Leadership, not one size fits all.
There are many leadership books, podcasts and training that tell you about leadership. However, leadership is quite individual.
You move from people worker to a manager and then fall into the leadership role. It’s the role models that you have watched and your ideal around leadership that helps develop who you are.
There are many leadership books, podcasts and training that tell you about leadership. However, leadership is quite individual.
You move from people worker to a manager and then fall into the leadership role.
It’s the role models that you have watched and your ideal around leadership that helps develop who you are.
Working for bad leaders, teaches you likely the most. I don’t want to be like that person, so I am going to be this kind of leader. No leader is perfect, and early in leadership you learn what works, what is not good and what kind of leader you want to be. I made my fair share of mistakes as a young CFO and leader. Knowing what I wanted to achieve, but how you take the team on that journey was a different story.
I think there is a place for training, coaching and reading books and listening to podcasts but then you need to decide what kind of leader you want to be, and then be honest when you fall short or you hit it out in the park. Ask for feedback from your team – create a save space for them to provide feedback to you – and determine what you will work on 3-4 key pieces of feedback that you want to improve.
How you interact with your staff / leadership team will change overtime. Each individual needs different assistance, help and guidance and needs to be managed or led a different way. No one size fits all.
So when you are a leader you need to be clear on your style but then work out how you operate with different leaders/direct reports in your team.
No one sets out to be a bad leader, however there are a lot of them around. Being a good leader, takes concerted effort and focus and continual feedback and learning.
“The joy of leading people, celebrating success and building an effective team is one of the true joys I appreciated when I led people.”
Things have changed with COVID and while I am all for flexibility, leadership styles need to change to adapt to the new flexible world.
At Whiteark we have some great articles, tools on leadership that we will share with you……
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Am I getting old, does it matter?
I know I am getting older, every day, every year but am I getting old.
This Christmas break has me thinking, am I old?
It’s all relative. I expect as when I was 10, and someone was 44 I would have said yes, however 44
probably isn’t old.
I know I am getting older, every day, every year but am I getting old. This Christmas break has me thinking, am I old?
It’s all relative. I expect as when I was 10, and someone was 44 I would have said yes, however 44 probably isn’t old.
I looked up the definition of old; having lived for a long time; no longer young. And so, I looked up the definition of young; having lived or existed for only a short time. I decided that there must be something on a scale between young and old and I am sitting there, not sure what it is called, I am not young, and I am not old.
I do feel old sometimes when I go to hospital and the people looking after you look like 15/16, or you go to restaurant and the waiter tells you he is 19/20 and you think wow, I remember when I was 19/20…it feels like a long time ago. So relatively I am old compared to these people, but not sure that makes me old.
I always test out – you want to be 20, 30 again? And I reflect and think no, I’ve done that time in my life and I am where I am from those experiences so going back doesn’t sound like a plan.
However, I don’t think I want to keep getting older. Not that I can do anything about it.
If I have a working time machine, I would go back and make some changes to my experiences and life, but since that is unlikely to be possible I try not to dwell on the past and focus in on the future. How do Imake my future amazing.?
If you like big bang, you have to watch that episode.
I start to think that I am likely halfway through my life, if lucky. Therefore, need to make the most of it.
Having things to look forward to.
Doing things you love at work and during your personal time.
Make a difference to people’s live, every day.
So, as I get older, not old. Being extra careful with my energy, time, and investment to ensure it brings me joy, contributes to my life goals and ensures that I am living my best life.
It probably doesn’t matter if I’m old or young, but I don’t think I’m either. It’s just a label.
The new year brings some reflection and 2023 will bring much joy for me and my crew and an ability to make a difference, every day.
PS: I did some more searching and I am middle age…. it’s a large bucket from 40-60. So I really think there needs to be a split and rebranding.
How about you? Do you feel old or young? Given a chance, would you go back and change the past?
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People are important, so what?
It make sense that people are critical to a businesss. Without the people, You couldn’t operate.
Your people interact with your customers, without them you would not have customers or people to service and help them. I think we can agree people are important.
It make sense that people are critical to a businesss. Without the people, You couldn’t operate.
Your people interact with your customers, without them you would not have customers or people to service and help them. I think we can agree people are important.
Many, if not most organisations have an HR team, it’s their job to do all the people compliance, put policies and procedures in place to protect employees and the employer and ensure there are critical programs for roles, responsibilities, leadership and development, 360 feedback, secondments, and other programs to support employees.
However, it’s the leader’s role (supported by HR) to hire, retain, manage, develop their people. It means getting the right people in, supporting and developing them, creating an environment where people are developed, rewarded and recognised.
Now more than ever, managing your people is important. The war on talent has meant that getting good people to join your organisation/team is harder than it’s ever been, therefore looking after your existing employees and retaining your existing workforce is critical.
Every employee wants something different and therefore understanding where they are at, and what they need to be successful and work to be rewarding is critical. A lot of HR can be theory, policies and procedures. However, it needs to be practical hands-on approach to work with each team or employee to ensure that you set up all the teams and the organisation for success.
This will also come down to the culture, it’s about building a culture that people want to work in, that is bottom up built rather than top down.
If you want to work with someone that is brilliant at working with leaders, businesses and employees to redefine culture with a practical, action-oriented approach – look up Colin Ellis. Unbelievable outcomes!
2023 is another year of uncertain times, but one thing is for certain, attracting and retaining the best talent is critical to ensure you can deliver on your goals and key metrics.
At Whiteark we work with companies on their people strategy, with hands on experience we offer a range of services and templates that can be used to help you implement some good people strategies.
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Where do you get your inspiration?
It’s early January 2023, and while getting over COVID I am thinking
about the year ahead and scroll through Linkedin looking for inspiration…
but found a lot of stuff that didn’t inspire me. It got me to thinking about what inspires me.
It’s early January 2023, and while getting over COVID, I am thinking about the year ahead and scroll through Linkedin looking for inspiration…
but found a lot of stuff that didn’t inspire me. It got me to thinking about
what inspires me.
My inspiration comes from ….
1. Making a difference
I love being able to make a difference, I love working with businesses to improve how they work and operate. There are always changes you can make to improve how a business performs. Sometimes when you are in the business, you are too close or too much to do but when you come in with a fresh perspective you can see how small / medium changes can make the biggest impact.
Therefore, I really do enjoy being a consultant. Working across a lot of businesses and helping optimise.
