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Mentoring: Support and advice during these tough times

When we are all surrounded by so much uncertainty, it helps to find someone we can trust.

From a professional perspective, a mentor can be just that – someone who has our best interest at heart. Although a manager might seem the best placed to provide work-related advice, sometimes it helps to get a different view of things.

Mentoring provides a safe sounding board

As the University of Melbourne’s Mobile Learning Business Manager, Edwina Coller AFIML explains, “There are often areas that mentees don’t want to discuss with their manager because it’s about them personally and not relevant to their role.”

During these tough times, we are all inundated with things that have changed, that we aren’t sure of and things that cause us to be fearful. We may not be comfortable discussing those things with our manager.

Fresh perspectives during tough times

Surviving through difficult circumstances can take a toll on our ability to think and make decisions. That’s why Onno Van Es FIML, Manager HR Strategy and Engagement at Mackay Hospital and Health Service, makes sure his mentees are clear about how the mentoring process can benefit them.

“My style of mentoring is based around adult learning principles. It’s not a lecture style of learning, where I provide all the answers. Rather, I focus on the mentee taking ownership of their learning by being internally motivated and self-directed,” says Van Es.

Whether you are looking for new perspectives, want a sounding board you can trust or simply need to expand your social and professional connections, mentoring can help you.


Become a mentor or mentee now

IML ANZ Members enjoy complimentary access to the Member Exchange mentoring program.

Now is your chance to give and gain support from other managers and leaders during this extraordinary period. A new mentoring cohort starts in mid-May. To take part, register here before 24 April.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Tips for perfecting prioritisation

In the hustle of the modern workplace, it’s very easy to spend a lot of time completing not much. That is, people put a lot of time and effort into completing the least important jobs, while the things that really matter are overlooked or not given the attention they deserve.

Sometimes this is because we prefer to work on things that interest us, or we do the easy quick tasks because it is so satisfying to look at a list of completed jobs. Frequently, however, it is because we have not properly identified and prioritised what we should be doing.

So, what are the demands on your time? What techniques do you currently use to manage your time effectively? What tools can you use to help schedule tasks? How can technology help you prioritise?

Below are some guidelines to get you thinking about how to effectively prioritise your tasks and manage your time:

The five Ds

Most peoples’ days are so busy that they find it impossible to do everything. It is essential to decide what you will deal with now, do later, delegate, do only if time permits, and what you won’t do at all. This can help you develop a work schedule and set priorities that concentrate on activities that will contribute directly to your overall job goals. It allows you to distinguish between what’s important and unimportant, what’s vital and superfluous.

In summary, the five Ds:

  • Do it now
  • Do it later
  • Do it if time permits
  • Delegate it
  • Dump it

To-do list

A lot of people use a to-do list but how effective and methodical is yours? No matter how good your memory is you’re probably far too busy to remember everything you need to do. Lists are indispensable to keep you focused on what you need to accomplish to achieve your goals, no matter how hectic things get. They save you from the ‘tyranny of the urgent’ – attending to whatever floats across your field of vision, whatever seems the most urgent at the time, or whatever ‘makes the most noise’.

Here are some specific things that to-do lists can be useful for:

  • To plan your day or week
  • To establish priorities to remind you to do things
  • To note down promises and commitments you’ve made so you don’t forget them
  • To remind you to follow up on promises others have made, tasks you’ve delegated, and finish off part-completed work.
  • To group like tasks together, and to do them together in blocks of time

The A-B-C priority shorthand

The A-B-C method can be an effective way to set priorities. Look at your tasks, identify the important ones, those that most directly contribute to achieving results in your key result areas. Assign them an ‘A’ priority. Matters that are both urgent and important are ‘A’ priorities too.

Which tasks contribute least and can wait if you don’t have enough time to do them? These are activities that don’t contribute directly to your key result areas and are not urgent. Assign them a ‘C’ priority. The rest are ‘B’ priorities.

Try to get through as much of your to-do list each day as you can, focusing on your ‘A’ priorities. That way, if you don’t get everything done, it will be the least important things that are left. Don’t ignore the ‘Bs’ and ‘Cs’ though because many of them will be urgent ‘As’ if you don’t get on with them.

Tame the telephone

If someone calls at a bad time, say so and arrange a time when it will be convenient for you both to talk.

To prevent lengthy calls, stand up. Your voice will take on a more urgent tone and encourage callers to be to the point.

Make several outgoing calls together and have a note of what you want to discuss.

Keep a note of what you want to speak to people about as well as a note of telephone messages you leave for others on your to-do list. Cross their names off when they return your call and follow up anyone who doesn’t get back to you.

