Posts by Maree Harris, Ph.D.
The Australian Leadership Project Asked Me Who The Leaders Were That Impacted Me Most.
When Victor Perton asked to interview me on Australian Leadership for the Australian Leadership project, I thought I would easily be able to speak about leadership in 2018. Instead I went on a reflective journey, thinking about the leaders who have impacted me most. What surprised me was how many of these were part of my life in my 30s and 40s but left a lasting legacy that has shaped my professional development and career ever since.
Victor asked me 3 questions:
What are the unique qualities of Australian Leadership and Leaders?
What do Australian leaders want from their leaders?
Who have been the leaders in your life journey ? What or who has inspired you?
To read my reflections and answers, continue reading.
How To Motivate High Performing Professionals
If Your People are Your Greatest Asset as I wrote in a recent blog post, what do you as a leader need to be doing to look after that greatest asset. You need to convince them of that by your actions, not merely mouth the words. You need to inspire their intrinsic motivation. You need to Engage, Empower and Elevate your people. When you look after your people, they will look after your organisation. Here are 15 ways you can do that.
Read MoreIWD 2018 – How Women Can Move On And Up.
It was one of Australia’s leading female CEOs, Gillian Frank, who once said that women can have it all, but not all at once. Many of us have learned that the hard way. We have tried to keep all the balls in the air and as a result we failed to be who we truly wanted to be. There are three ways we can achieve that and still remain true to who we are and what we stand for. We discover our Why. We set goals around it. We build a network of support that helps us achieve it because there is no way we can go it alone.
Read MoreYour People are Your Greatest Asset
How often have you heard that? It rolls off people’s tongues like jelly and it often has no more substance. Cliches tend to become like that. Yet these are powerfully true words. Your people are your greatest asset, but unless they are treated that way, they will react and become your greatest liability.
People join an organisation because they admire and respect what it says it stands for. They leave because the leaders who manage them don’t walk the talk. They also they don’t feel valued, appreciated or acknowledged for the contribution they are making. They disengage long before they leave.
Peter Wilson, the President of the Australian Human Resource Institute, has said that only 24% of employees in Australia are engaged, 60% are neutral – just there but not engaged – 16% are turned off. This results in a $42 billion cost in lost productivity in Australian organisations. Why is this happening?
Read MoreWhat Makes A Team Great
People move in and out of teams all the time. When new people come into a team how they are helped to become part of it is important to the on-going successful functioning of the team. It is not only the team manager’s role to ensure their positive engagement, but every team member’s as well. Here is checklist for you to use to check off what kind of a team member you are and how you can contribute to making your team great.
Read MoreTurn Your Goal Setting Upside Down and Be Successful.
The great debate at this time of the year is about whether goal setting has a value or not. If you’ve been there before only to find that, in spite of your best efforts, life and “important” work gets in the way after a month or so, then you are probably not going to set any goals this year.
Let’s stop and think about this a bit.
Whatever success means to you, it is worth pursuing the actions that will see you achieve it. You feel empowered, in charge of your life when you do. You see yourself as a “Can Do” person. Having achieved one goal, you gain in confidence about achieving another. And the next one is much easier again. Your head is in the right place. You have more energy. You have fewer limiting beliefs about yourself. You are much more confident.
The most successful people, in whatever field they work, all set goals. They then bring focus to achieving them.
Goal setting is about focusing on your WHY. If you have a big enough WHY, the HOW is easy.
So the first step in goal setting is knowing why you want to achieve that goal. Sometimes you have to dig deep to get clear about that.
So let’s turn this goal setting problem upside down.