Perhaps there are no difficult people – only situations in which people seem to us to be difficult. Author Adam Kahane takes a quick look at those situations where we find ourselves having to work with people we consider difficult. He writes about it in a short blog (find it here) that is worth a quick read.
Kahane gives three things for us to think about when we are facing those people we consider to be difficult. In summary these are:
In concluding, Kahane reminds us that none of this is easy or foolproof, but if we want to be able to collaborate, then we have to be willing to change ourselves. And the Avondale Business School is able to help you with change. To find out how, contact Warrick Long on 02 4980 2168 or [email protected].
Associate Professor Lisa Barnes attended a 2 day update workshop in Brisbane last week run by the Australian Institute of Company Directors. The course was attended by members who had previously completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course, but had not been updated in the last few years. The course attendees were made up of actively serving board members from listed companies, the not-for-profit sector as well as the government and private sectors. The link to the AICD website is https://aicd.companydirectors.com.au/
The updated course covered recent topics such as the Royal Commission into the Banking Sector, the legal environment that company directors operate in, as well as fiduciary duties and responsibilities of company directors in both the civil and criminal legal environments.
Other topics included definitions of conflict of interest, board composition, board remuneration, board risk, the importance of strategy as well as understanding financial papers in light of the Centro case. All topics covered were discussed and case studies presented and discussed by participants.
The 2 days ended with 3 groups being allocated different roles (Board, Remuneration Committee, Risk Committee) and a case study given where participants had to role play different scenarios and present to a board for discussion in light of a crisis, being either a legal issues, a risk issue or a strategy issue.
Lisa Barnes attended the course in her role as Vice Chair of a not-for-profit organisation called “Coastlink” who provide disability respite care to youth on the Central Coast. She has recently been appointed to the Risk & Audit sub-committee of ACARA, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment & Reporting Authority which is an independent statutory authority that hopes to improve the learning of young Australians. They currently administer the NAPLAN program. ACARA was established under Section 5 of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Act (Cth) on 8 December 2008. Lisa will take up the new position in November 2018.
What does a very successful US Nuclear Submarine Commander, a Spinal Surgeon, a Silicon Valley Start-up, and a major hospital all have in common, apart from their success? In these particular examples it is Humble Leadership, as described by Edgar and Peter Schein in their just released (2018) book ‘Humble Leadership – the power of relationships, openness and trust’, published by Berrett-Koehler.
The authors view Humble Leadership as requiring a certain kind of mindset, certain attitudes toward working with others, and skills in working with groups Their purpose in writing this book is to move reader to think as much, or more, about the process of building relationships at work as they do about the content of the work itself (p. 130).
I found this book appealed to me because of two main aspects. Firstly it dealt with the “soft skills” of leadership that are rarely written about in such a practical way, and secondly, it provided a wealth of examples that made it so much easier to contextualize the concept into many different settings. The chapter that provided some “how-to’s” and resource links was pretty handy also.
A key tenet of the book is to encourage leaders to move from Level 1 leadership (traditional transactional approaches) to Level 2 leadership (personal relationship based), and potentially in some rare cases to Level 3 leadership (emotionally intimate total mutual commitment).
This book was easy to read (I read it over a few evenings) and very practical. It is current and the concepts easy to contextualize. Do yourself a favor…
Warrick Long, Lecturer, Avondale Business School
Trust is an undervalued resource in organisations. Most organisations take it for granted, and don’t have an intentional program to develop and nurture it. However, the business advantages of fostering a culture of trust are immense. In a recent article in Governance Directions (read it here), authors Vinay Goswami and Erick Fibich note the following about how trust enhances what employees do:
Conversely, when trust is absent, employees will jockey for positions, hold back information and play it safe. They also tend to become more withdraw and disengaged, with confidence among the team eroding, as does commitment to the organisation.
Essentially, as the authors note, trust builds the bridge between the business need for results, and the human need for connection.
