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Category Archives: Business

The Vote is In!

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

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Tags

effective mentoring, executive leaders, leadership, mutual relationship, organisation benefits

Not quite at the Federal level yet. We have to wait until September. However, in facilitating a Mentor Workshop yesterday for a group of 20 executive leaders from a global company, when asked who has benefitted from having a mentor the vote was unanimous – all 20 responded in favour of having a mentor(s).

You cannot do it alone.

Gold nuggets from this session:image

  • Everyone including the organisation benefits.
  • The program needs senior management support.
  • There needs to be an internal ‘champion’ of the program.
  • Mentors and mentees needs training in roles, responsibilities.
  • Mentees needs to own and drive the process.
  • Mentees need to to be open to constructive feedback.
  • It is based on a mutual relationship.
  • Mentors,often quite senior people, needs awareness of their perceived ‘power’ and be open and approachable.
  • Having a signed development and action plan validates the arrangement and engender commitment.
  • Mentoring does not always have to be formal. Sometimes informal or ‘organic’ mentoring can be just as or more effective.
  • Mentoring is about passing on wisdom.
  • It is a key process for developing people.
  • Mentoring is a proven method for improving employee engagement and retention.

The Big 3:

1. It is a mutual relationship
2. There needs to be structure and discipline
3. There must be ‘will’ from both parties

How do you vote?image

Preview of Forthcoming Attractions – Safety Matters

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

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Since the introduction of the new Work Health and Safety Act 2011 in Queensland (effective 1 January 2012), I have literally facilitated dozens of workshops for leaders across industries about their obligations under the Act. I am pleased to advise that despite some doom and gloom forecasts about the changes this Act will bring (remember the Y2k bug), the transition for most companies have been relatively smooth, particularly for those companies that has had established health and safety systems and good work practices in place.
image
However, I have detected a common denominator at these workshops which is cause for some concern. What I am founding, is that many managers are not fully or well versed on how their company safety systems work.

“A preview of forthcoming attractions – later in today’s session I am going to ask you to describe to me your companies’ health and safety system”. This is one of my opening remarks to the participants of the workshop after the initial introductions are completed. True to my word, later in the day, I facilitate a structured group activity in which participants are instructed to graphically illustrate the components that make up their companies’ safety management system. It is during this activity where I consistently find a gap in what managers know. Suffice to say all the companies that I and the participants work for are large, highly reputable organisations with comprehensive safety management systems in place.

Under the new Act to demonstrate due diligence, officers will need to show that they have taken some reasonable steps such as to:

  • Understand the operations being carried out by the person conducting the business or undertaking in which they are employed, and the hazards and risks associated with the operations, and
  • Ensure that the person conducting the business or undertaking has, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise health and safety risks arising from work undertaken.

As we all know, one of the significant changes to the legislation is the introduction of higher penalty rates and the potential for being jailed. When I attended a legislation update session myself some time ago, we were told that we will see and increase in jail sentences being handed down under this Act.

A driver for this is the unacceptable rates of incidents occurring in Australian workplaces, and the fact that the vast majority of these incidents could have been prevented if proper systems were in place, understood by the people, and properly implemented.

My point. Safety matters. If you are a manager and you and or your managers, are not fully versed on your safety management system, now is the time to do so. To protect you, your team and your organisation. Someone once told me that a safety management system is like having a parachute. ‘Hopefully you never have to use it, but if you do, you will be very grateful’.

Grabbed your attention? If so, and you need more information please contact myself or Alan Anderson, of Triple A Safety and Security, (07) 4914.0952
http://www.tripleasecuritysafety.com.au

Our Consulting Approach

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

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Your business is unique. With this belief, our approach is to work closely with you to identify your needs, and to agree a tailored solution for your business.

Our Methodology

Our methodology is simple, clear and concise. Considering our clients’ needs for flexibility we deliver a three step roadmap that can be modified and adjusted as required.

1. Identifying your needs

During this phase we work closely with our clients to establish their needs and to clarify the scope of the project. The outcome of this phase is a project proposal detailing the scope, needs, time,and client investment.

2. Doing the project

This is the development and implementation phase where the work actually gets done.

3. Evaluating outcomes

IMG_1575

This final phase is about evaluating the success and impact of the services we delivered.

The Tunnel Complex

08 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

leadership

A lesson in culture

Arriving in Hanoi, Vietnam was an experience I’ll never forget. Driving from the airport to where we stayed we were greeted by a bustling city, scooters everywhere, smog, dilapidated and new houses, rice farms, people literally living on each street, narrow alleyways, propaganda billboards, and the smell of barbecued food. To say it is a sensory overload, is an understatement. Vietnam is rich with culture, history, art, cuisine, and an amazing people.

Visiting the war museum in Hanoi was one of the highlights for me. I knew little about the deep history Vietnam has and the many conflicts the nation has been involved in over the centuries, starting with the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, then the Americans. I am reasonably familiar with the American war as I grew up watching many Hollywood movies forming various opinions of the conflict, fearing the Vietcong  their horrifying booby traps, and their vicious prison camps. Apocalypse comes to mind instantly.

