Do you check in on yourself? Do you weigh in on how you’re going? What went well? What didn’t? And where you want to go? Career introspection is a necessary exercise that we do not do often enough.
But if you approach taking stock of your professional and personal development in the same efficient way you do business, then you can better figure out the answers to these big questions.
Organising your personal inventory using the classic SWOT tool below will give you a better sense of what you have to offer and how your goals might fit into that. Writing down your own Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats can help you understand who you are in depth, strategise your professional growth and uncover your true potential.
Let’s dive in —
ACTION ITEMS AND GOALS
Which opportunities should you pursue?
What activities should you spend more time on?
Name the things you need to – a) start doing and b) stop doing now?
What current skills do you need to brush up on?
What new skills do you need to pick up?
Taking stock of your abilities using SWOT is a powerful tool that can help you make smart and informed decisions. To learn more on how you can take your career to the next level, sign up for The Empowered Woman 2020.
What distinguishes leaders who do well in cultivating a healthy work culture from those who don’t?
Leaders who value authenticity promote a high-level of cooperation and interdependence among teams. They foster a safe and friendly work vibe where employees look out for one another out of genuine concern.
Does that sound too good to be true? How does being authentic create such a harmonious culture?
To help define authentic leadership in the context of a healthy and supportive team culture, see the checklist of behaviours below and assess where you sit.
Still unclear where your leadership style and behaviour land? Learn what it takes to create an awesome team culture from leaders with proven success in leading with authenticity. Sign up for the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020.
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution upon us, the game for people managers is no longer about how to make teams perform with their current skills but how quickly can they pickup new ones and stay ahead of disruption.
Premium talent is now characterised by intellectual curiosity and the capacity for rapid learning. Your team’s current technical knowledge and competencies are now less important than their ability to quickly shift their thinking and switch on new skills and abilities.
Thankfully, it’s possible to make learning a part of work. In fact, Fortune 500 companies lkeGoogle, American Express, and Bridgewater Associates imbed learning in their work culture. Their teams understand that learning is an important part of their job.
Here are 5 Steps to start a learning program in your team and get work done at the same time —
Step 1 – Identify the skills that you need to have in your team
What are the most important knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes to have in your team for your business to thrive in the future? To give you an example, Esme Borgelt, MD of Kellog’s identifies “salesmanship” as important skill for everyone at the iconic cereal giant to develop. For Esme, everyone at Kellog’s is in sales — “We are all focused on delivering the same outcome, which is generating more sales. I think that is what makes Kellogg’s such a special place.”
We recommend choosing only one skill per quarter per team member. Make it meaty and challenging — a WIG (Wildly Important Goal) for Learning! For example, here are some highly coveted, future proofing skills – data storytelling, public speaking, strategic thinking, innovation and design thinking.
Step 2 – Allocate time for focused learning
You need to schedule spare moments for your team to focus on learning. For example, some companies mandate that 20% of the workweek (Fridays) must be dedicated for training. Empower your team to organize their weekly learning activities and source their own course content. Just make sure to offer support and regularly check up on their progress.
Step 3 – Set progressive goals
Once you’ve identified the skills and the time allocation for learning, help your team break down their courses into small but meaningful weekly outcomes. Begin with the end goal in mind, for example, a keynote presentation on data storytelling techniques by the end of the quarter – then work backwards to plot learning wins every week. Make this a whole team effort by having members check up on each other’s progress thus having all of them be accountable for everyone’s learning success.
Step 4 – Set up a feedback mechanism
Engaging the whole team in the learning journey will help boost progress. Encourage them to share with each other what they are working on and exchange feedback. As the team manager, lead the moderation of this feedback exercise by giving notes for improvement and action points to accelerate the learning process.
Step 5 – Test for Retention
By having your team repeat back to you what they have learned, tests their ability to understand and retain information. Asking more reflective questions like “How significant is this course to the performance of your role?” or “What do you think are the implications of your newfound skills to the overall performance of the business?” helps confirm contextual understanding of the material.
According to the World Economic Forum, everyone will need an extra 101 Days of Learning a year to stay ahead of disruption. Ask us how we can help upskill your team and enable them to rise to future challenges with our exceptional lineup of training and events.
