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Archives for January 2018

Kristi shares her journey on a Board

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T hrough my work, I get to meet some truly inspiring board directors.

With the football season starting to warm up with the first women’s game happening soon at the new Optus Stadium in Perth, I thought it would be a great time to introduce you to Kristi Annear, Director on the Perth Demons Football Club.  We met a few months ago at a workshop that brought together all the female directors serving on football boards.  I was struck by her passion and authenticity and I’m so glad that I can share her answers with you here.

Why did you get involved in a football club board?

Football has always been a huge part of my life. I’m a Fremantle Dockers Member (tragic) and a huge supporter of where AFL is heading alongside AFLW. I myself have retired from sport so what better way to still have that community and team feeling than being in the heart of a WAFL club. I contacted the CEO at the PFC to ask how I could contribute and do some volunteering. He saw the passion I have for not only footy but all sports so he asked me to join the Board. 

Can you give me a snapshot of the decisions/activities are you involved with as a board director?

 

I am the Events and Charity Partnerships Director so I am responsible for all the Football events held at the club and also game day. A few of the events held at the club are our Annual Gala Auction which is our largest fundraiser for the season, this year I organized the Inaugural PFC Cup (Virtual Horse Race Day) and we have our Supporters Luncheon and Sponsors night to come.

I have been involved with Ronald McDonald House for many years now so a priority of mine when I came on the Board was to keep, in some way, supporting the House. It just happened at the time that the club was looking for a Major Charity Partner so my suggestion of RMH was supported unanimously. We are proud to be the only WAFL club to have this partnership and look forward to continuing this for many years to come.

I have also helped bring a Victorian based player welfare program to WA. Outside The Locker Room is about engaging and education sporting clubs in Mental Health and the affects that alcohol and drugs have on this. We are running this program through our club and are seeing the results already. I’m very passionate about mental health and am proud to be contributing in a small way.

Aside from my portfolio I am involved in all decisions that affect the club. Our Board is very open about all aspects of the running of the club from staff appointments and off field football decisions to finance and marketing. This has given me a great insight into how a professional club is run and I look forward to enhancing my knowledge and experience so I can continue to be a valued member on a football board for many years to come.

 

What strategies would you recommend to others interested in serving on a football club board?

Broaden your network. As we all know Perth is a small place when it comes to knowing someone who knows that ‘someone’. Get to football games, follow clubs on social media and put your hand up. We have a Women in Football and Women in Sport Group which is always open to more ladies wanting to be involved. I think it’s great to come to a Board with experience in several areas but you need passion. Being a Board Director isn’t a once a month commitment so if you don’t have passion for the sport, the club and its supporters then it will be a very long season!

– Thanks Kristi for sharing your experience!

If you’d like to be interviewed about your board or leadership journey, please send me an email.

 

What’s your greatest wish for 2018?

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T  o create the change we want in the world we have to know what we want!  Instead of new year’s resolutions and goals always being focused on what we want for ourselves, let’s think about what we would like to co-create for our community.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is currently happening in Davos, Switzerland.  WEF is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. This year’s theme is creating a shared future in a fractured world.

This got me thinking – what is my vision for a shared future? 

For me personally and for where we are collectively in the world, I see a new leadership is emerging.  This leadership is less about external success and more about leading with a deep sense of character (distinguishing qualities) and wisdom (acting on your knowledge).  We are calling out for leaders we can trust, that show humility and are focused on what’s good for all, not just for some.

This leadership is about bravery and courage.  To step out, to create, to have a voice, to listen and to bring together.

This leadership doesn’t ask ‘what can I get?’, instead it asks ‘what can I give?’.  How is my life and circumstances calling me to step up and serve in the world?

A thoughtful challenge to kick off 2018!

So here’s a thoughtful challenge for your long weekend – what’s your greatest wish for the world?  Share it on social media with the hashtag #greatestwish.  Let’s start our own conversation about our shared future and come together with others to make it a reality.

For inspiration, I asked six leaders across the country what their greatest wish is for 2018 and here are their answers.

Wendy Brooks, Managing Director, Wendy Brooks & Partners

My wish for 2018 is to see a more inclusive, accepting and generous Australia.  Let’s stand for this and demand and celebrate political, corporate and community leadership for these values. Particularly let us work with our First Nations people to gain true and meaningful sovereignty and open our hearts, minds and funds to the thousands of people seeking asylum throughout the world.

