perception among some sections of the community that the Baggy Greens were arrogant. However, the bubble created by regular test and cup wins tended to paper over the cracks.

Despite the community cynicism, CA has responded decisively to the Cape Town fiasco, which is a credit to the leadership of Roberts, who joined the CA Board in 2012 before switching to executive roles from 2015. Unenviably, Roberts was in the CEO’s chair when the Ethics Centre released its 145-page report outlining 42 recommendations for CA’s consideration. Roberts recalled, “By the time I came into the CEO role, it was time to release the findings, and more importantly to get cracking on its implementation.”

While there was a mixed response to the report’s release, what struck Roberts was, “how isolated incidents had affected people who were on the receiving end of it”. For instance, the report asserts, “We have (also) been told of groundsmen (who) have been required to prepare practice pitches – spending time and effort only to see an elite bowler send down only seven deliveries before reaching the mandated ‘quota’ – and therefore stopping.

“This kind of behaviour speaks of gross disrespect to those who are not natives of the ‘gilded bubble’.”

While that might be an isolated incident, Roberts determined to consider how people were affected, either positively or negatively, through their interactions with cricket. As a result, the new CEO and his team released a cultural change program focused across three categories – people, high performance, and leadership.

 

HARVARD CONTRIBUTES TO CRICKET LEADERSHIP

CA launched a leadership program in 2019, which is a tailored version of a world-leading program from Harvard University, explains Roberts. Around 40 executives, senior managers, Paine and limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch, as well as coaches took the program, and are now collaborating on developing CA’s leadership culture. “We’re on that journey together, which is fantastic,” Roberts said.

Additionally, CA established the Australian Cricket Leadership Team in late 2018. This group includes the CEOs of each of the state and territory cricket associations. “This team acknowledges that cricket operates through a federal structure as opposed to a corporate hierarchy, and it was about spreading the leadership through that broader cricket ecosystem.”

Since Cape Town there has been a significant turnover of CA’s executive team, including the notable resignation of long-term CEO James Sutherland. Former Hyundai executive Scott Grant joined the peak body as COO. Like Roberts, the new operations supremo is no cricket blowin, and moonlights as the president of Bankstown Cricket Club, where the famous Waugh twins played. Roberts, who also scored runs for Bankstown, said, “We’ve got Drew Ginn, the former member of the Oarsome Foursome [Olympic Games winning] rowing team. He’s working with the states and territories to develop the next generation of talent.” Also, Ben Oliver, who was working for the Western Australian Cricket Association, is now responsible for the national teams. “So, there’s been some development among our leaders themselves as well,” Roberts adds.

 

PITCHING THE MEDIA TENT

CA has put 100 managers through a cultural change program. “We’ve also identified the need to improve the nature of communication inside and outside the organisation,” Roberts said. This project includes establishing a new internal communications platform aimed at creating closer links throughout the organisation. CA has also implemented new forums for all staff to ask questions or raise issues directly with management, in a safe environment.

Additionally, Roberts and his team have improved communication with relevant stakeholders, such as the media. To this end, CA has increased media training for its leadership and players. “We are making an extra effort to bring the media into the tent and to be open with them,” said Roberts. “The cricket media are great storytellers in the game, and so we must embrace their role.”

 

HIGH PERFORMANCE: THE PLAYERS ARE DOING THEIR BIT

Under the affable men’s test captain Paine and the approachable limited-overs men’s skipper Finch, Australian cricket teams have made decent strides in reconnecting with the public. Paine for example, has introduced a pre-game handshake between the Australians and their opponents, which seems to have gone down well with the cricketing community. “The men worked together with the Australian women’s team on a players pact. Put simply, they aspired to make Australians proud in everything that they do as players,” explained Roberts. “We worked with the players to define what we stand for and agreed our goal will always be to win because it’s a professional sport.

Kevin Roberts - Cricket Australia CEO“But our non-negotiable expectation is to compete with respect. It’s not just about winning – it’s also about how we go about it.” That said, the test team’s magnificent retention of the Ashes for the first time in England since 2001 is a significant fillip for the game in Australia. Particularly given it followed just a few weeks after the Australian women’s team secured an outstanding Ashes series win on English soil too.

The proof is in the pudding for the image of Australian cricket, with the men’s cricket team not earning a single code of conduct charge in the 2018–19 season. This result was a first clean sheet in eight years for the prickly Baggy Greens, who have been notorious for aggressive sledging of their opponents. At the same time, Roberts points to the redemptive journey ‘best-since Bradman’ Steve Smith has undertaken since Cape Town. The former skipper visited many schools around Australia during his enforced absence from the Australian cricket team. “Steve Smith had a profound positive impact on several school children by having the courage to open up and talk about his experience as a leader during and beyond the Cape Town situation,” offered Roberts. “So that’s where the players are fantastic, in opening their hearts, telling their stories and I guess embracing the vulnerabilities. That’s what is connecting with the public.”

