Leadership Matters

Barry Bloch, Boyden Partner, and long-serving Executive and Non-Executive at several listed, for-profit private and for-purpose organisations, drops into the pod to discuss his recent series of leadership articles aimed at challenging leaders to grow another level in a COVID-19 world. Barry serves as an Executive and Head of Organisational Transformation in the Victorian public health service and has seen first-hand the extraordinary dedication of the healthcare service over the last six months. This experience, along with his consulting, board and not-for-profit roles, has given him a comprehensive understanding of how COVID-19 is impacting organisations, leaders and society at large. “COVID-19 is unequivocally unprecedented; certainly not in a century, since the Second World War, have we seen anything like this that has societally fractured the whole globe,” he says. “It has triggered for me some fundamental thinking around questions like: how do we lead through this, can we use knowledge and experience from the past, what new things do we need to do, and how do we pivot as leaders, employees and members of society?” This inspired Barry to write a series of leadership articles answering these questions. The first three reflections in the series delve into the need for boards to play a more pro-active, contributory role, steps for emotional response and recovery, and why leaders must “Listen Loudly” in our fractured society. When asked if anything could have prepared him to deal with what he has witnessed over the past six months, Barry is clear that he believes we each have the tools we need – we just have to know how to use them. “It’s important to recognise the skills you already have as an individual. We’ve all confronted life challenges and distressing situations in the past. The real issue is not whether we need new skills, it’s whether we can industrialise or magnify the skills we have to the scale and speed of COVID-19,“ says Barry. “It’s now time to use all those skills we have developed over our lives and to use every single one of them. It’s not about learning new skills; it’s about owning your old ones.” Boyden's Leadership Matters podcast series is the brainchild of Boyden Australia's Allan Marks and Alun Parry, exploring what makes an effective leader by interviewing Australian leaders to find out what makes them tick and the advice they would give to aspiring senior leaders.

Recently appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England, Professor Brigid Heywood, joins us in the pod to discuss her new role, the impact of regional universities, her journey through academia and how technology and internationalisation is impacting the Education sector. Brigid describes herself as someone who likes to dream big and looking at the trajectory of her career, there is no disputing that. Becoming a leader in her academic discipline early in her career, she soon progressed into management and her leadership roles have taken her around the world; from her native Hull and her studies in Liverpool to the US, Africa, South East Asia, New Zealand and now regional Australia. Over the course of her career, Brigid has gained an understanding of the pivotal part that universities play in regenerating the social, economic and cultural fabric of cities and regions. Working in both the UK and internationally, Brigid saw the sector from a wide variety of lenses and believes that today’s universities have an institutional role, as well as an educational one. “[The experience] gave me a whole new vision of the university as an agent for change in the community and the way in which Education, in its many different facets, can be a real driver of that,” she says. She emphasises the importance of “[wiring] the power of universities into the fabric of communities who need employment, education, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation […] to be the driver of innovation.” One of the key issues affecting the Education sector is internationalisation; something that has become important to every university in Australia, and the University of New England is no exception. With around 30 per cent of staff originating outside of Australia and a large population of international and interstate students, Brigid recognises that the university not only impacts the local community but leaves a footprint elsewhere around the world. “That places complexity around us in terms of the intellectual and thought leadership we provide. We’re not just doing it around disciplines and subjects, we’re doing it into community conversations,” she notes. “The evolving challenge for our universities is how to support the agenda for modern Australia.”

Non-Executive Director Worley Parsons Ltd. and Orora Ltd., former Global CEO Brambles Ltd and President & CEO Ford Australia Tom Gorman, drops into the pod to discuss his illustrious 30+ year career and what he considers to be the top factors that help to achieve success as an executive in Australia today. Born and raised in the USA, Gorman reflects on the personal connection he has always felt to Australia and the nexus between the two countries, as well as the key qualities he has developed and advocated for since his first job at 15: professionalism, commitment and passion. Joining the Ford headquarters in Melbourne early in his career, Gorman progressed to become the President and CEO of Ford Australia, which for him, was a dream come true. Throughout his time at Ford, he embraced every challenge, believing it’s all part of the experience. He advises others to do the same – always striving to gain exposure to different ways of doing things and to never stop learning. With ongoing technological development forming one of today’s greatest business challenges, Gorman underscores the importance of building the right team to keep pace with these changes and the need to maintain diversity of thought, founded on a willingness to accept feedback and actively question the norms. Gorman embodied this philosophy when he made the move to Brambles after 20 years at Ford, which gave him the opportunity to continue his personal and professional growth. Boyden's Leadership Matters podcast series is the brainchild of Boyden Australia's Allan Marks and Alun Parry, exploring what makes an effective leader by interviewing Australian leaders to find out what makes them tick and the advice they would give to aspiring senior leaders.

Our latest edition of the Boyden Leadership Matters podcast is a little different. In this podcast, we speak to two of our own leaders: Boyden Leadership Consulting Partners Dharma Chandran and Barry Bloch. Our Leadership Consulting offering’s core purpose is to assist organisations, boards and executive teams to identify, assess and support leaders within their business. In this podcast, they speak about their careers, how they have developed as leaders and the key lessons they have learned along the way.

John M. Green, Deputy Chair, QBE Insurance; Councillor, The National Library of Australia; Board Director, Challenger; and one of Australia’s most prominent thriller writers, drops into the pod to talk about how his career has influenced his novels, the importance of virtue in business, and the joy of a perfect soufflé. Green has had multiple careers; spending 17 years as a lawyer before transitioning to investment banking, where he spent 13 years at Macquarie Bank. However, the one constant throughout these changes was his passion for writing. After attending a leadership course that forced him to confront his ambitions, Green took a sabbatical from his role at Macquarie to pursue writing full-time. One sabbatical became three, and soon enough Green decided to dedicate all of his time to writing. Boyden's Leadership Matters podcast series is the brainchild of Boyden Australia's Allan Marks and Alun Parry as they look into what makes a leader. The series interviews a suite of Australian leaders to find out what makes them tick and the advice they would give to aspiring senior leaders.

Martin Dalgleish, a leading Chair, Non-Executive Director and Investment Partner, in the technology sector, drops into the pod to talk about his phenomenally varied career path. Martin speaks on how he forged his reputation as one of Australia’s foremost business disruptors and entrepreneurs, as well as giving his take on the biggest issues facing boards today. Dalgleish’s career has taken him through a wide range of businesses, starting out in the technology sector at IBM before joining PepsiCo in WA, leading their marketing department. After a stint in the UK, where he took up roles at the Rank Group and the Dixons Group, Dalgleish returned the Australian technology sector as Managing Director for the Consumer Division of Optus. Dalgleish touches on his transition from technology leader to business partner and entrepreneur, the number of career changes that he’s been through in his working life, and the different experiences he’s had in the technology, tourism, leisure, FMCG, and media sectors. He also speaks on the big issue that he feels boards are facing nowadays: the speed of change. “You just don’t have time to dwell anymore,” warns Dalgleish, “The moment you do, there’s someone coming behind you. Staying on top of industry, staying on top of regulatory, of strategy, is quite a task.”