 

Samantha Bowen, Founder, Acorn Network

My greatest wish is that we all embrace our ability to take that first step on our leadership journey. Our future is about embracing the concept of positive and disruptive leaders. It’s a journey with deep roots, grounded in the perception that leading well is to conduct your followers: To be the one visible and shouting it all from the roof tops. In reality we all lead in our own way. All of us combine to create powerful movements, achieved through sharing failure, success, and our vision of a better future. For 2018, I would challenge you to step up and shine through mentoring others, sharing what you’ve learnt through failure, or reaching out to a leader and sharing how they’ve inspired you. Imagine the difference we can all create when we see each other as influencers who help each other to be better leaders.

 

Lali Wiratunga, National Manager, Davidson Institute, Westpac Financial Education

My greatest wish for 2018 is that we as individuals, families, organisations can continue to adapt, prosper and grow – balancing our goals with the sustainability of our community and Mother Earth.

 

Duncan Ward, Founder and CEO, Classroom of Hope

My wish is for every child to have access to a quality education because education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world as Nelson Mandela puts it. World leaders making more conscious decisions and allocating resources for the benefit of people and planet so that we can work towards a more balanced and harmonious world.

 

Kieran Johnson, State Manager, Opportunity International

My greatest wish for 2018 is for individuals to engage deeper in generosity – giving of money, time, energy and compassion. Generosity breeds generosity and it is the antidote for greed, corruption and hate. Plus, those who are generous are both emotionally and physically healthier.

 

Michelle Sandford, Technology Evangelist and Developer Advocate

My wish for 2018 is that each of us looks up from where we stand and views the world around us with new eyes. That we look around for every opportunity to support others, enable those that can benefit from it, ally with those that need it. This is the moment to enable those with less than us – and each of us that gives another their hand will in turn benefit from what comes next.

 

What’s your greatest wish for the world in 2018?

 

10 leadership trends to prepare for in 2018

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In 2017, 94% of people reported that they believe organisations must have strong leaders to succeed yet, only 54% of professionals (both in leadership positions and not) surveyed by Evolve Research and Consulting reported that they believe Australian workers respect their leaders. The study found that leaders have poor perceptions not because they lack skills but because their strengths don’t align with what today’s employees expect from their leaders.

To elevate the perception of leaders in 2018, you must be ready to adapt to the numerous technological and demographic changes in the workforce and the evolving needs of employees.

Here are the top 10 leadership trends to prepare for in 2018:

  1. Inspiring Creativity Through Emotional Intelligence

A 2017 leadership study found that “demonstrating creativity and emotional intelligence” is the number one skill leaders need to develop to be successful in 2018. As technology evolves faster, continuous innovation is the key to success. Leaders need to create an environment where their teams feel safe taking risks and pursuing creative ideas. To do that, leaders must use their emotional intelligence and creativity to support individuals while they struggle with new projects rather just demanding results.

2) Authenticity is the Key to Forming Connections with Your Team

People crave authenticity – forget the masks and embrace your vulnerabilities.

Developing strong connections with your people is critical to fostering collaborative teams. In 2018, leaders will need to show that they are authentic and reliable before people will trust them.  Yes it’s all about trust!  To do this, survey respondents say they look for the following traits in their leaders: approachability, articulateness, passion, and transparency in decision-making.

3) Leadership is becoming more Collective and Less about the Individual

With complex challenges, large and diverse global teams and multiple stakeholder groups, it’s not only effective for the one ‘hero’ leader, it’s just not possible either.  Leadership is a shared process which teams create rather than about one person.   This means team members must each carry the leadership responsibilities of the teams they are involved and be willing to collaborate to co-create new solutions together.

4) Leaders Must Become Teachers

Long gone are the days when managers could assign employees tasks and expect them to complete the tasks without the training and support. 83% of respondents in a 2017 Deloitte study with over 10,000 respondents said that “careers and learning” need to be a top priority for business leaders. The rate of technological innovation is the highest it has ever been, and many employees need to be taught new skills before they can successfully tackle innovative projects. For organisation’s to keep up, they must train their employees on how to adapt to new technology and shift their careers to meet the ever-changing needs of organisations.

It can’t be go, go, go all the time.  People need time to learn, reflect, percolate and implement their learning.

5) AI Will Let Leaders Focus More on Value Creation

Experts predict that in 2018, artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced software will take over much of the data analysis work that managers used to do and provide increasingly accurate insights with little input from humans. With this extra time, leaders will be expected to focus on refining and implementing broader strategies for their organisations, softer leadership responsibilities such as mentoring, training and development and on other activities that boost employee morale and productivity.

6)  The Gig Economy Will Challenge Loyalty

According to the Australian Industry Group, over 32% of Australian workers participate in the gig economy and businesses are planning to hire more freelance workers in the coming years. As more managers oversee freelancers who don’t have the same schedules, nor receive the same benefits, as employees they must develop new routines for assigning tasks and keeping workers motivated. Most freelancers have multiple clients which will force managers to schedule tasks in advance since there’s no guarantee that freelancers can complete something on a short-term notice the way employees can.  Though these workers can be depended on to do quality work, leaders must understand that they have far fewer reasons to be loyal than employees and each freelancer may have different incentives that motivate them to improve performance.

