LeadershipHQ September Magazine 2015

Issue 3 - September 2015Leadership Headquarters
LeadershipHQ
Leadership
A journey not a
destination
16 beliefs of
highly passionate
Leaders
Cultural
Transformation
Brain
Based
Desicion
Making
The rising
value of
time
10 KeyRevelations
from the Diversity
Debate Dinners
Do leaders
have enough
emotional
intelligence?
Leadership
training
providers need
to lift their game-
and so do leaders!

Welcome to 3rd Edition of LeadershipHQ,
a brand new E-Magazine that will inspire
you to go further and achieve more than
you ever thought possible. It ROCKS!
I am even excited about this month’s edi-
tion. Why? We have a number of Thought
Leaders, CEOs, Coaches, Authors and
Leaders across the Globe contributing in
this month’s edition. I am thrilled to be
sharing the highlights from our amaz-
ing Diversity Debate too! The recent Di-
versity Debate Dinners in Sydney and
Melbourne were exciting and thought
provoking. The panel of speakers includ-
ed Laurice Temple, Amanda Rose, Nicola
Mills and Fiona Vines, Chris Lamb, Barry
Borzillo, Neil Dalrymple and Peter Birtles.
Read all about it in this edition!
We have also launched our Boardroom
Motivational Series, Emerging Leaders
and empowHER programs and wait for
it – LHQ’s Blended Learing Platform the
Leadership and Diversity and Inclusion
development and strategies. Stay tuned
for our LED event!
And there is so much more this month!
By reading this, you’ve already taken a
great step into being a better leader, and
every issue we’ll give you the tools you
need to make you better in business, and
an amazing leader!
The latest insights in the business world.
Up-to-date strategies on how to effi-
ciently work with others and lead a team.
Real-life stories of inspira- tional people
currently setting the world of business
ablaze. Every issue of LeadershipHQ will
deliver the most cutting-edge stories, in-
sights and advice, from the world’s most
forward-thinking individuals and from
our team. We’ll show you how the best
of the best are doing it, and give you the
strategies and tips you need to get to
their level.
We’ll also be linking you to all our com-
pany’s output, too. Not only will you get
a first-class piece of business acumen in
your hand, you’ll also be kept up-to-date
with the rest of our products and services,
meaning you’ll never miss a beat when it
comes to keeping your edge. Every issue
we’ll provide full links to relevant blog
posts on the topics at hand. We’ll do the
hard work for you, going through our ex-
tensive archive of articles and picking out
exactly what you need to further your in-
sights and training. Our upcoming events
will also be listed, so that you get the first
look when it comes to some of Brisbane’s
popular and vibrant seminars and talks.
We’re excited that you’ve decided to join
us on this journey.Within these pages, we
have the tricks, tips and tools you need to
become the best you can possibly be. To-
gether, we will bring out the best in you.
Thank you – and Leadership is a Attitude!
Sonia
Welcome to LeadershipHQ
Introduction
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© LeadershipHQ 2015 | 3

CONTENTS
06 ARE YOU A FAKE LEADER?
By Sonia McDonald
07
QUALITY VS QUANTITY IN THE WORK/LIFE
BALANCE DISCUSSION
By Anthony Campbell
09
10 KEY REVELATIONS FROM THE
DIVERSITY DEBATE DINNERS
By Sonia McDonald,
12
CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
SILVER BULLET OR LEAD BALLOON?
By Mel Tunbridge
14 BRAIN BASED DECISION MAKING
By Sonia McDonald
16
DO LEADERS HAVE ENOUGH EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE?
By Sonia McDonald
18 16 BELIEFS OF HIGHLY PASSIONATE LEADERS
By Kasia Gospos
20 The rising value of time
By Adele Blair
22 THE C WORD
By Sonia McDonald
24
GREEN LEADERSHIP
RESOURCING FOR THE FUTURE
By Dr Georgina Davis
27 LEADERSHIP A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
By Matthew Francis
29 BLENDED LEARNING FOR LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY
By Sonia McDonald
31
LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROVIDERS NEED TO
LIFT THEIR GAME - AND SO DO LEADERS!
By Jason Jones
34 10 TRAITS OF THE CONFIDENT FEMALE LEADER
By Sonia McDonald
35 Thinking outside the square is rare
By Sue-Ellen Watts
36 SETH GODIN, TRIBES AND LEADERSHIP MISTAKES
By Sonia McDonald

Are you a successful leader but
sometimes feel like it was a stroke
of luck instead of hard work that
made it happen? Do you think you
give the impression of being more
competent than you really are, or
when you receive a promotion or
an award, you struggle to accept it
until you see it on paper?
You might feel like you’re the only
one who has these feelings, but
what you are experiencing is more
common than you think. It actually
has a name; Imposter Syndrome.
Discovered in the 1970’s, the
phenomenon described a group
of high achieving women who felt
they were not actually as capable
as other people thought, and
showed how that effected their
motivation and performance.
Feeling like a fake can hamper
performance and stop you from
reaching your full potential as a
leader. It may hold you back from
applying for the next step in your
career for fear of drawing attention
to your so called short comings.
It can be hard to take credit for
achievements or feel confident in
your skills, and receive recognition
of competency by way of
promotion. But that doesn’t mean
you don’t deserve it.
Imposter Syndrome most often
strikes when people achieve
their first leadership or executive
role. That’s when you might
be questioning whether the
interviewing panel made a
mistake when they chose you, or
wondering if somehow you were
the default choice or just the best
of a bad bunch.
If you don’t take inventory and
start to recognise your kills and
capabilities, it is almost impossible
to own your success. Instead
you dismiss your talent and
achievements and assume they are
due to luck or anything else, other
than the fact you have worked
hard and done well.
Taking stock, and documenting
your strengths and achievements
can take you from a feeling like the
fake who is only a short time away
from being ‘found out,’ to a leader
who feels confident and secure in
your role and rewards.
Making a list of personal
achievements is a good starting
point, but this self-assessment
may be insufficient for leaders
who have doubted themselves
longer than they can remember.
OId habits die hard. Working with
an external coach or mentor may
be required to stop the feeling of
fraudulence from holding back
your career climb, hampering
your performance and reducing
your authenticity due to a lack of
confidence.
A circle of people who support
you, and have faith in you, in
combination with coaching, can
help cull the self-talk that feeds the
negative feelings.
Areyouafakeleader?Probablynot,
but if we can help you undertake a
self-audit, list your strengths and
recognise why you have achieved
your goals to date, we can help
break the invisible and sometimes
unconscious barriers that are
holding you back. We use a range
of tools and diagnostics to help
you discover what’s real and what’s
not about your talents and the way
you view them. It can change your
whole career perspective. Contact
http://leadershiphq.com.au/
contact us to discuss your needs
and we will tailor a program to help
you achieve your full potential.
Are you a
fake leader?
By Sonia McDonald
6 | © LeadershipHQ 2015

There is much discussion around work life balance
these days. The Standards Australia Handbook for
Coaching in Organisations lists work/life balance as
the fourth most common issue discussed in coaching
behind Career/Business, Relationship/Interpersonal
and Life Direction/Goal Setting issues. Traditionally
in these discussion coaches will hear will hear the
following from their coachees:
“I’m spending too much time at work.”or
“I’m not spending enough time at home.”or
“Ifeelmyworkisimpactingonmyhappinessathome.”
In most cases, the discussion of work life balance
would appear to be around the amount of time we are
spending either at work or at home.
in the Work/Life Balance Discussion
by Anthony Campbell
Quality vs
Quantity
What if we were to shift the con-
versation to the quality of our
time instead?
Take the Example of a woman
I worked with recently. Maggie
(pseudonym used for confidentiali-
ty), was the Chief Operating Officer
of a large not-for-profit organisa-
tion. She was married and was the
mother of one ten year old daugh-
ter. She was successful in her role
and was being considered for pro-
motion to CEO when the incum-
bent was due to retire at the end of
the following year. Maggie sought
out coaching because she was un-
sure as to whether she wanted to
take on the increased responsibili-
ty of the role. Her current work rate
had Maggie travelling significant-
ly; more often than not she would
be on the road three to four days
a week and sometimes only home
on weekends. Her key event that
she always made sure to be at was
her daughter’s swimming practice
on a Friday afternoon. She knew
that the promotion would require
longer hours and potentially work-
ing away from home more often.
We discussed the issue for a while
and it was apparent Maggie was
quite torn. Maggie loved her job.
It aligned with her values around
giving back to the community and
social justice. But she was aware
that her daughter would soon be
going into high school and was
conscious that, as the CEO, she
would be absent physically from
her daughter’s life. Importantly,
Maggie’s husband was supportive
of Maggie taking the promotion.
He was self employed and had the
flexibility to be the ‘stay at home
dad’, a role he enjoyed. Maggie
told me that it was nice to come
home after a long week away and
sit at the kitchen bench watching
her husband cook dinner while she

