Culture is the most important thing we’re building

That’s one of my refrains at Montoux, a fast-growing, B2B SaaS start-up. At Montoux, we believe with total conviction that you don’t build truly great products or companies without an equally great culture.

But how do you build culture? The place I like to start is with values. Here, I’m sharing a simple process that we’ve followed to identify, codify and express the values of our company.

I wasn’t always a culture-builder

Before I start, a word to the skeptics out there. I used to doubt the value of spending time on company culture. I prided myself on being a productive contributor who got shit done instead of dilly-dallying with cultural fluff. Thankfully, that attitude, along with a raft of similarly ill-informed opinions forged during my early 20s, has long since died.

Last year, I chatted with the CEO of another successful SaaS start-up. He summarised his own experience in a way that resonated with mine:

Especially early on as a developer, I would way rather fix another bug or ship another feature than participate in some activity for company culture. Now, after 8 years as a CEO, I realise culture is EVERYTHING.

So, if you’re a leader who is hesitating to spend time on your company’s culture, take it from a couple of former skeptics … it’s worth it.

Getting started

When I joined Montoux, I joined a company with a healthy, positive culture and founders who were naturally attuned to creating a sustainable working environment for the team. But I thought we could do even more. I also anticipated that the team of 15 would double before the year was out and that could put the culture under stress. I therefore set out to bottle the fantastic, organic Montoux brew in order that we could keep it, enhance it, and share it with newcomers.

The recipe

As a newcomer to Montoux myself, I was cautious about missing the mark and getting off on the wrong foot. Luckily, I knew a recipe that is hard to screw up. The recipe has six easy steps and one secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient is to let your team speak for itself.

If you’re prepared to use the secret ingredient throughout the process, you have very little chance of landing on values that are misaligned with your team or your company’s ambitions. Here are the six steps:

Step 1. Call up the culture crew

On Slack and at our daily standup, I invited anyone who took a special interest in culture to join me in a fun and important project to look at our company’s values. I immediately got four volunteers, which felt just about right for a company of our size. You don’t need a large project team, especially if you’re a small company, three people will do.

If you don’t get the response you’re after, I encourage you to shoulder-tap people who seem culturally-attuned. Often, a nudge is all they need. It also pays to look at the diversity of your culture crew. As well as ethnic and gender diversity, consider:

• People from different parts of the business
• Spanning different geographic offices
• Relative newcomers as well as long-standing members of the company (if you are old enough to have those!)
• Varying levels of seniority and experience.

Significantly, I asked another person from our senior management team to join the project. Culture is everybody’s responsibility, but if you don’t have leadership that is 100% bought in, culture is on shaky ground. My partner was Gert, our CTO, co-founder, and Montoux cultural icon (a kind-hearted Dutchman with a fondness for sailing, heavy metal and a canine companion called Aiko).

Step 2. Work(shop) it!

Next, we designed workshops aimed at engaging every person at Montoux in crafting our values. Each workshop had 4–5 attendees and ran for an hour. Running five workshops took two hours of preparation and five hours to execute, with the help of a scribe from the culture crew for each session.

In each workshop, we asked the attendees to discuss the following four questions:

Why do you choose to work at Montoux?

What is Montoux-y?

What is in the shadow?

What do we need to keep, amplify, or throw away so that our culture will evolve to meet our aspirations?

These simple questions hold they key to the kingdom and can work for any company. Let’s walk through them:

Why do you choose to work at [Company]?

Find out what’s really motivating people to be at your company. There’s likely to be both diversity and commonality and, often, overall harmony.

For instance, at Montoux, people overwhelmingly cared about having challenging work, making an impact and learning. Some of us were passionate about fixing the life insurance industry and others could be passionate about fixing anything, provided it was fixed beautifully and meaningfully. You don’t have to be the same to find common ground.

What does it mean to be [Company]-y?

This question is great for eliciting the language that people use to describe how the organisation is and aspires to be. We found there was great humanity and identity in the words people spoke. These are fantastic gems when it comes to expressing your values in a way that resonates with your team rather than in corporate speak.

What’s in The Shadow?

I LOVE this question. It borrows from Carl Jung’s ideas about human psychology and recognises that even the best cultures have a dark side. The mere act of asking the question tells your team you don’t just care about unicorns and rainbows, you care about all of the things — including the hard things.

Asking ‘What’s in the Shadow?” provides and opportunity to talk about the less desirable and often unconscious aspects of the company’s personality (what’s the consequence of prioritising X? what do we look like when we’re not at our best?). The aim is not to blame, complain or even solve everything that’s in The Shadow. The purpose is to surface the vulnerabilities of the culture that you have. Sometimes we can eliminate or minimise the downside and other times we have to accept it as a trade-off for what we value most highly. One thing’s for sure, talking about The Shadow helps your culture to be genuine and strong. It’s also an opportunity to talk about Star Wars.