This is what I learned:

The U.S. entered the war to reach an objective. That objective was to stop communist expansion. The goal was not achieved, therefore, the U.S. lost the war. True, there were more casualties for the North, but that does not determine whether or not they lost, considering the superior technology and training of the U.S. forces.

The Vietnamese won the war. The Vietcong defeated the Americans with only a limited amount of guns and artillery.

So how did they prevail?

  • They used systems of underground tunnels and traps to capture American soldiers.
  • They had Ho Chi Minh as a leader.
  • His key strategy was to gain support of the peasants in the North.
  • They were proud and determined.
  • They had a history of defeating invading armies.
  • They knew every inch of their country intimately.
  • Everyone became a soldier.
  • The bravery, particularly of the women.

The people we met in modern Vietnam were delightful. Happy, vibrant, optimistic. They are extremely proud of who they are. Yet compared to us Westerners they are small in stature, lean and almost frail people. Yet they prevailed. Remarkable.

The corporate “tunnels”

Have you ever been involved in a discussion about organisational culture? What it is? How it influence people and their workplaces. It is not the easiest concept to quantify. Yet, it profoundly impacts on organisational performance.  Although most managers are aware of it, they find it hard to grasp let alone change it.

I was facilitating a leadership program recently and we were discussing corporate culture, when it dawned on me. This is it. It is The Tunnel Complex. Corporations consist of extensive and deep seated “tunnel systems”. The collective behaviours of people, norms, memories (that can stretch back decades), good and bad experiences, and legacies of previous leaders. These “tunnels” are complex webs interwoven, entrenched and ” buried” deeply below the organisation. The people “living” in these tunnels are usually long serving employees who know the system exceptionally well, they are typically on the lower end of the organisational chart, have seen successive managers come and go, they have experienced one management “fad” after the other imposed on them, they tend to be cynical of any new interventions or management initiatives, they are generally mistrustful of senior managers, they have seen mates being ill treated, perhaps themselves. They know they will prevail, eventually. History tells them so. It is these “tunnel” systems what makes culture so difficult to change. Therefore, an understanding of how they operate in organisations could lead to valuable insights and ultimately strategies on how to change them. This is the essence of what I refer to as The Tunnel Complex.

Do you know your organisations’ “tunnel” systems ?

 The solution

  • Respect the history of your organisation. Be very careful to not be dismissive of it.
  • Understand the ingrained behaviours and customs of your organisation – the “tunnels”.
  • Study these and develop strategies for change.
  • Genuinely see your employees as “friendlies”, not the enemy. i.e. costly overheads.
  • Have a clear well articulated and understood vision. That people believe in. A compelling story.
  • Develop a workforce that is proud and determined about the brand they represent.
  • Gain support by earning the trust and respect of everyone.
  • Engineer a new, powerful “tunnel” system that enables business performance.
  • Be a good leader.

 “It always comes down to the people”.

Future Stars

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

≈ 2 Comments

ImageI am about to commence the writing of a leadership development program for a global engineering firm employing around 40,000 people. As part of their succession planning process, they have identified, what they call “Successors”. A group of highly talented managers with a proven track record of performance. This group of people are between three to five years away from being senior leaders in the business. Future stars. The aim of the program is to equip and prepare them for future senior leadership positions. This is an exciting opportunity for the participants as it will help them to further develop and enhance their leadership skills. I am also excited about this opportunity as I can develop this program (from “scratch”) to specifically address the individual and business needs. It is not some “of-the-shelf” customised training program that I am sometimes asked to deliver.

In the lead up to securing this piece of work, I had a number of meetings (as you do), with the managing director and human resources manager at their head office in Sydney. One of the first questions I usually ask my clients in these situations is, “what specific skills do you want the participants to develop?”. Sitting in the meeting room, my mind rushed with possible answers the client will give me after I asked this question. The participants are intelligent, experienced and tertiary qualified practicing managers. It is a broad question that can elicit many possible answers.

The managing director paused for a moment, looked at me, then he looked towards his human resources manager. Then he looked me straight in the eyes and said without hesitation, they need people and communication skills. He then explained to me why this is the case. ” The parts of our business where we have the most issues and problems are do to the leaders in these areas not possessing adequate people and communication skills”.

So here I am, writing a program for the future stars of this business, predominantly focusing on the, as it is erroneously referred to, the “soft skills”. This managing director “gets” it. No wonder I am excited. We are going to achieve things. Does your senior leadership team possess the necessary people skills?

 “It always comes down to the people”

Hello world!

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Peter Ferreira in Business

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One of the advantages of being a management consultant working in the corporate sector, is that not a day goes by where new learnings are discovered. Real gems, practical skills, latest innovations, things you don’t necessarily learn from Uni or a text book. This blog is to share some of these learnings and to build a compelling story of effective leadership we can all benefit from.

Happy reading!

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