StellarCast

During this episode, Shaun McCambridge, Stellar’s Managing Director, sits down with Gary Georgiou, Executive General Manager of Georgiou. We learn how Gary has built a successful Civil Engineering career and gain an insight into Georgiou, a business with a great company culture and pipeline of projects in the works, that he now leads as General Manager.

Gary’s Highlights 

1:12 - Gary’s journey to study Engineering 

2:39 - Career moments to be proud of

5:10 - Shifting from engineering to leadership

7:31 - Challenging moments faced as a leader

10:34 - How to develop strong communication & EQ skills

13:16 - Most influential person on his career journey

15:50 - The drive for self-development 

18:16 - Leadership philosophies

20:20 - Switching off outside of work

24:01 – Company culture at Georgiou

29:16 - Georgiou’s business outlook

32:15 - Tips for aspiring engineers or project managers 

Gary’s journey to study Engineering 

Without a clear vision Gary was unsure on what he wanted to do when he was in high school, but he knew he liked drawing and building. Through gaining work experience it became clear he didn’t want to spend his days on Excel, but rather doing something he enjoyed. This gave him an idea of what career path he wanted to take. 

Career moments to be proud of

As a project manager it was the rush of delivering a successful project, but now as the General Manager Gary has many project outcomes at different times – which has contributed to the impressive growth on the East Coast over the last five years. Additionally, watching staff succeed and grow with the business and in their personal lives is something Gary loves – some employees have been at Georgiou since they were graduates.

Shifting from engineering to leadership

As many engineers are technical people it is difficult getting into people management, however leadership is learned. Hence through taking ownership of his own career and thinking about the next role and the skills required Gary developed his leadership skills. Through exposure and taking on the responsibilities of delivering more direct reports Gary prepared himself for a management role. When he was still a project manager, he would read the business reports, take notes, and then meet with the CEO, CFO, and pre-contract managers to ask lots of questions. This shows the proactiveness towards his career goals and development. 

Challenging moments faced as a leader

The ongoing challenge is keeping staff motivated and employed – Georgiou is not a business that hires and fires, hence they put a lot of effort into making sure they understand staff members’ goals and keep moving the business forward to provide staff with enough opportunity to support growth and encourage culture within the company. 

How to develop strong communication & emotional Intelligence skills

Gary is an introvert however communication is one of his strengths. Without communication nothing would work, it is about being authentic and asking questions and giving information plays a big part in this. Many engineers are introverts, but Gary is a testament that this does not affect your leadership capabilities, through pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and always being honest and authentic you can evolve into a very impressive communicator. When dealing with clients, ask many questions specifically about what is important to them, and ensure the communication is constant and a clear alignment is there to support the relationship. 

Most influential person on career journey

Many people have been influential in Gary’s career path where he has learnt many things form these influences, but a standout is Brian Riggall, Ex CEO of Seymour Whyte, who pushed Gary throughout his career, including promoting him from Project Manager to General Manager. Brian has exceptional leadership skills where there is a core focus to treat everyone as equals, respect different views and maintains composure during stressful periods, which is something Gary emanates to this day. 

The drive for self-development 

Gary is self admittedly very competitive. He finds goal setting very important for working towards long term goals; ticking tasks off helps him to be more productive and seek new opportunities. Some of his greatest development has been when he is out of his comfort zone, significantly taking part in the Harvard Business School President Manager’s course with 140 very successful businesspeople from around the world.

Leadership philosophies 

Being authentic is very important to Gary who regularly says, “you can’t fake the genuine care for people and their development.” He also believes that who you surround yourself with helps to shape your career, and acknowledges his success is partly due to the people around him which have succeeded and helped him to grow. Gary places a lot of importance on seeking ideas from different people but also in being decisive. Sometimes you must take a risk to move on, and although it may not be right, employees can see sometimes things don’t go to plan, but it can be worked around.

Switching off outside of work

Gary lives by the moto ‘work smart not hard,’ and acknowledges that to perform at your best year after year you must be sustainable and demonstrate this to staff. This means first in office and last out is not admirable anymore. When his thoughts aren’t clear he finds taking himself out of the office, switching off the phone and exercising helps to get ideas flowing and distractions eliminated. 