had a glass of wine and caught up
on emails I her iPad or laptop.
Itwasthiscommentthatcaughtmy
attention. On her iPad or laptop? It
occurredtomethat,perhaps,while
she was physically home, mentally
she was still at work. It was then
that the conversation really started
to gain some traction:
“Maggie,” I asked “you said that
you liked to make sure that you
were at your daughter’s swim-
ming training every Friday af-
ternoon, yes?”
“Yes.” She replied. “After a week
away I think it’s important to
spend time with my daughter at
something she loves and it’s im-
portant for her to see me there
.... that I care.”
“Ok.” I went on. “When she com-
pletes a lap or achieves some-
thing significant in the pool and
she looks over to you, what does
she see?”
At this point Maggie opened her
mouth to speak, shut it again and
then became quite emotional.
Fighting back tears, she said. “She
sees me checking emails on my
Blackberry.” Maggie was starting
to realise that her lack of satisfac-
tion with her work life balance was
less about the quantity of time and
more about the quality of time
when she was at home.
In this age of connectedness where
we are constantly ‘on’ it is too easy
to become consumed by the next
alert on our phone. If we stay
wired too much it will even get to
the point where, if we haven’t had
an alert for a while we will pick up
the phone to check it to make sure
there is nothing we have missed. If
you want to think about work life
balance, start thinking about the
qualityoftimethatyouarespending
at home. Are you making the most
of that time? What are your loved
ones seeing and experiencing from
you when you are at home? Do they
see you engaged and interested in
what they have been doing for the
week or do they see you with your
head buried in a laptop or some
other device?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be
working at home at all.There will be
times when you have to. What I am
advocating here is that we should
make conscious decisions around
when and how we do that and that
we think about where our heads
are at when our loved ones need us.
Here are a few simple techniques
you can employ to maximise the
quality of your time at home:
1. Take some time to reflect on
what your family and friends are
seeing when you are at home.
Put yourself in their shoes and see
yourself from their perspective.
Are they seeing the real you,
relaxed and happy to be home or
are they seeing your phone?
2. Quarantine electronics. I was
talking with another mum in the
coaching industry recently. Her
and her husband have agreed that
the phones go into a basket when
they walk in the door and only
come out when their children are
in bed and designated ‘work-at-
home’time starts.
3. If you need to work from home
then make conscious decisions
around that. Set aside the times
that will have the least impact on
your family. Talk to your partners
about what might be the best
times. Importantly, when that time
comes to an end, switch off and
come back to your family.
If you are feeling some level of
dissatisfaction with this mystical
thing called work life balance, take
some time to reflect on whether
it’s the amount of time you are
spending at home or is it the
quality of time.

Anthony Campbell is the Founder
and Director of Embark Leader-
ship, based in Sydney. Anthony
and his team work with leaders to
tailor leadership solutions to deal
with today’s increasing complexity
and connectedness.
E-mail: anthony@embarkleadership.com.au | Phone: +61 (0)448 430 816
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/anthonycampbell47
If you want to think about work
life balance, start thinking about the
quality of time that you are
spending at home.

10 Key Revelations
from the Diversity
Debate Dinners
by Sonia McDonald
LeadershipHQ’s recent Diversity
Debate Dinners in Sydney and
Melbourne were exciting and
thought provoking. The panel of
speakers included LauriceTemple,
Amanda Rose, Nicola Mills and
Fiona Vines, Chris Lamb, Barry
Borzillo, Neil Dalrymple and Peter
Birtles.
These high profile CEOs and
industry experts were able to share
theirobservationsandexperiences
in the diversity and inclusion areas,
and explain what worked for them
and what didn’t.
One of the first questions often
asked is how do we know that
there is an issue with diversity
and inclusion. Let’s just take a
look at some of the statistics the
panel shared.
Disability:
• 15% of population have a
disability
• 2.1 million working age Austra-
lians have a disability and 45%
of people with disabilities are
living near or below the pover-
ty line.
• Improving participation of
people with disability in the
Australian workforce by 33%
over the next decade would in-
crease GDP by $43b
Gender:
• 15% of women in Australia are
the main bread winner for their
family
• Women earn up to 36% less
than men
• 1/3 of women will retire with
no Super
• Women represent over 40%
of the world’s labour force but
only control a ¼ of the world’s
wealth
The overall imbalance is evident.
So how do we change this?
This is where the debate became
really interesting. These are 8 of
the key revelations made during
the debate.
1. Peter Birtles believes that we
need to start with inclusion. We
need to look at the underlying cul-
ture in our organisations and, to
some extent, in our communities.

Our workplaces are a reflection of
our beliefs and accepted customs.
Until those change, our workplac-
es will remain static. Peter has been
a string advocate in this space as a
male champion of change and Su-
per Retail Group are leading the
way around strategies that focus
on flexibility for all, building their
pipeline of females leaders and
their capability and confidence
as well as setting a target of 40%
women in management roles by
2019. In turn they are focused on
how they present themselves to
the market and their EVP on at-
tracting the best talent.
2. Amanda Rose says that about
RESPECT and treating people
they way you want to be treat-
ed. It is important to hire people
who are aligned to your values
and mission. She believes in each
person being responsible for
leading the way in breaking down
barriers whilst also needing to be
equipped with the right tools to
‘survive’ in today’s environment.
The reality is there will always be
bias for a range of issues. These
barriers will always exist. Further-
more, people block people. This is
a reality and one that needs to be
accepted. It isn’t just men block-
ing women.
3. Chris Lamb believes that com-
panies that are not diverse die.
He talked about a great example
of Kodak. In addition to men sup-
porting women, women also need
to support women.There are many
different pressures placed on
women both at home and in the
workplace, and that requires the
unique support that sometimes
only another woman can give. We
also need a clear strategy in place
to drive any cultural change. In
turn, flexibility is fundamental in
how we manage our workplaces
and we need a strategy to drive the
culture to make that work.
4. Nicola Mills made an interesting
observation. She said that con-
versations happening in society
at the moment are vital. She re-
ferred to the Adam Goodes booing
incident, and the possible racism
that drove it. More conversations
like this will help reflect just how
ignorant we truly are. It’s conver-
sations that bring out the feelings
and beliefs behind the actions, and
once we see those, we can start
working with them. To change at-
titudes, we need to have honest
and authentic conversations. They
might not be pretty but they are
certainly necessary for change to
happen.
5. Barry Borzillo’s strategy is to
develop the best people he can
find. He works with graduates
but so far, only 11% graduates are
women. He believes that diversity
leads to better outcomes for a
business and its people, so every
female that he can guide and
mentor is one step closer to that
ideal state.
6. Neil Dalrymple commented that
diversity and inclusion is a very big
issue in sport at the moment, with
many non-English speaking play-
ers and supporters passionately
involved. He believes that diversity
and inclusion needs to be builtinto
the strategic plan, and that the
right board needs to be driving it. It
is then part of the daily business fo-
cus rather than a separate activity.
7.FionaVinesmadeoneofthemost
important points of the night. She
says diversity means innovation of
thought, access to the best talent,
establishing personal connection
and being passionate about fair-
ness. Her strategy is to win hearts
and minds, shine light on darker
places like recruitment, get across
and understand the data around
diversity and inclusion, and to hold
leaders accountable. Change is not
easy, but she believes that by see-
ing the people behind the statis-
tics, we can put a human face on
diversity and inclusion, and that
this will help the changes be ac-
cepted in the workplace.
8. Laurice Temple pointed out
that we can’t get the best out of
people if they don’t feel included.
Neuroscience shows us that when
we perceive a lack of fairness, the
brain reacts with a threat response,
causing us to dissociate with the
situation. We need to restore bal-
ance to the workplace, we can’t
do that properly without includ-
ing men in the conversation. The
National Association of Women in
Construction (NAWIC) realised that
and is changing their constitution
to have members vote on hav-
ing a skills based board, which of
course would include men . Once
people understand why diversi-
ty and inclusion is so vital to our
workplace happiness and success,
they become more willing partici-
pants in change.
9. An issue which divided the pan-
el and the audience was around
quotas vs targets. There are those
who are against the idea of filling
positions just to reach a set num-
ber, but there are also people who
believe that a target does not make
it imperative to achieve balance.
A quota says “you have to”, a tar-
gets says “you aim to.” Quotas are
mandated and have penalties in-
volved in the event of non-compli-
ance. Targets do not. To illustrate
the point, Fiona Vines pointed out
that only 9 out of 18 Government
boards have met their target in re-
gards to gender balance.

