The Info: Must read

Derek Parker reviews the latest essential reading for Managers and Leaders 

Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness

By Rick Hanson

(Penguin, $33)

A critical area of study that has emerged in the past few years is the intersection of thinking – how you experience things and make sense of them – with neuroscience – the study of the brain as a physical organ. Rick Hanson, an American psychologist, was one of the first to examine this subject with his 2013 bestseller, Hardwiring Happiness. In Resilient he takes the theme further, looking at how feelings of wellbeing can be enhanced and strengthened as a buttress against adversity.

He points to scans of brain activity that show there is a natural ‘negativity bias’. This is an evolutionary hangover from the time when awareness of threats and danger were necessary survival tools but these days the effect is to create undue sensitivity to the stresses of everyday life: rushing about, being continually interrupted, having to jump between tasks, feeling pressured and being overloaded by information. The culture of the 21st century is continually trying to grab our attention with one thing or another, forcing us to move on from positive experiences before they can make their way into our consciousness. The result is anxiety, uncertainty, the sense that nothing is really within our control.

The counter to this, says Hanson, is to grow resilient resources within ourselves, by learning methods to profit from our positive experiences. This can change the physical structure of the brain, in the same way that a muscle is strengthened by conscious training. There are particular chemical responses in the brain that flag an experience as an important one, and new neural pathways to support it are formed.

The crucial step is to become acutely aware of positive experiences. Stretch out the good feeling, Hanson suggests, even if it is only by 20 seconds. This embeds it in our memory. Also, focus on why it feels good and how it connects with other experiences. Try to see what makes it unusual, meaningful, and personally relevant.

He emphasises that there is no definitive ‘good’ experience. It might be walking in a field, or enjoying a game of football, or playing with your children. It might be accomplishing some small task that leaves you quietly satisfied. It is likely to be different for everyone: the point is to understand it, focus on it, and draw upon it. With a conscious effort, moments that would otherwise slip away can become part of a stock of wellbeing, and help to build mindfulness. Over time, the hardware of our minds becomes more resilient and more capable of dealing with challenges, whether personal or professional.

From his neuroscience research and his work as a therapist, Hanson draws up a list of 12 “fundamental inner strengths” that can help to deal with problems and setbacks. Each of these – compassion, mindfulness, learning, grit, gratitude, confidence, calm, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration and generosity – is carefully unpacked by Hanson, but he also notes that various individuals might look to other qualities. The principle of training the brain – the technical term is positive neuroplasticity – remains the same.

The point is not to ignore negative experiences and emotions but to avoid being overwhelmed by them. A core of inner strength has the benefit of placing things in context. This means that small stresses and aggravations do not accumulate into large ones. Equally, it is a means to move past old grievances. Of course, in any life there will be serious problems – a major illness, the loss of a close family member – but a sense of resilience can help to deal with them in an appropriate way.

Hanson does not claim to have invented this way of thinking, only to have taken existing methods and organised them into a therapeutic program as well as a set of tools for everyday life. It is not easy, he says, as it means putting aside old patterns of thought and deliberately creating new ones. The good news is that it gets easier as you go along, and eventually becomes nearly automatic.

The benefits to both mental and physical health are significant. Essentially, this sort of resilience makes it easier to survive and thrive in our troubled, difficult times. It is a lesson we could all use.

The Future for Our Kids

By Phil Ruthven

(Wilkinson, $40)

As founder of the business information firm, IBISWorld Phil Ruthven has access to a huge amount of data, and he uses it to extrapolate existing trends to provide a picture of Australia’s future. He is generally upbeat, preferring to focus on opportunities rather than problems, and it is hard to not be caught up in his enthusiasm.

Interestingly, he sees outsourcing – often thought to be a destroyer of jobs – as the single biggest driver of job creation. Already, he says, many young people see themselves as entrepreneurial freelancers, moving from one project to another and being paid for outputs rather than inputs. Ruthven predicts this will increase as the pace of technology creates a truly global marketplace. At the same time, he says, the average working week will be around 20 hours by the end of this century, with a greater focus on fulfilment. Ruthven calculates that Australia is creating many more jobs than the number being lost, and will continue to do so.

At the other end of the demographic scale, longer lifespans will mean longer careers, with older people working well past the traditional retirement age. Older people will also be more likely to return to the education system, either to gain more qualifications or simply to keep their minds fresh.

Ruthven sees Australia as well-placed to take advantage of the continuing shift of economic momentum to Asia, and says Australia’s population mix will become even more diverse. The agriculture sector is likely to expand, both for domestic demand driven by a rising population and for export markets, although the real boom will be in the service sector, especially hospitality, tourism and aged care.

Along the way, Ruthven laments that governments have been slow to introduce ultra-fast broadband technology and to push for a higher GDP growth rate. Nevertheless, we are headed in a positive direction, he says, and the best is yet to come.

Give Back Lead Forward: why every leader should have a mentor and be a mentor

By Julian Carle

(Major Street Publishing, $30)

Julian Carle, the head of leadership training firm Synergen Group, believes that mentoring is the ingredient that turns good managers into great leaders, and in this book he provides a practical framework for getting the most out of the relationship, from both sides of the equation.

He makes clear that mentoring is not about getting together occasionally for a chat. Both mentor and mentee must be chosen carefully, both for their personal and professional attributes. Carle suggests that the two should not come from the same company, and perhaps not even the same industry, but a set of common experiences is important. Mentoring is not about teaching technical information but rather the soft skills of empathy and judgement. The mentor does not provide solutions but helps the mentee find their own answers.

For the mentee the benefit is the opportunity to draw upon the experience of the mentor; for the mentor the benefit is about the self-reflection that comes with understanding another person. The relationship is a balance of the personal and the professional, and there must be enough trust for discussion to be honest and forthright.

Meetings should be regular – Carle suggests every three weeks – with a firm schedule and agenda, as well as milestones to be discussed in quarterly reviews. Being a mentor is not easy: it requires skills to both inspire and motivate. An essential part is to show the mentee how to keep going in the face of setbacks. This can mean, for the mentor, revealing the mistakes they have made along the way – and, crucially, what they learned from them. For the mentee, it means making hard decisions about what sort of person they want to be. Often, says Carle, mentors find that their mentees inspire them.