Last September, over 35 female leaders took to the stage to inspire hundreds of women in attendance for our Women in Leadership Summit 2019. Each one of our speakers shared not only success stories but fully revealed how they struggled and failed in their journey. Overall, the event was a success because women, and a few good men, came together for the same purpose – to lift each other by bringing their most generous and authentic selves to the summit.
We had a post-event chat with some of our speakers and asked if they have any reaction to the so-called “boys club mentality” in business. The way they responded to this loaded and controversial question was brilliant!
Instead of jumping on the issue of gender bias, they gave fantastic and actionable advice on networking and collaborating. And if there is one thing that you can take away from the Women In Leadership Summit or any professional gathering for women going forward is, and we could not stress this enough — start to cultivate strong female networks at these events.
Here are some great networking strategies from two of our 2019 Women In Leadership Summit speakers.
Create your own club! I have no time for that (boys club) nonsense.
Create your own culture and surround yourself with people who don’t play in the closed ranks.
Reach out to every person in like-minded businesses.
Think of who can give you ideas or help to refine your own. Word of mouth is the most underrated tool for all businesses.
Share your thoughts and ideas in the spirit of collaborating.
Lifting each other up creates a village of like-minded mentors and peers that will be invaluable over the life of your career.
Know yourself, what you offer and where your strengths and weaknesses are. And get wise to what makes people tick.
There will always be some people who fail to recognise the value that women bring to an organisation. You’re not going to change them, that’s decades of privilege that is difficult to unwind, but you should work out how to work with them. Once you’re doing that, it’s your responsibility to turn around and bring more women up with you. It’s time to refresh the club membership!
Seek out mentors and sponsors, surround yourself with people whose advice you trust.
Often the belief someone shows in you to succeed is enough of a motivator to do so. There’s a saying “it takes a village to raise a child”, the same goes in business. We are nothing without those who believe in us and help us along the way.
Rely on the people you know have your best interest at heart.
You don’t need many, but you need to be open to feedback and accept they are coming from a good place. I have a number of these confidants who I can tap into depending on the situation. They mentor me, and I mentor them. It’s informal but very powerful.
There’s plenty of opportunity to be gainedfrom attending our events aside from the lessons that you can apply in your professional life. And the best one of all is building a solid network of awesome and inspirational women.
Attend our next event and meet Australia’s most inspiring businesswomen at The Empowered Woman 2020!
Check out the exceptional speaker lineup of disruptive women entrepreneurs and high-level executives.
A key factor that drives the success of any organisation is its leadership. What makes leadership most impactful is the leaders’ attitude to serve, support and nurture their people. This creates a culture of high performance, which contributes to the growth of the organisation and its people.
The Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 (17-20 March, Sydney) is a 4-Day gathering of Australia’s top CEOs and MDs who will help you develop authenticity, openness, and trust to lead successfully.
After becoming one of QANTAS’s youngest female marketing executives, Ellenor spent 20+ years as an Emmy and AACTA award-winning film producer, and CEO-Founder of her production company. Shedelivers coaching sessions on management up-skilling, career progression, and communication mastery.
In this half-day workshop, Ellenor will guide you along a simple but in-depth path to identify your values, lead with a higher purpose, and build high-performing teams.By the end of this workshop, you will learn how to —
Identifythe organisational values of environments where you thrive
Acton your values and use them to make difficult decisions as a leader
Determine the links between your greatest career milestones and job satisfaction
Author of the Amazon best-seller A Servant’s Heart- Leadership That Inspires and recipient of the 100 Top Training and Development MindsGlobal Award, Arpan is on a mission to inspire and empower 20,000 or more leaders by 2020 so that they create a culture of innovation, excellence and collaboration.
Arpan’s session is about how to institute the values of Servant Leadership to address problems such as lack of engagement, low productivity, customer dissatisfaction and staff turnover. Learn the proven strategies to —
Boost your credibility as a leader to become a trusted advisor
Remove blind spots that hinder your effectiveness as a leader
Apply the servant leadership principlesto everyday scenarios
Oliver brings 20 years of research experience from prior roles at AMR (Australia) and Harris Interactive (New York and Sydney). One of Australia’s leading experts in reputation measurement and management, Oliver is a member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society and has served the Board of Moriah College.