10. I decided to end the debates
with some clear messages around
how we can be the change. We
are all leaders in the room, and
it the small things we can do
that can create the ripple effect
needed to bring about powerful
change. It might not happen in
our lifetime, but it about what we
can do for future generations.
While a lot of the conversation
revolves around gender diversity,
the principles apply to all forms
of diversity and inclusion, and it’s
important that the debate looks
beyond the issue of gender.
The Diversity Debate Dinners
are doing their part to open up
the conversation around diver-
sity and inclusion but we would
love to know your thoughts on
the topic. Please leave a com-
ment below and tell us what you
think is working and what has
to change. Stay tuned for the
outcomes, thoughts and actions
from the leaders in the room too!

Cultural
Transformation
silver bullet or lead balloon?
By Mel Tunbridge
Why do conversations about an important topic like
culture typically go nowhere? How many thousands of
dollars have been wasted on “cultural change efforts”
which very seldom work?
Here is one of the big problems: First, virtually no one
clearly defines what they mean by“culture”or if they do
they don’t define the goal of the project. Culture can be
defined as “the pervasive values, beliefs and attitudes
that characterize a company and guide its practices”.
Therefore the goal should start with “purposefully &
actively building capability for new ways of working.”
A culture project needs to be run just as that……..a
project, with the same discipline any other project
within your organisation has.
So many organisations that I am in contact with talk to
me about cultural transformation. But when probed on
the topic there is very little detail they can articulate
about what they need differently & what is & isn’t
working now. It’s as though a brochure on cultural
transformation has done the rounds & they feel they
need to get on the bus & quick – surely it’s going to fix
all what ails me & my organisation. The cultural grass, it
seems, is always greener.
Whatmightbepossibleifwestoppedtryingtotransform
organisational cultures, and instead, started leveraging
them? Clients often tell me,“We need to transform our
culture.”Some want to be more innovative, while others
want to be more consistent. Most want there to be
more accountability & collaboration.They’re convinced
that a comprehensive overhaul of the culture is the
only way to overcome the company’s resistance to
major change. Culture thus loses its ability to be an
accelerator and an enabler.

If the current culture isn’t getting
the organization where it needs to
go, intervention might be neces-
sary, but transformation? Really?
Could we not concentrate on figur-
ing out how to optimise the exist-
ing culture’s best attributes. What
if we looked to implement, and
systematize new behaviours that
fit well with the existing culture
rather than focus on stopping old
practices and starting new ones.
No such thing as a perfect culture
Constant changes in the market-
place, customer needs and tech-
nology at a minimum all point to
the need to develop an adaptive
culture that can effectively carry
your organisation through most
situations. Yet it’s important to
understand that culture is unique
to each organisation. While doing
things a certain way can be very
positive for one company, trying to
impose the same culture on anoth-
er organisation can be devastating.
This is a reason why some leaders
thrive & others fail miserably if
their styles are contradictory to the
environment.
If you look hard enough, most or-
ganisations will find they already
have pockets of people who prac-
tice the behaviors they desire. It’s
possible to draw on these positive
aspects of your culture, turning
them to your advantage, and off-
set some of the negative aspects
as you go. This approach makes
change far quicker & easier to im-
plement. Leaders should focus on
the areas of overlap between the
current and preferred cultures in
order for culture change to feel
like evolution instead of revolu-
tion. This will make the necessary
changes less scary and decrease
resistance.
Whenculturechangeisnecessary,
discover your strengths
Clearly, cultural change — and
even transformation — is some-
times necessary. If an organisation
isn’t getting the results it needs, it’s
likely that it needs to look at the
management, leaders & strategy.
But it’s far too superficial — and in-
effective — to take a deficit-based
approach to culture change, point-
ing out all the flaws. It’s much more
powerful to assess the culture’s
strengths and, exploit them.
Most people will shift their think-
ing only after new behaviors have
led to results that matter—and
thereby been validated.
Of course, culture change is not a
short-term process — it will take
years of consistent & persistent
effort. An organisation doesn’t be-
come a more collaborative culture,
for example, just because you an-
nounce “we have a collaborative
culture” or when they stick a few
teams of people together.
Rather than dismissing culture
work as“soft stuff,”it needs to move
to a high-priority, but let’s not fool
ourselves, we’re changing whole
beliefs systems & it may not be the
silver bullet to all what ails us – its
only part of the solution.
Culture change checklist:
Strategic vision - have a clearly
and widely articulated view of the
direction and purpose of the pro-
posed change that includes mea-
surable and achievable goals.
Symbolic leadership - senior ex-
ecutives must behave in ways that
are consistent with the new cul-
ture…………….always!
Management commitment - senior
management must be committed
to change and must be seen to be
committed.
Communication - involve people
and be honest and transparent.
Reinforce change - take every op-
portunity to convey the message.
Mel Tunbridge is the Founder & Principal Consultant of Agile People Partners. A
consultancy specialising in straightforward people management solutions that
will make a measurable difference. Agile People Partners also helps existing HR
teams to get projects done, by project managing or adding additional thought
leadership or grunt where necessary. This allows HR Directors & their teams
to celebrate & promote the success internally whilst not losing traction on
business as usual.
Email: mel.tunbridge@agilepeoplepartners.com.au
Web: http://www.agilepeoplepartners.com.au

Brain Based
Decision Making
by Sonia McDonald
The ability to
take decisive action, to
make sound, unbiased
decisions, is a key skill
that effective leaders
use multiple times
each day.

When we think about the key
components and processes of
sound decision making, most of
us tend to first think of our brain’s
ability to use logic and reason to
examine the facts of a situation
and the possible outcomes.
Since our emotions are often
hard to quantify, much less con-
trol, we tend to place a higher
value on the information and
other feedback that we receive
from our “rational” mind. We
prefer facts and figures from
spreadsheets and data reports
over general impressions and
other feedback based on hu-
man interaction.
Is the Bias Towards the Ratio-
nal Mind Logical?
From an early age, our parents,
schools and other organisations
urge us to think with our“heads”
rather than our “hearts.” So, it
should come as no surprise to
anyone that most of us try to
avoid relying on the information
that we receive from our“gut in-
stincts,”or“feelings.”
As individuals, this bias for
“cool reason” carries over and
affects how we see and value
others. Most of us tend to have
more admiration and respect
for those leaders that we see as
calm and rational, rather than
those whom we view as emo-
tional.
Current research in the fields
of neurology and cognitive sci-
ence, however, now suggests
thatthesebiasesandbeliefsthat
value rational logic over emo-
tional feedback are way off the
mark. In fact, leaders and others
that discount their feelings and
emotional reactions lose out on
feedback that can help them
connect with their intuition and
guide them to better outcomes
when making decisions.
Feelings and Emotions are a
Valuable Part of the Decision
Making Process
According to research published
in Sage Journal’s Personality
and Social Psychology Review,
our emotions help us to learn
from our experiences so that
we can make better decisions.
When we only use our rational
brain and discount our feelings
as we examine a specific issue
or problem, we tend to become
indecisive and unable to decide
on a specific course of action.
Neglecting our emotional
responses to a situation can
also leave us unable to prioritise
what is truly important so that
we can focus on those things
that we should zero in on and
attempt to tackle first.
Being able to decide on an
action or goal, and maintain
our focus, leads to better
decision making over time. This
leads to the perception that we
are making progress towards
our goals. So, our feelings and
emotions not only help us to
make better decisions, but they
can also provide the spark that
helps us to remain motivated to
keep pursuing our goals.
By using both logic and
emotional feedback when
we examine issues and make
decisions, we have the ability
to use the power of our entire
brain to resolve situations.
This helps us to tap into our
intuition and unlock creative
approaches to resolving issues
and leads to more innovative
and unique solutions.
The importance of emotional
feedback in how we learn
from experience is an example
of the new research that is
being conducted in the field of
neuroscience. This research can
help all of us understand more
about how our brain works and
how to use that information to
guide ourselves and others to
better decisions and outcomes
in nearly every aspect of our
lives. If you would like to learn
more about how to harness the
power of your brain to become
a better leader, why not get
in touch and ask us about the
Neuroscience of Leadership
Workshop? It’s fun, informative
and very practical.