Carle has mentored many mentees himself and is the host of ‘Mentoring Effectively’, a recorded IML webinar that explores the elements of good coaching practices and mentoring tips to promote personal development. The webinar is available online, here.

Leading people through a restructure

A reorganisation within a business can be undertaken for a range of reasons — but understanding how to manage the human element is critical,
no matter why the project has been undertaken.

By Derek Parker  //  Illustrations by Dane Mark

once upon a time, a good manager was seen as one who kept things flowing smoothly and kept everything in its right place. But that era is past. Now the key role of managers – and of leaders – is to initiate, deal with, and consolidate change, in response to rapid movements in the market, disruptive technologies, and intense global competition. Every manager is likely, in the course of his or her career, to go through at least one major corporate reorganisation; most will go through several of them.
The irony is that despite the importance of reorganisations, they are often undertaken without the forethought, care, and deep thinking that they require.

As a result, many reorganisations fail to fully achieve their objectives, according to a recent book, ReOrg: How To Get It Right. The authors, Stephen Heidari-Robinson and Suzanne Heywood, former senior analysts with the respected consulting firm McKinsey, amassed a huge amount of survey data and empirical information as part of their examination, and the picture it presented was not pretty.

“According to our global data, only 16 per cent of corporate reorganisations provided the results they were supposed to, in the time they were supposed to,” Heidari-Robinson told Leadership Matters. “70 per cent delivered some value. In nine per cent of cases, the reorganisation actually damaged the company in the long run.

“Stop for a moment to consider this: Imagine that you learned that less than one-fifth of your product launches, projects, or initiatives had delivered their full objectives, that a significant number had hurt your business, and that the mass in the middle had limited or uncertain value. You would probably conclude that there is a significant scope for improvement – very significant scope.”

Rationale explained

In fact, Heidari-Robinson believes that many company-wide reorganisations are not needed; the problems that need to be addressed could be solved with changes at division or business-unit level. Interestingly, reorganisations implemented by a freshly-appointed leader who brings in organisational change as part of the ‘new order’ of their leadership are very likely to fail. To have a decent chance of success the reorganisation needs to have a clear rationale, measurable benefits, and purposeful strategy.

The most common motive for reorganising is to enable revenue growth (27 per cent), followed by cutting costs (12 per cent), moving to a best-practice model (12 per cent), and bringing change into an organisation that has become too static (10 per cent).

“Across almost all business sectors, the most serious issue is employees’ active resistance to the changes,” says Heidari-Robinson. “Until staff know what the reorg means for them they have no ears for the exciting future of the reorg. They still assume the reorg is about job losses. The leader’s enthusiasm for this change feels discordant and uncaring to them. Leaders should realise that most employees hate these kinds of changes. But they hate secrecy and uncertainty more.”

Most Australian reorgs fail to lift performance

In Australia, according to the annual Salary Guide produced by recruitment firm Hays, about half of companies are currently undergoing or considering some level of restructuring.

“There are countless economic, political and regulatory factors impacting industries, organisations and workforces, as well as the new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution,” says Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand. He points to a study by management consulting firm Bain & Company that suggests that fewer than one-third of restructures lead to improved performance.

“We expect the current level of restructuring activity to continue but we also expect that many reorganisations will fail,” he says. “There are many reasons, including an organisation’s leaders not being clear on what they are trying to achieve, failing to plan appropriately, not achieving the buy-in of their staff and not ensuring that change is reflected in the firm’s culture.”

Deligiannis believes that Australian companies perform fairly well when it comes to identifying the people and skillsets that will be needed in the rebuilt organisation, and recruitment of new talent usually starts at an early stage. In fact, a reorganisation can even be an advantage in the war for talent, as it means there are new opportunities and possibilities.

But company leaders are often less adept at working with their existing workforces to provide a rationale and roadmap for change.

“It is very important to align a workforce in response to organisational change, while also ensuring that staff understand why change is occurring, are engaged with the new way of operating, and receive upskilling if required,” Deligiannis notes. “Otherwise, they will fall back into the same old work patterns.”

Thought needs to be given to cultural change as well. This is particularly the case when a reorganisation comes about due to a merger or acquisition, so there is not one common culture but two that need to be integrated. Ignoring issues of culture in a reorganisation is a recipe for failure.

“In all this, the executive team has to lead from the front, embodying the changes they expect to see in others and creating an environment where all employees feel they can share ideas and talk openly about the changes occurring around them,” says Deligiannis.

“Whether the result of a merger and acquisition, the growth of a department or even the establishment of a new team, any new job profiles need to be designed to align with the organisation’s goals so that they help achieve success from the beginning of the process. Without accuracy on this point, the right candidates with the right skills and background will not be identified and an organisation will not be able to improve business results.”

Looking for solutions

There is good evidence that the high level of reorganisation currently taking place in Australia is underpinned by a capacity to identify problems early and address them before they grow into crises. According to KPMG’s 2017 Evolving Deals Landscape survey, nearly half of Australia’s large companies are looking to improve operations, especially in their use of working capital, including management of receivables, payables and inventory.

Matthew Woods, KPMG’s Head of Restructuring Services, is not surprised. “For many CFOs and treasurers in today’s environment, cash management is high on their radar,” he says. “It is what you would expect to find in an economy which has been strong but is coming under stress. Businesses need to reset their cost base and restructure to ensure they are resilient going forward. They need to extract every dollar from their operations in response to increasing economic and financial pressures.

“There is a flow-on effect. If you are not actively improving working capital performance right now, then standing still is very much moving backwards. Whether you notice or not, there is a high chance that your suppliers and customers are optimising their working capital at your expense.”

Public sector lessons

“When it comes to reorganisations, the public sector and the private sector handle the processes very differently,” says Jacqueline Hiddlestone FIML, who has been involved in a range of restructures. She currently heads Jackal Oz, a consulting firm that offers advice on strategic development and operational delivery.

