Category Archives: Leaders

career, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Insights Series, Webinar

Webinar Recording – Leadership Insights Series Interview With Michael Lewis

The Leadership Insights Series is a webinar based program that provides access the successful developing and senior leaders and their stories about their journeys.

In particular the Leadership Insights Series highlights the development activities beyond the classroom that successful leaders did to create their success.

The series also highlights the current views of leaders regarding employability and transferable skills – the sorts of skills they look for when recruiting people to join their teams.

This is a webinar recording of Gary Ryan interviewing Michael Lewis, Director of accounting firm Proctor Major.

Michael shares lessons from his journey particularly as they relate to his development throughout his formative years. Michael also share his thoughts on the qualities and attributes that he seeks in prospective employees.

If you know people who you believe would be great candidates for interviewing as part of the Leaderships Insights Series please contact Gary at otmacademy@orgsthatmatter.com .

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
0 to 10 Relationship Management, 0 to 10 RM, Building High Performance Business Relationships, Leaders, Leadership Insights Series, Strategic Relationships, Tony Lendrum

Building High Performance Business Relationships Interview With Tony Lendrum Webinar Recording

As part of the Leadership Insights Series for the OTM Academy Gary Ryan interviews Tony Lendrum Founder of 0 to 10 Relationship Management® and author of three books including the recently released “Building High Performance Business Relationships”.

In this interview you will learn about the StoryBoard approach to Relationship Management and the 6 Principles and 5 Themes that underpin successful relationships.

Look for the special offer that Tony provides at the end of the webinar – it is terrific value!

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
0 to 10 Relationship Management, 0 to 10RM, Building High Performance Business Relationships, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Relationship Management, Stakeholder Management, Tony Lendrum

Which Business Relationships If Improved Would Enhance Your Performance?

0 to 10 Relationship Management®

If you are involved in any form of business relationships, whether internal or external to your organisation, the quality and performance of relationships – good, bad or indifferent – are critically linked to business success.

Better business relationships will have a positive impact on an organisation on an organisation’s financial success, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, sustainable competitive advantage, best practice, innovation and attitude. So how do your relationships rate?

Free Webinar Interview

Join Gary Ryan in this interactive webinar as he interviews Tony Lendrum, creator of the 0 to 10 Relationship Management program and author of his new book Building High Performance Business Relationships .

Tony has over 30 years experience and has previously published The Strategic Partnering Handbook (four editions) and The Strategic Partnering Pocketbook.

You will learn about the 0 to 10 RM Storyboard approach to business relationships – a framework that includes three parts, five themes and six principles.

When: Wednesday 14th September
Time: 11am – 11:40am (AEST GMT+10)

REGISTER FOR THIS FREE WEBINAR HERE

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Communication, Conversation Starters, Conversations That Matter, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development

Awkward Workplace Conversations

Thank you to those of you who contacted me because you had seen my contribution to James Adonis’ article on awkward conversations in the workplace (which you can read here.).

It is my strong view that many, if not most awkward conversations in the workplace are made significantly easier if agreed behaviours have been created (and kept alive) throughout a team’s journey. It really does make discussing inappropriate behaviour so much easier because you have your agreed behaviours to which you can refer.

An important point to note is that often we have to experience our agreed behaviours before everyone really does establish a shared meaning for them. As an example some teams that I have worked with have included ‘having fun’ as one of their behaviours. Clearly this can be open to a lot of interpretation. What is fun for some, may not be for others!

This means that you have to experience your agreed behaviours and every once in a while, say once a month, discuss explicit examples of your agreed behaviours in action, including behaviours that you aren’t sure if they fit the intention of your behaviours. These ‘Conversations That Matter®’ don’t have to be long. They can be around 10 minutes which is a small amount of time given the benefits to a team of being on the same page from a behavioural perspective.

Please give the concept a go and share your examples and challenges with our community.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
AFL, Elite Sport, IC11, International Cup, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Peace, peace team

When sport is more than sport – The Peace Team IC11

The Australian Football League’s (AFL) International Cup 2011 involves 18 male teams and 5 female teams from around the globe competing to become crowned the best AFL country outside Australia.