The Reputation Institute has recently published research showing that while previously leaders were judged by the community on their capability, there has been a shift to the public regarding a successful leader as one that shows good character. In this half-day workshop, you will learn how you can steer the reputation of your organisation by —
Understanding key reputation drivers and trends in the Australian and global markets
Defining Reputation Measurement and KPIs and how companies are using those
Building reputation for B2B companies and the link to social license
After a successful career leading high-performance teams in the investment industry, Phil set up his own business, guiding people, projects, and partnerships through collaborative challenges. He has worked the big stages and boardrooms, including basketball courts and the back of Bourke (literally). So be warned, you are in for a highly interactive and engaging session with Phil.
Learn how to create a culture of collaboration in your workplace by shifting mindsets, building a positive and psychologically safe environment, and connecting your people’s work with tangible outcomes. Other learning outcomes from this session —
Shift from hierarchical to collaboration-based structures
Unpack and resolve the challenges of working together
Adopt a 7-step process for maximising group success
Check out the Authentic Leadership Summit’s Key Speaker Lineup for March 18 and March 19.
RESERVE YOUR SPOT for Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 Workshop Sessions.
Learn purposeful and meaningful leadership from Australia’s top CEOs and MDs
Now more than ever, companies are judged by the strength of their reputation and character. Business leaders are challenged to go beyond performance and aim to achieve a higher level of trust to win customers and attract and retain the best talent.
The Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 (17-20 March, Sydney) is a 4-Day gathering of Australia’s top CEOs and MDs who will help you develop authenticity, openness, and trust to lead successfully.
Presenting the impressive key speaker lineup for Day 2, March 19.
“Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you to see if you have what it takes to see it through.” Join Markus for a rare insight into his creative process, particularly his thoughts on failure, and the universal insights that we can derive from it.
Visionary leadership requires asking the right questions of the right people to make sure that they support youon your mission. In this keynote, Steven will examine the importance of strong communication in the execution of organisational strategy and revenue growth.
The modus operandi that has driven Katrina’s rise is the refusal to get bored in a role and to seek and accept new challenges actively. Her session will focus on how all leaders need to say yes to opportunities for growth, even when they may be outside your comfort zone.
KFC is built on a rock-solid culture and on the strength of its brand to carry the same energy and ethos globally. Roger Eaton joins us to explain how authentic leadership drove the organisation from strength to strength.
Tom Rogers has been a leader and an advocate for leadership education his entire career. Having been appointed recently for another five-year term as Commissioner of the AEC hecontinues to lead the organisation to deliver the Australian citizen’s right to vote.
Under Scott’s leadership, Sunsuper grew from $24B with 1M members in 2014 to over $72B and 1.4M members under management to-date. In his session, Scott will outline how to cultivate authentic organisational values to drive reputation and company performance.
Carlton United Breweries has seen a series of ownership and market changes, not to mention the changing tastes of the Australian public. Peter will talk about how a strong culture can weather uncertainty in corporate activity and market forces.
If you’ve ever worked for a successful start-up, you’d know that it involves wearing many hats and fast-paced growth and ensuring that your people are supported to thrive in this environment. Karen joins us to showyou how you can deliver great results by helping others reach their true potential.
Previously the President of BMW Group India, where he continues to serve as chair, Vikram will outline strategies gleaned from his years of experience to ensure your people are supported and empowered to succeed.
How “Real” Can You Get in Business? Know What Leading with Authenticity REALLY Means
More than ever before, employees are gravitating towards companies and leaders with a clear sense of purpose and direction. It has become a well-worn trope around business circles, and we’ve all heard big talk about “keeping it real,” but do we understand what it means?
Back for its fifth year, the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 teaches you how to lead with a greater purpose in the contemporary business climate. It is a carefully curated, 4-day program focusing on the core tenets of Authentic Leadership and how you can employ its principles in your organisation to drive better business outcomes and make our world a better place at the same time.
We are thrilled to announce the impressive speaker lineup for Day 1, March 18 of the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020.
Currently Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ita balances this high-profile role with advancing the cause for Dementia Australia, Macular Disease Foundation, Arthritis Australia, and Breast Cancer Network Australia.