“[Public sector reorgs are different] mainly due to the level of union involvement, policies in place and greater willingness to discuss what is happening. Private sector companies usually pay minimal redundancy payments whereas public sector agencies usually have procedures such as moving people into a pool of available staff for a period of time, additional assistance in seeking alternate employment, and larger redundancy payments.”

There is often a difference in the support mechanisms too, such as dedicated HR or other staff. This leads to a more structured approach. If the reorganisation involves redundancies then transition options are available, and where redundancies are not involved there are re-training options.

Hiddlestone believes that reorganisations are more common in the public sector than the private sector, often due to changes in the statement of corporate intent provided to the government. In fact, this sense of continual reorganisation can become very disruptive. Change fatigue may drive talented staff to move on. Other employees can switch to ‘cruise’ because they believe that the work environment will change again shortly. This allows some to stay under the radar in terms of delivering agreed outcomes.

“I have found that a combination of communications channels works best,” she says. “Face-to-face sessions allow everyone to hear the same message about the direction, the target and the journey. This might be followed by a Q&A and written communication. An anonymous email avenue also allows concerns and questions to be raised without staff feeling they will be penalised for raising them. An open-door policy that allows staff to have private discussions provides an additional assurance that they are being heard and the organisation values them.

“Where redundancies may arise, the manager should do whatever is possible to explore options with individuals. Where do they see themselves in a year, or in five years? This can also help decide on who is impacted where there are equal capabilities against
fewer positions.”

Planning needed

The issue of planning – or, rather, failing to plan appropriately – looms large in any discussion as to why so many reorganisations do not achieve their goals. In many cases, the problem starts at the top. Some boards do not fully grasp the difficulties of a reorganisation, seeing it as either a matter of redrawing lines and boxes or seeing it only in financial terms. Many reorganisation projects are under-funded, considering
the problems they are
trying to solve.

Any presentation by senior management to the board must be able to explain and demonstrate the issues. For this reason, there should be a series of board meetings dedicated to the reorganisation, as well as regular updates while the process is in train. Sign-off of the plan must be clear and explicit, and there needs to be adequate resourcing for the project.

From this point the company leaders need to have a well-developed strategy for communicating the plan, including a means for making it available to all staff, whether or not they are directly affected. Any communications vacuum will be filled by gossip and speculation, which might then take a long time to correct.

Managerial accountability can only take place with transparency. Any attempt to keep the project secret is essentially counter-productive; more likely to alienate employees than win them over.

In the operational plan it is easy for the planners to place too much focus on the company’s weaknesses. But existing strengths must also be acknowledged and, if possible, developed. This goes back to the reason for a reorganisation: it must not be about change for the sake of change, but change for a specific, clearly articulated purpose.

“It is very important that staff hear their leaders, from the CEO to team leaders, talking regularly about the reorg, through internet sessions and ‘town halls’,” Heidari-Robinson says. “You should continually communicate the one big thought of the reorg – for example, moving from print to digital, or making local managers accountable for P&L outcomes – and the three to five biggest organisational changes that will make this happen.”

Managing employees who have received redundancy notices is an extremely difficult challenge, even with a good communications strategy, maximum sympathy from managers, and a generous payout. Their motivation can drop to zero and they might even look for ways to inflict symbolic – or real – damage on the company. External recruitment consultants and transition support providers can be very valuable at this point, helping the people affected look to future opportunities and possibilities.

Heidari-Robinson believes that the best way to handle this stage is to move as quickly as possible, offering thanks to departing employees and moving to re-focus continuing employees on their new roles.

“A slower process just drags out the water torture,” he says. “Good planning and speed are of the essence when it comes to reorgs.”

While having a clear plan is crucial it is also important to check progress along the way, through mechanisms such as employee surveys or metrics analysis. There might be a need to make changes in implementation if significant problems emerge.

Even when the reorganisation is complete there is still a great deal more work to be done.

“Plan for your reorg project team to return to conduct a review, one or two reporting cycles after implementation,” suggests Heidari-Robinson. “Do not declare victory for your reorg until it delivers the business results you wanted, which is sure to be some time after the actual implementation.”

Above all, accept that any large-scale reorganisation is going to be difficult. It affects the lives of employees – people who deserve to be treated with respect and consideration. Done poorly, a reorganisation can create a reservoir of dissatisfaction within the workplace. Done well, with effective communication and solid leadership, it can create new opportunities, transform operational efficiencies, and improve the organisation’s ability to deal with market changes and competitive pressures.

“Our advice is that you should only do a reorganisation if you have the rationale clear and you completely understand the likely cost of the change,” Heidari-Robinson emphasises. “If this has not happened, stop and think again.”

The Conversation: Awake to the call of leadership

Dr Daniel Jolley IMLa is no stranger to the fine art of decision making. As a consultant anaesthetist, he is called upon to demonstrate leadership and make life-saving decisions in an environment where split second timing can be critical.

Story by Nicola Field  //  Photography Peter Whyte

Dynamic decision making is the name of the game in an operating theatre. As Dr Daniel Jolley explains, “You try to be proactive rather than reactive.” Like all good skills, this comes with training. Anaesthesia requires a minimum five-year training period, often spent working alongside senior anaesthetists. Nonetheless, Dr Jolley observes that these days, the safety factor of surgery often hinges more on the decisions made by an anaesthetist rather than drugs, technology,
or equipment.

To learn more about how Dr Jolley rises to the leadership challenge – and why as a medico, he opted to undertake management and leadership training – IML CEO David Pich FIML met him in Hobart.

David Pich:   In leadership we tend to think somebody is in charge, and others follow instructions. But it doesn’t sound like that’s the case in an operating theatre.

Dr Jolley:   Australia is quite unique in that the position of the surgeon and the anaesthetist are on more of an equal footing. Coupled with the Australian willingness to challenge authority, members of the theatre team are less likely to be totally subservient to the perceived leader in the room. It’s interesting from a safety point of view – and this is something that’s been heavily studied inside the airline industry. There is a reasonably strong theory, for example, that Qantas continues to be the safest airline in the world both because of the exceptional training the airline invests in its pilots, but also because of the cultural tendency, in Australia, to challenge authority.