2. People in my inner circle
They say that you are most influenced by the 5 people you associate with the most in your life. Over your life, those people will change for different periods, by design or by fate, it tends to change. COVID has made us all consider who are top 4-5 people are, the cheer leaders, the ones that are always there when you need them and if you can only go out a bit, the ones you would want to spend time with.
I am a social person, and the interaction of friends is very important but it’s how much you invest in the relationship that becomes really important.
As you get older, or maybe it’s just me you are more picky about those people and they become your people.
3. Quotes
I have always loved quotes. Quotes are a good way to reflect on life, work etc. I love a good quote and normally gets me smiling and inspired.
There are probably other things that inspire me, however these are the three that come to mind.
My personal frame of reference, my mental state is very important to ensure that I am my own cheer leader and I remind myself my experience and skills to really drive and help businesses be more successful.
Inspiration provides me a reason to get up in the morning, to help other businesses, to invest in myself and to keep smiling.
How about you? What inspires you today?
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Meetings, it's time to crack the nut!
Ok I never cracked this one in Corporate life, too many meetings, back to backs and never get time to return phone calls or do your emails in work hours so nights, early mornings and week-ends became the norm.
Ok, I never cracked this one in Corporate life, too many meetings, back to backs and never get time to return phone calls or do your emails in work hours so nights, early mornings and week-ends became the norm.
For people that know me I tend to work long hours, I want to do a good job and that normally meant working longer hours during the week and on the week-end.
However, one of the things that impacted my hours was meeting. There were so many meetings that I really didn’t get work done during the day, much. Sounds stupid, however it’s more common than you think. You spend so many hours of each day in meetings, the ability to deal with fires, and get some real work done became too hard.
I also became the person that created the meetings, and the more meetings I added because I want to get the work done or speak with someone in a meeting was required. This got worse during COVID, video calls for something that was a 5 min chat, no one speaks on the mobile anymore it’s video calls all round and something that should be 10 mins is now min 30 minutes, and people feel like they need to fill the time. It’s stupid.
I also became the person that created the meetings, and the more meetings I added because I want to get the work done or speak with someone in a meeting was required. This got worse during COVID, video calls for something that was a 5 min chat, no one speaks on the mobile anymore it’s video calls all round and something that should be 10 mins is now min 30 minutes, and people feel like they need to fill the time. It’s stupid.
Some companies are better than others, but it’s a problem that needs to be solved. It will make a material difference to a number of really important factors and therefore it’s the nut to crack, for 2023.
I had some thoughts on how to improve this – and I tried to implement a range of tactics, but I failed, I am pretty sure I failed because I never did crack the meeting nut. If a company can crack this nut, and give each person back 50% of their time for work, then the productivity impact would be enormous.
So I’ve decided that this is my nut to crack this year, 2023.
I am going to interview people or get them to produce videos to share there ideas or thoughts around reducing meetings in organisations. I am going to find a number of organisations that want to make the change, and we start by rolling out a plan of attack and measure the success.
Before we start this adventure it’s important to be clear on the problem we are trying to solve.
Problem to solve: There are too many meetings in the diary, it makes it difficult for employees to get their work done.
How widespread is the issue: At the beginning I thought the issue was more leadership, in meetings with other leaders and their team and because majority if their job leading people that was ok, but now it’s across the board and therefore people who have a day job, outside of meetings are in meetings all day. It’s really widespread.
Our focus: we will focus in on Corporates, not consulting firms etc but Corporates.
What is the problem:
• Employees haven’t got time to their work.
• Work output/productivity is impacted.
• Many meetings not well planned (agenda) or documented and therefore become a talk fest.
• Meetings become people’s whole day.
• With the war on talent, utilising your people to deliver a result, is critical to ensure their role is fulfilling.
• It’s a waste of time, energy.
• Ever heard of zoom fatigue.
Hypothesis – to be validated:
• This is a problem that go across many organisations, however maybe worse in larger organisations.
• It’s driven from the CEO, Executive Leadership team – if they meet a lot, they can also then create a lot of meetings and it flows down.
• It’s not clear what is a meeting versus an email or phone call.
• Leaders and managers are impacted more than employees.
• Having an EA doesn’t necessarily help, as they see a gap and put in a meeting. Calendly and other similar apps are a good idea but may mean you lose control of your diary and don’t get a say on who is in your calendar.
What I have seen implemented in organisations:
• Meeting free day – once a month.
✔️ If it’s done companywide it works better than a division, especially if the division is corporate area (e.g. finance).
✔️ I have seen companies do customer day on that day, and people are encouraged to get on the phones, or go on a ride along with sales reps to meet customers.
✔️ While it was a good idea, it’s hard to enforce company wide and it doesn’t fix the other days of the month.
• Shorten meetings to 25 mins and 50 minutes rather than 30 minutes or 1 hour to give people a break between meetings. I think it’s a good idea and you can use teams to have this as default, but it doesn’t get rid of the meetings.
• I have seen organisations work on limiting the number of people attending meetings, so only the people who need to attend the meeting attend and if more than X number need to cull.
• Meetings need to be in the mornings or afternoons, but again without a companywide change it’s hard to manage. But the idea is good as it allows people meeting time and then work time, and gives people a big chunk of time to get work done.
I did see on Linkedin over the break, that a number of companies have said no more meetings, over 2 people. There was a lot of positive response to these companies, however not sure that this is sustainable.
Measuring success:
• Improved employee satisfaction
• Improved employee productivity
• Reduced turnover
• Reduced overtime from employees
We will assess along the journey, the ways to measure success.
It’s the start the journey, we want to understand the problem, and validate the hypothesis, work with a range of people to determine some strategies to resolve the issue, trial these out in a number of organisations and assess what works and what doesn’t.
During this journey we will keep you informed of our progress, as every company and leader could drive a significant improvement in the way they operate and the outcome on their people/teams.
If you are interested in following along or being involved in the social experiment, please reach out….
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Do you have to enjoy work?
It’s been an area of conversation at the moment. Many of my friends don’t like their jobs, however they are not leaving
They don’t want to change, risk in changing jobs and what would they do – unsure what would make them happy.
It’s been an area of conversation at the moment. Many of my friends don’t like their jobs, however they are not leaving…
They don’t want to change, risk in changing jobs and what would they do – unsure what would make them happy.
I know that I am a bit strange, I really enjoy work. Yes there are days I don’t enjoy or periods of my career I haven’t enjoyed however overall I love working. It gives me energy, joy and I love to learn. I love interacting with people and helping businesses. I really enjoy the variety of consulting - different businesses, industries and different work. Ability to manage my own hours and workload etc and get to work with a great team.