Understand the roles leaders should play in building consensus for solving future challenges — climate change, technology, and socio-economic issues — that our nation and your organisation will face.
Learn about the Agency’s work to improve health outcomes for all Australians through the delivery of digital healthcare systems, including the national expansion of the My Health Record system.
Australia’s leading banks are facing a massive and very public task of rebuilding trust. Mike Baird addresses the organisation’s current position and what it is doing to ensure a bright future for its customers, employees, and shareholders.
In recent times, confidence in both public and private sectors have fallen sharply. Judy’s keynote will help us to connect the dots between working with communities and rebuilding trust in public and private institutions.
Damien firmly believes in purpose-led leadership through daily demonstration of values-driven behaviours. In this session, Damien will outline his leadership journey and how he aims to apply these principles in his role leading AIA Australia and New Zealand.
As the ultimate decision-maker for the online retailer’s growth, partnerships, and strategy, Tim knows what it takes to ensure this e-commerce Titanic stays on-course. He will be sharing what he’s learned from his years of experience in this exclusive keynote.
Authentic leadership for Ümit is about understanding the needs of your people and your organisation while being adaptable to the contemporary business climate. In his keynote, he will talk about the value of authenticity and servant leadership while respecting and maintaining professional and organisational comfort zones.
NIB’s ultimate goal is to “shift away from being a sick care company, towards being more of a healthcare company.” In this session, Mark will explain how steadfast company values and shared purpose drive organisational success.
First-in Tickets are on sale now. Reserve your spot for the Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 today.
The Authentic Leadership Summit 2020 returns for its 6th year in March – a 4-day event where you will discover programs with real-world results about leading with integrity, trust, and openness.
AUTHENTICITY IN ACTION
The decision to move toward authenticity is a step in the right direction. Building trust begins by giving followers an understanding of what goes on behind closed doors.
In a competitive environment where secrets are guarded closely, an open and honest approach to business can gain considerable favournot only with the people in your organisation but with the public-at-large.
You can look at every aspect of your business to see what could be made better by transparency and honesty. But first, some self-examination is needed to start your journey towards leading with authenticity –
As a leader, how honest are you with yourself?
Are you aware of your biases? How about your emotional triggers? Are you making a conscious effort to take them out of the equation? How do they impact your everyday decision making
As a business owner, how transparent are you?
What is your relationship like with your stakeholders, employees, audience and customers? Are you connecting with them in an honest and meaningful way?
5 Key Actions You Can Do Today To Start Leading a Culture of Authenticity
1. First, take a moment to self-reflect
As a business leader, you are under enormous pressure to make many tough decisions every day. Constantly remind yourself to step back and check – are you worried? Fearful? Angry? Self-awareness lends clarity and perspective for important decisions.
2. Invite honest feedback
Soliciting feedback is the first step to inspiring your team to keep it real at work. A good rule of thumb for starting a culture of candor is – Don’t dish it if you can’t hack it!
3. Rule with transparency
It costs almost nothing to practice transparency. You will see vast improvements in team cooperation when you break down barriers to communication. This means sharing information freely, keeping them in the loop and letting them know that it is safe to speak up.
4. Listen to your customers
Make it a priority to ask your customers what is important to them and how you can serve them better. You may worry that by being honest with customers, they will leave you. On the flipside, customers who appreciate your candor will trust you and stay with you for life.
5. Own your mistakes, no matter how painful
The radical approach to owning a devastating mistake is to admit responsibility and then ask for feedback.It’s like asking for more pain after crashing. Taking awful, humiliating feedback is sometimes necessary to get on the path of recovery and success.
The bottom-line
Leading with authenticity is simply better business. The most loved companies are not only forthcoming but are open to brutal honesty from their followers because they know how critical that feedback is to their long-term success.
Discover the insights and hard-earned lessons from an impressive lineup of speakers by reserving your spot for theAuthentic Leadership Summit 2020 today.
For those of you who attended the Women in Leadership Summit last month, or WILS as we call it, I’m sure you’ll agree that as predicted – 2019 was our best yet. Keynote speakers Carrie Bickmore and Alannah Hill didn’t disappoint and actually unveiled more than expected about their personal leadership journey and the struggles they face to this day.