Conquer emails

Where possible control your emails by turning off the audio alert that announces new mail and check for new mail only when it’s convenient to do so in blocks of time.

Remove your name from distribution lists that send information you seldom have time to read.

Scan emails for priority and subject titles and read only the most important; delete the unimportant ones. Pop the rest into folders to read or action. Keep culling and filing read and sent emails, so the size of your files doesn’t build up to unmanageable proportions.

Master time management tools

Effective time-management primarily depends on personal discipline and willpower; planning tools can help you win that daily battle with time.

We are working in a modern workplace, with modern productivity issues. That means we need to resolve these issues with modern tools and approaches to productivity. Your team might all use the electronic calendar to manage their meetings, but that is only half of their workload. Most may still be using paper tools to manage their priorities, meeting notes and project information. Lead by example here and fully embrace technology to centralise and organise all of your work.

Here are a few additional guidelines to get you thinking about how to make the best use of diaries and calendars:

  • At the beginning of the year, enter important dates such as staff meetings, vacations, and conferences.
  • Break activities into time blocks, with a beginning and an end. Time management problems are often caused by fuzzy end times.
  • Don’t allow the entire day to be booked out. Leave some spare time to accommodate unexpected interruptions and thus reduce messy rescheduling or cancellations.
  • Avoid scheduling yourself too tightly. The pressure to finish one task or meeting in time to begin another reduces your effectiveness.
  • Allow time for rest, lunch and relaxation; error rates and stress increase with lack of rest.
  • Block in time to complete important projects and schedule enough time to build up momentum.
  • Ensure you can always carry your paper-based or electronic diary with you.
  • Understand your unique energy cycle. When are you full of bounce and energy, a bit flat, or somewhere in between? Learn to use your peak energy periods for activities requiring careful thought and effort and avoid interruptions during this time.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – The problem-solving process

We all encounter problems daily. That’s why we all benefit from good problem-solving skills.

In the workplace problem solving is an important part of any job. The skill with which we solve problems has a direct impact on our professional effectiveness. So let’s consider what problems you have solved recently. How have you handled them?

Although we are not always conscious of our method, most of us follow similar steps to solve problems. It is useful to increase our consciousness of these steps and apply a variety of proven problem-solving techniques to ensure we find effective solutions. Using the following process can improve our effectiveness in solving problems:

The process of solving problems

Identify the problem and establish objectives

This step is the most important and often the most difficult. It can be easy to jump into solution mode and spend surplus time looking for answers rather than having clarity on what really is the problem. Try to state the problem in a single sentence and ensure not to confuse the symptoms, the causes and the problem.

To establish objectives, think about the result you want. Compare where you are now and where you would like to be and be clear in what you are setting out to achieve.

Analyse the problem to determine its cause

In this step, it’s important to gather facts, ideas and opinions of others that may help in your analysis and assess the information without prejudice, preconceived ideas, or emotion to effectively determine the problem’s cause.

A technique used to uncover the main cause of the problem is to ‘ask why’ five times. Here is a ‘why’ chain for high employee turnover:

Why is there high employee turnover?

Why were the wrong people hired?

Why aren’t recruitment and selection techniques applied?

Why am I not confident in them?

Why is more training required?

We can determine from this chain the likely causes of this problem are poor selection and poor induction.

Generate alternative solutions

A choice of options needs to be considered in problem-solving. To find the best option, you must consider several solutions, that way you’re less likely to overlook the best course of action. Work on eliminating the cause of the problem and not just covering up its symptoms. Use brainstorming, creative thinking and ask others what they think to get the ideas flowing.

Evaluate the alternatives and select the most suitable

Evaluate your alternative solutions by considering the advantages and disadvantages of each. Remember the best solution will normally be the one with the most advantages and the fewest disadvantages. Ensure the most suitable option best meet your objectives.

Implement the decision

Now is the time to plan carefully how to implement your decision. Use the “who, how, what, where, why and when” prompts to develop your plan. Consider what could go wrong and how you will monitor progress to ensure your decision is working. Also, consider how you will communicate your decision to those impacted.

Follow-up and evaluate results

Routine follow-up checks will ensure that you have solved the problem. Check the symptoms again – have they gone? Take corrective action where necessary.

In summary, to continue to grow your problem-solving skills and build your personal effectiveness keep these guidelines front of mind:

  • Adopt a systematic approach
  • Focus on important decisions
  • Avoid making snap decisions
  • Don’t become a victim of analysis paralysis
  • Base your decision on facts
  • Don’t be afraid of making the wrong decisions
  • Learn from your mistakes
  • Use your imagination
  • Resist making decisions under stress
  • Make your decision and then move on

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Successful careers through solid planning

Gone are the days when careers meant moving straight up a ladder. These days, career paths have become more like a lattice – you might take steps upwards, sideways or even downwards.