However, deep wounds will always take time to fully heal. A recent Roy Morgan poll indicated that the Australian public’s distrust in cricket is higher than any other sport. Although a level of distrust continues, there is some good news. Women’s cricket continues to provide a boost to the overall image of the sport with higher trust than distrust, according to Roy Morgan. Roberts comments, “We want cricket to be a sport for everyone, not a sport for some. That means embracing gender diversity, embracing cultural diversity and all other forms of diversity.” To celebrate diversity, CA is aiming to set a world record at the T-20 Women’s World Cup final on 8 March 2020 for attendance at a women’s sporting event. The final will be held at the mighty MCG, which seats around 100,000 and will take place during International Women’s Day.

 

ROBERTS THE BUSINESS SKIPPER

As a leader, the humble former NSW batsman Roberts says, “It’s more for others to have a view on my leadership style, but… I seek to be people-focused and to develop deep relationships with stakeholders.”

Roberts admits to presenting a straight bat when faced with difficult decisions. “I make the hard decisions required of a leader. While I try to do so in a way that shows respect for people, I must accept that people won’t always feel good about the decisions or the way I managed them. I’d like to think I demonstrate courage in leading from the front when we face issues so that our people can get on with making a difference.”

 

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.

Demystifying Agile methodology

By Nicola Field

 

In today’s fast-paced world, the term ‘agile’ has become ubiquitous. Ask any manager or leader if they’re agile, and the response is bound to be a resounding “Yes!” But an innovative project methodology is redefining what agility is all about – and it has applications across a wide range of industries and organisations.

At this stage, some distinctions are essential. Lorna Worthington CMgr FIML, is Managing Director of Baker Worthington, and a Registered Agile Practitioner. She explains, “Agile leadership and/or management is the style. Agile Project Management is the tool or concept used for execution of projects.”

Even with this clarification, to the uninitiated, Agile methodology can appear baffling. It comes with its own language that speaks of scrums, sprints, Kanbans and stand-ups. And, as Agile first arrived on the scene around 20 years ago, a range of methodologies have evolved including Prince2, Prince 2 Agile and SCRUM. It can all seem very confusing.

Tom Lynam, Client Engagement Lead at Management Consultants – Tanner James, acknowledges that one of the first challenges of the Agile methodology is to understand what it’s all about, and how it can benefit an organisation. To build a clear picture, he says it’s worth heading back to where Agile first began.

 

FASTER, TIGHTER, MORE ADAPTIVE

As Lynam explains, “Agile originated in the world of software development. It was a way of working that allowed new software to be developed in smaller, shorter cycles – or bursts of activity. This way, ‘Version 1’ could be quickly completed, and then improved upon to reach ‘Version 2’. There was no point doing months of work if the customer’s needs changed or if the requirements changed over time,” adds Lynam. “So the process was simple: Develop, test and learn, then build on the product from there.”

As Lynam points out, this methodology allowed software developers to get a product to market quickly, achieving something close to customer requirements while incorporating feedback along the way.

 

REVOLUTIONISING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Agile approach is very different from the more traditional ‘waterfall’ system of project management. The latter involves a sequential, linear process spanning several distinct phases that typically include project initiation, project planning, project execution, and project completion.

A key downside of the waterfall approach is that it can hinge on very specific, rigid assumptions being in place from the outset. A sudden change to the project’s parameters have the potential to render much of the work completed to date useless, and this can throw timelines and budgets into disarray. Agile can help to overcome such risks.

Worthington explains, “Fundamentally, Agile is a bottom-up approach that empowers teams to make decisions and drive change. The approach focuses on gathering the experience of customers, staff, managers and other key stakeholders, then looking at how that information is acted upon and leveraged within the organisation.”

 

WIDELY APPLICABLE

As with any innovation, it may initially be unclear how Agile can benefit an organisation. It can be helpful to refer to the 12-point ‘Agile manifesto’ that was drawn up in the early days to encapsulate the key aims. While many are specific to software development, all industries can take relevance from several of these founding principles, including:

  • Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.
  • Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
  • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
  • Regularly reflect together on how to become more effective, then tune and adjust team behaviour accordingly.

 

Moreover, in today’s environment where managers are under pressure to accelerate, Agile leadership can offer distinct advantages.

As Worthington points out, an Agile leader doesn’t direct or manage projects. Rather, they offer support by removing bottlenecks. Most importantly, they articulate where the organisation is going and guide the team towards this broad vision.

 

ADAPTING TO AGILE

While Agile has its benefits, leaders and managers need to assess whether this approach is right for their industry, their organisation and a particular project.

Lynam believes that some industries are better suited to Agile than others. “Software development is at the far end of the scale. It is very well suited to an iterative approach. But if you’re looking at something like the construction of, say, a major bridge, the iterative approach may be less suitable.”