It’s the same in a theatre. It’s not uncommon for my aesthetic nurses to very carefully say, “Are you sure you want to do that?” So there’s a shared leadership role in the theatre environment.

DP:   Before you walk into the operating theatre, is there a briefing session?

DJ:   There’s been a big push over the past five years for a team meeting at the start. We have a brief discussion of every patient on the operating list so that the surgeon, anaesthetist and nursing staff can raise any concerns about potential problems and ensure everybody’s on the same page. You’re basically preparing for the unexpected, so that when the unexpected happens, it can be handled in a safe and effective way.

DP:   That’s interesting because a major focus for IML, at the moment, is the concept of intentional leadership. In order to end what we call ‘the chaos of accidental management’, you have to intend to lead. Are you saying intentional leadership is alive and well in our hospitals, and it cuts down the opportunity for accidents to happen?

DJ:   The surgeon is largely the default leader. But that leadership role can change very quickly in emergency situations, and when that happens, it occurs smoothly and without any real tension.

Where there’s say, a cardiac arrest, that’s an area that the anaesthetist is appropriately trained and expert in managing. The surgeon will look to the anaesthetist for direction on what to do next.

When I was a young trainee, I had a patient with a very nasty traumatic injury to the eye. The eye needed to be enucleated – that is, removed – because it had exploded from trauma. Pulling on the eye during the surgery can cause the heart rate to slow precipitously and even stop, which was what happened. It was the middle of the night, when not a lot of people were around, I did what I needed to do with the anaesthetic machine, gave appropriate drugs and then started CPR. We had a good outcome, and the gentlemen recovered well.

However, the feedback I received from my mentor – a very senior anaesthetist – was that I shouldn’t have been the one doing the CPR. I should have directed somebody else to do that. It was totally appropriate criticism because all medical staff are trained for CPR, and I needed to take a step back and direct them. Once I was on the chest I was very blinkered, and much more likely to be fixated on a smaller part of the problem rather than taking the big picture view.

DP:   At IML, we believe that reflection is often ignored in leadership. Leaders make huge decisions that impact lots of people, and then they typically don’t reflect on them. But that doesn’t seem to be standard practice in hospitals?

DJ:   It’s certainly something people are very cognisant of now. We’ve always had a focus on looking at why adverse events happen, and what we’ve done leading up to them. Then having a non-judgmental discussion about how it could be avoided in the future.

DP:   How do you stop yourself feeling vulnerable in those situations because, essentially, your performance is being judged?

DJ:   It’s a challenge. Anaesthetists have the potential to be self-critical. But there is a dominant culture among Australian anaesthetists of being a very social and supportive fraternity. So there’s always a lot of interaction and a supportive view.

DP:   You mentioned your mentor earlier. There’s an interesting statistic that only 21 per cent of CEOs of ASX 200 companies have a mentor. Whereas it seems in your occupation and your brand of leadership, mentoring plays a fundamental part.

DJ:   One of the challenges with the whole concept of mentorship is that sometimes we try to artificially force it on a situation. I suspect a true mentor is someone who finds you rather than you find him or her. That can be a challenge during medical training. You often spend only short periods in any one hospital or department, maybe six to 12 months at most, so it can be difficult to find a true mentor. However, most large departments encourage the development of mentor/mentee relationships to guide you through growth in non-clinical areas like leadership and decision making – things that are often forgotten in the midst of other professional growth.

DP:   One might expect that hospitals are full of accidental managers – people who, because of their technical skills, have ended up in management and leadership positions. What is the real situation in the medical profession?

DJ:   One of the challenges hospitals face is that there are lots of bureaucratic and organisational problems, which have largely been solved in the business world. There is a greater effort now to train, particularly medical staff, in both leadership and managerial roles so that they’re much less accidental and organic.

DP:   You decided to complete an MBA, and develop your skills in management and leadership. Why did you do that?

DJ:   When you reach mid-level seniority as a medical specialist, you often find yourself on various hospital committees, and making accidental managerial or leadership contributions in different areas. It’s very easy to be resistant to ‘management speak’. But I could see there was some real theory behind it, and I was doing myself, the hospital and my patients a disservice if I wasn’t open to learning more about that.

DP:   So, you went off to do an MBA at Deakin University, which is one of our accredited MBAs at IML. What did you learn?

DJ:   The Deakin MBA was very satisfying. It confirmed some of the things I suspected – that the organisational challenges, business challenges, finance and human resource challenges that impact day-to-day hospital life are far from unique. We have a responsibility to properly understand
these so that we can improve the way hospitals work.

DP:   What are some of the stand-out things  that you’ve taken from your MBA?

DJ:   Among the three things I’ve found most immediately relevant, Business Process Management taught me to look at the flow of information, staff, patients and associates, and how we create value. It blew my mind how complex all the processes are that our staff are undertaking on a daily basis. That means there are lots of areas for improvement and efficiency improvement.

The second area I thought was very interesting was Organisational Management and Human Resources. After completing the unit, you see that there is a huge amount of theory, both from the psychological point of view and behavioural theory, and I found that really useful.

The third area I found useful was Change Management. It’s all well and good to identify where there are problems, and then say, ‘Well, these are the solutions’, but implementing the solution is where everything falls down.

DP:   So would you recommend professional development in management and leadership for specialist medical staff?

DJ:   Definitely. The very nature of your specialist role means you have a position of leadership and you need to manage others. You might be lucky and do those well, but a lot of us don’t, and it’s our responsibility to learn to do them better.

In my line of work, where critical things are happening, you get the best performance out of your team when you’re calm and considerate in what you do. Internally, you may not be so calm, but projecting control and confidence is really important to have everyone else respond in a measured way in what could be a life-threatening event.

Leadership in 60 seconds

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat?

Twitter.

Phone, email or face-to-face?

Email.

Name a leader that you admire and why?

Michelle and Barack Obama together, as a team, because of the integrity
they have in the way they approach things. Obama was always referred
to as ‘no drama Obama’. That sort of quiet, confident, competence,
I really admire.