Company culture at Georgiou

At Georgiou they are not precious about their roles, Gary explains it’s like a family, you just get in and help wherever you are needed. There is a genuine care for staff, they acknowledge one size doesn’t fit all and work hard to meet different staff needs which Gary finds rewarding and this also assists with staff retention. At Georgiou there is a big focus on working hard, playing hard, hosting many social events, and including team members’ families. 

Georgiou’s business outlook

As the East Coast continues to grow very strongly, Gary’s focus for Georgiou is ensuring they select the right projects, that suit the business’ strategy and staff development. Currently Georgiou is working on more and more complex and larger jobs, but also smaller jobs which suit young engineers’ growth. As Georgiou is small enough to know individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, they focus on pushing young engineers out of their comfort zone - if you want to advance to Project Manager, we will give you work in an area of your weakness.

Tips for aspiring engineers or project managers 

1. Be proactive about your own development - be responsible for yourself
2. Get yourself as much exposure to new opportunities as you can and ask for extra work that is outside of your role and useful for where you ...

Let’s go on an inspiring journey by listening, learning and taking key actions from our own recruitment experts as well as industry leaders and inspirational individuals.

Together, each month, we unpack key actions on how we can all learn from others’ experiences and industry knowledge; unlocking our own transformative change, so that we can all become the best version of ourselves.

During this episode, Shaun McCambridge, Stellar’s Managing Director, sits down with Andrew Boyd, a well-regarded Mining Executive. Andrew has vast experience in the mining and construction sectors, where his qualities of leadership and directorship are highly regarded within the industries. Andrew’s values, attitudes and beliefs connected to the mining, mining services and construction sectors have created success with outstanding outcomes. His managerial traits are centred around well-developed communication skills, passion for the sector and a key understanding of not only the operational aspects of the business, but the corporate perspective. Consequently, these traits have led a plethora of contemporary mining companies to achieve great success. 

Andrew’s Highlights 

5:00 The Three Chapters of Career

12:00 Proudest Moments of Career 

15:00 Most Challenging Aspects of Career

17:30 The Intersection Between EQ and IQ

20:00 Importance of Communication in Leadership 

22:30 How to Communicate as a Leader 

23:05 Impactful Leaders 

25:45 Relaxing Away from Work 

29:40 Personal Philosophy 

31:40 Vision for Future

The Three Chapters of Career 

After studying mining engineering at university, Andrew landed a job with MIM as a graduate mining engineer. From here, Andrew went from being a site engineer to an operations manager at Thiess where he was responsible for some of the Thiess’ largest projects in Queensland. In order to advance his career direction, Andrew joined a new venture which built the portfolio of mining service companies through private equity backing. Andrew is now a well-regarded executive in the mining industry.  

Proudest Moments of Career 

Achieving outstanding results with stakeholders is one of Andrew’s main accomplishments. From leading bids to acquiring and listing businesses on the ASX, there was no such thing as overnight success. 

Most Challenging Aspects of Career

Like any industry, various challenges arise. Aspects such as legal setbacks and the New Acland approvals highlighted some challenges faced. However, these challenges also emphasised the importance of communication and bringing employees along for the journey even when its bad news. 

The Intersection Between EQ and IQ

Both EQ and IQ are fundamental elements to any company. Integrity, energy and intelligence are the three critical factors that sustain feasibility. 

Importance of Communication in Leadership 

Self-awareness is critical to fostering great communication across all leadership styles. Building relationships with internal stakeholders must be achieved through personal interpretation and must be founded on the basis of understanding what works and does not work for your individual company. 

How to Communicate as a Leader 

Seeking feedback from employees and other vital stakeholders within the company, planning the key message and taking the opportunity to diverge from the familiar will reflect on successful communication levels.

Impactful Leaders 

Brian McDonald and Michael Rosengren’s inquisitive and intelligent qualities significantly impacted on the hallmarks of Andrew’s career. 

Relaxing Away from Work 

The generalised concept of work-life balance is flawed. It is imperative to find the time and commit to opportunities that reflect your internal passions. Providing context and communicating the ‘why’ allows others to share the journey. 