Academic research shows that Agile has been used with success across a variety of industries, from marketing and food manufacturing to the development of nuclear power plants.

However, even if the industry is suitable, Agile is not right for every organisation.

Lynam notes, “Agile will struggle in a ‘command and control’ environment. A core concept of the methodology is that the people doing the work are best-placed to make the decisions. This means you need a lot of trust in employees.” He is quick to add that organisational culture may be more of a blocker to Agile rather than a reason not to adopt it: “It may be that the organisation needs to change its culture.”

 

TAKE IT SLOW

Making the decision to adopt Agile methodologies can be invigorating for leaders and managers – and their teams. However, there are pitfalls to avoid.

Lynam explains, “A typical mistake we see when organisations aim to adopt the Agile methodology is tackling wholesale change from the outset. We recommend starting small. Bring Agile into smaller projects, test and learn using one team, and understand what worked and what didn’t.”

There can be other challenges too. Staff scheduling can be an issue as Agile projects call for a group approach. Teams can also be impacted by change requests – and approvals – which can occur quickly. This highlights the need for every team member to be able to interact, and more importantly, accept that rapid change is a possibility at any stage of a project.

As Worthington notes, “Change generally translates into varying levels of disruption, and operating in this environment demands a flexible, bottom-up approach to management and leadership.”

 

BECOMING AGILE

For managers and leaders interested in gaining accreditation in Agile methodologies, a variety of courses are available. Some are available online, others involve attending multi-day courses.

Lynam urges care in the choice of trainers explaining that while there is a wide range of price points, “You get what you pay for”, he cautions.

“Before investing in Agile training, due diligence should be undertaken to be sure you have the right support and the right level of training and coaching,” says Lynam. “Plenty of organisations sell silver bullets, but in business there are none. It’s a matter of looking at what’s available and taking best practice and tailoring this to your organisational structure.”

Lynam notes, “Formal training allows individuals to spend time with someone who has ‘been there and tried it’, and who should be able to provide pragmatic advice on how to implement the techniques in the Agile method. That said, training only gets you so far, and on-the-job training is highly valuable.”

The full version of this article originally appeared in the September 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

Why foresight is the essential leadership skill for the future

There’s a myth that experienced business leaders are dinosaurs from a bygone era – typically old white males who only knew one way to lead, and that way doesn’t work anymore. So “of course” it’s inevitable they will get disrupted by younger, more diverse, more tech-savvy, “new” thinkers. But it’s not true. There are many experienced leaders and managers with the right mindset, who are more than willing to adapt in a fast-changing world.

But there’s a trap. The strategies and tactics that worked in the past don’t work anymore, and they won’t work in the future. It’s not that these leaders don’t know a lot (they do); it’s just that some of those things aren’t true anymore. They used to be true, so it’s natural to believe they are still true, and difficult to give up those beliefs.

If you used to believe in Santa Claus, it’s easy to dismiss that now because you were “just a child” and didn’t know any better. The danger comes when you stubbornly cling to other beliefs that also aren’t true anymore.

That’s why you need the skill of foresight: the ability to look into the future and understand what you need to succeed there. You can then decide objectively what you need to do, regardless of what worked (or didn’t work) in the past.

Some leaders and managers “get it”, but unfortunately, they are in the minority. When Accenture surveyed Australian CEOs about disruption, almost 90% of them expected unprecedented technology change in the near future. But the vast majority (more than 80%) thought the biggest disruption would come either from existing businesses or from inside their industry. They were trying to drive by constantly looking in the rear-view mirror.

Less than one in five admitted that disruption could come from start-up businesses outside their industry. And yet, that’s exactly what we think of when we hear the word “disruption”. The taxi industry wasn’t disrupted by a taxi operator, retail shopping wasn’t disrupted by a retail chain, and the hotel industry wasn’t disrupted by a large hotel chain. They were disrupted by Uber, Amazon, and Airbnb, respectively – all outsiders who were late to the party.

Even incumbents who had the tools of disruption already – like Kodak, who invented the digital camera – didn’t recognise their value until it was too late.

In fact, Kodak is the perfect example of a lack of foresight. Kodak went from the fifth-most valuable brand in the world in 1996 to filing for bankruptcy in 2012. There are many myths about Kodak’s failure: It had too much invested in film, it had grown so big it had stopped innovating, the organisational structure couldn’t cope with a digital world, and even a dramatic story that senior management told the employee who invented the first digital camera to hide it because it would destroy Kodak’s market.

But the reality is simpler (and less dramatic). The first digital camera was as big as a toaster, took 20 seconds to take a picture, and the resolution was much lower than a print. Kodak’s management assessed it, but dismissed it because they thought it would never be good enough to compete with film cameras. They didn’t have the foresight to understand exponential growth, which meant digital camera technology improved much faster than they expected. By the time they realised it, digital platforms like Flickr, Facebook, and Instagram had already made Kodak obsolete.