However, I am surprised the number of people that;
• Don’t enjoy work
• Won’t move because hate change or
• Don’t know what to do
• Happy with pay and don’t want to get pay cut
I always say that there are aspects of everyone job they don’t enjoy – let’s say 20% max. But you need to live with this – and that’s normal but you need to enjoy the rest.
If you are not happy going to work every day, how long do you stay stuck in this role? Life is short. With perspective being miserable at work is not good for the quality of your life and you need to think about what you enjoy and what you want to get from your work and then make a plan.
You spend a lot of time at work, so if you don’t enjoy it that is a big chunk of your life that you don’t like. It flows through other elements of your work.
• Be honest on what is going to make you happy
• Do you need to make a change?
• Is the organisation you work for have other roles you can do?
• What makes you happy?
• What are your 3 non negotiables for a new role?
Be bold, brave and be clear with yourself on what you want and then go and get it.
Appreciate you need financials to pay your bills, but working in a job that makes you miserable is not a good use of your time and energy and finding that right role, will make you so much happier, you will wish you had done this earlier.
I always encourage my employees to look for a new job, if they are not happy. Seriously, then people find a new job and they are back to being themselves and happy.
If you are miserable, why?
• Do you need to change your job?
• Why not now?
• What are your 3 non negotiables.
Examples of non negotiables
• $xxxk annual salary
• Learning opportunity
• Certain industry
• Certain level
• Great boss / leader
• Small size company
• Large size company
Do you have any other non- negotiables?
Be honest with yourself about what you want from life and then pursue it wholeheartedly.
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Biotechnology in Australia 2022
Biotechnology involves applying science and technology to living organisms, and parts, products and models, to alter living or non-living materials to produce knowledge and biotechnology products and services. The industry includes biotechnology research and development, licensing, product manufacturing and product wholesaling. Companies that focus on medical devices are not included in the industry.
Industry Report
Biotechnology in Australia
Biotechnology involves applying science and technology to living organisms, and parts, products and models, to alter living or non-living materials to produce knowledge and biotechnology products and services. The industry includes biotechnology research and development, licensing, product manufacturing and product wholesaling. Companies that focus on medical devices are not included in the industry.
Industry revenue has grown at an annualised 2.4% over the five years through 2021-22, to $8.9 billion
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Biotechnology is becoming an increasingly important part of product development in a variety of sectors, with businesses using biotech applications to address many social and economic issues such as human health, food security and alternative fuels. Several companies have reached commercial readiness, with robust product pipelines and the support of international partners improving their attractiveness to investors. While human therapeutics companies continue to dominate the industry, agricultural technology and food technology companies are gaining momentum.
New funding sources have driven industry growth over the past five years. However, ongoing uncertainty due to changing government policies has dampened the industry's performance, particularly regarding changes to Australia's R&D tax incentive (RDTI) regime. The COVID-19 pandemic has also influenced the industry's operating environment with several industry operators at the frontline regarding COVID-19 research, prevention and treatment.
OUTLOOK 2022-2027
The Biotechnology industry is forecast to continue growing over the next five years, driven by increased demand for, and greater acceptance of, biotech products. It is anticipated to derive revenue from a wider range of sources and it is expected to increase at an annualised 3.0% over the five years through 2026-27, to $10.3 billion.
Employment is projected to slowly increase, although a potential shortage of STEM graduates may continue to limit this growth.
Enterprise numbers are anticipated to grow modestly, however, pharmaceutical companies are anticipated to continue acquiring biotech start-ups to gain access to product pipelines and innovative technology platforms and there for consolidation trends will continue.
Source: IBISWorld | Biotechnology in Australia, Feb 2022
What has covid taught me about working effectively
Time management has become more complex today and we must adapt to the changing environment.
Hybrid working – we need some help right?
• Video calls for 89 hours a day!
• Spend min 30 mins on each video call, that could have been a quick 5-10 min conversation.
Time management has become more complex today and we must adapt to the changing environment.
Hybrid working – we need some help right?
• Video calls for 89 hours a day!
• Spend min 30 mins on each video call, that could have been a quick 5-10 min conversation.
No longer phone calls that are 5 mins.
• You try and do video calls and do your emails or work, so don’t do a good job at anything.
• Group calls, easy to be distracted with emails and other work, projects to deliver change. But then you get to delivery, things fail.
It’s true that:
• Having back-to-back meetings, is not productive.
• You disengage in video calls when they are on all day back-to-back.
• You miss the social of work (if you are extravert).
• It’s hard to get work done.
So what does this all mean:
• Being very clear on your 34 priorities for the week and then broken down by days
• Having times blocked out to do work, real work is important. Whatever works for you – morning 34 hours or afternoon 34 hours.
• Email reading only twice per day, people will call if urgent.
• Turn off notifications so you can focus on the priorities.
You need to get back to basics:
• Being clear on your priorities (34 per week)
• Time block time to get work done
• Don’t do any more than 3 video calls per day
• Call someone for 5 min thing, not video call or too many emails
Being productive at work, means that you can maximise time for other things and feel engaged at work, because you can achieve goals. Understanding and aligning on your priorities is critical to ensure that you know what success looks like.
I’m not perfect, but always trying to find better way to improve my effectiveness at work, some days I win and others not so much!
If you want to read more articles by Jo Hands, please see Whiteark Thought Leadership
Reflect on what you can do, even just 1 thing to make you more effective.
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Reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
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Having a good people strategy is key
Having a good people strategy is key, how hard can it be?
In all companies, people are the assets of the business. Without employees the company doesn’t run – things actually stop. You can definitely give me examples where I am wrong, however as a general rule it’s true. So we agree people are important – right.
It’s easy right …
Having a good people strategy is key,
how hard can it be?
In all companies, people are the assets of the business. Without employees the company doesn’t run – things actually stop. You can definitely give me examples where I am wrong, however as a general rule it’s true. So we agree people are important – right.
It’s easy right …
• You want good people that are proactive
• That like working for your company
• That stay around
• You want clarity on roles & responsibilities so people know how to be successful
• You want to encourage people to stay with perks they care about
So why do so many companies get it wrong?
