Leading Generous Teams

What happens when the very behaviours that made someone successful are the ones they need to let go of to become a great leader?

Over the past two years, we've had the privilege of partnering with more than 500 leaders at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, seeing first-hand the leadership culture Stephen Cornelissen AM and his team are intentionally building. In this episode of Leading Generous Teams, Stephen reflects on one of the big...

What happens when leaders stop trying to keep everyone happy and start making decisions anchored to purpose?

For many leaders, the pressure to be liked, avoid disappointment and find the "right" answer can make leadership feel heavier than it needs to be. But as Dr Dominique Meyrick shares in this episode, some of the most important leadership decisions come from being clear on your purpose rather than trying to please everyone.

This...

A lot of leadership effort is proactive and long-term, and it’s so easy to (and can feel good to) get sucked in by your teams to put out day-to-day operational fires.

However one leader we’ve worked with closely has taken a deliberate approach to creating the bandwidth that allows him and his team to focus on the future.

This is what we talked about with Matt Carmichael, Chief Information Officer, Univers...

If you’ve been in our world for a hot minute, you’ll have heard us talk about the mental run up.

The mental run up is made up of automatic thought patterns in response to an upcoming situation. Some we’re not aware of, and some are easy to brush off as “I’m an overthinker.” But they can be a drain, pulling you further away from the task at hand.

They’re often happening behind...

Getting to the end isn’t good enough. Whether it’s to the end of the year, the end of a restructure, or the end of a transformation project. It’s not about transactions and checklists. It’s about how you lead.

This is what we talked about with Rohan Charrett, an Executive with Greater Western Water on our Leading Generous Teams podcast this week.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What’s mor...

Being a passionate leader is an outdated goal. In fact, trying to run your team on passion alone is akin to running a team on adrenaline. It’s just not sustainable. And it can get in the way of strong leadership.

This is what we talked about with Sacred Heart Mission CEO, Hang Vo on our Top Five Movement Leading Generous Teams podcast this week.

Within a second of meeting Hang, you know she’s a passionate ...

We work with a lot of teams in crisis. And where leaders are blindsided by incident after incident, we see the opportunity for people to find a performance edge and not miss the leadership lessons this crisis will bring.
 
 This is what we talked about with Kelly Quirke, Royal Canin ANZ’s Vet Advocacy Director on our Leading Generous Teams podcast this week.
 
 We discussed how Kel has captured...

When discussing imposter syndrome, it’s really common to find articles to “overcome it” but the truth is, your imposter syndrome can give you an edge.

This is what we talked about with The Brain Cancer Centre CEO + Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer GM, Sammy McGuane on our Leading Generous Teams podcast this week.

We discussed how Sammy leverages his imposter syndrome to drive purpose.

In...

As a leader, you bring a load of experience to the role. When people are looking for answers to problems, you naturally come up with ten of them.

But sharing your solutions too soon can send your team backwards.

This is what we talked about with Tanya Hendry, Deputy CEO of Whitelion Youth this week of our Top Five Movement leadership podcast, Leading Generous Teams.

Tanya has over 20 years’ experience a...

Sometimes, it’s unavoidable. You’ve landed with a leader who isn’t generous. It’s bad but not bad enough to leave. So what do you do?

On the podcast with Ann-Marie Chamberlain, we spoke about how to make the most of a bad leader so you don’t miss a hidden opportunity.

Ann-Marie is a multiple award winning executive and community leader, board member and experienced coach.

In her &l...

We’ve all heard the saying it’s all about timing, which eludes to waiting for the right time in the calendar or season. But what if it’s not about waiting. It’s about getting into the right mindset before you nosedive into those tricky and charged conversations.

That’s what we spoke about with John Thwaites in this week’s Top Five Movement Leading Generous Teams podcast.

John is a ...

When you’re not feeling like you’re on your game, motivation’s waning, and you can’t talk yourself out of your funk, no matter how many positive affirmations you recite, it’s time to look towards your team.

In this episode with Patty Kinnersly, Chief Executive Officer of Our Watch + Vice President of the Carlton Football Club Board, we discuss a really powerful technique to use your team to cha...

A client recently shared that we’ve made their team unbreakable. 

Why?

As a team of award-winning mindset coaches, we deliver innovative leadership programs that disrupt unhelpful thinking + patterns, develop new perspectives, raise the bar on solutions, and help your leaders create high performing teams.

Led by Clare Desira, International Coach of the Year and Fellow of the Centre for Sustainability...

When leaders encourage their team to “switch off” they don’t always realise it can be demotivating and inaccessible.

For many, the idea of switching off is actually daunting. Like a void of space and time that could be used to be making a difference. 

Also, you’re not a lightbulb. You don’t have an on and off switch.

It’s not that black and white.

The best thing...

Role clarity. It seems so simple it’d be easy to miss.

Of course there’s a job description when the contract is signed, but how do you use that as a tool to support mental fitness and wellbeing in your team?

One of the most important ingredients for a successful team is when they know what their role is and how it fits into the purpose of the organisation.

This is what we spoke about with Barb Brow...

Leaders are often looked to as experts. But they’re not. The strongest leaders surround themselves with experts, which means, you don’t know the answer a lot of the time.

When leaders feel like they should know, they miss the opportunity to invite their team to step into their strengths, rally around you, draw out their skills and talents to solve the problem in ways you couldn’t imagine.

This is wh...

People think that a collaborative team is being a yes person, never disagreeing, and singing kumbaya in a circle. 

But actually, leading a collaborative team takes some hard decisions.

This is what we talked about with Kelly O’Shanassy, CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation on our Leading Generous Teams podcast this week.

We discussed how she fuels herself and her team/ to make the hard decis...

Inherited a team that is stuck in old ways of thinking + working?

The ol’ “Hire for attitude, train for skill,” doesn’t cut it anymore.

We’ve all heard the saying “Hire for attitude, train for skill,” and that’s nice, but how often do you get to build a team from scratch? 

More often than not, our teams are a patchwork of other people’s decisions and hi...