Personal Philosophy 

To be a great leader, you need followers. There are two key elements involved within great leadership. Firstly, leaders must gain and sustain trust with their followers to create a viable relationship. 

Secondly, articulate that you are going somewhere exciting so that the followers want to be a part of the journey.  

Vision for Future

The lack of awareness on the mining, mining services and construction sector has inspired Andrew to actively advocate and promote the mining industry and the enormous opportunities it presents for people and communities located within these industries.  

During this episode, Shaun McCambridge, Stellar’s Managing Director, sits down with Denise Kaitu, Stellar’s Team Leader for the Australian East Coast Trades and Labour team. Being in the industry since 2015, Denise has a wealth of mining experience; she has delivered diversified workforce solutions including ‘New to Industry’ and ‘Upskilling’ programs when businesses need access to talent during candidate tight markets. These solutions in turn provide job seekers with life changing opportunities to enter the mining industry. 

Denise’s Highlights

0:26 Demand and Outlook for Operators 

1:00 New to Industry Operator projects 

2:00 The Process of New to Industry 

2:40 Mining Operators & Trades Ideal for New to Industry Projects

3:00 Benefits of New to Industry

4:40 Upskilling Programs

6:00 Success Stories around the Candidates 

Demand and Outlook for Operators 

There is a lot of demand for operators in the mining market and not a lot of experience in the market.

New to Industry Operator projects 

With a high demand for experienced candidates her team have developed and delivered an alternative ‘New to Industry’ programs to a handful of clients across multiple sites since 2017.

We have coordinated assessment centres where we invite people to come in and do group activities. During these sessions we are able to assess how people work in teams and as individuals including safety exercises. 

We have also set up recruitment days where people can see if they are the right match to transfer from other industries and fit the site’s culture.

The Process of New to Industry 

During the first couple of weeks they undergo predominantly classroom based courses including an introductory to mining; during this time they can be a passenger in a truck or a assimilator. 

After 4-6 weeks they are able to drive the truck themselves with another person and shortly after that they are able to drive the truck solo. 

Mining Operators & Trades Ideal for New to Industry Projects

Similar initiatives are also offered on the mining trades side including auto electricians, diesel fitters, high voltage electrician from industrial, lite vehicle, heavy transport, army, marine, and agri sectors.

Benefits of New to Industry

New to Industry programs offer others in their current workforce to upskill that in turn allows more room for truck operators to start; it boosts staff morale with new people and a different set of eyes on things. 

There are also great cultural upsides and most new to industry candidates are excited to start their career in mining who have longer retention periods.

Businesses who have participated have also been able to add diversity to their sites, focusing particularly on females and Aboriginal & Torres strait islanders.

Upskilling Programs

We have also had interest in upskilling other workers from alternative industries e.g. construction operators and transferring those skills to mine sized machinery. It is a lot quicker compared to New to Industry because they understand the basics of operation; it is more about the upskilling in spacial awareness and getting to know the bigger gear. 

Success Stories around the Job Seekers

There have been great Job Seeker successes where it has had a major impact including spending more time with family, buying houses and starting families earlier, transferring to civilian life and new employment opportunities are needed to name a few.

With the market as tight as what it is and border restrictions etc still in play, upskilling programs can enable businesses to continue to grow as well as be life changing for the candidates.

During this episode, Shaun McCambridge, Stellar’s Managing Director, sits down with Martin Moore, Founder of Your CEO Mentor and former Chief Executive Office of CS Energy. Martin with his daughter Emma have created Your CEO mentor, - a place where leaders learn the things that they don’t teach at business school. He shares all of his hard-earned leadership experience and learning to good use; mentoring leaders around the globe with practical, no bullshit leadership strategies that will catapult their careers and help them create high performing, results-driven, winning teams. 

Martin’s Highlights

4:00 Martin’s early years

5:44 His own Resilience Journey 

7:10 Techniques for Resilience

9:10 A time of personal resilience building for Martin

12:00 Techniques that Martin has used

13:55 Leaders during COVID

18:05 Creating brain space for leaders

20:45 Remote leadership 

24:26 Creating/continuing a healthy culture during COVID

29:15 Enabling others to meet expectations with all the external factors

49:35 What is next for Martin? 