Your personal view on leadership?

One of the important roles of leadership is being able to communicate to the team the destination, what we’re trying to do, and the reason why we’re trying to get there.

Which three guests would you invite to dinner to discuss leadership?

Steve Jobs is number one. Not because I see him as a great leader, but I think he’d be a great dinner guest. Another person would be Julia Gillard to discuss her experience as Labor leader. I find the gender issues in leadership in Australia really fascinating. Mahatma Gandhi would be my third guest, to provide a different historical context on leadership and where it is now.

Advice for somebody just starting out in any career?

Don’t be too worried about getting the direction and the decisions right for where you’re going.  Focus a little more on decisions in a shorter horizon. You don’t know how your interests and skills are going to change.

What’s your personal resilience plan?

I really love running, trail running in particular, and also a bit of mountain biking – all of which are great here in Tassie.

Ann Messenger: From Student Member to Chair of IML

 

Ann Messenger has enjoyed a varied and eventful career in a variety of influential positions. In this interview she reflects upon the toughest challenges facing managers and leaders today, and shares some of the lessons she has learnt. 

By Jade Collins and Alanna Bastin-Byrne

 

Ann Messenger FIML is the Chair of the Board of the Institute of Managers and Leaders (IML). She is a chartered accountant and has enjoyed a varied global career, including six years working in Latin America as an equities analyst covering emerging markets.

Messenger worked in corporate finance and middle market advisory roles with professional services firms KPMG and HLB Mann Judd and later secured in-house roles such as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer with a variety of organisations including the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. Messenger has a strong interest in not-for-profits. During 2009 and 2010, she was the General Manager of St John’s College (within the University of Sydney) and in 2011 was appointed to Mosman Council’s Development Assessment Panel.

Messenger led the strategic rebrand of the Australian Institute of Management Group (AIM) to the Institute of Managers and Leaders to refocus the organisation’s purpose on setting and promoting the national standard of management and leadership competence. As part of this change, IML is the only assessing body outside of the UK offering the internationally recognised Chartered Manager (CMgr) qualification.

You are the first national Chair of the Institute of Managers and Leaders and originally joined as a student member of AIM in the 1980`s. Tell us about your long association with the organisation and how it has influenced and supported your leadership journey.

When I joined in the 1980s, management was a relatively new discipline and AIM was at the forefront of what was at that time the burgeoning field of management education and training. Since then, management education and training has become ubiquitous and IML has morphed into what it is today, the go-to professional body for managers and leaders.

IML has always had a sense of fraternity and as a young management professional there was a great sense of support in meeting others who were effectively in the same boat, not to mention a veritable gold mine of mentors who were always incredibly generous with their time and eager to help. Because IML has always been a completely independent non-aligned not-for-profit organisation, it occupies a unique position in being able to provide a nurturing forum for the profession.

What do you believe are the most pressing challenges leaders and managers face today?

The need for leaders and managers to constantly learn, adapt and change has never been greater. Nothing is static and with information at everybody’s fingertips there’s a constant expectation that we must keep up or be left behind. This is incredibly challenging and exciting but, of course, our reliance on non-curated and unverified data presents risks (and sometimes even fake news!). Seriously, though, this is where professional bodies like IML come into their own in providing sounding boards and support networks of like-minded people with whom we’re not in direct competition in a workplace.

IML has long advocated gender equality and diversity in leadership. What can organisations do to accelerate achieving leadership diversity and a culture of inclusion?

As leaders we can try to understand and appreciate that we are employing the “whole person”, not just the “professional part”. The good news is that by adopting a more holistic view of the individuals who make up our workforce – a culture of acceptance and inclusion follows. Leaders of organisations that do that are inherently promoting diversity and inclusion and, by the way, achieving much higher returns on their human resource investment.

Leaders can also dispel the myth that employees are somehow almost robotic, one dimensional units of production and accept that work is a means to an end for all but the saddest of the workaholics among us. In doing so, we bring some humanity, acceptance and inclusion into our workplaces.

As an experienced director, what would you recommend as the best preparation to those who are considering pursuing board roles?

There are a million and one sage and sobering accounts of boardroom activities, the most colourful of which unfortunately exist in court reports. Gaining an understanding of corporate governance is absolutely critical. Although experience within the boardroom via executive roles provides valuable insights, a director’s perspective is and must be entirely different. Governance is key.

What has been your greatest challenge?

There have been so many challenges. One that’s front of mind for me right now is accepting that sometimes things just have to play out and, as a leader, there are times when you just have to allow that to happen. The learnings and evolution that result for all concerned sometimes just have to come from the actual experience.

What are you most proud of?

In my role as Chair of IML, it’s got to be the rebrand and reinvention of the organisation. That is, of course, still happening. It’s been incredibly rewarding to watch the reaction to this fresh new brand.

What’s your one piece of advice for future female leaders?

I’m going to steal from Eleanor Roosevelt here. She once said something along the lines of: “Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do because you’ll be criticised anyway!”

I guess that’s another way of saying believe in yourself and see it through – but I’d caveat that by saying, always…always listen to those who you know have your best interests at heart…and then do what you think is right!

As leaders we can try to understand and appreciate that we are employing the “whole person”, not just the “professional part”.

People Power: Leadership hacks to save you time

Scott Stein, renowned business coach and author of Leadership Hacks, Clever Shortcuts to Boost Your Impact and Results, shares some tips to boost the productivity of you and your team.

By Nicola Field

You know the drill. Deadlines are getting tighter, resources are being squeezed and you need to motivate your people to do more with less. It can seem like a tall order, but Scott Stein says some clever hacks – or smart shortcuts – can make it happen.

Everyone’s busy. Our days are packed with different activities. But chances are, you’re not focusing on the right things. Try mapping out what you have actually done during the course of a day, and you’re likely to see a big gap between what you have been doing and what you should be doing.

In this article, Scott reveals some of the hacks that allow leaders to side-step the distractors and reclaim their time:

Hacks for your email inbox

Be disciplined. Schedule time to manage emails, then follow up with this simple four-step hack to save time managing your inbox:

  1. Give your inbox a quick visual scan.
  2. Delete what’s not relevant.
  3. Sort remaining emails based on importance.
  4. Respond.