At first glance at this headline,
most people would answer yes, of
course they do. If you are a leader
you must be intelligent. The prob-
lem, however, is that intelligence
and emotional intelligence are two
vastly different things and having
one without the other does not
make someone a good leader.
Many corporations will promote
from within which is a fantastic
strategy for growth and allowing
staff to work their way to the top.
The problem with this strategy is
that not everyone that starts at the
bottom actually has the skills to be
an emotionally intelligent leader.
Obviously, if someone is being pro-
moted through the ranks they are
showing their level of intelligence
via their work output, but their
level of emotional intelligence
does not necessarily grow with
their promotion. Emotional intel-
ligence is the type of intelligence
that can take a leader from being
a good financial leader who meets
all company targets, to a leader
that builds a strong support team
throughout the company as well
as meeting the financial targets.
To understand this concept think
about the heads of some major
companies you know of. Com-
pare the style of Rupert Murdoch
to Richard Branson; which one do
you think is the more emotionally
intelligent leader?
From what we know of these two
men in the public eye, Rupert Mur-
doch appears to be a very intelli-
gent leader who is very financially
successful. Richard Branson on the
other hand is also a very intelli-
gent leader who is very financially
successful, but he is the one most
people would choose to work for.
He is the one who understands the
needs of his team. He has an un-
derstanding of life at the bottom
and how to support and nurture
those that are working their way
through the ranks.
For some, emotional intelligence is
an innate trait, for others it needs
to be nurtured and incorporat-
ed into their overall promotion
strategy to ensure they become
truly great leaders. Unfortunately,
with the leadership of most major
companies still living in the “intel-
ligence” sector and not the “emo-
tional intelligence” sector, the new
staff filtering up through the ranks
are not being given the tools they
need to ensure their emotional in-
telligence grows with them.
Most people are promoted be-
cause they can do their job well
but also get along with the staff
around them and build great rap-
port. When you then promote
those people to a status that is
focused on the bottom line they
do not generally have the skills to
understand how to incorporate
their new duties while keeping
their connection with the team
around them. It takes a truly holis-
tic approach to building a team to
ensure that the great workers also
become great leaders.
Take a look at the emerging lead-
ers in your organisation and make
sure they are being given the op-
portunity to develop and exercise
their emotional intelligence.
Do leaders have enough
emotional intelligence?
By Sonia McDonald

16 BELIEFS OF HIGHLY
PASSIONATE LEADERSby Kasia Gospos is the Founder and Publisher of LEADERS IN HEELS
Passionate leaders are making their mark
and changing the world. Steve Jobs, Elon
Musk, Pharrell Williams, Richard Branson,
the list goes on. They make things hap-
pen. They think big. They inspire others.
They are my mentors.
Before they got where they are now, peo-
ple thought they were crazy, or arrogant,
or weird. They didn’t fit. During an inter-
view with Pharrell Williams on a radio one
of the listeners called and said that he
went with Pharrell to the same school at
Virginia Beach and he remembered how
annoying Pharrell was when he was con-
stantly playing drums. “I’m glad you did,”
he said now.
So how all these leaders do what they do?
Passion is key: Here are the 16 beliefs of
highly passionate people:

4. We would rather regret the
things we have done than the
things we haven’t done
Passionate leaders don’t take a
chance and wait. They know there
is nothing worse than saying after-
wards,“I wish I could have …”
5. Our enthusiasm can move the
world when we do the things we
love
Successful leaders know that when
they truly believe in something
they speak with passion and en-
thusiasm, and this impacts others.
6. The universe opens the doors
when we follow our desires
Passionate leaders are not afraid to
be open about their desires. When
they share their dreams it’s infec-
tious, and the world takes it as fact.
7. We don’t allow waiting around
to become habits
Passionate people don’t wait. They
do.
8. We infuse our life with actions.
Every time you see a success story,
it is because one passionate per-
son had the courage to take action.
The earlier you start, the earlier you
will reach your dreams.
9. We make the time to create the
life we want
Steve Jobs had 24 hours a day.
Oprah and Warren Buffet have 24
hours a day. We all have the same
amount of time so stop procrasti-
nating and focus on what matters.
Passionate people do.
10. We make our dreams happen
Passionateleadersdon’tjustdream
and say they have a big dream.
They believe, and then take action
to make their biggest and craziest
ideas happen.
11. We create our own future
Passionate leaders know they are
the only ones responsible for their
own destiny.
12. Nothing is worth achieving if
we aren’t happy
Passionate people always remem-
ber that money is not the ultimate
goal. The ultimate goal is to be
happy. They don’t need to be on
the front cover of a popular maga-
zine or ranked on a list of the rich-
est business people. They could
simply own a small cottage in the
mountains, or work as a fisherman
in a Mexican village, and that could
be just perfect.
13. We set our sights high
Passionate people think big. They
raise their standards, and the uni-
verse meets them there. The sky is
the limit.
14. We expect the most magnifi-
cent things to happen
Passionate leaders have no one to
tell them that “Yes, this is guaran-
teed to work out”, but they have
unquenchable optimism that al-
lows them to believe that the most
magnificent things will happen.
15. It’s never too late to set an-
other goal
Passionate leaders know that
not every idea will work. But that
doesn’t stop them from trying –
they know that if this idea doesn’t
work, they are still one step closer
to reaching their dream, and they
move on to the next idea.
16. It’s never too late to dream a
new dream
Passionate leaders don’t get
discouraged if things don’t work
out the way they expected. They
simply start dreaming a new dream.
All quotes and thoughts come from Make Your Mark notebook designed
to promote 6 leadership traits: passion, creativity, innovation, confidence,
determination and kindness. Every page of the notebook has been infused
with quotes, thoughts and assignments to stimulate a new way of thinking.
The notebook can be purchased from the Leaders in Heels online store.
1. We are energetic and curious
For passionate leaders, every
problem is an opportunity to learn
something new. They are easily
intrigued,andexcitedwhentheycan
ask questions and study something
they’ve never learnt before.
2. We love life and actively craft
it to create happiness and reach
our dreams
Passionate leaders admire the gift
of life and take an active approach
in making their mark.
3. We know that dreams don’t
work unless we do
Leaders with passion understand
that they need to do things to see
the change they want to see.

The rising
value of
time
by Adele Blair
Ever since a clock was first used
to synchronise labour in the 18th
century, time has been understood
in relation to money. Once hours
are financially quantified, we worry
moreaboutwasting,savingorusing
them profitably. When economies
grow and incomes rise, everyone’s
time becomes more valuable. And
the more valuable something
becomes, the scarcer it seems.
When we are paid more to work, we
tend to work longer hours because
working becomes a more profitable
use of time. So the rising value of
work time puts pressure on all time.
Leisure time starts to seem more
stressful, as we feel compelled to
use our timely wisely or not at all.
While we might be earning more
money to spend, unfortunately
we are not simultaneously earning
more time to spend it in.
Thismakestime—thatfrustratingly
finite, unrenewable resource—feel
more precious.
Living at warp speed
No one would disagree that we
are living at a hectic pace. Greater
demands are being placed upon
us by employers, clients, family
and friends to immediately read
and respond to everything within
a nano-second. Whilst technology
has added enormous value to our
lives it has also become a hazard!
Once upon a time, a family’s
biggest technological nuisance was
the phone ringing during dinner
or late at night. Twenty-four hour
TV programming, the Internet and
mobile phones didn’t permeate the
inner sanctum of the home. School
stayed at school, work stayed at
work,andthoseboundariesweren’t
crossed except in an emergency.
Nowadays work doesn’t end when
the office doors have closed.
Companies equip their employees
with smart phones and laptops
so they are constantly accessible
with the expectation to respond
immediately (whether instructed or
implied) is eating into leisure time.
According to AMP.NATSEM Income
and Wealth Report “30% of men
and 11% of women are working at
7am in the morning, with one in
size men and one in seven women
working at 7pm in the evening”.
This is further reported in the
AMP.Natsem Income and Wealth
Report - Race against time, How
Australians spend their time.
“The amount of time spent in full
time employment by both men
and women have dramatical-
ly increased, thus reducing the
amount of available time to man-