Interestingly, the article makes the strong point that “rebuilding trust takes far more effort, time and resources than it does to initially build and maintain it in the first place.” Which begs the question, why don’t organisations invest more into building a culture of trust?
The authors propose four area in which to build and maintain trust, and the short time it takes to read further about these is time well spent, but in short point form, these are:
Taken for granted, trust in your organisation can soon disappear, leaving a disgruntled, disengaged and uncommitted workforce. However, investing time and resources in building and maintaining trust can see your organisation succeed. And the Avondale Business School is here to help you with your success. Simply contact Warrick Long at [email protected] to find out how.
While many people thrive on change, there are also plenty of people (most?) who don’t relish the idea of another organisational restructure or “adjustment”. Change fatigue is a very real issue in workplaces. But some change is very necessary for the ongoing success of the business and so the issue becomes how to implement change is the most effective and successful way.
There are a number of resources available on change management (I personally like John Kotter’s approach in his book Leading Change). However, I recently came across a really succinct article on how to ensure employees are engaged and on board with organisational change. If comes from Morgan Galbraith and can be found by clicking here. Galbraith notes that almost one0thrid of employees don’t understand why changes are occurring in their workplace, which is a leading factor why command change transformations fail.
To help with the employee understanding, Galbraith notes four key factors leaders can take on board:
Ensure you give a clear view of the path ahead, answering the questions of why the change is important, and how it will positively affect the organisation in the long-term.
A hallmark of successful transformations is continual communication which is clear and consistent, and answers the question ‘what’s in it for me’ for employees. It is also important to communicate even when you don’t have all the answers.
Successful transformations also happen because senior leaders model the behaviour changes. But for them to do so, you need to help them understand the fundamentals of change, including how to be an effective leader during that time.
This is scary, but you need to solicit feedback and engage people in the process, which helps build ownership and makes them more likely to support the change.
The whole article is well worth reading (it only takes 6 minutes), and as noted by Galbraith, companies who are highly effective at change management are three and a half times more likely to significantly outperform industry peers. So remember to inspire, inform, empower and engage. Avondale Business School (ABS) can help you with your change management processes, to find out how, contact Warrick Long via [email protected]
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Employees worldwide rank respect as the most important leadership behaviour, yet employees are reporting more disrespectful and uncivil behaviour each year – these are the comments from Kristie Rogers, in her article ‘Do Your Employees Feel Respected’ in HBR Online (read it here). It appears that leaders are failing to understand what it is that employees need to feel respected, and their attempts to address it are falling way short.
The article examines two forms of workplace respect, Owed Respect and Earned Respect, which is very informative and contains great advice. But the real value in this article are the tips for closing the gap between toxic and respectful workplaces. The full article is deserving of being read, but the summary of those seven tips are:
Respect is something that the new generation of workers are particular about, so leaders that understand that and tune in will be the ones who lead most successfully. And Avondale Business School can help you be a successful leader, simply contact Warrick Long on 02 49802168 or [email protected]
Central Coast Adventist School (CCAS) held their Year 12 Graduation on the 27th September, with over 60 students graduating. School Principal Tony Kent welcomed the graduating class of 2018 with a Prayer filled with best wishes for the future that lies ahead of them. Head of High School Peter Wrankmore, presented individual awards of merit to students that excelled in their results for individual subjects.
Avondale Business School as part of Avondale College of Higher Education sponsored the “Business Excellence Award”. This award is for the student that demonstrated the most entrepreneurship, business mindedness and potential this year in the area of Business. The award was presented by Associate Professor Lisa Barnes, and for 2018, the award went to Tyler Wade. Tyler was given an engraved trophy, certificate of merit and cash of $50.00. Well done Tyler, ABS wishes you all the best for your Business future!
If you have been working for any length of time, you will agree with me that we are being required to do more in less time. And leaders and managers are particularly susceptible to this due to the huge amount of additional information they have access to and the more compressed time frames to make decisions. Consequently leaders are looking for ways to do more with less.