Hacks for sending emails

When writing an email, think about what you are hoping to achieve. Use the list below to narrow this down:

  • It’s an FYI message.
  • You need to gather/share information.
  • You need to make a decision.
  • You need the recipient to take action
  • You want to arrange a meeting.

State the specific outcome you’re looking for at the start of the email including in the subject line. This gives the reader context and saves you (and them) time. Use bullet points, bold and underline in your email message to help the reader easily grasp the key points.

One-on-one hacks

Delegation is an important skill, yet leaders often don’t know how to delegate. It’s estimated that one in two companies is concerned about their managers’ delegation skills, but they don’t offer training for it.

The result? Leaders are often completing tasks that someone several salary bands below them should be doing – often because it seems quicker and easier to just do it themselves.

The fact is, delegation is a skill that can be mastered. Let’s break it down.

There are four levels to delegation:

  1. Do the task yourself.
  2. Coach your team member. Explain you need their help, describe the task and map out a plan of action together. Share ideas, sequence the steps, and set clear dates when you will check in on their progress.
  3. Explain the task to your team member, and ask them to map out how they’ll approach it. Check in along the way.
  4. Set the task, and ask to see the results when it’s complete.

A key problem is that many leaders head straight to level 4. If things don’t go well, after a few attempts they give up delegating and revert to level 1.

It’s important to use a level 2 approach in the first instance. Gradually progress to level 3, and then to level 4. It will save time in the long run.

Team hacks

Research shows executives can spend as much as 23 hours each week tied up in meetings. That makes meetings a prime target for team hacks.

Trying to combine different types of meetings is a waste of time. The discussion goes round and round, the same people do all the talking and no real result is achieved.

Instead, hack the meeting by first identifying its purpose. Then decide the type of meeting you need to achieve your purpose from the four listed below:

  1. Reporting and checking – for example, reporting sales results.
  2. Problem solving – you have a challenge that you need a broader perspective on.
  3. Decision making – you need to arrive at a clear decision.
  4. Strategy development – you need to plan for the future.

Be clear about communicating the type of meeting to your team. If everyone knows what the aim of the meeting is from the start, it gives the discussion focus and helps avoid detours.

Be prepared to shake up meetings a little too. Or maybe you don’t need a meeting at all. Reporting or checking in can often be done virtually.  The Vice President of Kimberly-Clark, a massive corporation, recently got rid of typical reporting meetings altogether. These days, they have a dashboard in the hallway that sets out KPIs, and the team has a 15-minute stand-up meeting – once in the morning, and then another check-in during the afternoon.

Find more leadership time savers and productivity boosters in Scott Stein’s new book Leadership Hacks, Clever Shortcuts to Boost Your Impact and Results (Wiley).

Responding to the data revolution with resilient leadership

By Dr Selvi Kannan, educator, mentor and Academic Specialist Advisor – Management & Innovation, Victoria University; and Dr Bill Petreski, Principal, Strategy61


Major shifts in the world are placing new demands on businesses, workforces and ultimately education and training. New Resilient Leadership skills are required for the paradigm shift that is upending organisational structures and human capital.

 

The data revolution

Sometimes called the data revolution, the fourth industrial revolution emerged since the global financial crisis of 2008 as a proliferation of our ability to capture, store and manage data that has ultimately led to widespread accessibility and its commoditisation.

By contrast, the first industrial revolution (1760 to 1840) was a defining point in history as we transitioned from hand production methods to new manufacturing processes that were underpinned by steam power, machines, tools and factories.

Inevitably our world did reckon the data revolution. The following industrial revolutions (the technological revolution between 1870 and 1914, and the information revolution between 1980 to 2005) created industries that have been defined by increasingly rapid convergence of computing, telecommunications and networking infrastructure.

Today’s new paradigm is shaping technology-driven futures underpinned by emerging automation technologies, including data analytics, deep learning, artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. Automation technologies are already becoming essential parts of everyday life and will increasingly transform our workplace.

On one hand, the profound technological changes of the fourth industrial revolution intensified competition in an increasingly borderless commercial environment. While such globalisation has led to unprecedented gains for many from the movement of goods, services, people and ideas, there are those who have lost out – economically, politically or culturally.

While there have been profound socio-economic impacts in all past industrial revolutions, each change has also required dissimilar organisational structures, human capital and therefore leadership capabilities.

Now is the time for all organisations to hone their management and leadership competencies to adapt to current accelerating business model innovations. Greater resilience will be the key to meet the demands that are upending human capital management and legacy hierarchical organisational structures.

Resilient leadership is the key

Resilience originates from the Latin word resiliens, which refers to the pliant or elastic quality of a substance. Broadly it often refers to positive self-esteem, hardiness, strong coping skills, a sense of coherence, self-efficacy, optimism, strong social resources, adaptability, risk-taking, low fear of failure, determination, perseverance, and a high tolerance of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, leadership is often described as taking active approaches to making decisions. It involves gaining and keeping engagement of others’ positive attention, showing empathy, insight, intellectual competence, self-direction, self-esteem, setting direction, and demonstrating strength and flexibility during a change process.

In the new paradigm of the data revolution and its emerging organisational structures and new models of human capital, resilience and leadership require additional capabilities that include technical competencies, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity that will sustainably equip individuals for current and future challenges.

We posit resilient leadership will enable individuals to rapidly fine-tune their professional capabilities to the business model innovations stemming from the current wave of automation technologies. Similarly, businesses will be increasingly required to support their executives, who are otherwise bound by legacy organisational structures, business processes and cultural values.

Our proposed archetype, resilient leadership, will require life-long skill and knowledge development of the attributes to operate in the new agile management environment.  Resilient leaders will need the ability to propel innovative and ethical industries that are globally competitive in rapidly transforming environment to realise the beneficial futures of work and industries and support a new generation of thriving micro, small, medium and large businesses.

