Business Leader Breakthroughs

In this episode Ryan interviews Raelene Castle, CEO of Rugby Australia. Raelene shares her journey, where it began, and what she’s achieved along the way including becoming the first female CEO of a NRL club. Working in an industry heavily dominated by men, Raelene shares the many challenges and adversity she’s faced.

Her story begins at early childhood, to eventually working with the likes of Xerox, Bank of New Zealand, and Telecom.  She then transitioned from big corporates to sporting organisations, becoming CEO of Netball NZ, followed by a move to Australia with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and now CEO of Rugby Australia.

Raelene shares insights on:

• Her earlier career. How it began with a strong corporate career before moving into commercial sporting roles
• Childhood experiences and how they shaped her into the person she is today
• How she has developed resilience
• The importance of culture and how she ensures a strong culture as CEO
• First experiences in Australia and being the CEO at Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
• Proudest achievement commercialising of Netball NZ and taking it to a place where female athletes could make a living
• Her experience of being a woman in a heavily male dominated industry and gender issues in leadership roles
• Dealing with social media and bullying
• The challenge of Alopecia and what it has taught her
• What matters most in her life
• Areas for growth related to a personal goal and a business leadership goal
• The one thing that really makes a difference as a leader

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 

The idea of the classroom as the sole place of learning is dead and the vast majority of money spent on training is a waste of money. In this podcast episode, Mike and Ryan discuss the issues with the traditional approach to training and learning and offer insights into a new effective approach. The current model of adult learning posits that 10% of learning effectiveness comes from content (i.e. the classroom), 20% from exposure through socialisation, and 70% through experience.

The old approach of sending people away to a block course to develop their management skills has always been an exercise in hope. Participants may get new ideas, but the gap between knowledge and application equals the distance between the classroom and the workplace. Mike and Ryan discuss a new learning concept called blended learning. An approach that uses a mix of online and classroom content. The key advantage being a lower cost delivery of soft skills (communication, people, relationships) that can be applied immediately. To find out more, check out the links below.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Dr. Mike has written a free Whitepaper on the future of leadership development. Which you can download here 
• Active Management Programme mentioned here: https://thebreakthrough.co/management-training/

In this podcast, Dr Mike and Ryan cover important issues around business management. Most business owners end up in management roles having progressed through an organisation because they’ve been good at a technical role or job, and somehow they’ve gotten “manager” in their title. So, they often don’t have the necessary skill set required of a great manager. 

Business owners want their managers to step up, they don’t want to do their managers jobs for them which is often how it feels. They end up micromanaging and just pissing their managers off. Fortunately, Dr Mike and Ryan have developed the Active Management Programme (AMP) - it equips managers with the core skills to step up their capability and confidence running your day-to-day business. And you can step back and focus on opportunities to grow your future business. You don’t have to worry about teaching because we’ve got the content for you. We provide a facilitator who will help, but you still have to take ownership of the clarifying the expectations of your people” (something you can’t contract out)

Links:

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Quiz for management effectiveness here
• Active Management Programme here: https://thebreakthrough.co/management-training/

Many leaders and business owners find themselves in a state of constant frustration. Ping pong balls racing around in your head sound familiar? In this episode, Mike and Ryan share their advice on how to overcome frustration in your business by using the 7 P’s framework.

A great practice they recommend in gaining clarity and awareness is a process they call the mind dump, by putting pen to paper on a blank piece of paper. This allows you to get clear on the important things that matter and to declutter, this makes space for the higher value stuff.

The 7p’s are outlined as follows to help guide overcoming frustration by gaining clarity.

1)      People and Patrons: The internal team and our customers, clients, (how we deliver the customer experience)
2)      Partners: Important path to market. Partner channel and suppliers,
3)      Platforms: Importance of technological platforms.
4)      Product: The programmes that we deliver.
5)      Process: Everything from how we get from start to finish.
6)      Profit: A wrapper for finance, how we deal with cash flow and capital.
7)      Promotion: How we attract sales through marketing.

Lastly, at the backbone of everything, having purpose they consider to be highly important as it provides context for why we do what we do.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• The Breakthrough Company: https://thebreakthrough.co/ 

In this episode, Ryan and Mike discuss the importance of working ON the business as opposed to IN the business. Many leaders in businesses get stuck in the operational tyranny of getting things ticked off the to-do list and fire-fighting the urgent issues. Mike and Ryan suggest taking a step back and having a greater awareness of the bigger picture of where you want to take the business and what you need to do to get there.

They talk about the importance of religiously making time to carve out a day in the week solely focused on working ON the business. This is referred to as a Development Day; a day focused on the future of the business. They use the framework of improve, develop, transform to help guide this type of work. 

• Improve: Improving existing products, services and processes, develop and train staff
• Develop: New initiatives such as new products, new technology, new processes, new markets
• Transform: What your business might it look like in the future, where is the industry heading? 

It’s simple but not always easy to do because the urgent always speaks louder than the important. Working on the future of your business is absolutely critical. 

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• The Breakthrough Company: https://thebreakthrough.co/ 

In this podcast, Ryan interviews Darrell Trigg of Trigg Construction Ltd, who is also the National President of the Registered Master Builders Association of New Zealand. In this Q&A session, Darrell shares his insights on topics:

• The importance of personal goals: why he feels like lugging 20 kilos of equipment up the world’s highest buildings is a really good thing to do
• His view on the tendering model and why he thinks that it is flawed
• How to get your fair share of work, even though you might predominantly operate in a tender environment
• His success in acquiring one of the biggest construction projects to hit the Northern Region that is going to have a huge impact on the community and tourism in the area
• Why focus in business is so critical, and how he chose his focus and the outcomes for him

Links:

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Trigg Construction - https://trigg.co.nz/
• Registered Master Builders https://www.masterbuilder.org.nz/

Business owners today seem to be have become obsessed with keeping busy. Creating ridiculously long to-do lists and check boxes that often lead to an overwhelming sense of busyness. Mike and Ryan question whether or not people add value in the long run, amidst all the never ending to-do lists. 

They suggest a reflection on getting the most important things done as a start. 

Ryan discusses a great exercise he uses in workshops to get people to gain clarity on what’s important. 

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 

Mike and Ryan introduce themselves in the very first episode of Business Leader Breakthroughs. They discuss the importance of the "All In" a concept central to being able to transform oneself and business. In order to achieve this, they stress the value of being fully committed, prioritisation and the removal of low value items. Lastly, they talk about the challenges faced in achieving the "All In" and share insightful advice on how to achieve it.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Business Freedom plan. Check it out here: https://advisor.thebreakthrough.co/bfp 
• The Breakthrough Company https://thebreakthrough.co/ 

In this podcast Mike and Ryan use the framework, heads heart and hands to show how you can propel your business forward. They discuss the importance of aligning the heart with what you want to get done in your business and only then, will you see success. They share their personal story and show how they used this framework to generate the Business Freedom plan.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Business Freedom Plan mentioned link here: https://advisor.thebreakthrough.co/bfp

You’ll certainly be demanding a boringly, predictable, profitable business after having listened to this podcast. Ryan and Mike talk about what’s involved in shifting a business from an endless startup mode to a business that is achieving 20% revenue growth consistently every single year.

The challenge that most businesses face is inconsistency. They often don’t have the systems in place and are chasing their tails, encountering the same problems over and over. They tend to be trapped in start-up mode and haven’t worked out how to stop fires from breaking out. Mike and Ryan discuss the importance of locking in a method, one that you can refine, perfect and practice.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Active Management Programme mentioned here: https://thebreakthrough.co/management-training/
• The Breakthrough website here: https://thebreakthrough.co/