When having an amazing way of managing people is critical, it needs to be one of the most important things businesses focuses on. If you do a recipe to represent this:
Funnel – good people hired
• Good employee experience so people stay
• Training and development
• Understanding of roles & responsibilities (how to be successful)
• Org design changes explained, and people engaged
• Continue to give good employee experience
• Equals strong engaged workforce with low turnover
3 Key Considerations When Building Your People Strategy
1. Everyone is different
You can’t build a one sizes fits all strategy; you must allow discretion at the individual level. Everyone is different, what they want from work and how they live to be rewarded and recognised is different. Ask them. Make your policies and people strategies unique and let people pick what they want.
Some employees want more flexibility and time off and others want to earn as much money as they possibly can. What employees want will change over time as well so understanding this and providing flexibility in your policies and program is important.
2. Ensure your people are set up for success
It’s imperative to ensure that your people are set up for success this includes but not limited to:
• Good induction
• Good training program
• Clear role description
• Clear role goals
• Clear understanding of process
• Clear view on how to create a difference (continuous improvement)
• Changes in org design are supported by changes in process and roles clarity
By and large, people want to be successful in their job. Sometime companies don’t set employees up for success and therefore people get despondent.
3. Spend money on your current employees
It costs a lot when people leave, you need to recruit, you need to train and then give them time to get up to speed and if they work out you are back to where you were in 3 months+. So invest in your current staff, get them to stay, reduce your employee turnover but investing in your current staff.
I’m a person, you are a person, everything about makes sense, right? So why do we make it so hard?
It’s not that hard, it’s a differentiator and it will make a difference to your business result. It’s a no brainer.
At Whiteark we have great HR capability & partner with world class leaders in this field, to assist you with engaging with your staff, building the right culture and making your organisation a great place to work.
Reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
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Executing Change – getting it right
Change is inevitable. If you stay still, change will occur around you.
You know deep down you have to change, you plan the change however execution fails. More than 80% of projects fail to make the proposed change.
Change is inevitable. If you stay still, change will occur around you.
You know deep down you have to change, you plan the change however execution fails. More than 80% of projects fail to make the proposed change.
You know the process – you work on the business case document (more than 40 pages) to explain why change is required. You get the funding (most companies spend up to 30% of their cash inflow on capital projects to deliver change. But then you get to delivery, things fail.
The change doesn’t happen, it’s not well understood, there is resistance. The business case benefits are not delivered. After failed projects, people get despondent with the whole process and don’t ever both.
Why can’t organisation deliver change well? Well depends on where you work but I am going to focus on the 3 things you require to ensure you deliver.
3 things to ensure change will occur:
1. Executive Sponsorship – you need an Executive Sponsor that can support your business case and ensure where there are roadblocks they help clear. If you can get a couple of supports on the Executive team, this will help your case.
2. Budget & Resources – you need enough money to deliver the change and dedicated resources to help (that are not also trying to do BAU). When budgets squeezed and every project gets hit 20% cut, no that’s not ok you need to ensure you have sufficient money to deliver.
3. Build momentum & excitement – you need to build momentum and excitement across the team, division and organisation around the change – what does it mean for them? Why the change will help them and get support.
Other considerations that need to be considered to improve project management
Companies need to consider their business case process. People spending months building business case, is not a good use of time or energy. A business case document over 40 pages+ will not be read again or by many people and doesn’t help assess the delivery of the project. Could you do the business case in 4-5 pages.
Do less projects but deliver them well. Do less projects and then focus on delivering them well.
Don’t be scared to show RED, project off track. Everyone wants there project to be green, but can’t get things back on track or help if it’s status is not correctly represented.
Centralised PMO structure needs to be provided to the business to have consistency across projects, but should not be running the projects. Business SME should lead and run the project. Working out the project model is critical, otherwise it’s all about governance and nothing gets done.
For the money that companies spend on projects, getting them right and delivering the change that is required is critical for strategic success of the organisation. Companies need to rethink their process for projects and be honest on what works in the current project.
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Why companies fail at executing change?
Why companies fail at executing change?
And what you can do about it….
Yes, it’s harsh but the data doesn’t lie. More than 80% of projects don’t deliver. That’s a terrible statistic.
Think about how many money businesses spend on projects & the projects don’t deliver….hmmm if only something could be done.
Why companies fail at executing change?
And what you can do about it….
Yes, it’s harsh but the data doesn’t lie. More than 80% of projects don’t deliver. That’s a terrible statistic.
Think about how many money businesses spend on projects & the projects don’t deliver….hmmm if only something could be done.
There are 5 main reasons companies fail at making change, through major projects:
1. No executive sponsorship
2. Insufficient budget
3. Change resistant culture
4. Only using internal resources, who have a day job
5. The business case doesn’t explain the why in a way that people buy in to the change
So, for a bit more detail on the 5 reasons that companies fail to make change, through major projects:
No executive sponsorship
If you don’t have Executive Sponsorship, you are doomed. When money gets cut, and projects get reprioritised your project will be removed or cut first up. If change is required from the change, you will need Executive approval to drive the change through, if you don’t have it you are doomed.
So what….
You should have an Executive Sponsor, but also 2-3 other influential Executive Sponsors that can help you navigate the politics of getting things done and ensure they have your back when shit hits the fan.
Insufficient Budget
You know the budget processes where everyone bids and they give everyone their projects but just cut the top off the 20% of all projects, so no projects are funded correctly. Without the right level of funding you need to cut corners and what you started as the plan is now in the toilet and you are making things up to hit all the metrics to ensure that the project is not cut further.
So what…..
Fight for your budget. Have a detailed budget prepared and if they cut it show them what they are not going to get and the financial implications so you have an ROI story. If they still don’t give it to you, adjust your business case for the new funding to ensure that you adjust people’s expectations on what will be delivered.
Change Resistant Culture
Have you ever worked in a company, where the company just couldn’t do change, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to, but they didn’t. They were paralysed. They had tried so many times and failed that they were all cynical about making change that when a new person came in they convinced them that they wouldn’t be able to change either, and not to bother. And so the cycle of a change resistant culture is bred. It’s really sad. It’s possible to make change, but you will need to make people uncomfortable and if you have change resistant HR you will likely get yourself into all sorts of trouble.
So what…..
But for people like me I see this as a challenge and opportunity to show people change can be done. However, for the normal person, this is incredibly sad and depressing and really does making change and successfully implemented projects hard, if not impossible. You’ll find the PMO in these organisations is full of people that are stopping people from actually delivering on anything as well. My only solution is they need Collin Ellis – he can actually help organisations with the culture change.