7) Intergenerational Mentoring Partnerships Will Bridge the Gap Between Generations

To bridge the skills gap between generations, leaders are expected forgo the traditional mentoring model where senior professionals guide younger ones in favour of two-way mentoring where everyone in mentoring relationships is responsible for teaching each other. Younger generations are better adapted to rapidly changing technology but lack the experience and knowledge of older workers. To capitalise on every generation’s strengths and overcome their weaknesses, leaders are predicted to promote more collaboration among professionals at various levels so that different generations of workers can help each other gain the other’s advantages.

8) Millennials Demand for Work-Life Integration

With millennials now making up 54% of Australia’s population, leaders must adapt to their desires. One of millennials biggest priorities is work-life balance. They demand it because they grew up googling and know that working excessively long hours does not make them more productive while having balanced lives keeps them happier and healthier. As a result, leaders must focus on making their teams more efficient and offer the most flexible schedules possible. Failure to do this may lead to increased turnover costs because millennials quit their jobs in search of better ones more frequently than any other generation.

9) Diverse Teams Will Become the Norm

Workplace diversity has been a buzzword for the last couple of years but, in 2018 it will become a necessity for companies to keep up with the year’s rapidly changing environment.  It’s time for action!  Research shows that companies with diverse leadership teams and employees attract more qualified job candidates and have better performance than companies made up of people who share a similar ethnicity and/or background. To embrace your team’s diversity leaders must seek out the opinions of all members and be open to ideas that contradict their own.  Bring on the emotional intelligence skills! 

10) Power Will Shift as Organisations Become Flatter

According to the Mercer Global Talent Trends 2017, 93% of executives are planning on redesigning their organizational structure in the next two years and the majority of changes will flatten organisations. As power is redistributed throughout teams, managers’ roles will shift from being the top authority on their team’s projects to providing the resources and guidance that their teams need to succeed. This is great for leaders because it will give them the time to foster the personal connections that today’s employees crave.

Adopting these trends will prepare any leader to gain the respect of their teams, inspire greater creativity and innovation and ensure their organisations thrive in 2018.

Finding your purpose in a noisy, distracted world

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F  inding and living your purpose is more important than ever in a world that can lack meaning and connection.

Do you feel a little lost? Want to know how do you turn up the volume on your inner voice and work out a purpose that resonates?

I’m going to be honest, it’s not easy.  Like any type of self reflection work, it is work!  The answers won’t all come immediately.  You do have to work at it and it will take time.   You can continue to evolve it too, it will become your life’s work.  But it is nice to think about the body of work you want to create in the world.

Before you jump into the three powerful activities below, I have a few other recommendations to get you started:

  • Get out into nature more.  Less screens and walls means you can breathe more deeply, get more oxygen into your bloodstream and connect back with you.  Research says that nature helps our heads as well as our bodies stay healthy.  You know the feeling you get after a walk or hike in the bush, a stroll on the beach or a day at the river. Diarise nature time to clear your head.
  • Insights and understanding comes with time.  Set up a habit to reflect often.  Just like any other skill or habit, it will take time to get into your reflection flow.  The great news is those who take the time to reflect are better learners, happier people and more productive.
  • Move your body.  The insights can come when we move, that’s what are bodies were made to do!   It gets the blood pumping and gives you inspiration.  Exercise is not only crucial to physical health, but it’s good for your head too.

Signature Strengths

Martin Seligman, Professor and founder of the University of Penn’s Positive Psychology Centre has done a huge amount of a research in the benefits of identifying and living your strengths as a way of living a flourishing life.   They have developed an online (free) survey to identify your top 5 character strengths. (Head to Questionnaires and check out the VIA Character Strengths Survey).

Personally I’ve gained much over the years by reflecting on my key strengths and incorporating them more and more into my life.  It makes me happy when I get to use my strengths and it brings me a sense of purpose.

Tweet This: I believe your purpose in life can be as simple as contributing your greatest strengths in service to the world! – Alicia Curtis

Hedgehog Concept

This concept was highlighted in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great and is based on the ancient Greek parable about the hedgehog and the fox. Who would you rather be – the hedgehog or the fox?  Despite all the tactics of the fox, the hedgehog always wins because it knows how to do one thing really well and that’s defend itself (think spikes!).  So this model asks you to think about the intersection of three questions:

  1. What are you great at?  These are your strength areas!  Focus on them, practice them, improve them and know them!
  2. What will people pay for? Or what does the world need and are willing to pay for?
  3. What you are deeply passionate about?  What do you love or brings you joy?