age household duties/administra-
tion and making leisure time more
valuable than ever.”
Add to that the ever-increasing list
of “should”. I should get the fridge
repaired, I should organise mum’s
birthday dinner, I should return
that shirt (wrong size), I should...
Don’t get me started on the list of
perfection pursuits (perfect parent,
perfect kids, perfect house, perfect
body, blah, blah blah).
All of these factors have had a
dramatic effect on how time is
managed and ‘balanced’ between
work, family and leisure activities.
OMG the pressure.
This is unlikely to change. In fact
I would go so far as to say that
the way that we live will entirely
change and we must change in
order keep up with this increasing
demand on our time. Unless of
course you decided to sell up and
move to Byron Bay #bliss
The result of modern living is that
we have a rapid influx of demands
so we require additional resources
to meet those demands, usually
in the form our outsourcing. We
can no longer rely upon tradition-
al time management methods to
deal with modern time demands.
You wouldn’t go to a fax machine
to reply to an email would you?
Whilst, thankfully, some traditional
outsourcing options such as family
and friends remain available they
too are facing a similar set of
lightning speed demands.
Other outsourcing opportunities
such as Au Pair, Nanny, Personal
Trainers, Housekeepers, and Gar-
deners are now considered main
stream. It is therefore no surprise
that personal Concierge services
is fast becoming the new ‘norm’ in
outsourcing.
All those ‘should’or ‘to hard basket’
items can be handed to a personal
Concierge, in the same way the
vacuum is handed over to your
housekeeper.
And the reason we need these
types of resources to keep up with
modern living?
Because regardless of how much
our world changes, our basic needs
as humans to rest and have social
interactions with our loved ones
does not change. We are social
beings and we need to be part of our
loving circle of family and friends.
Adele Blair
Managing Director
The Concierge Collective
Theconciergecollective.com.au
30% of men and 11% of women are working
at 7am in the morning, with one in size men
and one in seven women working at 7pm
in the evening

When we think of highly effective
leaders, it’s often in terms of
their decisiveness, strategy and
clever thinking. It’s not often
that interpersonal traits like
compassion spring to mind.
Yet no leader can lead without
followers, and those followers
are human, with all their human
needs and frailties.
Canyoubeagreatleaderwithout
the softer skills? No, I don’t think
you can.
It’s easy to see that compassion
belongs in the leadership skill
list, but how exactly?
Tibetan scholar Thupten Jinpa
says “Compassion is a mental
state endowed with a sense
of concern for the suffering of
others and aspiration to see that
suffering relieved.”
Your team wants to be
understood. It’s easy to jump
to conclusions and make
judgements without knowing the
full story. For example when an
otherwise well regarded member
of staff begins to under-perform
for some reason, the assumptions
may be that they are no longer
committed to their work or have
an issue to relating to another
team member or manager.
A compassionate leader who
asks the right questions in the
right way may find out the
person is having personal issues
creating stress or lack of focus,
or some outside pressures on
their time and sleep such as
illness of a family member. The
performance issue in fact has
nothingtodowithwork,andwith
accommodations and support
their usual level of quality and
attention will return, and the
organisational compassion will
be rewarded with increased
loyalty and commitment in the
future.
So in effect, showing compassion
can have a long term benefit to
the organisation. This is exactly
what researcher Christina
Boedker found in a recent study.
‘Out of all of the various elements
in a business, the ability of a
leader to be compassionate—
that is, “to understand people’s
motivators, hopes and difficulties
and to create the right support
mechanism to allow people to
be as good as they can be”—
has the greatest correlation with
profitability and productivity,
Boedker observes. “It’s about
valuing people and being
receptive and responsive to
criticism.”‘
Compassion in leadership isn’t
weak. It’s not about simple
kindness. It’s not about making
exceptions to organisational
requirements; it’s about
balancing both sets of needs.
It’s about leading, guiding
and managing your team with
genuine consideration and
kindness.
Bill Cropper, Director of The
Change Forum says, “The reality
is powerful leaders, amongst
their other traits, have the
conviction, confidence and
courage to cultivate connectivity
and compassion.”
Are you brave enough to become
a compassionate leader?
The Cwordby Sonia McDonald
Compassionate. Is it a dirty word in business and leadership? Or is
it the difference between highly effective and mediocre leaders?

KEY BENEFITS OF ATTENDING:
Understanding the significance of workplace
diversity
Execute diversity policies to ensure its applicability
Pursue opportunities for inclusion of LGBTIQ
employees
Monitor female progression in leadership roles
Ensure corporate ranks achieve gender parity
Forge professional links with the Indigenous
community
Promote government incentives for diverse
workplaces
Implement strategic approaches to maintaining
mature-aged employees
Establish flexible workplaces supporting family
commitments
Implemented organisational accountability to
combat institutional sexism
DARETO KNOW
P: 02 8248 0200 E: events@konnectlearning.com.au A: PO Box 683, Potts Point NSW 1335 w w w. d i v e r s i t y 2 0 1 5 . c o m . a u
Leadership
in Diversity
CONFERENCE 2015
Paving the way for workplace
diversity and inclusion strategies
Sir Stamford Circular Quay | 10 – 12 November, 2015
HEAR FROM THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS:
FO
R
M
O
RE
INFO
RM
ATIO
N
GO
TO
w
w
w.diversity2015.com
.au
Get involved on twitter: #diversity2015
For more information go to www.diversity2015.com.au

Green
Leadership
Resourcing for the Future
In this article, the Waste to Op-
portunity Enterprise’s, Dr Geor-
gina Davis, highlights the value
of environmental leadership and
discusses if environmental lead-
ership can be characterised as a
‘leadership skill for the new mil-
lennium’.
So what is Environmental Lead-
ership? It can be defined as ‘envi-
ronmental excellence in a compa-
ny’s operations, products and/or
services, and stakeholder support’.
An element of sustainability in my
view is also appropriate and, is it-
self, a critical leadership challenge
and not simply a technological
challenge as is often claimed. Suc-
cessful leadership includes know-
ing about, and understanding the
range of social, environmental and
economic forces that impact on
a company and its stakeholders,
both internal and external. Or-
ganizations are being confronted
with increasingly complex operat-
ing situations and, for many, con-
temporary environmentalism has
become an integral part of organi-
zational strategy.
So what are the benefits? Certain-
ly, views on the environment have
changed from compliance to com-
petitive advantage, resulting in ben-