Internal Resources – who have a day job
Internal resources are great! Actually, a combination of internal and external resources is a great mix for any successful project but need to take internal people off their day job to implement the project and backfill them. Find strong leaders, change leaders and SME’s and put them on the project, and backfill them and give them a budget to hire some other people to support. But empower them. I kinda of answered the so what about on this one.
The Business Case doesn’t explain the Why
Do you know why you are making the change? Have you articulated to the people that need to buy in? Does it make sense? Have you communicated it, and then communicated it and then again? You need to be clear on the why and everyone else needs too, so when people get fed up, they remember why they are doing this project.
At Whiteark we love to work with businesses to help them deliver exceptional projects, that deliver results and financial outcomes. We get our hands dirty to implement with your teams. We will force the hard conversations, will challenge the team to think bigger, will make people a tad uncomfortable – but will make the project be successful.
Our approach and team are tailored to what you need, so reach out and have a conversation if you have a project you want to be successful or you need help on a project that needs to be restored or project portfolio reprioritised and reviewed
Reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
My love-hate relationship with marketing
I’m an accountant, so I am not supposed to love marketing, am I?
When I started in industry, marketing budget were cut, how can you justify the ROI on that spend. So much time was spent understanding the return on money spent, some easier than others to explain.
However, when cash needed to be saved it was the easiest spot. It didn’t impact the bottom line, that you can really measure easy compared with other costs.
I’m an accountant, so I am not supposed to love marketing, am I?
When I started in industry, marketing budget were cut, how can you justify the ROI on that spend. So much time was spent understanding the return on money spent, some easier than others to explain.
However, when cash needed to be saved it was the easiest spot. It didn’t impact the bottom line, that you can really measure easy compared with other costs.
Then I started my own business, and everything change. Marketing costs started getting put into different buckets;
• Brand – brand awareness. Wanting people to know the Whiteark brand, without awareness people will not think Whiteark when they have a problem. So, with a new business this required a bit of planning, spending and time to get right.
• Events – client events, potential client events & dinner to entertain people was important to build deeper relationships with the right network.
• Content – With the brand in play, having relevant content across social media so potential clients would spot us, understand our value proposition and when a problem came up they would think call Whiteark. Regular content and varied content that was unique was important.
• Podcast – like everyone in the 2020 year with COVID we started a Podcast, it was based on interviewing a leader to understand what made them tick and their leadership journey. It was a great podcast, we did 52 in 52 weeks and then we stopped but we loved the interviews and we got some regular listeners.
• Listings – consulting listings, female network listings and other listings to ensure that we would come up if people were looking
• Website – constant updates to website to ensure new and interesting information
• Brochures – regular brochures that are hard copy and soft copy about our service
• Email campaigns – through Linkedin and/or through Mailchimp through regular newsletters.
• And other things that I now consider marketing…..
It’s hard to measure the success of the marketing stuff listed about but then you speak with a potential client, bump into someone that wants to partner on something or someone reaches out on Linkedin off the back of your postings or seeing some new content.
But whatever the case brand and marketing is important. It’s sometimes hard to measure, but there is ROI. You just need to find the right balance between spend and ROI.
Companies these days, larger companies can measure ROI on marketing campaigns more successfully than they have been able to in the past, which helps them invest in retention, but the cost of acquisition is always a challenge, for most businesses.
When you own a consulting business, the marketing play is a long play, not a short play and therefore you need to be comfortable with what you invest and the return you will make in the short term, and the long term.
So, I am a frustrated marketer and like to see the difference that certain campaigns have on statistics at month end and understand how to make them improve month-on-month. Measuring the key engagement stats every month also helps to understand what people that are engaging with the business enjoy.
If you are looking for a marketing expert, you’ve come to the wrong place LOL, however if you are looking for a frustrated marketer that has learnt to love marketing and all things associated with it, as I founder my business, you’ve come to the right place.
We have some cool content and always something new prepared to read, new templates, new industry reports or we always have something to say, so tune in and you’ll see our content strategy in real time.
I hope you like this article, I had fun writing it. 🌞
You might want to explore other thought leadership articles
Why I love working with Private Equity?
Over the last 10 years I have worked with Private Equity, in a CFO role, interim CFO role & through Private Equity firms as a consultant.
I love working with private equity, I’ll give you 5 reasons why.
Over the last 10 years I have worked with Private Equity, in a CFO role, interim CFO role & through Private Equity firms as a consultant.
I love working with private equity, I’ll give you 5 reasons why.
1. Fast paced – private equities have made an investment, and they want a return. Speed is the name of the game. Spending money to accelerate a project / return is justified as getting to exit with the required valuation as early as possible is the name of the game. I like this.
Spend money to save time, is a great strategy when you work with Private Equity. With private equity you need to put your runners on, red ones so you can run. Long hours, quick turnarounds & a team environment to drive an outcome in a short period of time.
2. Results oriented – private equity care about results. Whether it’s revenue, EBITDA or cash or all three they want results and they will incentive management to deliver. The incentives offered by private equity firms to deliver a financial outcome are part of the DNA. If you are an ambitious business leader, you can make some money driving very hard for private equity.
I love being results / outcome driven, it’s the way businesses should be. It’s not about the presentation packs, it's about what financial outcomes you delivered.
3. You know where you stand – honest, direct feedback from private equity means you know where you stand. If you are not performing, you won’t work there anymore. So don’t worry about what they think and continue to deliver the results at the speed.
4. Know your numbers – the PE firm expects the CFO to know the numbers, all the key numbers and be able to speak to the why behind the results. This means you need a strong team behind you that will deliver and ensure you can run along at the strategic level and ensure you also know the detail.
5. Cash is king – It wasn’t until I worked in Private Equity that I understood cash. When you report cash daily and do a 13-week cashflow forecast you start to realise that understanding all the timings and levers of cashflow is critical and while the Income statement is critical, knowing cashflow and how to pull the levers becomes critical.
What you learn is that cashflow doesn’t lie. Understanding earnings to cashflow means you can really understand where you are leaking cash.
Not every Private Equity firm is the same, so this article is a generalisation however it gives you a flavour and feel on the 5 key reasons I love Private Equity
At Whiteark we provide a number of services to Private Equity portfolio companies:
👉 Transition work
👉 Integration work
👉 Transaction work
👉 CFO transformation and operating model
👉 Transformation work
Led by Jo Hands who has experienced, capable, hands-on professionals who have done this before and want to help your team and business too.