What do we need to keep, amplify, or throw away so that our culture will evolve to meet our aspirations?

Cultures aren’t stagnant, they’re evolving. In successful start-ups, everyone who was there at the beginning has nostalgia for the early days. Sometimes we need to let go to move forward. Other times, we should hold on fiercely. At Montoux, we want to keep the spirit of the surfers and mountaineers that started our company because we know it will serve us all. But we have to let go of the ease of being a small company and embrace the joys of being a larger, multinational team. Asking this question is not only a great source ideas, it helps people to recognise that change is inevitable.

Step 3. Crunch the data

When you’re done with your workshops, you will have a bunch of data. Without much trouble at all, every comment you recorded can be tagged and sorted in a spreadsheet.

When the Montoux culture crew went through this exercise, the themes that we would shape into our 4 values almost jumped off the spreadsheet. We made all of the data that we collected available to the entire company. This meant that everyone knew they had been heard and that the values we adopted weren’t plucked from thin air or sent from on high — they came from listening our team.

Step 4. Massage it into shape

Raw data is great, but usually needs work before it’s ready to be communicated to the world. What we did was to:

• Wordsmith the themes we spotted. I found it was good to do this with one other person rather than with a committee. We also named our values ‘The Montoux Way’, picking up on language that I had hear our founders using to make decisions. Literally, ‘that’s the Montoux way’ or ‘that’s not the Montoux way’.
• Workshop those themes some more with our senior leadership team. I challenged that team to more precisely identify what we would need to emphasise to meet our future aspirations. (Questions like, what comes first at this stage of our business, customer or product?). Then, I asked them whether they could commit, 110%, to lead in accordance with the values we had identified. If the wider team had surfaced values that the leaders weren’t prepared to own, they would need to veto them and explain why. Moreover, if the leaders weren’t prepared to walk the talk every day, the values would be severely undermined.
• Designed those themes into something beautiful. We didn’t have a designer at the time, so we got some outside help from a talented and affordable freelancer to visualise the values we had identified. Symbols are important and the ones that we created now adorn our office walls. In the process, we managed to convince the freelancer to join Montoux as its first designer. BONUS!
• Finally, we prepared a slide deck that summarised each of our values. Each explained what the values mean (in the words of our own team), the upside and the shadow.

Step 5. Launch!

Now you’re done all of that great work to identify your values, are you going to just write them on a piece of paper and pop them in a drawer? No, you are not. You are going to launch them in a style befitting of one of the most important products your company will ever produce, because that’s what they are.

A certain amount of ceremony is important and symbolic. What you do should fit with your own company culture and the values you’ve identified. If a massive party or a parade is right for your company, then that’s what you should do. At Montoux, we’re pretty low-key folks and so we designed a fun and down-to earth launch for The Montoux Way:

Here’s what we did

• Found a great, off-site venue and spent half a day together
• Asked (and prepared — they need preparation) four of our leaders to to launch each of our values with the team. To do this effectively, they need to speak from the heart and acknowledge The Shadow as well as the much greater upside.

• Gave everyone had the opportunity to speak and share stories that resonated with the values. Some truly moving tales were told.
• Unveiled some art that would symbolise our values in both our New Zealand and NYC offices. We also turned these symbols into Slack icons which we use to express the values all the time.
• Took the opportunity to have fun and get to know each other better. At Montoux, we love games, so we played “The { }And” by The Skin Deep. There was eye-gazing and everything, even with the Coworkers Edition!

• We also celebrated with our favourite symbol of success, Gelato!

Step 6. Keep going

Of course, identifying your values is just the first step. You have to keep using them every day to create the culture you want.

At Montoux, we’ve immediately felt the benefit of expressing our values. It’s shaped the way we think about ideas, the way we celebrate and the way we run our recruitment process. Having the values articulated means that any Montouxvian can grab them anytime and weave them into the work we’re doing.

That’s it

Sound easy? Sound fun? It is. And what’s more, it has a massive ROI. If you give it a try, I’d love to hear the results.

Huge thanks!

Thanks to culture-builder extraordinaire Simon D’Arcy, for helping me to formulate the recipe and encouraging me to write this blog. Also to Caneel Joyce for her wisdom. For amazing culture-building resources, check out culture-builder.com and for the best of the best advisors to support your journey, look up Simon or Caneel!

Frances Valintine CNZM is a globally recognised leader in technology education, the founder of The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab and a Director of Callaghan Innovation. She is one of New Zealand’s leading voices on digital technologies and disruptive business models. I spoke to Frances about her innovative leadership style, ahead of this year’s Bold Steps conference.