The world has changed – but have you?

You won’t develop foresight overnight, but you can start by asking these three provocative questions:

  1. What assets do we have that a start-up company would be happy not to have?
  2. What “impossible” technology would make our business obsolete?
  3. If somebody bought this business today, what is the first change they would make?

 

These questions are designed to challenge your beliefs, because some of those beliefs are rooted in the past and might not be useful anymore. As Josh Billings said:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

 

Gihan Perera is a business futurist, speaker, and author who works with business leaders to help them lead and succeed in an uncertain but exciting future. He is the author of ‘Disruption By Design: Leading the change in a fast-changing world’. For more about how Gihan can work with your leaders and teams, visit GihanPerera.com.

Three Points of View: How to keep your rising stars

How can managers and leaders keep top millennial talent from leaving the organisation? Leadership Matters Editorial Director Andy McLean MIML asks experts for their advice.

 

Sinead Hourigan FIML

Queensland Director, Robert Walters

Sinead HouriganCandidates want to join and remain in businesses that invest in their people, so there are huge benefits if employers can attract millennials.

It is important to train millennials in management and leadership now so that they are ready to fill gaps left by baby boomers who will exit the workforce over the next 10–20 years. Upskilling is essential for millennials and is crucial to their continuous development and lifelong learning. Millennials are keen to access training and development to support their personal and professional growth, so organisations should factor this into their candidate attraction and engagement strategies. In fact, if the company’s values match those of millennial workers – its ethics and coaching, clear progression, flexibility, and feedback – employees are likely to show even more loyalty.

Millennials don’t need to be in a classroom or structured group training session – they’re happy to learn in front of their computers or work with mentors and coaches on the job. However, it’s key for employers to provide a clear roadmap of training opportunities to motivate millennials.

 

Wendy Thompson MIML

CEO and Founder, Start Social NZ, Auckland

Wendy ThompsonA millennial colleague is an awesome asset: proactive, a global thinker and a tech native. But I don’t necessarily think keeping them should be your primary aim.

Millennials often look elsewhere after two or three years so employers need to play a long game and not take it personally when they leave. If handled correctly, you may one day welcome them back wiser and more experienced! One way I do this is by inviting all our ex-Socialites to our annual Valentine’s Party; it’s a great night out and keeps everyone in touch.

Something else I do to help my millennials on their chosen career paths (and get the best out of them for my company) is one-on-one structured mentoring. At the beginning of the year we set personal and career SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound) then have monthly progress catch-ups, before celebrating success at the end of the year. Heading into that festive season, where people often reassess their job, my team has a very fresh reminder of how much Socialites has helped them achieve over the past year.

 

Sally Roebuck MIML

Operations Manager, Bulimba Outside School Hours Care, Queensland

Sally RoebuckAs a millennial myself, I understand our generation’s desire to be heard, respected and valued in the workplace. I’m the leader of an almost exclusively millennial team and believe the most important part of attracting and holding on to talented millennials is to create a team culture of mutual respect, where each individual feels their contribution is meaningful and valuable.

Collaboration is vital when managing and leading millennials, as we have been living and breathing collaborative practices since kindergarten. We were taught in school not to accept the status quo, but to question, hypothesise and brainstorm.

We were immersed in the digital revolution, and were educated in resourcing and synthesising differences of opinion and facts for a broader world view. Allowing opportunities for collaboration among team members, especially between colleagues of varied experience and job roles, will ensure millennials feel able to make valued contributions to the organisation’s goals.

Developing this sort of positive growth mindset among your team also gives millennials the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge while giving them clear pathways for advancement and success.

This article originally appeared in the September 2019 edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

The strength to lift up Special Olympics athletes

By Anthony O’Brien

 

Jo Tarlton MIML is an extremely busy member of IML ANZ. For starters, Jo is the general manager of Eco Maintenance, one of Auckland’s few mid-sized companies dedicated exclusively to the provision of amenities maintenance services.

Away from the office, the indefatigable executive and mother is a successful powerlifter and a dedicated volunteer who supports Special Olympics athletes seeking to participate in powerlifting either recreationally or competitively.

 

POWERING INTO FITNESS

Powerlifting is a sporting activity many of us may associate with eastern European Goliaths or a workout used by the hulking All Blacks to help them mercilessly maul the Wallabies. Yet representative New Zealand powerlifter Tarlton claims she didn’t have a particularly strong pedigree in sports or athletics until five years ago. “I played netball through college, and on and off socially for some years after that,” she says.

The Eco Maintenance GM also dabbled in gym workouts to stay healthy. However, it wasn’t until 2014 Tarlton dived into fitness, boots and all. “I started CrossFit in 2012 after having my second child the previous year and wanting to get back in shape.”