That’s what makes career planning a crucial step in managing your learning and development. Regardless of where you are in your career, it’s useful to explore the path that you’re on. By developing new knowledge and skills, you’ll be well equipped to move into that new opportunity, no matter where it is on your career lattice.

Think of career planning as a continuous process of:

  • Reflecting on your interests, values, skills and preferences
  • Exploring the life, work and learning options available to you
  • Ensuring that your work fits with your personal circumstances
  • Fine-tuning your work and learning plans to help you manage changes in life and work

You can revisit and use this process at any stage of your career.

Start at the step that is most relevant for you now.

Planning cycle

The career planning process has four fundamental steps:

Step 1: knowing yourself

Step 2: finding out

Step 3: making decisions

Step 4: taking action

Let’s take a look at each step.

Step 1: knowing yourself

Ask yourself:

  • Where am I at in knowledge and skills now?
  • What do I want out of a job or career?
  • What do I like to do?
  • What are my strengths?
  • What is important to me?
  • Where do I want to be?
  • How will I get there?

After this, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests and values.

At the end of this step, you will have a clearer idea of your work or learning goal and your individual preferences.

The SWOT analysis in Article 1 can also be of great use to you at this point. You can use this information about yourself like your personal ‘wish list’ against which you can compare all the information you gather in the next step: finding out. Your personal preferences are very useful for helping you choose your current best option, which you can do in Step 3: making decisions.

Step 2: finding out

This step is about exploring the roles and learning areas that interest you. Once you have some idea of your job preferences you can research the specific skills and qualifications required in those professions.

  • Explore. Ask people around you about their roles, how they achieved success in their career. This mentoring program is an excellent forum for learning about others’ stories how they built their career.
  • Identify. Pick out roles that interest you. Assess whether your skills and interests match up with the job’s requirements. Do you have skills that are transferrable for this particular role or profession?
  • Develop. Taking on projects in your current workplace is a great way to close any knowledge and skills gaps to further your career journey. Also, look at developing skills outside of work. Sporting, community and charity groups always need people with a vast range of skills.
  • Locate. Do research not just on careers but on companies who you think you’d like to work with and where your interests and values align. Find out where your preferred roles are on offer.

At the end of this step you will have a list of preferred roles, companies you’d like to work with and opportunities for further learning.

Step 3: making decisions

This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what currently suits you best.

Ask yourself:

  • What are my best work or training options? How will these currently impact on my work and life situation? How long will it take to get appropriate knowledge or qualifications and how do I manage my career in the meantime?
  • How do they match with my skills, interests and values?
  • How do they fit with the current labour market? What’s happening in the economy and politically? Is there opportunity for career growth within my current organisation or region?
  • How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
  • What will help and what will hinder me?
  • What can I do about it?

At the end of this step you will have narrowed down your options and have more of an idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals. We would recommend that you use the Kolb Action Learning model in your Mentoring Resource book. This will provide an excellent tool to assist you at this stage of planning.

Step 4: taking action

Here you plan the steps you need to take.

Use all you have learnt about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan.

Begin by asking yourself:

  • What steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals?
  • Where can I get help?
  • Who will support me? Who can give me a reality check about my choice at this stage? What might be some of the barriers moving forward and how will I overcome them?

At the end of this step you will have:

  • A plan to help you explore your options further (work experience, work shadowing or more research); or
  • A plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal
  • Decide which step is relevant for you right now and start from there.

In all of this you need to remember that your career doesn’t happen in isolation to other aspects of your life.

As you work your way through the model ensure that you’re taking your entire life circumstance into any decisions you make.

MEMBER EXCHANGE – Personal SWOT analysis

A useful tool as a mentee is to work through a SWOT analysis with your mentor. The value of this tool is that it can provide a first stage in identifying those aspects which are particularly important to your career and the direction you want to take it. We would recommend that you do a first “run” at the SWOT on your own before discussing it with your mentor. It can be helpful to have some clear ideas before a mentoring conversation so that the mentor can ask targeted questions to help you analyse further.