A recent article by Scott Stein for the Governance Institute of Australia entitled ‘How Leaders Can Learn to do More with Less’ (read it here) tackles this issue head on and provides some excellent strategies to achieve this. I am not going to go into the details, but the 5 strategies are:
I would encourage you to read the full article to see how these 5 strategies can actually help you achieve more. And the Avondale Business School is here to help you also. Just contact Warrick Long on 02 4980 2168 or [email protected] to find out how we can add value to your business.
In mid-June this year, a Humanitarian Affairs representative, Andreena Kardamis contacted Avondale College of Higher Education with the intention of locating students who believe in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Kardamis found Avondale while conducting online research into universities that had a strong emphasis on and involvement with acts of service. 13 of Avondale’s student leaders from a variety of disciplines were then invited to attend the 9th University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS) held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. It ran from the 1st of August till the 6th of August 2018, and comprised of workshops, keynote influential speakers, motivational sessions and a service day. In total, 1057 delegates were invited across 87 countries. Our Avondale cohort shared accommodation with all of the other delegates which gave us the perfect opportunity to network and hear their stories. Some of the representatives were refugees, some came from extreme poverty and some had lost their families because of corruption.
Listening to presentations formed some of the main highlights of the whole experience. We had the honour of hearing Geraldine Cox, the founder of Sunrise Cambodia, speak on her charity and vision. Originally established as an orphanage in the Cambodian province of Kandal, Sunrise Cambodia now extends its services to sustainable development and family support in several provinces of the country. David Begbie, Director of Crossroads' Global X-perience and senior spokesman for Crossroads Foundation, gave a presentation that particularly resonated with me. His work with Crossroads Foundation has been instrumental in sourcing and distributing resources for those affected by natural disasters, and it is this practical and missional approach to service that I really appreciated. Kishore Mahbubani, a recognised expert in Asian and world affairs, Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and prolific author also gave further insight into the SDG’s and their role in the wider world.
There were many more inspiring presentations from a range of perspectives and altruistic goals, however they all served to reveal the commonalities that the attendees shared: drive, passion, people and purpose. Given the opportunity to surround ourselves with delegates from across the globe also lead us to the question, why did we come? This was a question often put forward to the delegates, which made us really evaluate our personal motivations for being there. We came from completely different lifestyles, cultures, ethnicities and were all wanting the same answers: zero poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, and world peace.
The acts of service that the delegates and the informants shared with us throughout the week were a clear representation of how God wants us to impact and change this world. It is not a common opportunity to be in the same room with so many leaders, and it was a heart-warming experience knowing that as humans, whether Christian or not, we can see God working through people’s hearts all over the world.
By Yannick Coute, ABS Student
Students in the Strategic Responses in Business unit were treated to a firsthand account of what business intelligence really means. Mr Todd Saunders (graduate of Avondale Business School), and now Sanitarium General Manager for Australia and New Zealand spent time with the class not only explaining business intelligence, but answering their questions regarding all aspects of the business.
The effective collection, analysis and use of business intelligence is a major differentiator between companies that succeed and fail, and Todd was able to show students all these components from the perspective of Sanitarium. Students had their eyes opened as to how much data is collected, and how it is used, noting that even weather data plays an important role in forecasting both raw material prices and sales projections.
The Strategic Responses class involves students engaging in a computer simulation where in groups they run companies in the computer sensor industry, competing over 8 years (one per week for 8 weeks) against each other. They must make decisions for each round that involve production estimates, marketing decisions, financing options, HR components (including negotiating a new EA with their staff) and R&D strategies. The unit culminates in the last class of semester when students must run and annual general meeting facing their shareholders (invited College Staff) based on their company results.
The time spent with Todd was valuable for the students in not only assisting them in their class, but also bridging the gap between theory and real-world experience. ABS appreciates the time Todd dedicates to assisting the development of ABS students.