While getting in shape, Tarlton somehow found the time to start volunteering with Adaptive Athletes, a program run by Michael Hynard, founder of Functional Adaptive Movement (FAM). Adaptive Athletes uses functional exercise regimes such as CrossFit, according to Tarlton. “My fitness journey then evolved from CrossFit into powerlifting in 2016 and, as I love the sport so much, I now volunteer with Special Olympics athletes.”

 

THE MOTIVATION TO VOLUNTEER

The compassionate Tarlton says the motivation and inspiration for volunteering stem from the challenges faced by the Adaptive Athletes and Special Olympic weightlifters. “These athletes have a can-do attitude that is a breath of fresh air, and they sometimes think they can do absolutely anything! It can sometimes be a mission to hold them back from going heavier with weights when we are still trying to work on form.”

Tarlton tells of one athlete who is terrified of using a gym bench when undertaking the arduous bench press. Some weeks it takes multiple attempts to encourage this athlete to use the bench, Tarlton explains. “But he never gives up, and I never give up, and every week he does it. Then, the next week he comes back and faces the same fear again.

“A lot of able-bodied athletes would give up and just not do that exercise anymore because it was too hard.”

The massive achievements clocked up by the athletes who face myriad daily challenges motivate Tarlton to help. “Powerlifting is a marathon sport, and it takes much time to improve mobility, build muscle and make strength gains that translate into increased totals on the bar,” she says. “Watching these athletes build on all these aspects and then looking back to compare them from when they first walked in the door is amazing.”

Likewise, Adaptive Athletes demonstrate the same level of determination to improve. Tarlton explains, “From walking in the door with a lot of physical and mental limitations and having little in the way of a sporting or physical activity background, to being able to compete in a CrossFit competition is a massive achievement.”

 

THE VALUE FOR MANAGERS AND LEADERS

Many managers and leaders are accustomed to being in charge and taking the reins, insists Tarlton. “Leading an organisation of 120 staff I am used to directing, creating the vision and making the calls so to speak.

“At the top, you often need to be the one that has all the answers and who drives the business forward while simultaneously dealing with different obstacles and setbacks that all businesses face, which can be mentally very tiring.”

In contrast, volunteering puts Tarlton into a situation where she is working with “someone else’s vision or program”. She adds, “You are just a cog in the machine, albeit a necessary one. This experience enables you, and at times forces you, to step back from a position of being the key decision maker for everything and gives you the opportunity to relax and enjoy being part of the process. It gives you a mental break which is invaluable when dealing with high-powered or pressured day-to-day business roles.”

Tarlton believes volunteering has improved her patience and self-awareness. “I am a pretty empathetic person, but in business, you sometimes need to be quite hard-nosed and take a ‘business is business’ approach, primarily as a woman leader in my industry. “Working with these athletes, you need to take an approach to see life through their eyes to be better connected and give them what they need, which is your reason for being there.”

Finally, for managers and leaders considering volunteering, Tarlton urges, “Just do it! Don’t make excuses, get out there and volunteer and give something back. What you get back from giving is tenfold.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2019 edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

Managing the business vision

There’s no shortage of talk about strategy. But behind every good strategy, there must be a clear vision – after all, we all need a destination before mapping out our journey’s route. So, on top of managing the day-to-day and adjusting the strategy, how can leaders ensure they don’t neglect to manage the vision?

An organisation’s vision should be its North Star. It needs to be the aspiration that everyone strives to meet.  In other words, it needs to help managers think beyond the daily details and think ahead to the type of future they wish to achieve.

So essential is a leader’s vision that many CEO’s are either marked by their lack of it when they fail or they are exalted for it when they succeed.

At any stage of your leadership career, managing the vision and ensuring that it remains the guiding light is vital. So, here are three ways leaders can manage the organisation’s vision:

 

Align everything to your vision

The Golden Thread Model provides an excellent visual on how to practically align all activities to the organisation’s vision. It represents the link between vision, analysis, systems and people, amounting to a shared understanding of how the vision, goals and values of the organisation relate to daily work.

By using this model, leaders enable the development of clear metrics which align business goals with measures of success and ensures that individuals are aware of and accountable for their contribution. This makes it easier to drive business success as everyone in the organisation is heading in the same direction.

 

Motivate through the vision

In addition to drawing direct relationships between the vision, strategy and metrics for success the model also encourages the creation of team and individual objectives that tie back to the vision. This is important for maintaining lasting motivation. Unlike hitting targets, aiming to move the organisation closer to the vision takes incremental steps and the cooperation of all. That means your teams will aim to complete a marathon rather than running a sprint.

Leaders should, therefore, be conscious of providing their teams with an update on how their individual or team efforts bring the whole closer to its vision.