We have a number of publications that you might find interesting:
Our work at Whiteark is focused on value creation levers, we have case studies for each of these levers that you can see on our website: https://www.whiteark.com.au/
We also have a number of articles that are relevant around private equity.
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The people that shaped me & what they taught me
The people that shaped me & what they taught me
When you look back, there are people that have made a big difference in your life. Maybe you see it more when you look back, rather than when you are in the thick of it. People come in and out of our lives and sometimes we don’t go back to say thank you to the people that have shaped us.
The people that shaped me & what they taught me
When you look back, there are people that have made a big difference in your life. Maybe you see it more when you look back, rather than when you are in the thick of it. People come in and out of our lives and sometimes we don’t go back to say thank you to the people that have shaped us.
On a day of reflection, I wanted to think through the people that shaped me and what main key learnings were. Rather than name people, I thought I would paint a picture of the kind of people in my life that shaped me & what I learnt along this journey of life.
I am 43 and have a lot of living to do but don’t want to forget the people that shaped me and what I have learnt. As you read this, think about the people that shaped you and what you have learnt.
Take the time to reflect…..
Highschool Teachers
You are in year 10 and you need to pick your subjects for Year 11 and 12 and what uni degree you want to do. Who the hell knows? My Accounting teacher was passionate, entertaining and very encouraging and I really enjoyed accounting and picked up the basics quickly.
It was something I had never considered as a career, but my Accounting high school teacher shaped me. She gave me extra attention and help and gave me the confidence for being able to do really well in the subject. On our year 11 and 12 exam she met us with special pencils for the exam - it was a really nice touch.
First Corporate gig
I did an internship out of high school at a CA firm to do audit. A big transition of travelling to city, clients and earning 14k per year to do audit for small business and councils. I learnt so much. I enjoyed the experience, and it really encouraged me to go to university to do the degree so I could come back to one of the big 4 firms. It gave me a goal to focus on.
This gig gave me an open door when I went for graduate jobs which meant I got to pick Arthur Andersen (the year they were taken over by EY). My graduate experience at EY was exceptional & has set up my career. Paths lead to other paths.
Partner sponsor
An experienced partner at EY took me under his wing. He coached, encouraged, challenged me and gave me opportunities to work on stuff outside of audit that I loved. It gave me opportunity to travel, present, lead high profile projects globally and work on some great accounts / projects. He always challenged me and supported me. It’s been 12 years since I left EY and we still keep in contact.
He is a great bouncing board. His best piece of advice is life is a marathon not a sprint, so slow down….I have listened and maybe now as a bit older see the importance of this advice. Having someone to help you navigate a large Corporate as a sponsor is important, so you don’t get lost.
Great leaders & leadership development
EY leadership is a big area of focus; which means you get annual 360 feedback, leadership development training and an opportunity for feedback on how you lead your teams. You get to work with a range of manager / leaders on different assignments and learn how you work best, who you like to work with and their style. You learn from the good managers and bad ones as well and you shape the kind of leader you want to be.
In a Big 4 environment the people that survive are A class. It’s a competitive environment so to make it you need to be pretty amazing, so you get to learn from a lot of leaders at different levels.
Training opportunities meant that you got to consider what kind of leader you want to be and really map out an action plan each year on how you are going to improve.
Female role models
As a female, this is important, having female role models. Partners at EY, CFO, or senior Finance people in client sites. These role models help you work out what is possible & these evolve over your journey.
As I moved into Corporate, I focused on finding female role models that I could bounce off to continue to build my confidence. I also wanted to be a role model for other women who are on their career journey.
Team members
I have built some super amazing teams through-out my career, what we have delivered, the fun we had and the relationships we have built will always stay with me as I continue on my journey. Keeping in contact with people that you built relationship with, beyond work.
I have met some amazing people and I genuinely care about people and helping and supporting them in their career or their life. I am not good as keeping in contact but when people reach out I’m always very happy to help.
Mentors
Having a couple of mentors (informal) that you can call when you are stuck, need advice or just need a kick up the arse. Life’s journey isn’t always what we expect, but it’s imperative that we take the time to build mentor relationships that work across the journey.
Terrible leaders
After working for a terrible leader (that’s a very long story), you learn what a bad manager/leader is. How to ensure you never work for someone like them again and how you never want to be like them. You learn not what to do. It also has helped me realise that working for someone I respect and I can learn from is so important.
Over time, you build your own confidence and path. It isn’t always what you expect or where you thought you were going to go, but along the journey there are many people that shape who we are. We need to consider / acknowledge these people and their contribution & consider how you give back to others.
Writing this has encouraged me to reflect on how lucky I am to have so many people that shaped me, have contributed to my success and happiness. I want to ensure I say thank-you to them and consider how I can continue to give back.
You might want to explore other thought leadership articles
The A Team
The A team, how it operated & why it worked?
You know, the team that works well together, delivers outcomes and is a high functioning team – known by Jo as the “A team”. If you have ever been led or been part of the A team, you know what I am talking about.
The A team, how it operated & why it worked?
You know, the team that works well together, delivers outcomes and is a high functioning team – known by Jo as the “A team”. If you have ever been led or been part of the A team, you know what I am talking about.
When there is change, do you ever refer back to the memory on how a team should work and operate? Understanding how you build and operate an A team is critical. What makes the A team work & how do you replicate this again to go with A team version 2.
I have been blessed in my career to date to work in an A team, under a great leader and be the boss of an amazing A team.
No team is perfect, and you can never replicate what you have, but the secret sauce of what makes this A team is helpful for any manager and leaders as they build the most effective team possible.
What our people want:
People want to make a difference.
People what to be appreciated.
People want transparency.
People love connection and being something that is bigger than them or their team.
People want to work in a team / company where they can have fun and laugh and be themselves.
This all seems to make sense. So, we need to create and environment for our employees / team that ticks all these boxes.
What our company wants:
To provide a commercial service / product in the market that is leading
To generate a healthy return for the service/product
To stay ahead of the competition
To always improve the way things are done, through continuous improvement
For employees to take accountability and responsibility
So, the question then comes, how do you marry the two?
5 key elements to building & operating an A team:
Hire the right people – be clear on the capability you need. Don’t hire too many people like you. Hire people that are passionate and driven and get other people in the team involved in the recruitment process.
Fire quickly – when you hire the wrong person (and you will) move them out quickly as one bad egg can cause issues.
Build a high-performance culture – give feedback often, reward good outcomes & recognise people with things that matter to them – money, time off, visibility, training opportunity, another project or a promotion. Make sure you give you employees the glory when things go well.
