Last month we attended the Women in Leadership Summit, which saw inspiring female speakers present some informative insights and advice into what it takes to lead in our ever-complex world heightened by the pandemic. 

With women leading the trend brought about by ‘The Great Resignation’, which states that “40% of the global workforce is considering leaving their current employer within the next year”. This raises concerns of the long-term inequities that it will cause and calls for real action to change this concerning trend.  

As a female leader in the contemporary workforce, the Summit encouraged us to think about:

• How can we retain female talent and navigate through ‘The Great Resignation’ and support teams to avoid burnout?

• How can we embrace our “superwoman capability” through confidence, resilience, self-worth and compassion?

• What can we do to leverage and progress women from minority groups as visible leaders and use male-allyship as part of the solution?

We’ve pulled together some of the best presentations into bite-sized snippets to help empower you - our triiyo community - to become great leaders and thrive in the evolving future of work.

Sally Pritchard – Strategies for new and aspiring leaders

Being a first time leader is making the shift from individual contributor and getting the work done to getting work done through others. It requires time and patience to really value the importance of leadership.

Five things to do:

1. Set direction - understanding business objectives, providing clarity including priorities, check understanding and adapting as needed. 

2. Delegate and motivate - allocate extra time to coach and give feedback, map out the outcome or end result you seek, resist the urge to finish the work yourself, provide written and verbal direction, encourage ideas and praise good work.

3. Ask and listen - ask with curiosity, give with care and receive with grace.

4. Results - be outcomes focussed, deliver on what you say, make decisions and find the right way to measure success.  

5. Be a professional friend - take a personal interest, get to know your team and what’s important to them, make professional decisions and don’t be afraid to be vulnerable.

Judy Tang – Formulating and setting healthy boundaries in the workplace

What’s a boundary? It’s where our values, beliefs, and emotions meet (and sometimes clash). Boundaries and personal limits, and no two set of boundaries are the same. They’re important for our own peace of mind and safety. 

Steps to healthy boundaries in the workplace:

1. Creating boundaries that define the vision, culture and standards of performance in the workplace. The classic boundaries include code of conduct, code of ethics, dress code and sexual harassment policies. A respectful, safe and cohesive workplace requires good psychoeducation, requiring boundary setting and boundary respecting. 

2. Addressing the blurred lines of work: Developing and distributing strategies to navigate the shift from 9 to 5 to 24/7. No one wants to do 24/7 work! 

            – Create physical and time boundaries to keep your mental space clean.

            – Turn off notifications.

            – Do a risk scenario spreadsheet for boundary breaks.

1. Clearly identifying our interpersonal boundaries and showing a commitment to respect each other’s personal space.

Prof. Christine Kilpatrick – Intentional leadership throughout the COVID pandemic

During the early pandemic, Christine made an intentional decision. The executive leadership team would remain on site and lead by example. You can’t expect front line staff to continue showing up for work while you stay at home. Leaders need to be visible and engaged. 

Early 2020 was about acknowledging uncertainty. How to best manage the pandemic, keeping staff safe with adequate PPE and handling the limited bed, ED and ICU capacities. 

Leadership was pervasive:

• Supply team delivered PPE and cleaning equipment 24/7

• Cleaners helped with RACF

• HR found accommodation for staff who could not isolate at home and delivered food to homes

• Managers established the COVID Pathway, caring for people in the community

• Mental Health staff supported Hotels for Homeless

• Nurses set up testing sites and vaccination centres in northern and western suburbs

• Nurses tested 3,000 people who lived in the public housing towers

Christine stayed aligned with her values of putting people first, leading with kindness and excelling together. 

The post COVID recovery phase required different leadership with strong and clear direction.  Maintaining reforms, positive changes implemented during COVID that needed to continue such as telehealth, HomeBased Care and role of collaboration. 

Like the rest of us, it was about creating a “new normal”

• Models of care, use of technology to deliver care and to support staff

• Staffing models staff wellbeing

• WFH and work practices

• Need to remain agile and flexible

Key learnings:

• Leadership is critically important in a crisis

• Lead by example

• Be visible, listen, be curious and communicate

• Leadership was widespread, new leaders emerged

• Learn from what worked well and what could have been better

• Critical role of staff wellbeing

• Leadership during COVID is probably different from leadership post COVID

• It’s not over, there’s a continued need for strong and adaptable leadership

Final takeaways

Drawing from this year’s Women in Leadership Speakers, one theme seems to really stand out - and that’s the importance of empathy in leadership. Whether it’s taking a personal interest in your colleagues' lives, communicating boundaries openly and honestly, or simply listening to the people around you - empathy is key to creating happy, human workplaces. 

About triiyo

triiyo is an employee-centric, connectivity platform that simplifies the way people connect and communicate during workplace transitions. The centralised platform provides a safe space for employees to confidentially access support, connect and share information during complex events throughout the employee lifecycle.

Focused on employee wellbeing, engagement, and retention, organisations are able to prioritise the employee experience by supporting both managers and employees via automated tailored communication flows, communities and expertly curated content.

triiyo is seeking to partner with progressive HR people and innovative companies.

www.triiyo.com