 

Tell compelling stories about the company’s future

The reality for leaders is that not everyone will be driven by metrics or inspired by stats. Vision-focused leaders appreciate the importance of shaping a powerful and compelling story of their companies’ futures. Beyond crafting an inspiring narrative, it also serves as a powerful engagement builder. Stories have the power to turn aspirations into reality – even if it’s just in the mind. That, in turn, gives employees the clarity they need to visualise something that often can be too abstract and feel out of reach.

Sources (these articles are available to IML ANZ members via Leadership Direct):

Resilient Porters seizes its opportunity

By Lachlan Colquhoun

 

If only he could know it, Charles Porter would be delighted that a sixth generation of his family is now working in the hardware stores which bear his name in Mackay.

Porter’s business was born of necessity and then opportunity. He arrived in the North Queensland town in the early 1880s to build a hotel and found there were virtually no building products available.

So he transported what he needed from Europe, Brisbane and Sydney by boat, and once the hotel was built he stayed behind and founded the Porter’s hardware supply business.

135 years later, Porters Hardware and Building Supplies is a fixture in Mackay but despite its longevity and strong local roots, it hasn’t always been easy for the business to thrive.

 

A BOOMING SECTOR

In fact, as Managing Director Gavan Porter (Senior) Corporate member of IML ANZ puts it, the business is only now coming out of a “perfect storm” of a volatile boom and bust cycle which severely tested its resilience.

“We’ve been through two World Wars, the Great Depression and credit squeezes, but the past four years we had a big contraction with the resource sector downturn. It was brutal,” says Gavan (Senior).

“Most of the contractions have historically been 12 to 18 months. This one went on for four years.”

However, back in the early 2000s Mackay was growing rapidly as a service centre for the resources industry. Multinational companies set up business in the city for the first time and the population increased sharply.

It created a building boom that was good news for the Porter business, where trade comprises 80% of turnover, including the company’s manufacturing divisions, which fabricate aluminium and glass products as well as roof trusses and wall frames.

The boom in Mackay also attracted the attention of bigger national hardware players. Woolworths’ failed Masters chain opened up a store, and market leader Bunnings added a second Mackay store in response.

Porters were also not the only independent operator. They had for decades been in competition with another Mackay family, the Woodmans, who had allied themselves with the Mitre 10 buying and marketing group and had a strong retail and trade presence.

“We went from one ‘big box’ store operated by Bunnings to three in total including Masters, and Woodmans had the advantage of being part of Mitre 10 with their resources,” says Gavan Porter (Junior) CMgr AFIML, who is the company’s CFO.

“There might have been room for everyone during this extraordinary growth period, but then the downturn hit.”

 

SURVIVING THE DOWNTURN

As the economy ground to a halt, the mines made employment cuts and 9,000 jobs were lost across the resources sector supply chain.

With people now leaving Mackay to find work elsewhere, new home building approvals slumped by 90%.

“This was all very new to us, because Mackay had always been a steady growth sugar and coal town,” says Gavan (Senior).

“But after all that growth, the market collapsed, and Mackay collapsed with it. It went off a cliff.”

For the first time, Porters was forced to downsize and initiate staff redundancies; a difficult process for a company where the family ethos often extended to employees.

Out of the downturn, however, an opportunity presented itself.

 

ENDING THE FAMILY FEUD

“With our external advisors we created a strategic plan in 2015 and one of the parts of that was the option of regional consolidation,” says Gavan (Junior).

“In the downturn it was clear that there were too many players in the market and the only way to survive was consolidation.”

A conversation was “struck up” with the Woodman family about a “way forward” for both family businesses, and an amicable deal was made for the Woodmans to exit the hardware supply market in Mackay and sell their retail stores to the Porters.

“It was great for two such staunch independent competitors, who had been competing in the same market against each other for decades, to come to an agreement,” says Gavan (Senior).

“It was clear that the market was very tough and there had to be an exit of one of us and they agreed to exit.”

The deal worked for both companies, and families.

The Woodmans kept other manufacturing businesses in Mackay such as aluminium and glass fabrication, roofing, and roof truss and wall frame manufacturing, where they still compete with the Porters.

That deal gave the Porters a network of stores that spanned not only Mackay and its surrounds but also extended to the Whitsunday region.

The acquisition gave Porters more stores and removed a longstanding competitor, but also introduced them to a new, and powerful, partner in the Mitre 10 group. A new licensing agreement was reached, and the company now trades as Porter’s Mitre 10.

“Mitre 10 was also a good move for us,” says Gavan (Senior). “They are a strong buying group and we needed to buy better to compete against bigger players.”

 

STRIKING UP A GOOD PARTNERSHIP

Just as timing played a role in the severity of the downturn, so it worked in the Porter’s favour in terms of Mitre 10’s own competitive position.

With the demise of Masters, Woolworths also put its wholesale hardware distribution business up for sale, and it was purchased by Mitre 10.