Martin’s early years

Parents greatly valued education and enrolled him at St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill. 

After school he went to university to study law, where he found himself in an unstructured environment compared to the highly structured one in his early education. As a result, he took time to regain his balance and go back to the values that he had learnt early on.  

His own Resilience Journey 

Never one to dwell on failure or falling short, he always doubled down even from a very young age. 

It was always about giving his very personal best and he always seeked to do better than the day before. 

He realised that one could make big mistakes that weren’t fatal; having no fear from failing is a very important element to being resilient.

Techniques for Resilience

There are a few techniques on how to build personal resilience. 

Focusing on Elements one can control

Not getting too caught up in elements that you can’t control and instead spending time on things that you can makes a huge difference; Martin refers to the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey 

Perspective

Having the perspective on what is going on, no matter how bad the circumstance gets with the pandemic, we will look back 10 years from now and there will be some good learnings and changes. 

A time of personal resilience building for Martin

Martin experienced personal resilience building about 20 years ago. During this time he experienced a period of sustained pressure; he first moved to QLD, had taken on C-level role, was studying for an Executive MBA; during a hostile takeover and he had to handle all of elements at once. 

What he initially thought of doing was to take off one of those elements; however, he wanted to further his career into a more demanding C level role and if couldn’t sustain this, he wouldn’t be able to in the future. Having a reminder that this sustained period of pressure is what future roles would have helped him continue on. At end of it, he had a tremendous amount of confidence knowing that he could step into any situation and handle it. 

Techniques that Martin used

He was in survival mode at times and used 15 minutes to reset.  

He also spent time working on hard constraints and then allowed some elements to be more flexible.

Leaders during COVID

At the moment leaderships skills are being put to the test. The key is to look into outputs, not inputs; concentrating on the value and value alone.

Leaders need to define and articulate what adds value; companies often lose sight of this. It is the leader’s role to eliminate the non-value items and focus on items that will make a difference.

Example: One of the organisations that he worked with had a team that created processes and procedures; the problem was that there was virtually no impact on the outcome; there was a real disconnect. 

In every team needs to be outcome driven such as the processes/procedures need to reduce time, save money etc. 

Creating brain space for leaders

Martin refers to “The Leadership Pipeline: How to build the leadership powered company” by Ram Charan, Steve Dotter and Jim Noel

Leaders need to have brain space to do their jobs; the below Leadership pipeline book breaks down different levels of businesses and giving each level clarification of what they should be concentrating on. 

Many leaders/managers are overcompensating and drilling down too deep for their level which takes away from the role that they should be doing. 

Remote leadership 

Prior and during COVID leaders are still managing people and to do this successfully you need to provide the following framework: 

1)     Clear Expectations

2)     How they are tracking based on those expectations

3)     What their future holds

Usually, you can rely on the micro conversations to further clarify or obtain feedback but COVID has challenged the relationships that rely on this; if you have completed the three above elements it enables flowing leadership conversations.

Creating/continuing a healthy culture during COVID

COVID has added the complexity of different circumstances for each individual e.g. working from home environments

It is about making people aware of the following elements: 

-        The company’s why and linking the purpose 

-        What creates value for the company as a whole

-        What is the strategy in the long term

-        What are tactics the we will use  

-        What the company needs from you today

Every layer of a business then communicates the above but it can potentially change the message from the top, down; so it is really important that one sets the expectation on oneself and check-ins to see how others interpret that day to day.

Enabling others to meet expectations with all the external factors

It comes to down to understanding humans.

If we have open conversations with people and finding a bridge between their personal circumstances and what the organisation needs 

It is ultimately a give and take relationship.

Making the decision to pursue your purpose

About 14 years ago he realised that what he was put on this pla...

During this episode, Shaun McCambridge, Stellar’s Managing Director, sits down with Warren Crowther, General Manager of JF Hull Holdings. We delve into how Warren has built a successful Civil Engineering career and gain an insight into JF Hull Holdings, a business that he now leads as General Manager. 