In 2008 a new team called “The Peace Team” entered the competition. The team comprises 13 Isreali and 13 Palestine players in its squad of 26. They have returned to participate in the 2011 competition (IC11).

This is no ordinary ‘footy team’ and the challenge of putting the team together is no ordinary challenge. Yet the team is here and made it through to the Division 2 semi-finals.

When asked why the team was created, team leaders reported that peace for their homeland was what they wanted. The complexities of creating the team has involved facilitated dialogue sessions because of the long and historic differences between Israeli’s and Palestinians.

I was recently asked, “Gary, when does dialogue work?”

“When all parties choose to dialogue and they share a common purpose, or are willing to discover one.” was my response. The Peace Team is an example of the power of dialogue. Imagine the dialogue that occured to create this team.

While the difference they are making might be small, it IS a positive difference none the less and shows what can be done at any level to improve our world when people have the courage to do so.

You can learn more about The Peace team here.

What efforts are you making to create a more peaceful world; at home, at work and/or in your local community?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, structure drives behaviour, Systems Thinking

US Postal Service decline highlights why Systems Thinking is critical

‘Systems Thinking’ is a critical leadership skill according to research by the Australian Government that included the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA). Yet Systems Thinking is only taught in two of Australia’s universities – Monash University and the University of Queensland.

According to a US Government report, The US Postal Service is in peril. In simple business terms its expenses consistently outweigh its income and the gap is getting wider, not smaller.

When the researchers asked for the organisations 10 year plan none was forthcoming. Let’s put the size of this organisation into some perspective. It has 571,566 employees. Imagine the economic and social impact if the US Postal Service was to shut down.

I share this example because it highlights the importance of Systems Thinking. In simple terms Systems Thinking is about understand how everything is connected, that the world does not operate in straight lines and that all systems have limits.

Systems Thinking also teaches us that small changes in one part of a system can have an enormous affect on other parts of the system. We only have to consider our global financial markets to see how this occurs on a daily basis.

In terms of the US Postal Service rather than being proactive regarding significant systemic changes, such as email, they have been reactive. As an example they have consistently relied on ‘First-Class’ mail to subsidise their losses from traditional mail services. Yet their ‘First-Class’ services have been declining at an alarming rate over the past 6 years.

With no plan in place or capacity to ‘see what was coming’ the US Postal Service leaders have failed.
In terms of your development as a leader it is critical that you expose yourself to learning about Systems Thinking, even if you have to lead your own development on this topic. It is one of the reasons I included two chapters specifically on Systems Thinking topics in my book What Really Matters For Young Professionals!
As a start, you might like to review the articles that I have posted on this topic over time. You can access the articles here and here.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Conversations That Matter, Customer Service, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Why the development & recruitment of people lies at the heart of your service strategy

Existing staff need to be developed so that they have the capacity to implement your Service Strategy. This will result in them having the capacity to understand the expectations of their customers and being able to develop appropriate service standards from that understanding.

New staff need to be recruited through processes that identify their alignment with your Service Strategy. This means that the organisation’s recruitment processes must reflect a process that is seeking the best possible people that it can find so that its Service Strategy can be implemented.

The result is a virtuous cycle that re-enforces great service. When people love their work they attract other high quality to want to work with them too. The reverse is also true. The wrong people in the wrong jobs who end up hating what they do don’t provide great service. How could they!

How do your development and recuitment practices support the establishment of a virtuous cycle for great service in your organisation?

Why not use this article to stimulate Conversations That Matter® with your team.


©Copyright Gary Ryan 2011

Research Participant
Our recruitment policy used to be, “Do you know anyone who has a heartbeat and is available?”. Me, I’d been here 20 years and had never been on any training. I never realised how bad we were until I honestly thought about whether I’d like to be a customer of my own team. My answer was no!

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employee Engagement, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation

Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 10

In the eleventh and final short video in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the last of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

How do you rate for this factor? How does your employer rate for you?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Expert Tips, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Professional Development

Expert Tip – Motivation Factor 9

In the tenth of the short videos in the 11 part series on how to create motivated employees, I share the ninth of 10 key factors that when present will collectively enhance the motivation of your team members/employees.

How do you rate for this factor? How does your employer rate for you?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com