Clear roles & accountabilities – be clear on what they do, their role, how they fit into the overall goals of the team / division / organisation. Be clear on how they can contribute to the team.
Communication – build a culture of constant communication – transparency and get the team to build a better way to do things – as 2 heads or 5 is better than one.
As a leader you have a very important role, to build a high performing team. There will be reasons why it’s hard or impossible but there are always things you can do to improve the performance of how a team operate. They are not rocket science but they will make a big difference.
One thing not to forget, is have fun. You spend a lot of time at work, so don’t forget to have a laugh and enjoy what you are doing. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously, so don’t forget to smile and laugh.
Proactive approach to culture and employee engagement including flexibility is becoming really critical.
Leadership is an important element for all organisations, to execute successful outcomes having engaged staff is instrumental.
Don’t underestimate the simple things, to retain, engage your staff to get the best out of them. In the current environment with the job market, this is more important than ever.
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Do you have any other items that you would add to the A team list?
Tag a member from your A team or your manager of your A team and discuss what good looks like for setting up an A team.
Want to talk about building your leadership team? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our founder has a combined experience of over 20 years’ working as Executive in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders.
If we can help you, reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Read more articles written by Jo Hands
Guide to Successful Integration
Getting the integration right is critical to ensure that the business has a ground footing to accelerate the integration benefits of the merged business.
Alignment at the Executive level will be a critical step in ensuring that the integration is clear.
A large part of the integration is about people and communication. That is, taking people on the journey so they understand what the plan is, why we are driving each activity and how they can be involved.
Getting a business merger right is no easy feat. You need to make sure that your technology integration is on point, and you need to get everyone on board with the plan.
It's easier said than done. But that's why we're here! We'll help you make sure your merger goes off without a hitch and that you're ready to take advantage of all its potential benefits as soon as possible.
We have some tips for making sure your merger is a success:
Strategising for your merger is a team effort, and we've got the tools to ensure that you come out on top. We'll help you evaluate your strategy for success and make sure that no one gets left out of the equation.
Getting the integration right is critical to ensure that the business has a ground footing to accelerate the integration benefits of the merged business.
Alignment at the Executive level will be a critical step in ensuring that the integration is clear.
A large part of the integration is about people and communication. That is, taking people on the journey so they understand what the plan is, why we are driving each activity and how they can be involved.lation.
If you want to chat around integrations, reach out to Jo Hands on 0459826221 or email me on jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Private Equity in Australia 2022
Sound investment: Industry operators have benefited from a record-low interest rate environment.
Concerns regarding inflation have prompted the RBA to increased the cash rate target three times over the four months through August 2022 to limit spending and tame inflation. Rising interest rates are likely to increase the cost of borrowing and subdue business confidence, while simultaneously taming inflation.
Industry Report
Private Equity in Australia
Sound investment: Industry operators have benefited from a record-low interest rate environment.
Concerns regarding inflation have prompted the RBA to increased the cash rate target three times over the four months through August 2022 to limit spending and tame inflation. Rising interest rates are likely to increase the cost of borrowing and subdue business confidence, while simultaneously taming inflation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Private equity firms manage investments in private companies. They may invest their own capital, raise funds from external investors to invest on their behalf, or do both. Investments can include venture and growth capital for emerging companies, as well as buyouts, which involves purchasing a publicly traded company to take it private. Firms earn revenue from external capital management fees and from any gains made on their own investments.
Firms in the Private Equity industry pool investment funds to purchase companies. Industry firms then attempt to implement managerial and operational changes to improve the company's performance before selling it for a profit.
The industry has benefited from record low interest rates over the past five years, which have allowed for cheap financing and increased buyout activity. However, fluctuations in business confidence, primarily stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, have limited the willingness of investors to select private equity asset types.
Industry revenue is expected to grow at an annualised 3.3% over the five years through 2022-23, to $585.5 million. The gradual easing of restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and positive business confidence are anticipated to benefit industry players in the current year. However, lingering unfavourable trading conditions will limit the industry's expansion. Increases to interest rates are expected to subdue the ability of private equity firms to secure funding for buyouts and other ventures.
OUTLOOK 2023 - 2028
Private equity is projected continue growing over the next five years, as investors diversify their portfolios. A forecast rise in the value of managed funds and a strong share market performance will likely benefit industry revenue.
Growth in specific investment areas, such as financial technology (fintech), healthcare, and education and training are forecast to underpin private equity expansion. Despite remaining positive, a projected decline in business confidence in addition to forecast interest rate rises will likely limit the industry's expansion. In particular, interest rate rises are forecast to limit performance fees earned by private equity firms on exiting the industry. Industry revenue is projected to grow at an annualised 1.4% over the five years through 2027-28, to $628.8 million.
Source: IBISWorld | Private Equity in Australia, July 2022
The secret sauce of change
❝ Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end❞
- Robin Sharma -
Love this quote on change. It’s a good reminder that change is hard. That is why people are good at change
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end”
Love this quote on change. It’s a good reminder that change is hard. That is why people are good at change.
Data doesn’t lie
80% transformation (change) programs don’t deliver the required outcome.
78% of people in organisations (generalisation) don’t want to make change
Organisations that effectively make change, have an improved customer and employee experience & a better financial outcome.
Every organisation is working to make change – new product, new sales strategy, new investment, new plan, new operating model, new ways of doing things. Change is what continues to add value to organisations.
Organisations that effectively make changes are more customer centric, employees like working at these organisations and have a better financial outcome. So, it’s a no brainer. We need to create an environment in an organisation for change to occur and for it to be celebrated.
While nothing I have said above is really revolutionary or something you didn’t know, why is making change so hard? What is the secret sauce to make meaningful change?
SECRET INGREDIENTS TO SUCCESS
Culture – if you don’t have the right culture in the organisation, you will not be able to make the change. Culture takes time to develop and when done well, is co-developed with the organisation to get their buy in and create the culture they want in an organisation. The person I have seen do this the best is Collin Ellis.
Leadership – strong Executive leadership, where people are not scared to fight for what is important, to have challenging conversations and to take the job of navigating teams and organisations through change, as their number 1 priority. If you don’t have this, you are not going to success.
Why – being clear on the why. Why are we making change. What is it going to improve – for our customers, employees and the way the brand / product is perceived in the market?
Linking the activity with the why is critical to get buy-in.