efits to the bottom-line, and has en-
abledbothcompaniesandbrandsto
build value through differentiation
in the market place. Just look at Self-
ridges(U.K.)decisiontoremoveplas-
tic water bottles from their stores in
order to cut ocean pollution; or the
widely critiqued case study of Wal-
Mart (U.S.) which set ambitious sus-
tainability targets through its ‘Sus-
tainability 3600‘ program including
zero waste, 100% renewable energy,
and the supply of products which
sustaintheworld’sresourcesanden-
vironment. Wal-Mart continues its
environmental leadership to its sup-
plychains,includingassistingitscot-
ton producers to‘go’organic and in-
creasing the availability and supply
price (via substitution) of products
which it deems are environmentally
preferable.
Whilst traditional accounting mod-
els are limited in their ability to as-
sess the benefits achieved from
sound environmental leadership;
social norms and expectations sur-
rounding the environment and so-
cial impacts associated with a com-
pany, its product(s) or service(s) are
growing and are accountable, as
far as the client or consumer is con-
cerned. Subsequently, companies
are making product and invest-
ment decisions regarding brand
impact and company risk with re-
gards to the environment.
Organisations collect data on their
environmental, social and broader
sustainability performance. How-
ever, not enough companies are
effectively exploiting this data
for competitive advantage or for
stakeholder education. In order
to do this, the data needs to be
timely, accurate and consistent to
facilitate stakeholder understand-
ing of the scale of opportunities, or
the impact of any changes imple-
mented. In most cases, this data
is inconsistent, poorly considered
and entrenched in bespoke, lega-
cy systems. The potential negative
consequences from ill-informed
strategic decisions relating to en-
vironmental leadership strategies
and programs are substantial, in-
cluding increased costs, negative
and unintended environmental
impacts, project failure and dam-
age to brand particularly if associ-
ated with‘greenwashing’.
Senior executives are aware of
their obligations and liabilities
as set out in regulation and the
Council of Australian Govern-
ments’ (COAG) guidelines deliver
a nationally-consistent and a prin-
ciples-based approach to the per-
sonal criminal liability of directors
and officers for corporate offences.
These offences include environ-
mental offence liability, when a di-
rector will be personally liable for
environmental offences commit-
ted by a corporation.
Whilst the limited penalties for
non-compliance with environmen-
tal regulation may have historical-
ly provided a bottom-line case for
doing the wrong thing, the intan-
gible negative costs are certainly
no longer worth the risk. Consum-
ers and clients are expecting trans-
parency including environmental
and sustainability reporting.
In what has been termed ‘green
to gold’ performance, ethical-
ly-aware investors are also creating
industrial change and demanding
evidence of environmental lead-
ership. Ethical (or Responsible)
investment is when an investment
is selected to complement one’s
moral or political view and has
quickly advanced from a ‘fringe
activity’to a significant movement.
Figures from the Responsible In-
vestment Association Australasia
(RIAA) estimate that the total funds
under management in investment
portfolios in Australia totalled
$629.5 billion as at 31 December
2014; in 2002 the estimated figure
was $13.9 billion. Ethical funds
Ethical funds
that invest in
Australian shares
are typically
outperforming
their mainstream
counterparts by
three percentage
points year
on year.

that invest in Australian shares
are typically outperforming their
mainstream counterparts by three
percentage points year on year.
We have seen a rise in a range of
environmental leadership philos-
ophies embedded in increasingly
novel and community-welcomed
organisational initiatives, ranging
from reducing resource consump-
tion; adoption of waste and water
reuse technologies; recycling ini-
tiatives (in particular those aligned
with community enterprise); local
food initiatives driven by ‘paddock
to plate’ philosophies; the estab-
lishment of sustainable protein
projects (promoting low-impact
alternative protein sources, such as
mushrooms) and urban agriculture
initiatives; ecolabels, eco-certifica-
tions and sustainability indexes;
through to the appointment of
Chief Sustainability Officers.
A broadcasted negative environ-
mental or social business practice
or an environmental report listing
regulatory non-compliance now
have broader repercussions. Com-
pany leaders and Boards can no
longer afford not to demonstrate
environmental leadership and in-
corporate it into organisational
strategy at every level. So is envi-
ronmental leadership a ‘leadership
skill for the new millennium’? I
would argue that it was a leader-
ship skill for the last millennium
but many companies (and individ-
uals) were slow to realise its poten-
tial and also the risk of not leading
on environmental issues. Indeed,
we still have individuals (and com-
panies) that believe the world’s re-
sources are endless, denounce cli-
mate change and believe that the
world’s oceans and land provide a
convenient, cheap disposal option.
Organisations need ‘green’ vision-
aries, leaders who are willing to re-
define leadership strategies with-
in their organisation or reshape
industry dynamics as required.
Those who will set goals, establish
and hold responsibility for mea-
surement and reporting, and re-
engineer consumer/clients supply
chains and, perhaps, industry.
Email: georgina@wastetoopportunity.com
www.wastetoopportunity.com

LeadershipAJourney,NotaDestination
By Matthew Francis
Conversation often starts with the
typical ‘Management v Leadership’
debate, and inevitably includes ref-
erence to a host of words or phrases
that typify leadership: inspiration;
motivation; trust; integrity; inclusion;
collaboration; coaching; mentoring,
the list goes on.
As part of an ongoing leadership de-
velopment program, I recently spent
some time with a senior leadership
team defining‘what leadership means’
to them and their organisation, and
after much robust conversation, it was
eventually agreed that a leader:
• Builds trust and communicates
effectively;
• Continually improves;
• Builds talent;
• Achieves results;
Underpinning these four broad
non-negotiables were a series of be-
haviours and measures, things like:
demonstrating commitment to cri-
tique of own performance; setting
stretching developmental tasks for
their people; living the mission/vi-
sion, and inspiring others to do the
same, among many others.
For those aspiring to become leaders,
or equally, for current leaders who’ve
had some honest self-reflection and
decided they’re just not up to par, the
question begs: how do you develop
into the best leader you can be?
So many people approach leadership
development like items on a checklist;
‘complete them one by one, tick them
off, and I can call myself a leader’.
The reality is, leadership just doesn’t
work this way.
Leadership is not an end-goal; it is not a
destination that you ever actually‘reach’.
Leadership is a collection of mo-
ments; the everyday statements you
make (or don’t make), actions you
take (or don’t take), and the way you
conduct yourself, both in front of
your team members and in private.
In short, being a true ‘leader’ is a life-
long commitment; a way of life.
At the heart of leadership is ‘fol-
low-ship’.
In order to sell, a salesperson needs
customers; in order to heal, a Doctor
needs patients; etc.
What is
leadership?
It’s only a three
word question, but
it can be difficult to
answer succinctly,
and boy does it stir
up a whole host
of diverse, and
very passionate
responses whenever
it’s posed!

Well, in order to lead, a leader
needs followers!
It stands to reason then, that lead-
ership is less about the leader, and
more about the followers.
Leadership guru, Simon Sinek,
draws parallels between leaders
and parents, and as someone who
is new to both parenthood and
leadership, I can’t help but agree
with his simple assessment. Sinek
says that our goal as parents is to
provide our children with oppor-
tunities, education – to discipline
them when necessary – all so that
they can grow up and achieve
more than we could for ourselves.
Sinek suggests that great leaders
want exactly the same thing for
their people: to provide them with
opportunities and education, to
discipline them when necessary, to
enable them to try, and make mis-
takes, and learn, all so that they can
achieve more than we ever could.
In essence, leadership is all about
helping other people improve, ev-
ery single day, so that they can be-
come the best possible version of
themselves.
So we’ve got some great buzz-
words that describe what a leader
should achieve; engage; enthuse;
inspire; motivate; etc. and we know
that it is less about ourselves, and
more about the people around us,
but what does it actually look like
in action?
How do you‘do’good leadership?
When a manager stands up to pres-
ent on behalf of their department,
does s/he attribute success to the
individuals within their team, or do
they instinctively seize this as an
opportunity to self-promote?
When a team member has a per-
ception of their ability that doesn’t
align with reality, does their man-
ager place that conversation in
the ‘too hard’ basket, or does s/he
sit down and have a candid con-
versation about reality, motivated
by the genuine desire to help the
team member improve?
When any individual acts in the best
interestsofthosetotheleftofthem,
and those to the right of them, they
are displaying leadership qualities,
and should be encouraged.
Do you want to know the most ex-
citing part about leadership?
Leadership is a choice; a choice
that each of us, regardless of
position, status, level of education,
socio-economic standing, gender,
sexuality or personality type, can
make each and every day, and no
title can give or take away.
The next time you notice that one
of your direct reports, colleagues,
or even your manager is struggling
with something, rather than view
their current struggle as your latest
problem, stop and ask yourself:
‘how can I help get the best out of
this person today’?
In fact, don’t stop there, because
leadership is so much bigger than
the workplace!
Take a look at your parent, partner,
child, sibling, friend, and ask your-
self ‘what can I do to help you be
the best version of you that you
can be’?
Do this, and you will be living the
life of a leader!

