Catherine See

Much is being demanded of our leaders in these challenging times. Having worked  in complex private and public organisations over several decades - from Queensland Ballet and Brisbane City Council to Queensland Rail and the Tasmanian Cricket Team - business consultant and UNE alumna Dr Catherine See* has a unique perspective on how leaders are managing talent, change and growth. Here she shares some of her wisdom.

How has the role of the leader changed during the past two years?

The playbook for leadership has changed enormously. In the past, leaders might have felt that they needed to know everything and be capable of solving all the problems for their organisation or team, but they can’t possibly have all the answers in the complex situations in which we find ourselves today, and COVID-19 has heightened that awareness. The idea of the hero leader, who can come in and save the day, is a nonsense. More and more, we need to talk about the need for a leadership mindset, rather than a leadership skill set. Especially in the current climate, we need to move to a mindset of curiosity and adaptation.

Leaders used to be driven to 'Plan. Direct. Control. Act' but now we talk about building emotional intelligence, embedding curiosity, thinking of the whole ecosystem we work in and working across boundaries. Effective leadership is more about exploring the right questions to ask and enabling an environment of psychological safety so that people with new ideas feel confident to offer them. It's about encouraging experimentation and the testing of those new ideas. And then, if those ideas don't work, encouraging people to try something different.

Gravitas has five key leadership principles: invest in relationships; foster individual and collective growth; work from the inside out; shape a winning game plan; and drive innovation and change. We see leadership moving from hero to host. A host is someone who brings people together and surfaces ideas and helps others make sense of what's going on. They coach and guide the system and the individuals within it. That takes a very different mindset and a particular way of thinking about the world.

Is it incumbent on leaders, like never before, to have regard for the personal health and wellbeing of their staff?

Absolutely. We each go to work bringing our whole selves with us; I am a person, a family member and a community member. Leaders don't have to be best friends with their people and certainly do have to hold them to account if an individual is not meeting expectations, but they also must invest in that person to enable them to be the very best version of themselves; and support them to flourish and feel safe. At the same time, leaders have to put their own oxygen mask on first, then think about those around them.

What skills, attributes or attitudes are most important for leaders right now?

In our work, we always start with the idea of mindfulness; a real focus on how the leader is being, how they show up for work each day. They will be at their best when they are not distracted and are paying close attention to what's going on and how they are contributing. Our leaders need the capacity to coach and make sense of things, to be a storyteller - to shine a light on the effort and impact people are making, as well as the things that might need to shift or change.

Our leaders also need to enable psychological safety. It's one thing for me to say that my door is always open, but how am I going out and listening and paying attention to what's going on for my people and my clients? It's up to the leaders to model the behaviours that reflect the values of the organisation and to live those. It's their responsibility to coach and mentor those around them so that there's leadership in every chair.

What particular challenges has COVID-19 presented for leaders?

It's very unfamiliar territory. Leaders are being asked to evaluate the energy of people in their teams and to be looking out for signs of stress or anxiety and potentially mental health issues, at worst. There is now a big focus on leadership behaviours and consequences being totally aligned with the values of the organisation. But it doesn't have to be burdensome. Leadership can be enjoyable and fun if you are supporting people to be successful. If a leader adopts the mindset 'what's the best contribution I can make today?' rather than 'OMG, I have to have all these difficult conversations today', it repositions their role and approach.

Leaders are realising that there is no longer a separation between a person's professional and personal life. It's about me as a whole person, rather than me the nurse or engineer or lawyer. It's a very different dynamic, which is why leadership development now draws more heavily from the behavioural sciences and psychology.

How can the lessons we are learning through this crisis be used to create more sustainable and friendly businesses?

If we pay attention to not slipping back to some old patterns, then there's a huge opportunity to think about how work is configured, how flexibility can be embraced and how we can communicate and show real empathy for what's happening for our people and our community. That can sometimes be seen as a 'soft' notion, but, as a leader, I can be kind and hold you to account at the same time. I can drive strategy and be compassionate. Leaders are learning that they can drive success and performance by investing in their people and potential.

What are we learning about personal resilience and its place in the workplace?

We're learning that COVID will be with us for a long time and we will have to move to the next normal rather than go back to old patterns. At an individual level, people are building capacity to navigate unfamiliar situations. If we take that into a team context, we are having to think about creative solutions to our problems in a very deliberate way. Some of what we have learnt through COVID has fast-tracked the development of resilience, but it starts with understanding the stressors that we need to navigate. How do we control what we can control and ensure we can rest and recover when we need to?

Leaders who can pay a bit more attention to the care of themselves and those around them will help to build resilience and optimism in their teams. It's more than a policy or a document or social event; it's a mindset. Leaders have to bring those policies to life. It's no longer adequate for a leader to give a logical or rational response when an individual says something that may reflect their challenges or concerns. We are learning that when we show courage and vulnerability as leaders, there is a level of uncertainty and risk wrapped around that, but we can have a significant impact on our people.

What advice would you give to a new graduate coming into a business environment today?

People of my vintage used to talk about a career ladder and what was the next, more senior role you'd take as you climb that ladder. Now we talk about a career jungle gym and look at all the opportunities that you can get to broaden your range. They may not always be more senior roles; it might be a different kind of skill set. The horizontal career path, where you keep broadening and developing new skills, has been supplemented by a vertical one of personal growth. How am I becoming a better person, aligning what I do to my values and a sense of purpose? What do I want to get out of my life more broadly?

When we work with new graduates, it's whole-life planning, rather than work planning. We ask questions like: what's important to you? What's important to your family? What are the trade-offs of that? What else is going on in your life that you need to take account of?

The other advice that was given to me early on in my career, which I have always kept in my toolkit, is the idea of adopting a volunteer mindset. That when opportunities emerge to contribute to a project outside your team, or you receive an offer to have a voice at the table with a different group in your organisation, take as many as you can. It gives you a broader view of your business and you start to build a profile as someone who wants to add value and contribute in a meaningful way. Some of these will be personal risks that can give you another world view.

* Catherine was a nurse educator working in the children's health sector when she embarked on a Masters of Business Administration at UNE to add some business and commercial acumen to her clinical knowledge and expertise. Now she's Managing Director of the Gravitas Consulting Group, based in Brisbane.