Now spend a bit of time to consider these questions individually – think of them as three circles in a venn diagram. Then the interesting part is finding something that intersects all three of these.  According to Jim Collins’s book, organisations that have focused on one thing (the intersection of these three questions) and done it really well, outperform all their competitors and stand the test of time.   What’s in the intersection for you?

Intrinsic Motivators

In life you can easily get caught up with, as author Brian Johnson would call it, ‘society’s candy’.  Which is when there is an over-emphasis on our extrinsic motivators – namely fame, fortune and how you look.   It’s okay to focus a little on these things but an over-emphasis can actually, at worst, make you depressed.  Yes, that’s right if you are living the rat race where you can continually focused on material wealth, chasing fame and focus on what you look like on the outside – you are in danger of having poorer mental health because of it.

Instead it’s best to re-orient yourself to focus on areas that intrinsically motivate us –  fostering strong relationships, learning and mastering skills, and contributing to community.  It’s been found that people who are motivated by these intrinsic motivators are more likely to be healthy and have higher self esteem.

Where does your focus lie?

Last word

My last word is this – no one is going to do this important work for you.  It’s up to you to take responsibility for clarifying your purpose in life and living a more meaningful existence.

We live in a really lucky time (and place) in the world where we can focus on meaning and purpose in our life.  Don’t under-estimate the power of these simple reflection activities.  Join me on social media and share your purpose!

10 questions to plan for 2018

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January! A fresh new year to dream, visualise and plan.   Journalling is a great tool to develop our insight, connect with our inner voice and start to develop clarity about the life you want to lead.

I think we can under-estimate what can be achieved in a year. What do you want to be different in a year’s time?

Late last year I posted 10 Questions to Fuel Your Reflection of 2017.  This is integral to reflect back over the whole year, visual what you did with your time (consider the projects you worked on and what you achieved) and really focus on the key learnings you have taken from the year.   Most often, we sleep walk through life without taking the time to reflect, grow and stretch into the future.  Just as useful as it is to look back, now it’s time to look forward.

Here are 10 questions to help your planning for 2018.

1. How will you step into the highest version of yourself this year?

If you practiced all the habits you wanted, lived your core strengths and you were totally aligned with values –  this would be your highest version of you.  The game is – how do you edge closer and closer to this person every moment.  Think small steps.

2. Describe your ideal day, week and year?

How you live your days is how you live your life!  It’s a big statement but it’s true.  Our daily habits form the foundations for how you live your life.   What is one habit you want to focus on this year and one habit you want to let go of?

3. How will you best utilise your strengths?

Professor Martin Seligman, Director of the University of Penn Positive Psychology Centre found that a key part of flourishing in life and work is using your strengths.   To use our strengths, you need to be able to identify them and work on ways to use them more everyday and commit to getting better at them.

4. How will you take care of yourself? What’s your health and wellbeing plan?

Without your health it’s very hard to achieve anything of significance. This means you have to actively plan for sleep, rest, nutrition, movement, mental clarity and fun!  How could you step up in terms of your health?  What could be a key goal you could achieve that could help motivate you to take care of yourself?

5. What is holding you back? 

Otto Scharmer, author of the books Theory U and Leading from the Emerging Future talks about the three voices that hold you back – the voice of judgement (shutting down your open mind instead of being inquiring and curious), the voice of cynicism (shutting down your open heart instead of connecting and relating) and the voice of fear (shutting down your open will instead of letting go).   What do you need to leave behind and to tap into the great courage you have?

6. How will you give back to community?  How can you be of service to others? 

How can you focus on giving to others this year?  Often this can provide great energy in our lives.  If you were to focus on one area to give back in, what’s it going to be this year?  Commit as deeply to this as the other areas in your life.  Maybe it could be to join a Not-For-Profit board?

7. What’s your learning plan?

Where do you want to grow, stretch and learn this year?  What books can you read?  What courses can you take? What conferences can you learn from?   What are the key skills you want to learn and foster this year?

8. What relationships do you want to foster?

Who is in your community? Family, friends, networks, work colleagues and neighbours. Be focused on the key relationships you would like to develop this year.  Who can help you be the person you want to be?  Will you reach out to a new mentor, create a mastermind group, attend a new conference to expand your networks or foster your friendships?

9. How will you be inspired?

What are the inspiration sources that help you stay energised and refreshed for the ups and downs for the year.  How can you systemise the inspiration sources so you can perform at an optimal level?

10.  What amazing life adventures do you want to do this year?

Ok –  now it’s time for a bit of fun.  Forget work, think about what is going to bring you joy and fun into your life.  What life adventures could you have this year?  Think about learning a new skill, visiting a new place or enjoying something with the people you love.