Your career doesn’t happen in a vacuum but within the context of other aspects of your life. There may be non-work-related experience, knowledge and interests that will have a direct bearing on the transferable skills and knowledge you can bring into your career. So, when using a SWOT analysis it’s vital that you look at the four categories of the SWOT across a range of life aspects such as those listed below:

  • personality
  • beliefs and values
  • personal situation including relationships, children, finances and age etc…
  • education and training – career and personal
  • experience and skills – career and personal
  • interests – career and personal
  • drive and desire in relation to career
  • others’ perceptions
  • special interest groups

Each of these points listed above need to be related to each element of the SWOT in order to get a very accurate and comprehensive picture of you within your career.

S = Strengths. Simply – what are you good at? What strengths do others believe you have? What motivates you and drives you – these will be natural strengths because you will put time and energy into developing them. What inspires you? What gives you satisfaction?

W = Weaknesses. What are your gaps or areas for development? What do you find challenging? What are the things that don’t interest you and you don’t want to incorporate into your career? What are those aspects that you have a great desire to improve but are currently limitations for you?

O = Opportunities. A reality check – what is within the realm of possibility for you at this time in your life? What opportunities are available to you within your current situation? What opportunities are available to you based on developing some skills/expertise or maybe getting a further qualification? What’s realistic?

T = Threats. What limitations are there on you achieving your goals? Who may be blocking your path? What gaps in experience/knowledge will be limiting or challenging to the point of blocking your progress? What external ‘forces’ are threats to you achieving your goal eg: political; economic; geographical etc?

Some things to be aware of are:

  • The more thorough the SWOT analysis the more useful and valuable it will be.
  • A comprehensive SWOT analysis takes time and should be done over a number of goes so that you can keep building on it. It’s like writing a first draft – go back and review and add to it before deciding you want to share it with your mentor.
  • Be utterly honest with yourself. The true value of this tool is that you can have a good look and reflect upon your current situation and needs and areas that need attention.
  • Once you have explored SWOT in relation to the life aspects listed previously it’s time to get some additional perspective from your mentor. Remember to be very open to their questions and perspective. Their role is to help grow you.

Six books featuring terrifying tales of fraud and corruption

By Tracey Mills

We have hand-picked six books that blow the lid off some of the biggest corruption scandals around the world. Check out these explosive must-read titles for all leaders and managers.

Banking Bad by Adele Ferguson

BANKING BAD

By Adele Ferguson

Banking Bad, tells the story of power imbalance, toxic culture and cover-ups in Australia’s banking industry. It describes the long fight for justice by whistleblowers, victims and political mavericks, and looks at the outcomes of the royal commission – the falls from grace, the damaging hubris, the scathing assessment of the regulators, and the colossal compensation bill.

Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhatkar

BLACK EDGE

By Sheelah Kolhatkar

Black Edge offers a revelatory look at the grey zone in which so much of Wall Street functions, and a window into the transformation of the worldwide economy. With meticulous reporting and powerful storytelling, this is a riveting, true-life legal thriller that takes readers inside the US government’s pursuit of Michael Cohen and his employees and raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of the financial world.

Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

BILLION DOLLAR WHALE

By Bradley Hope and Tom Wright

In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the global financial crisis, a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude was being set into motion. Now known as the 1MDB affair, the scandal would come to symbolise the next great threat to the global financial system.

A stunning true tale of hubris and greed, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how one of the biggest heists in history was pulled off – right under the nose of the global financial industry.

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

BAD BLOOD

By John Carreyrou

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose start-up ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionise the medical industry. There was just one problem: the technology didn’t work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, officials, and her own employees.

In Bad Blood John Carreyrou tells the story of Theranos and encourages us to consider the possible repercussions of our blind faith in a small group of brilliant individuals.

He Who Must Be Obeid

HE WHO MUST BE OBEID

By Kate McClymont and Linton Besser

From the shadows, Eddie Obeid ran the state of New South Wales as his fiefdom, making and unmaking premiers. Along the way he pocketed tens of millions of dollars following corrupt deals.

Following their groundbreaking investigations, Kate McClymont and Linton Besser have unearthed the vast but secret empire Obeid built over decades, producing an authoritative account of how he got away with so much for so long.

Faster Higher Farther by Jack Ewing

FASTER, HIGHER, FARTHER

By Jack Ewing

When news of Volkswagen’s clean diesel fraud first broke in September 2015, it sent shockwaves around the world. Overnight, the company long associated with quality, reliability and trust became a universal symbol of greed and deception. Consumers were outraged, investors panicked, and the company was facing bankruptcy.

As the future of one of the world’s biggest companies remains uncertain, this is the extraordinary story of Volkswagen’s downfall.


AVAILABLE FROM BOOKTOPIA

All these books are available at booktopia.com.au


Tracey Mills is the Head of Academic Books at Booktopia.