We’vealwayssaidthatalthough
there are certainly some born
leaders in our world, there are
many more great leaders who
have acquired and polished
their leadership skills over a pe-
riod of time. So, we know that
with training, great leaders can
be created.
Modern training techniques
have evolved to reach beyond
the training room, and offer a
much more practical learning
experience. By taking advan-
tage of technology, workplac-
es can now offer a form of
education which uses a mix of
formal (face-to-face) learning
with an online component.
It means learners can access
online material from work or
home, when it is convenient
for them to learn. This works
especially well for knowl-
edge-based learning.
Limitations of training
Until now, training has been
fairly one dimensional. Lead-
ers usually attend a formal
training course where they
practice their skills, then they
go back to the workplace and
are expected to use them. Of-
ten there is no follow up or
Blended Learning for
Leadership and Diversity
by Sonia McDonald

mentoring to help embed the
skills into the leader’s toolkit.
When you are introducing
learning which involves a skill,
belief or cultural change, a
simple training course is not
enough.
Blended learning.
We know now that for learn-
ing to be truly effective, it
needs to be a more rounded
experience, and that’s where
blended learning comes in.
Blended learning incorporates
both face-to-face and online
elements along with a range
of other learning opportuni-
ties. Formal learning is just a
small part of the process.
Blending learning incorpo-
rates action learning with
personal, social and even
emotional development, too.
It uses a variety of techniques
to help learners embrace and
adopt the new skills or be-
haviours so they become in-
nate, rather than a tool to call
on in specific circumstances.
Some of the techniques in-
clude coaching, mentoring
and even mastermind groups.
Your trainer becomes a guide
rather than a teacher, and
learning is very much more
personalised to your needs.
Blended learning is inclusive
Blended learning is much
more suitable for a workplace
that is building diversity and
inclusion into its culture. The
techniques used in blended
learning make it adaptable
to every individual’s personal
circumstances. It allows you
to structure a well-considered
program to meet everyone’s
learning needs.
Blended learning is flexible
and offers a rounded ap-
proach to learning, and the
beauty is that the blend can
be re-mixed to suit every
workplace and every person.
If you would like to know more
about our blended learning
platforms for Emerging Lead-
ers, empowHER or Leading Di-
versity and Inclusion, Contact
us at LeadershipHQ.

Leadership training providers need to
lift their game - and so do leaders!
By Jason Jones
“…what you see
with your eyes is not
necessarily real. My
enemy is, among other
things, the me inside me”
~ Haruki Murakami
Provision of leadership training:
big. Demand for leadership train-
ing and development: huge. Is this
similar to commercial provision of
fast, junk food and our appetite for
it? Are we corporately obese from
consumption of mass-produced,
easily available, well advertised
and marketed, ‘trendy’, but ulti-
mately unhealthy leadership food
that lacks balance and real nutri-
tional value?
When you last spent money devel-
oping leaders in your organisation,
how did you measure return on
investment? Did you just need rid
of un-allocated training budget at
financial year-end? Did the provid-
er of the‘training’or‘development’
actually pay attention and under-
stand your organisation’s problem,
or deliver a package tweaked to
make it ‘fit’? Are you sure you un-
derstood the problem you were
trying to fix?
Leadership research: similarly vast.
The golden chalice - to be the next
“Kotter”, “Drucker”, or “Schein”. I’m

not being dismissive; these peo-
ple have at some point, all been
ground breaking and influenced
two decades or so of organisa-
tional culture and leadership.
Nonetheless, exercise caution, and
think! Drucker’s focus on effective-
ness (from 1967) holds true - para-
phrased: if you can’t articulate how
the shiny thing contributes, then
it’s just a shiny thing…enjoy look-
ing at it, and move on.
How do you decide the best way
to invest in not only your own de-
velopment, but also that of leaders
upon whom you rely? How do you
ensure money spent on a four-day
residential workshop at a five-star
resort is worth it? For a start, you
have to lift your game. Invest most,
when you think you need it least;
train hard, fight easy!
Not everyone is a leader. The Da-
vid Brent parody (played by Ricky
Gervais in ‘The Office’) springs to
mind as the least damaging ex-
ample. At worst an individual who
isn’t a leader, but who occupies the
role will get people un-necessarily
killed, or take a good team and de-
stroy it. The best people will leave,
and the remainder turn into com-
muter-zombies.
I contemplate the start point for
a leader as being able to provide
people with reassurance, associ-
ated with your presence. For ex-
ample, I create an environment
where clients feel safe making
themselves vulnerable, reinforced
by three things: neither seeking,
nor using testimonials; the prelude
to any work of a non-disclosure
agreement; and my manner and
demeanour.
Reassurance can be visceral; a
matter of survival, like in a fire-
fight. It might be intellectual and
psychological associated with
your livelihood, maybe, when the
Damoclesian threat of ‘restruc-
ture’ dangles over your depart-
ment. When it doesn’t feel, sound,
or look right - in uncertainty, and
when you think it might go wrong
– a leader’s the person you turn
to, or think of, listen to, or look at
with belief that they’ll make the
right decisions to keep you (and
those around you) safe.
Leadership’s foundation is the na-
ture and quality of relationships.
My horse-training and equine-fa-
cilitated learning programmes
are based on the same principle.
During and beyond my military
career this remains fundamental.
Statement of the obvious? Then
why don’t we see it more widely?
Why do people struggle with it?
Seductive leadership and develop-
ment training is cleverly construct-
ed and marketed - it’s multi-million
dollar business. Testimonials from
well-known figures and CEOs of
‘successful’ companies, offer gravi-
tas. If we see a high-profile figure
quoted,orthecoachofasuccessful
national sports team saying, “this
was the best day I’ve ever spent,
and I learned so much about my-
self!” – it has to be good, because
I want some of that gilt to rub off.
I want bragging rights to declare,
“yeah, we took the executive team
down to the lakeside resort where
the World Cup team had a retreat
before the semi-final”.
Really? That’s still the best you’ve
got…? Try harder!
In fact, try a lot harder. Is adoption
of re-contextualised ‘lean-six’ fault
finding tools from a production
line process the right answer, be-
cause it’s popular and fashionable?
Roll the clock forward two years;
tell me what it’ll look like when you
(or one of your senior executives)
Encouraging
individuals to,
‘empower their
subordinate staff to
make decisions, and
‘take a greater level
of ownership’ is a
double-edged sword.

are leading the people on whom
your company relies to win? What
behaviours would you expect to
see? What do you do if you don’t
see those behaviours? More im-
portantly, why aren’t you seeing
those behaviours – I mean, you
sent people on a workshop with a
great set of testimonials!
Did your expensive leadership
development forum conduct
personality type profiling? Was
that what attracted you? Some
of these activities are superb, and
I know a few companies doing
this really well. There is benefit in
understanding what makes you
tick as an individual or team, but
beware! ‘Off-the-shelf’ profiling
that repackages the findings and
gives ‘insightful debriefs in a one-
on-one exchange’ runs the risk of
giving the recipient justification
and excuses for poor, or bad be-
haviours.
Encouraging individuals to, ‘em-
power their subordinate staff to
make decisions, and ‘take a great-
er level of ownership’ is a dou-
ble-edged sword. I’ve intervened
more than once where this man-
ifests as detachment and disen-
gagement from staff and the out-
comes of the organisation. One
particular experience stands out:
when success (through applica-
tion, by a person in a leadership
position, of ‘forum-enlightened
empowerment’) didn’t follow,‘em-
powered’ staff began to question
the logic or direction given. Their
leader then saw people as incom-
petent or insubordinate – be-
cause $30K of development train-
ing meant they had to be right.
It’s uncharitable to lay blame at
the conference suite door of the
leadership development forum;
a company with a formidable
reputation ran it. There were also
problems with interpretation, as-
similation, and subsequent appli-
cation of the knowledge garnered
by the attending leader – but it
illustrates the value in thinking
carefully about what you’re trying
to achieve by investing in training
and development. How will you
measure success? Can you afford
training and development that
addresses symptoms, rather than
causes, and that might even com-
pound your problems?
What’re you going to do to make
things better, and tackle the ene-
my inside you?
Jason - Director, TGLE Ltd
Telephone / Text 021 058 6867
Email: enquiries@tgle.co.nz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TGLE.Ltd
Blog: http://www.thenakedhorseman.com