Champions – build a strong champion network across the organisation that have Executive team support to implement a change agenda. Strong personalities to push through the hard bit and resistance piece and drive the change agenda.
Agility – as you are making change, your plans might change and you need to pivot quickly, not a 6 month review but on a day by day basis to ensure that the change doesn’t lose momentum and people don’t give up that the change will occur.
Celebrate change – making change however small should be celebrated by the CEO and leadership team. People should be encouraged to make changes in their teams, roles and outcomes. Saying change is important, is one thing but then celebrating or recognising people for change is another.
Time & money – without time and money, nothing happens. Time (resources) need to be allocated to make change. Giving people time out of their day-to-day work to do the change journey. The structure might be dedicated resource on change program or space in role(s) to have time to work on the change, not getting too lost in the business as usual.
Money makes the world go round. Funding needs to be allocated to change programs. Doesn’t need to millions of dollars, but flexible funding to make incremental changes or a larger change program is critical.
When I think about change, sometimes we overcomplicate things.
That is where the concept of continuous improvement works well. What is the key changes an organisation, department or team need to make to improve the customer experience, product, operational efficiency or to stay ahead of the market.
Having a funding model that is aligned with your planning, ensures that small, incremental changes (continuous improvement) can get done in an organisation.
Not all projects need to be large big bang, sometimes small incremental changes will have the biggest impact. See articles and documents written by Whiteark around Continuous improvement and Simplification that you might find interesting / helpful / inspiring.
If you have some other ingredients for secret sauce, please post a comment, DM me or reach out, I would be interested to chat further.
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Check more good stuff from our thought articles library
Finance in Australia 2022
The RBA has increased the cash rate target three times over the four months through August 2022 to limit spending and tame inflation. Rising interest rates are likely to increase the cost of borrowing and subdue business confidence, while simultaneously taming inflation.
Industry Report
Finance in Australia
The RBA has increased the cash rate target three times over the four months through August 2022 to limit spending and tame inflation.
Rising interest rates are likely to increase the cost of borrowing and subdue business confidence, while simultaneously taming inflation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Finance subdivision covers firms that provide banking and finance and investment trusts in Australia. The most significant industries in the Finance subdivision are domestic banks, foreign banks, non depository financiers and financial asset investors. The subdivision excludes auxiliary finance and insurance service providers.
The Finance subdivision's operating environment has been challenging over the past five years, due to falling interest rates. Residential property prices have risen over the period, supporting demand for mortgages. However, volatile business confidence has limited growth in capital expenditure from the private sector and overall demand from commercial clients.
Revenue is expected to decline at an annualised 2.4% over the five years through 2022, to $185.1 billion, however is anticipated to rise by 2.1% in 2022, as most operators have wound down deferrals on loan repayments that were offered at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic.
The RBA's efforts to stimulate economic growth have helped drive down funding costs to support profitability for lenders. However, more recent higher capital requirements and remediation costs for the major banks following the Financial Services Royal Commission have weighed on net interest margins and caused subdivision profit margins to fall.
In addition, operators made provisions to cover the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the financial hardship faced by borrowers. The major players have also offloaded or are seeking to sell their less profitable ventures overseas, along with businesses generating lower returns (such as wealth management and life insurance businesses), to refocus on core banking operations.
OUTLOOK 2022 - 2027
The industry’s outlook is forecast to be positive over the next five years, with revenue forecast to grow at an annualised 7.8% over the five years through 2027, to $269.5 billion. The major banks account for a large proportion of the subdivision, and their performance will heavily influence movements in the subdivision's revenue.
The economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, business confidence, consumer sentiment, property market conditions and global economic growth will also influence the subdivision's performance. Interest rates are projected to rise over the next five years, helping banks capitalise on the loan books built up over the past five years. However, the subdivision faces challenges in higher capital requirements and tighter lending standards.
Source: IBISWorld | Finance in Australia, March 2022
Have you got head in sand?
Have you got head in sand?
No seriously, have you?
Whether you like it or not, the world has changed. Priorities have changed, life has changed, the way we work has changed and we are never going back to ‘normal’. There is no going back, we need to create the new.
Have you got head in sand?
No seriously, have you?
Whether you like it or not, the world has changed. Priorities have changed, life has changed, the way we work has changed and we are never going back to ‘normal’. There is no going back, we need to create the new.
In 2020 when COVID landed, I was as shocked as anyone that I would see something in this in my lifetime (makes me sound old, I know). But it came into our lives (and hasn’t left) and has changed the way we used to know the world.
COVID has impacted everyone differently and there is always a bittersweet story to tell. I can’t complain; I haven’t had anyone I know die of COVID, and I might be a minority.
COVID has created perspective:
I wrote an article last year around perspective. Check article here. I note that perspective normally comes from a bad situation. So how has COVID created perspective, let’s see:
The concept of working in office 5 days a week, has changed
The concept or reality of flexible working, has changed..
The normalisation of having children in zoom/teams. calls or home while you are working has changed.
People are rethinking their careers/jobs and what is important (i.e. the great resignation, war on talent)
Employees are demanding more, and with the war on talent they are getting what they are asking for and more.
Employers that have a clear EVP are well ahead of the companies that haven’t invested in the people experience side of things. It’s not a piece of paper or words – it’s reality.
Amount of people moving out of the city; to the country or more regional. This includes people moving out of Melbourne and Sydney to Queensland etc.
People got a taste of different life, slower life, easy lifestyle and more time spent with their families.
People are looking for a change in lifestyle
Perspective and change creates opportunity. So many new jobs, roles, life changes ….how have you created your new. If you don’t take this opportunity to create your ‘new’ you, you will have missed an opportunity.
What is your reflection from COVID? How has it changed your life, work or other?
Employers who are pretending the world hasn’t changed, are in for a significant amount of pain! Employers need to ensure they pivot to ensure they can attract and retain great talent in this very tight market.
Proactive approach to culture and employee engagement including flexibility is becoming really critical.
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Have you got your head in the sand? If yes, this might be the time to sit up and work out what you want/need to do different for personal and work!
At Whiteark, we have been helping our clients with new ways of working, employee engagement activities including role clarities etc. We have watched our clients embrace the new normal and helped them through the transition.
If we can help you, reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Read more articles written by Jo Hands
As a business owner or manager, it can be difficult to know whether a particular issue is related to capability or capacity.
In general, CAPABILITY refers to the skills and knowledge needed to perform a task, while CAPACITY refers to the available resources (time, staff, equipment, etc.) to complete the task.