Business Leader Breakthroughs

Alicia Purtell is a Chief People Officer at Lion with 20 years of experience in People and Culture, strategy, change and organisation development. Alicia has a passion for Coaching and Positive Psychology, bringing this passion to life as a Senior Associate with the Positivity Institute working with not for profits and the education sector.

In this episode, Alicia shares her top three leadership insights into being a leader, including what she wished she knew earlier in his career about thinking flexibly and her take on being an authentic leader, including how to stay true to yourself even when your values are being tested. Alicia and Ryan also discuss the loneliness that comes with being at the top and the importance of building a support network

We also learn about swimming with sharks. Why Viktor Frankl would be someone to channel, and why creativity is Alicia's superpower.

Links 

Connect with Alicia through her LinkedIn here

You can find us here

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

There can be many sources of stress in the workplace, this for the most part is unavoidable. These sources lead to a sense of overload – too much, too hard and/or too soon. What you can control is how you deal with those situations. In this podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss the power of gaining control over the situation and your decisions. If you want to reduce your sense of overwhelm, it's time to get comfortable: 

• Getting help
• Letting go
• Delegating 
• Prioritising 

Listen to the podcast to get in-depth detail on how you can implement any (or all!) of these options at your workplace.

Links:

Blog: Sources of Stress at Work and How to Combat Them by Mike Ashby, October 2022

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Blogs: https://thebreakthrough.co/blog/

David Mair is the CEO of iconic South Island brand Skellerup and Deloitte Top 200 ‘CEO of the Year 2021’. As a part of the team at Panasonic in Japan, he developed a deep understanding of Kaizen / Kaikaku and Product Development that has helped him develop rapid ways of improving businesses regardless of size.

We all know of the famous Red Band gumboots. But how does one take rubber products and turn them into a symbol? David shares how 10 years in Japan and a lifelong commitment to judo have introduced him to a revolutionary way of doing business and helped shape his leadership style to what it is today. He also talks about three essential learnings in his career. The first one is learning by doing, then focusing on structure, then people, then process. And finally the ability to deal when things go wrong, as David says: “It's not people that fail. It's the process”

He told Ryan about the kaikaku and kaizen concepts in Japanese production philosophy, which focuses on continuous self-improvement. Kaikaku means a radical change, during a limited time. Kaizen, on the other hand, is a system of incremental system changes.

Links 

Check out Who Stole My Customer?: Winning Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Customer Loyalty

Connect with David through his LinkedIn here

You can find us here

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

The Great Resignation is the idea that after the Covid pandemic, people re-evaluated their lives and left their jobs en masse. It sounds like a cultural movement where people don’t want to work anymore, but really, that's just an excuse used by employers.

In this week’s podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss the myth and the copout that helps us avoid evaluating our performance as leaders and managers. The conversation also turns to the latest McKinsey research that confirms the old saying that people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers. They share exactly what employees value in their careers and how you can provide this as an employer - and no, it isn't all about money! 

Links:
Blog The Myth of the Great Resignation, by Mike Ashby, June 2022

Research: McKinsey Quarterly ‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Blogs: https://thebreakthrough.co/blog/

In this podcast, Ryan interviews Jen Scoular, Chief Executive of New Zealand Avocado, where she shares her three leadership insights: Everyone is different, competency is important and leadership is not the same thing as being at the top.

Jen's journey from trade diplomat heading the New Zealand Consulate in Hamburg, Germany to going up against some of the biggest markets in the world to lead (and win!) the campaign for NZ to host the next World Avocado Congress in New Zealand in 2023 has gifted her a unique perspective on being a woman in leadership on the world stage.

Ryan and Jen also discuss women in leadership. While the latest Australian statistics are showing that the progress is slow, Jen strongly believes that we have to look at the good things as well. There are some amazing woman leaders doing great things. It’s all about progress and perfection.

Links 

Check out World Avocado Congress 2023 

Check out New Zealand Avocado website here

Connect with Jen through her LinkedIn here

You can find us here

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every Friday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this episode, Mike and Ryan give an example about a big failure we at The Breakthrough went through, but why it was the best thing to happen to us.

Going off a popular belief from a member of The Breakthrough's Board, "What are you going to delete, what are you going to develop, what are you going to grow, and what are you going to milk" and carrying on the discussion around failure, Mike and Ryan share a true story from when we lost a huge prospect and how it shaped the business (for the good).

Listen to the full episode here

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Blogs: https://thebreakthrough.co/blog/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thebreakthroughco

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every Friday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this episode, you'll hear Mike and Ryan's different point of views on the topic of engagement.

Mike and Ryan discuss how we can accurately measure engagement and direct it in a way that provides value to both your business and your employees. Although engagement in the workplace has been a focus in the leadership space for the last 10-15 years, it's still a measurement that is very hard to pin down. Engagement will have a leading influence on your business performance measures, such as contribution and productivity, but it doesn’t provide value in of itself, so looking at your employees engagement as a whole and then actively working on changing those measurements will show growth in the areas of the organisation that engagement touches.

Listen to the full episode here

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Blogs: https://thebreakthrough.co/blog/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thebreakthroughco

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every Friday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this episode, Mike and Ryan cover why you should celebrate your failures, rather than dwell on them

Failure is something we all fear, but failure doesn’t have to be bad thing. While we should always strive for success, success doesn’t allow us an opportunity to learn and grow. Mike and Ryan give insight on their own business failures and what they learnt from them, along with questions you can ask yourself if you feel yourself heading towards a disaster.

Listen to the full episode here

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/

Blogs: https://thebreakthrough.co/blog/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thebreakthroughco

Rebecca earned her stripes leading large teams in complex organisations and built quite a reputation for doing business differently. Today, she is among Australia’s leading Talent and Leadership coaches and facilitators – helping leaders and their teams work. She is particularly passionate about helping mid-level leaders, the B-suite, to step up in the face of complexity. She is sometimes called the "fairy godmother" of middle management.

In this podcast, Ryan interviews Rebecca on how to be a bold leader. She shares just how important it is as a leader to be creating fun in the workplace and how doing so can leader to higher performance and creativity, but also how it's equally important to remember that fun looks different to everyone. Together they look into the challenges specific to middle management and share solutions around those, including how to create space when overwhelm starts to build.
Rebecca shares some great tips on how to build and prioritise your tasks in a way that you can actually feel the impact you're creating in your business, along with allowing you to work with upper management in a way that doesn't see you working above capacity.

Links 

• Check out Rebecca's website here
• Connect with Rebecca through her LinkedIn here

Where else you can find us

Website: https://thebreakthrough.co

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-breakthrough-company

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/

Podcast: https://thebreakthrough.co/podcast/