We all know confident women, con-
fident female leaders. They light up
a room when they arrive and they
always leave a positive impression.
They seem to have an indefinable
something that makes them spe-
cial, and perhaps even inspiring.
Very little stands in the way of
emulating the confidence of those
female leaders who inspire you.
And it’s unlikely they were born
so confident. It took mindfulness
and practice, so if they can do it so
can you.
In order to be irreplaceable one
must always be different. Coco
Chanel
Confident female leaders:
1 Use their words wisely, with re-
spect and consideration. This is
particularly true when speaking of
other women. They have no need
to gossip, or drag others down to
make themselves feel better.Wom-
en with confidence are too excited
by their plans and dreams.
2 Don’t take anything personal-
ly. Women who lead confidently
know the only person they can
control is themselves, and they are
not responsible for anyone else’s
emotions or behaviours. You can-
not control what others do, only
how you react.
3 Use their power for good in-
stead of evil. They know their
strengths and capabilities, and
seek opportunities to make the
world around them just a little bet-
ter. Whether that be by mentoring
another woman in their team and
helping them achieve their own
goals, or fighting for human rights,
they are selfless and share their tal-
ent with others.
4 Give credit where credit is due.
Confident female leaders won’t
take credit for another’s success.
Firstly, they have more respect for
themselves and others, but also
they celebrate the achievements
of others, and the satisfaction of
having assisted on the journey is
more than enough. They support
women, and don’t compete with
them
5 Trust their instincts. They are
thorough and decisive, and when
they have made a decision they
stick to it. They don’t hesitate or
second guess, and this in turn in-
stils confidence and motivates the
team they lead.
6 They don’t lead to be liked.
Confident leaders are not afraid
to make the tough decisions even
though they may not be popular.
She can handle opposition and
will deal with it rationally and fairly,
with the conviction to stand by any
decision. Those she leads respect
her for her ability to follow through
and be consistent.
7 They learn from their mistakes.
Bumps in the road do not knock
confident female leaders off
course. They do not expect per-
fection from themselves or others,
and know that with success and re-
sponsibility comes risk and some-
times failure. The ability to get up
and get on with it after a setback
keeps them moving forward and
inspires others.
8 Believe in balance and reward.
Working hard in the times of heavy
workload is balanced with a break
and reward for the team when the
job is done and the load lightens
a little. Confident women lead by
example and put in the big hours
when required but they are not
afraid to celebrate and regroup
and take a breather in preparation
for the next challenge ahead.
9 Don’t waste time on worry.
What if’s and should have been’s
don’t exist for the women who is
confident in her leadership. Worry
changes nothing and is a waste of
energy and focus that can be used
to move forward.
10 They are authentic. Under-
standing their own motivations
and being clear in their belief
systems, confident leadership in
women who inspire and motivate
is effective, credible and consis-
tent. Insincerity is obvious and un-
acceptable to those you lead, even
if they can’t quite identify what’s
not right. Authenticity is central to
female leaders with confidence.
If you are unsure of yourself, peo-
ple won’t listen and if you don’t
believe in the course you set, then
others won’t be motivated and
inspired to follow you. Perhaps
you’re almost ready to become a
confident female leader by unlock-
ing your unique leadership poten-
tial. We’d love to help you and if
you think you need help with any
of these steps, please contact us.
10 traits of the
confident female
leader By Sonia McDonald

You may know Seth Godin as the au-
thor of Tribes: We Need You To Lead
Us in which he says that:
“A tribe is a group of people connect-
ed to one another, connected to a
leader, and connected to an idea. For
millions of years, human beings have
been part of one tribe or another. A
group needs only two things to be a
tribe: a shared interest and a way to
communicate.”
As leader, you have a tribe of your
own which, although perhaps artifi-
cially constructed via the workplace,
is nevertheless relying on you to lead
it somewhere. It is up to you to build
the same commitment that a socially
or culturally formed tribe has.
Passion attracts crowds and builds
tribes. If you can see the future and it
inspires you, your passion will show.
You will begin to create ideas and
change the status quo. It is almost
impossible not to be caught up in
the excitement of your vision. That’s
how you turn an assortment of team
members into a cohesive tribe. That’s
how they begin to support and follow
you, and to contribute ideas of their
own. That’s how momentum is built.
Once you have your tribe you need to
nurture it. You are a special collection
of people who will gradually develop
your own culture and norms. Those
are ties that bind you together –sym-
bols of belonging, and something to
be proud of. The in-jokes are part of
your communication system which
gradually allows as much to be left
unsaid as it does said, yet everyone in
your tribe still understands perfectly.
So, as leader, what happens if you lose
your way? What happens if you make
a mistake? Will your tribe fall apart or
abandon you?
That’s a question that bothers most
leaders at some stage because mis-
takes are inevitable. We’re all human.
But according to Godin, it’s not the
mistake that can kill off a team; it’s the
way you handle it.
Are you the kind of leader who beats
yourself up over every little error? Are
you the kind of leader who broods
over what you should have done, but
didn’t? That negativity is what will
bring your tribe to a standstill and
eventually break it apart.
The way you choose to handle a situ-
ation is vital. Remember, you have a
tribe which means you are connect-
ed through a common vision and
purpose. Negativity can shatter that
vision and leave your team confused.
Great leaders learn from their mis-
takes, so a bad experience actually
becomes a positive. It’s all about the
learning you can pull out of every ex-
perience and event, which you can
use to power the team forward.
You can build a tribe that is so pow-
erful and focused that it will continue
to work towards the vision even if you
are no longer there. Think about Mar-
tin Luther King. He couldn’t change
things on his own but he could (and
did) build a tribe to help him change
the world. It didn’t stop after his
death; it continued on, still inspired
by his leadership. That’s a true tribe.
“The secret of leadership is simple: Do
what you believe in. Paint a picture of
the future. Go there. People will fol-
low.”(Seth Godin)
What kind of future do you see? What
is screaming at you so loudly that you
need to change it – to change your
world?
SethGodin,TribesandLeadershipMistakesBy Sonia McDonald
The secret of
leadership is
simple: Do what
you believe in.
Paint a picture
of the future. Go
there. People
will follow.
Seth Godin

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Women in Leadership Women in Leadership
Lisa Paul AO PSM
Department of Education and Training
The Hon Justice Margaret Beazley AO
Supreme Court of New South Wales
Maria Fernandez
Department of Immigration and Border Protection
Maree Walk
Department of Family and Community Services
Lucinda Nolan
Victoria Police
Imelda Dodds
NSW Trustee and Guardian
“ ”
“ ”
“
”
“ ”- Prime Minister Tony Abbott

BOOK Sonia for
your next speaking
event! SoniaMcDonald,CEOofLeadershipHQ,isathoughtleader,
writer, and dynamic speaker. Internationally recognised
as an expert in leadership and diversity, organisational
development and neuroscience, Sonia is highly sought after
to speak at high profile events. Sonia is an engaging speaker
who inspires as she educates. She has a natural ability to
connect with her audience and presents content in a format,
which motivates people to action.
Sonia’s key focus is on the strategies behind successful business and
leadership. Her presentations are both fun and informative. Taking
a neuroscience approach, Sonia shows how the power of the human
brain can become the driver for business and team success, pushing
your business to achieve and surpass organisational objectives.
Sonia has presented to some of Australia’s best-recognised companies,
inspiring them with ideas and translating those ideas into productive
strategies. For over 20 years Sonia has been inspiring leaders and
organisations around the globe. She has worked across diverse
industries such as retail, education, construction and engineering,
consulting, executive search and the public sector.
Some of Sonia’s Favourite topics
• Leadership – Magic of Mix of Leadership Diversity
• Power of the Female Brain – we have leader’s brains!
• Why Change is HARD – and how we can make it easier!
• Neuroscience of Talent – grow them
• Impact Leadership - Creating leaders who make you look good
• Leadership Presence – bring it on!
• Confidence – it is so HOT right now
Contact the LHQ Team if you
would love Sonia to speak at your next
conference or event on 1300 719 665 or
info@leadershiphq.com.au

A HUGE thank you to my incredible
daughter, amazing team who do the best
workandbelieveinLHQandmyawesome
clients, peers, cheerleaders and mentors
who support us unequivocally. The LHQ
journey has been built from passion,
tenacity and a lot of learnings. We are
thrilled to be sharing this magaizne with
you and some of our great ideas, insights
and happenings! We look forward to
making a difference to you all, in your
leadership, strategy and diversity. Thank
you for being part of the LHQ vision and
our purpose – The Leaders in Leadership!
If you would like to contribute or advertise
in this magazine, contact the Team at
LHQ at info@leadershiphq.com.au
Thank you!
Sonia

LeadershipHQ September Magazine 2015

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LeadershipHQ September Magazine 2015