Over 35 inspirational women took to the stage with me. I personally thank each and every one of them for their honesty and willingness to share not only their success stories but also the times when things haven’t gone to plan. Let’s face it, we’re not perfect and it’s refreshing to know that some of these women at the top of their game have been in the same place at some stage of their careers and life in general.
Ann Sherry AO, Former CEO and Chair of Carnival Australia opened the summit, which for me was a career highlight, and something that has been in the works for many years. Her speech really set the scene and cemented our theme for 2019, Take Action. She instilled in us all to not get caught up in the perfection trap, take risks, be active for change and use your voice to climb the ladder and pull other women up with you.
A popular speaker at all of our summits, Marnie Baker, Managing Director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank focused on influence and the shadow we cast as leaders. She reminded us that how we act, what we say, how we measure outcomes and what we prioritise all influences what gets done, or doesn’t, and most importantly how people respond to us.
Angela Mentis, CEO of BNZ challenged us to get out of our comfort zones and to actually find a way to embrace it. From now on we all need to put our hands up whether we’re ready or not, set the narrative to eliminate assumptions and be consistent to gain trust.
I really enjoyed Erica Berchtold, CEO of The Iconic, who opened with the fact that the phrase “women can have it all but not at once” irritates her, I feel the same. As a working mum, her advice to create your own normal is something that has really stuck with me since the conference and I hope it has with all of our attendees. Let’s let go of the guilt of being a working mum and remember that our normal will become their normal.
Confidence, collaboration and conviction is what helped Kendra Banks, Managing Director of SEEK along the way. While Susan Martin, Managing Director from Johnson & Johnson Medical inspired us all to think about our monologue and what it’s telling us and to move to constructive dialogue. We all have that inner voice that seems to try and sabotage us at the worst possible time, its only us who can change it and actually hear it, so it’s time to stop.
I could write a book based on the stories, tips and advice our amazing speakers shared. If you missed out on joining us this year, don’t worry we’ll be back in 2020. To close out the year it’s not too late to book tickets for our Executive Leadership Summit being held from the 26-29 November. Key speakers include, Mark Bouris, Todd Sampson, Kendra Banks and Suzy Nicoletti to name a few. See the full program, line-up and secure your seats here.
Chosen for their ability to drive change, the women speaking at The Empowered Woman 2020 represent the diversity within Australia’s business landscape – disruptive entrepreneurs and high-level executives, as well as those transforming legacy businesses.
Regardless of their backgrounds, these women are defying stereotypes and changing the way business is played. Presenting the key speakers of The Empowered Woman 2020.
Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton started Sass & Bide as a stall on London’s Portobello Road Market. Growing the brand into an iconic Australian fashion label meant that Sarah-Jane needed to raise her game as a leader. Her presentation will focus on leadership strategies to develop empowered, high-performing teams for a fast-growing business.
Sandra tackles social problems that collide with business interests as a global executive. The gender pay gap is one such problem that when solved can create a win-win situation across the board. Her keynote focuses on addressing this issue by teaching women how to determine their value and negotiate a fair deal.
Business maverick and book author Justine Troy knows all about building a brand that makes the world sit up and take notice. Her talk will center on the power of resilience in business – learning how you can power through doors being shut in your face and come out swinging!
Pippa belongs to the third generation of Baché women to hold the position of CEO at Elle Baché. The company has bold beginnings when Madame Elle Baché dared to wax her legs in one of Australia’s most loved stores, David Jones, to get her product stocked. Since then the company has grown to 150 franchise locations. Pippa will be discussing the benefits of being bold and finding your authentic self.
Eliza took over leadership of All Saints Wine after the unexpected passing of her father (the previous CEO). She was three months pregnant, had no real understanding of how to do the bookkeeping and was surrounded by people doubting her ability to keep the organisation afloat. She experienced a steep learning curve and now successfully runs the company. She’ll be talking about this journey and how you thrive when thrown in the deep end.
Power Discussions
The Empowered Woman 2020 will also feature power women executives who are transforming organisations with their unique brand of leadership in a lively panel discussion.
Reserve your spot for The Empowered Woman 2020 to ignite your passion for business in all its forms and acquire the skills to achieve your dream career.