The move transformed the national market and made Mitre 10 Australia’s second biggest player in the hardware sector next to Bunnings.

Such was the timing that Porters went from being an independent player in an overcrowded market to being a strong second placed rival to Bunnings, with the advantage of being able to leverage Mitre 10’s brand name, buying power and marketing.

“They are the strongest partner you can have if you are an independent owner,” says Gavan (Senior). “We have always been strong in trade, but Mitre 10 is a powerhouse brand which has helped us continue to reach a retail target audience.

“And going forward we are able to use some of their benchmarking capabilities to understand where we are compared with our peers, and we’ve already been out to have a look at some of the bigger stores in the group, and this is something they encourage.”

Eight months after the deal, the acquisition is still being bedded down just as the market conditions are showing signs of improvement.

To prepare for the expansion, the Porters created an implementation plan across eight different areas of the business, from facilities management to IT and HR. Focus groups of employees, the number of which has increased by 25% to 250 across the group, were held to review and reset the firm’s culture.

The result has been the definition of five key criteria which will be ingredients of the culture moving forward: focusing on performance delivery, being driven by customer outcomes, valuing relationships, keeping everyone safe, and having fun at work. “We’ve got a way to go but we believe we are on the right track,” says Gavan (Senior).

“We’ve broadened our base, increased our trade and retail presence, and expanded our geographic footprint.

“As the economy improves we believe this will give us a solid platform.”

 

BUSINESS WITH A FAMILY FLAVOUR

The resilience of the Porter’s business, says Gavan Porter (Senior), has come from the company’s financial and management discipline which has helped it adapt to change.

A key to this has been to adopt many public company structures and processes into the way things are done, including the longstanding addition of independent directors onto the company board.

“It was my father who initiated this when he was running the company,” says Gavan (Senior).

“He understood that it had to be about the business, and not the family, and for that we needed that outside and independent perspective.”

Gavan (Senior) has been a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors for many years, and many AICD practices are implemented at board level to create a structure and a discipline.

The company has a relationship with a firm of advisors, with extensive experience in larger family businesses, who played a significant role in creating the strategic plan which identified the consolidation opportunity and led to the Woodman’s acquisition.

“We have all the structures of a listed public company, but with a family flavour,” says Gavan (Senior).

The Porters joined the Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand in 1956, as they sought to keep up with changes and trends to incorporate into their business.

Gavan (Junior) has been on the local IML ANZ committee for the past five years and has pursued a qualification as a Chartered Manager. “Leadership and management is very important to me, and we have such a large staff now that I find it invaluable to share current ideas and thinking,” he says.

The link between diversity and organisational resilience

In this ever-changing modern business environment, organisations need to build up their capacity to cope with unexpected events. The key to effectively handling turbulence may rest on your level of organisational diversity.

Latest research reasons that diversity can lead to the development and improvement of specific capabilities that contribute to organisational resilience. That is – anticipation, or the preventative aspects of resilience; coping, or the implementation of solutions and reactions to change; and adaptation, or the development of new capabilities following unexpected events.

In addition, the Australian Government named respect as one of the key factors in improving organisational resilience. One of the most powerful ways to demonstrate respect in the workplace is inclusion – meaning background, beliefs, age or gender are not seen as a reason for exclusion.

So, how can diversity strengthen an organisation’s resilience? Here are three ways:

 

Diversity assists in observing, identifying and preparing for major change

Our differences, when harnessed collectively, can greatly enrich our capability to detect and prepare for changes. Having a group with diverse experiences in work and life results in an increased ability to perceive changes in the environment and to identify necessary adjustments. Further, the greater the variety of ideas explored, the better prepared an organisation will be for the consequences of change and the less likely they are to be caught off guard.

 

Diversity improves an organisation’s problem solving

As change and turbulence are complex these cannot usually be solved with existing approaches. Creating solutions demands broad knowledge, the interaction of different people, and creativity in coming up with a way to tackle the challenges. Again, the more diverse the ideas are, the better equipped an organisation will be at arriving at the right solution.

 

Diversity enriches team learning

Having diverse perspectives when reflecting upon the aftermath of change pushes organisations away from simple conclusions. It encourages deeper discussions about what actions to take and challenges any common thinking that may exist. Thus, a heterogeneous knowledge base can reduce the tendency to simply skim the surface. Rather, it promotes using logic instead of blame when analysing why things went wrong.

Source: Duchek, S., Raetze, S. & Scheuch, I. Business Research (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-019-0084-8

Mind the gap

By Anthony O’Brien

The latest IML Gender Pay Report reveals that if you’re a female working in a C-Suite role, you could be earning as much as 15% less than your male colleagues.

The report presents findings based on an analysis of pay differentials from 2014-2018 between male and female full-time employees within the Australian workforce. The research considers different employment levels and job families ranging from administration to general management. The analysis uses IML’s National Salary Survey, updated in October 2018, and data collected from 460 organisations across Australia, covering more than 250 job roles.