 Any enquiries on this research and wish to participate please contact Selvi Kannan: selvi.kannan@vu.edu.au or Bill Petreski bill.petreski@strategy61.com.au

Are We Doing Enough to Support the Mental Wellbeing of Our Workforce?

There is no denying that the contemporary business environment is taking a toll on the mental wellbeing of our workforce. Roles are no longer as permanent as what they used to be, there is a constant pressure to upskill and organisational change is never far around the corner. Understandably, this creates uncertainty and places additional pressures on employees. So, what are we doing to support mental wellbeing?

For many organisations, a focus on mental health stops after the implementation of an EAP program that is rarely publicized and an announcement to all staff on ‘R U OK?’ day. However, some organisations are starting to think outside of the box to come up with innovative mental wellbeing initiatives. Let’s take a look at some of these new ideas…

  1. Mental Health Day: In their most recent EBA, IKEA has negotiated to provide all staff an additional paid day off each year to support their mental wellbeing. This day off is called a ‘doona day’ and there are no questions asked when taking it. If work or personal life is ever getting too much for IKEA employees, a day snuggled up in their doona may be just what they need.
  2. Puzzles: Other workplaces, such as Brisbane City Council have puzzles in employee lunch areas to encourage employees to switch off from work occasionally. Puzzles have been proven to be an effective tool for reducing stress by creating a sense of calmness and serenity.
  3. ‘Fails’ Celebrations: Mistakes and failures are an inevitable part of organisational change. However, unfortunately these failures can leave a massive toll on the mindset of staff members. Despite this, some organisations are trying to turn these fails around and have actually planned ‘fail’ celebrations. These celebrations encourage staff to collectively look back on the challenges they experienced throughout the year and appreciate that these weren’t always in their control. This has assisted the mental wellbeing of employees in these environments as it has promoted them to have a positive mindset when faced with difficult situations.
  4. Get Physical: This is one initiative that many organisations have already jumped on board with as exercise releases endorphins that promote the mental wellbeing of individuals. However, how creative is your organisation in encouraging staff members to get physical? Perhaps it could be a work social sport team, a boot camp committee or a monthly step-a-thon.
  5. Silent Spaces: One of the major causes of mental health issues at work is stress. Sometimes it just seems like there is too much work and not enough time. Whilst it would be ideal to say that all organisations should stop employees from getting stressed by making sure they never have too much work to do, this is a pretty unrealistic goal. Instead, organisations such as Commonwealth Bank, have tried to alleviate this issue by creating silent office spaces. These spaces are available to employees at times where they may need a couple of hours without disturbance in order to get their work done and reduce anxiety.

Clearly, there are so many creative ways that mental wellbeing can be supported in the workplace. It is time to challenge our current approach to employee mental wellbeing and consider what our organisation could be doing better…

Reference:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5588550/

Let’s break some rules

In a fearful world, leaders need to embolden their people to swim against the tide.

By Jane Caro 

A few years ago, I used to teach a subject of intense academic rigour (not) at the University of Western Sydney. ‘Advertising Creative’ was an elective in the Communications degrees offered by the School of Communication Arts. I taught the course twice per year for seven years. I usually had about 100 students per semester. UWS (or WSU as it is called now) is a terrific institution. Quite apart from anything else 75 per cent of its students are the first members of their family ever to go to university. It also enrolls students from a wide range of ethnic, social and religious backgrounds. All the research shows that a rich spread of experiences and beliefs in an organisation is ground zero for creativity.

What I found while teaching this wide range of students, was that the usual suspects were not the people who did as well as they expected in my course. In using the term ‘usual suspects’ I mean the archetypal ‘good’ students. Those who study hard and are very good at following the rules, and memorising and regurgitating what they have been told. To their consternation, for once, they were not the stars of the show. I remember one of them asking me how wide the margin should be on the work they handed in and the way their mouth dropped open at my answer.

“Margin? I don’t care if it has a margin at all. I don’t care if you hand in your creative idea scribbled on the back of an envelope so long as it makes me laugh, cry, shocks me, disturbs me or makes me think. Neatest, correct entry will get you nowhere. Messy but original will win. Show me something I have never seen before.”

The students who did surprisingly well in my course were often the ones who were just scraping through the rest of their subjects. They were the irreverent, lazy kids who winged their assignments at the very last minute because they were too busy having a good time. They were also less anxious than the high-achievers, less driven by the need for the approval of others. Their expectations, if they had any, were realistic. Yet, they were better at original ideas. They were more creative because they had kept their subversive spirit alive. They weren’t obedient or compliant and they didn’t follow the rules. And that is where creativity, originality and new ideas live. They germinate in that little internal voice that says ‘Why do I have to do it your way?’ ‘Why should I do what you tell me just because they call you the teacher (boss/supervisor, whatever) and me the student (employee/subordinate etc)?’

I remember one young man coming up to me on campus after the final results had been announced. “Thank you for the great mark,” he said, in a tone of bewilderment. He was clearly not used to scoring highly. “You deserved it,” I replied. “You think differently.”

The trouble with the world as it is now – whether it is in our education system, the workplace, politics, industry or even the media – is we are obsessed with compliance. We are preoccupied with ticking boxes, following the rules (complying with them, in fact) and being accountable. And accountability, as I have written before, is the proverbial dead-hand when it comes to creativity and original thinking. Accountability is a blame-oriented mechanism. If something goes wrong, someone will be held to account for the mistake. Creativity, originality and innovation thrive on mistakes. Whenever you try something new, by definition you are likely to get it wrong. That’s why the era of accountability has brought the western world to the place we find ourselves now. Some are looking backwards (I’m looking at you ‘Make America Great Again’) in fear and loathing, while the rest of us are desperately spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. Creativity and innovation, in my experience, can only really take flight in an almost fear-free environment. People must feel safe enough to fail before they can succeed. Managers who know this are both very wise and very rare.

We are currently living in a very fearful world. We’re terrified of being blamed and criticised. We’re scared of climate change, terrorism and ‘the other’. The future feels bleak and dystopian. I think we have to throw that self-limiting existential terror away. And we can only do that with some real innovation. So, it’s time to get subversive. Time to break the rules. Time to tear up the guidelines, excise the margins and scribble our best ideas on the back of envelopes.

