On The Ground

Remote working has transformed from an emerging trend to a necessity across the globe. Instead of working with your team face to face, you’re suddenly managing a remote team (and this will become a stronger trend) and trying to find the right strategies to stay productive. Here are some tips to manage remote teams: Communicate daily Choose a time in the morning to catchup and have a productive conversation with your team. The purpose is to set an agenda for the day, address

Corona Virus or sudden change will not stop us, but it will force us to do things differently in an accelerated response time. Macquarie Business School, along with We Are Unity, conducted a quantitative and qualitative study with Senior Executives in the ASX200, from a cross-section of major industries. The attached report shows how the crisis has been a catalyst for major transformation in the way we work. The research uncovered that COVID-19 has forced successful organi

Whether you work in Hospitality, Mental Health, Retail, or the Airlines. Saying no to someone builds an internal flame of anger and frustration and it does not have to be. In our leadership development program, we share a simple example of how this works. I ask the strongest looking person to come to the front of the room with me. I simply ask them to put their hands up in front of them – nothing else. I put my hands against their hands and start pushing and without me askin

Is the impact of Covid19 really something that we have not experienced before in business? The reality is that Covid19 is just ‘Sudden Change’, something that nearly all business has, and will continue to experience as we move ahead. It is no different in concept to a competitor entering the market, the introduction of the internet, Online competition, Global service providers, or the launch and end of the LNG build in Papua New Guinea. We have all dealt with sudden change

Trust is a critical component of employee engagement and the foundation of a great workplace. Academic research has shown the role of trust in building more positive attitudes, higher levels of interpersonal and team cooperation, better communication, job satisfaction, effort, relationships, increased quality of performance, and many more. But saying trust is important and actually cultivating an environment of trust are two different things. So, how can you actually build

As leaders, we all know and are aware of the impact a crisis can have on us personally, as well as our people and the results we generate for the company. More often than not, an unpredicted or unforeseen crisis will lead to negative results for all involved. We also will generally fall into the trap of taking on more personally because of the belief that “We are in crisis and no one can do it better than me” Great leaders in fact go the opposite way. Great leaders look an

Leading through any crisis can be extremely demanding on our bodies. It can have a significant impact on both our mental or psychological wellbeing as well as our physical health. You may find yourself doing longer hours, doing more physically demanding activities to cover for any gaps you identify or stressing and worrying about what the future may bring to you and your people. When we are faced with these situations, we usually take reasonable care of our physical wellbe

There is no doubt 2020 is a different year, whether it be fires, floods, competition, staff attendance or Covid19. As leaders, we need to manage and lead through the crisis to drive success for ourselves, our people and our company. We often fall into the trap of jumping into action too quickly without taking a step back to think and assess what is happening and the impact it can have on us. To successfully lead out of the crisis, we need to stop our minds from immediate ac

There is no doubt we are all being impacted by the global Coronavirus pandemic. Despite the trying times, companies must ensure they do not fall into the same trap as they did with the Global Financial Crisis and not invest in their people and businesses. As many companies learnt from other global disasters, now is the perfect opportunity to be one step ahead of your competition and invest in the development, empowerment, upskilling of your people, whilst finessing your str

Encourage  multilateral communications and dialogue -  among peers and between employees and leaders — encouraging employees’ sense of voice, position, significance and purpose. Establish  strong company values - that employees can understand and know how to practice—increasing their sense of belonging, purpose and security. Set  challenging but achievable goals - to increase employees’ sense of challenge, learning and autonomy. Shift the focus from  hierarchy to community -

Companies are grappling with change more than ever before: a complex web of political, socio-economic, technology, legal & regulatory and environment factors along with the global impact of the Coronavirus are now combining to rapidly disrupt the business landscape. No longer can businesses be sure of their future security or who their competitors will be or where the next threats and opportunities will come from. This unprecedented level of disruption will polarise busines

Leading global industry analyst Gartner Inc. aptly describes digitalisation as ‘the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities’. Leading organisations continuously examine the nature of next-generation digital skills and consider the profound rewards available to those who upskill their workforces. The success of any business is built on the back of sound business policies and active talent management and

Organisations continue to invest heavily in the development of their workforce but have they got it right, enabling growth and opportunity leading to profit growth. In order to maximise opportunities, companies need to invest in the soft skills of leadership – the most critical being that of creating the right work environment for their people. Where employees feel a sense of safety and security created by their leader, there is an increased level of trust, co-operation and

Who should be driving the Strategic Direction of the business? This is a question many companies ask themselves when planning for the security of their future. Many companies use external consultants to assist in such activity and this has proven to be very successful for many of them. Developing the strategy is one thing but driving the strategy is completely different. The best strategy is worth little if it is not a living, breathing part of the business, being driven by

Performance reviews have traditionally been a once a year or if lucky, a twice a year event that assisted in determining the employees annual pay rise, where applicable. This process has always been seen as being highly formal and scared both the employee and manager. This old style of managing performance was more of a bottleneck for growth rather than an enabler. With the ever increasing demand for autonomous roles within company’s, this old style of managing a person’s p

Organisations now have a deluge of information available at their fingertips, including customer information, employee and customer demographics, sales volumes, and performance and KPI’s results. With this data we have all the makings of solid fact based decisions with a high likelihood of making the right decision – right? We must be careful we do not fall into a state of “Paralysis by Analysis” with all the data we have. We must never underestimate the value and importanc

Since Personnel, HR or People and Culture have been around the focus has always been on the importance of the human connection, but has the HR Team been left behind? Successful organisations are turning toward digital technology more and more to assist them in getting messages to all of their people. Whether you are located on the other side of town or the other side of the world, it does not matter when you have a solid digital platform that can deliver a consistent and hig

Success is self created and rarely, if ever, gets handed to us on a silver platter. RdL's top 5 tips for success Have a dream and follow it Believe in yourself and don’t let others tell you otherwise Look after your people including your family Have fun Delegate for success Click the link  for Richard Branson’s view on success.

We all know the person in the company that shows great proactivity. They have this natural tendency to seek out what they feel needs to be done and dive in head first to get it done. This is great if everything they do is in line with the corporate strategy, but as we have all experienced, this is not always the case. So what is the solution for these people? If we choose to hold them back they will get frustrated, potentially do this behind our backs or even worse, they m

As leaders we often fall into the trap of feeling we are the architects of all solutions in the company. We are the ones who know best so we forge ahead with our ideas. The truth of the matter usually is that it is not the core leaders who are the architects of success but the everyday worker. They feel and experience the frustrations of poor processes or systems and/or poor leadership. We need to step back from the old style of leadership and empower our people to make dec