The research doesn’t reflect casual or part-time workers, or maternity leave which explains differences between the IML report and the gaps reported by government organisations such as Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), according to report author, Sam Bell FIML, General Manager, Corporate Services and Research, IML. The full-time total remuneration gender pay gap based on WGEA data is 22.4%, meaning men working full time earn, on average, nearly $27,000 a year more than women working full time.

WHY THE GAP PERSISTS

According to the IML report, the C-Suite pay gap fell to 9.8% three years ago after a high of 14.7% in 2014. But over the past three years, the gender pay gap for C-Suite roles climbed steadily and is now approaching the levels of five years ago. Bell explains that isolating the reasons for the widening gap at the C-Suite level is challenging. “There are probably more female managers in lower-paying industries. However, our research measures like-against-like job levels and job families, so more female executives working in lower paid industries doesn’t explain the C-Suite gap thoroughly.

“That there is a 14.6% difference in like-against-like general manager salaries is certainly an eye-opening statistic that organisations need to review.”

Libby Lyons, Director of the WGEA, says, “The gender pay gap is a symptom of a broader issue. It reflects the fact that women’s work is traditionally undervalued, and women are often paid less than men.

“As a nation, we need to be talking about what is behind the gender pay gap – the barriers women face in the workplace that cause the gender pay gap.”

WHERE THE GAP IS CLOSING

If you’re seeking work in an industry with closer to equal pay, then look no further than information technology (4.6%) and engineering and science (4.8%). That said, in 2014 the IT pay gap slightly favoured women (-0.1%), and the difference was only 0.3% for females working in engineering and science. On the flipside, the salary gap for women in finance and accounting improved from 13.7% down to 7.1% over the past four years.

IT continuously rates well for women’s pay rates because it’s a result driven industry that typically doesn’t differentiate between male or female employees, notes Bell. “The salary gaps in finance and accounting have dropped because there is greater awareness of gender diversity issues in that profession because of CEOs such as former Westpac boss Gail Kelly.

“That industry was heavily male-dominated, but with high-profile CEOs like Kelly championing the issue and taking it head-on, the pay gap almost halved in the past four years.”

ADDRESSING THE GAP

Paul Jury, Managing Director of Australia for global HR executive search firm ChapmanCG, resolutely believes there should be no excuses for gender pay gaps. He elaborates, “Moreover, there’s plenty of research indicating that up to 70% of employers report they have policies in place to support gender equality.

“With the gender pay gap, it is all heading in the right direction, but the speed of improvement is still too slow.”

Personal biases can come into play particularly where objective measures of performance are deficient and create incidences of gender gaps in promotions and pay, reasons Jury. “For senior roles, some managers without access to objective data may tend to promote and reward people they like and whom they perceive are more like them.

“While unconscious bias is hard to rewire, more training, education, and awareness within an organisation can help to mitigate its impact on gender diversity, promotion and pay. This includes putting in place guidelines, along with checks and balances within a business to minimise the gender pay gap.”

Bell agrees more investment in educating managers about gender equality issues is required. “Educating managers who hire staff that pay gaps are not acceptable is a start,” he reasons. “And the fact that skills, experience, and qualifications should be paid for, irrespective of whether a recruit is male or female.”

From a leadership perspective, Bell believes an organisation should have a gender pay gap policy or statement in place that all managers “understand and take seriously”. WGEA research indicates that actions to correct like-for-like gender pay gaps are three times as effective in reducing overall pay inequities when combined with reporting to executives and boards. Bell says, “There’s a lot of large Australian companies that are certainly taking all these steps. All of them probably have a statement from a leadership level, whether it’s CEO down, saying that pay gaps won’t be tolerated.”

ACCOUNTABILITY COUNTS

Using market data such as IML’s National Salary Survey is another prudent step towards minding the pay gap says Bell. “Employers must understand what the market is paying for a C-Suite role or line manager and it shouldn’t matter whether someone is male or female.”

Another critical way to strengthen employer accountability would be to end pay secrecy, according to Alice Orchiston, an Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Sydney. To this end the federal Australian Labor Party announced in September last year that, if elected, it will legislate for the introduction of publicly available company-specific gender pay gap data. In an opinion piece for academic journal The Conversation, Orchiston wrote: “If women discover they are earning less than their male counterparts for the same jobs, their legal avenues for pursuing equal pay are limited. It’s difficult to prove and costly to litigate.”

Orchiston continued, “Requiring employers to make their pay records publicly accessible or accessible to employees across the same organisation would create greater transparency and a basis for women to assess their pay, which in turn could facilitate negotiation or legal action.”

READ THE FULL REPORT

The IML 2018 Gender Pay Gap report can be purchased at managersandleaders.com.au/national-salary-survey