Jane Caro runs her own communications consultancy. She worked in the advertising industry for 30 years and is now an author, journalist, lecturer and media commentator.

Innovator: Karen Hayes transforming a trusted brand

By Lachlan Colquhoun

Karen Hayes FIML had decades of experience as a senior manager in business technology consulting when she realised that she wasn’t “bouncing out of bed every morning” to get to work.

After time working in Europe and Canada, she found herself back in Melbourne and sitting on a number of boards of not-for-profit organisations when the realisation struck: she was enjoying the not-for-profit world more than the commercial world where she had made her career.

She she set her sights on the much-coveted role of CEO at Guide Dogs Victoria. Having secured the position, she knew that the organisation needed to change.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme was about to begin and with it a new model of “self-directed” care, where people with disabilities would be the ones making choices on which services they use.

At the time, the philanthropic model was changing and this had major implications for an organisation that receives only 8 per cent of its funding from government.

“The days of corporates writing big cheques, handing them over and then just ticking their corporate social responsibility box are well and truly over,” says Hayes.

The vision was to move to a more sustainable model where Guide Dogs Victoria could maintain all the values that made it so beloved, but at the same time move towards being able to fund itself.

“It was about respecting the fact that the organisation had 60 years of great history, but also putting measures in place to make sure it survived and prospered 60 years and more into the future,” Hayes says.

Many of the staff, for example, had been at Guide Dogs Victoria for 40 years and the average tenure was 13 years. Hayes had come from an industry where the average stay was 11 months.

“I needed to respect the history, but not allow the history to hold us back,” she says.

Part of the reinvention was around communicating the fact that Guide Dogs does more than train and deliver the iconic guide dogs themselves.

Guide dogs are only around 30 per cent of what the organisation does, with the majority of the balance being in providing other services to the sight impaired. There are 250,000 people with low vision issues in Victoria, but most do not have guide dogs.

“We introduced a strategic plan, and that is about us being first choice as an employer, as a services provider, for people looking for an organisation to support with philanthropy and also for volunteers,” says Hayes.

“We are redeveloping our campus in Kew with the objective of diversifying our revenue stream with a vet clinic, a doggie day care centre, a dog friendly café, all of which will be revenue generating.

“We are going to build a low vision clinic and an educational auditorium, and introduce a level of predictability and sustainability in our financial model that has not existed previously.”

This is all in addition to the ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ experience in Melbourne Docklands, where people are led through an environment in total darkness and have to rely on other senses to interact.

Around 15,000 members of the public have been through the experience, which also employs a team of 20 blind people
as guides.

All these changes go right down through the organisation. All employees have balanced scorecards and KPIs that flow from the strategic plan and which are measured every year.

“When I came here I could see that this was an organisation full of individuals with very strong values,” says Hayes. “Now I feel we are also a values-based organisation with a plan everyone understands, so we are all moving in the right direction together.”

Take Two: When like-minds meet

Although she was an experienced professional in her chosen field, Julie Fallon MIML felt she needed some mentoring input when she moved into a new role. She reached out to IML ANZ’s Member Exchange program and was paired with Melbourne-based leadership coach Ross Montalti FIML.

By Lachlan Colquhoun

Why did you join the Member Exchange program?

 Julie Fallon:   “I originally joined the program to offer my services as a mentor having been a mentor for others as part of my consultancy business. However, on opening my own medical practice to provide consulting rooms and administrative services to specialists, I felt I required assistance with strategy and focus to help  sort out the plethora of ideas I have going around in my head.”

Ross Montalti:   “I have been formally mentoring for more than 10 years, initially at the Melbourne University Business and Economics Faculty and then with Australian Management and Education Services. My corporate experience provided me with heaps of related learnings and I wanted to share that with those who might value it, as well as help me keep up-to-date in management and leadership theories and practices, especially as they relate to new workplace incumbents, such as millennials.”

What did you get out of the experience?

 JF:  “I received confirmation that my self-doubts were no different to anyone else in business, and confidence that I was achieving, and heading in the right direction. I also had understanding from someone like minded who could see me without me having to try so hard to get across what I needed. I had an objective perspective from someone outside looking in, who was able to see through my mass of information and bring me to a level where I could focus on what was important and begin to strategise on that basis. Most of all I got a willing, experienced businessperson to help me long term wherever they can assist, even if it is just as a sounding board. Hopefully I got a lifelong friend who understands my business and me.”

 RM:   “So far, it has been an interesting journey. My discussions with my mentee are helping me appreciate that not much has changed since I was in a managerial/leadership role. I am learning that managers and leaders these days have the same set of workplace priorities, and perhaps these priorities are not as well dealt with in the case of people, resulting in ‘people issues’ seeming to take a back seat. The business side of things is still the same: set measurable and achievable goals; set priorities; surround yourself with people you trust, appreciate and can work with; get help if/when you need it; and review business results until you get the desired outcomes. Do this collaboratively, keeping your team informed and with a customer perspective in mind, and sustainable positive business results will be institutionalised.”

What did you learn from each other?

 JF:   “I learned that there are other people out there who just want to help you be the best you can be, with no judgement or criticism. I learned about who Ross is as a person, his personal insight, and experience as a businessman. I think I actually learned more about myself than Ross through this process. It really made me sit back and analyse both my business, my goals in business and life, what I actually want to achieve, and why. Ross helped me help myself, while providing amazing support, which is what it is all about.

 RM:   “I’m still learning, but so far I have learned more about the medical ‘business’ side of things from my mentee than I would have imagined. I have learned that I need to keep asking questions, not only to help me understand but hopefully also assist my mentee to get to the bottom of any issue, and move forward with a clear focus, and achievable and realistic result in mind.”

Would you recommend the program to others?

 JF:   “Yes!”

 RM:   “Yes. It’s a way of staying in touch with business realities, checking out whether what we did in the past actually worked, and helping Australian businesses – and more importantly, managers and leaders – grow and achieve their business outcomes, and personal aspirations.”