Warren’s Highlights

1:15 Warren’s journey to becoming a Civil Engineer

3:11 JF Hull the company 

6:05 The team & culture

7:50 Leaders of JF Hull

10:00 Warren’s own career and strategies

14:30 Career transitioning

17:00 Vision moving forward

19:15 Warren’s personal drivers

21:20 Future of civil engineering

24:20 Warren’s downtime

26:20 Elevator pitch of JF Hull 

Warren’s journey to becoming a Civil Engineer 

From a very early age, Warren wanted to become an engineer and went on to complete a Civil Engineering degree. However, it wasn’t until building a bridge in Cape York 3 years after university that it all came together. During this project he had the responsibility of leading a high performing team where he saw it come to life and was able to leave something behind; it was a game changing moment for him. 

JF Hull the company 

Started in 1977 started by John Hull; from his own home and the workshop in the garage. He was. Always focussed on looking after people and engineering excellence was a driver for him. 

These really were the values that the business derived from. 

Ever since John started the business there was a focus on integrity and our commitment to customers and partners. The key is that we always put focus on the long-term view, not the short-term; reality is that there is still a commercial element but our approach is long-term; where it is best to take a hit short team rather than damage the partnerships down the track; by doing this, in time you do get a competitive advantage in the market but you must continually come back to it. 

The team & culture

We have many longstanding team members with some 10,20,30+ years of service.

Over the years people have really enjoyed the leadership of John Hull, Founder & Chairman and Bruce Graham, Executive Director; they have built a lot of staff loyalty. 

The leaders of JF Hull

Together, both John Hull and Graham have been the driving force behind the business.

As highlighted previously, John focussed on people relationships and engineering solutions; Bruce in contrast is the key person on how to run an efficient and competitive contracting business; different but similar in how they are both very strategic and take risks.  

Together with two younger long-term employees and myself in the executive board team. 

Warren’s own career and strategies

Warren has always had senior people within and outside the civil engineering field that he has been inspired by; those who maintained their integrity, principles and character; people who had the reputation that his “handshake is as good as a contract” and that is few and far between in the competitive civil engineering sector.

Career transitioning

After working at a Tier One company for 15 years on big projects with high profiles, he realised that even though there were great leaders within the company, he wasn’t the same as them. What I perceived as my strengths; others saw it as a weakness. 

After 1 year at JF Hull, Warren appreciates being trusted by clients and partners; that the trust is there in the market already. He also enjoys the concentration of highly skilled people as well as working with systems and processes that is based on the KISS principle and that there is a real laser focus on finding the smartest engineering solutions.

Vision moving forward

Consolidate the place that the business has in the market already, which is to be the leading structural specialist in Queensland. 

Many people ask Warren if the plan is to grow the business; to this, Warren answers yes and no. If the opportunity is there, then yes but if it isn’t then definitely not; he doesn’t want to be caught in the race to the bottom.

Warren’s personal drivers

His motivation completing an MBA was to differentiate himself from his peers that he was competing against for promotions. Ultimately, he doesn’t feel like it accelerated him but he did learn a lot from the studies; for him, when he compared to what he learnt on the job it was probably minor.

 He is a firm believer that what you get out of an MBA is what you put in and he most probably didn’t put enough in with competing family and work priorities.

Future of Civil Engineering

In the short-term situation with COVID, where many people faced economic and health impacts, the reality is that Governments’ during a recession highlight the civil engineering sector as a winner with announcements of projects and initiatives; so there is a very bright and exciting future. 

In the long-term there will always be a need for engineering even with emerging technologies such as AI. Apart from the continuing need, the sector itself is embracing diversity, and technology; enabling it to move with the times. 

Warren’s downtime

Warren loves road and mountain biking as well as reading. 

Best book at the moment is Milkman by Anna Burns; Set in North Belfast, a book with resilience, family and enabled him to reflect on how well we have it now. 

Elevator pitch of JF Hull 

The business takes practical common sense with specialised tech know how that produces the magical dust; this brings us as business the opportunity for us to work on the most exciting projects with the best partners and clients in Queensland.

Our reason for being is looking after people; and this enables us to provide great career opportunities in an exciting environment.