What’s your style of Bold Leadership?

The leadership style I have today is very collaborative, which is a change from how I have approached it in the past. In both my organisations, we work in an agile environment and I have 100 staff distributed across the country, half of them are under 30 years old.

I’ve had to think completely differently about the type of leadership I deploy because I’m not in the same physical location as many of my staff and due to the requirements of specific projects, team composition changes all the time.

I try to think about the skill sets that individuals bring and how to bring out the best in them, regardless of their age, education or experience. I look for how to build on natural capabilities to enable people to jump forward and progress their own careers.

Has it been difficult for you to develop a collaborative leadership style?

The key first of all is to recognise that everyone’s point of view is valid and not to slip back into a traditional hierarchical approach, which assumes that those who have earned their stripes have the most to offer. Once you create an environment where every person can come forward to share, then you have to truly listen to them. For me, I had to step back and listen with intent in a new way. It’s not easy, it’s something I’ve had to really work at. I’m five years in and am starting to get my head around it now, but in the first few years it could feel pretty uncomfortable.

Truly embracing diversity means being careful not to fall back on judgement calls that come from familiarity, seniority and hierarchy. When you’re with peers of a similar age, there’s a real risk of drinking the Kool Aid and going ‘we all know what we’re talking about because we all agree’. Actually, disagreement is something that leaders should really embrace. It’s not a sign of war, it’s an opportunity to go ‘ok, you don’t agree. Tell me more about that and let me think about how to look at things differently’. So, there is a real responsibility that comes with opening up the communication channels to everyone, but a huge reward that comes with it too. You can’t just dip your toe in, because you’re making a structural change to the way you lead.

What’s it like to lead a distributed team?

When you have a distributed team, you focus on outputs and not how many hours people worked this week or when they completed them. There is a huge trust that goes with that, and the trust goes both ways. You have to trust your team to do the work and they must trust you to provide the opportunity for them to succeed. I find that the flexibility leads to real productivity gains.

To do any of this, you must be highly (online) platform-based. There is no way to have a distributed team, or to have a highly collaborative culture using a traditional, paper-based system. Digital channels, like Slack, Trello, Google Docs, and Zoom are what makes it possible to collaborate and to create the transparency of information that is so critical in a distributed workforce This means you must have good capability around the use of digital tools and some leaders are confronted by this. For me, it took some thinking through and adjustment to be totally transparent and paperless. But I wouldn’t go back to analogue systems for anything.

Are there any limiting beliefs or behaviours that you’ve noticed, that hold women back from leadership?

Most women, suffer from some level of imposter syndrome. This can limit us from taking on something when we don’t yet have 100% of the capabilities required. Plus we tend to underestimate our capabilities to begin with!

There’s great value in being able to put yourself forward.

Saying ‘I might not be quite ready to do this, but I am going to give it a darn good shot’ is incredibly liberating but also very scary.

That’s not something that women are intrinsically comfortable with, but if you look at women who are highly successful, they have often gotten better at doing this over time. They say ‘yes’ to things without needing to feel 100% comfortable.

I try to instill this attitude in females that I work with and to make sure they are never held back by their doubts. Often, if a woman you lead is struggling to take on a new challenge, it’s just a matter of talking them through it, until they reach ‘maybe I could give it a go’. Then they’re off.

For you, what are the key beliefs or behaviours that have led you to where you are?

I think life is a constant journey of discovery. And you never really know everything you’re capable of. A good example for me is that I’m an introvert by nature, and yet I speak on a stage somewhere almost every week. If you’d told me five years ago I’d be doing that, I’d have laughed and said ‘no way’.

Going through the journey of discovery and learning new things has helped me to reduce the fear factor. These days, I tend to think ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ and if no one’s going to get hurt, I say it’s worth the risk. Over time, my profile towards taking risks has changed dramatically. When I was younger, I was much more concerned about the perception others would have of me, being wrong or looking like a fool. Taking risks is a virtuous cycle because when they pay off and people say ‘wow, thank you, that was great’ and you’re encouraged to do more.

If you could write a billboard for kiwi women aspiring to leadership, what would it say?

Life is a nano-second long

We get a finite amount of days on this planet. We have to stop talking about the future like something in the distance and realise that the technological advances we once imagined are already here. New business models are challenging the status quo and if we wait until we are truly comfortable with change we will be left behind.

Investing in ourselves and committing to learning through all stages of our careers is paramount, but I see far less women in professional courses or even in casual events such as ‘business meet ups’ or lecture series. As an example Tech Futures Lab just launched an online learning platform called the Digital Suitcase, which is to help professionals develop conversational knowledge of advances such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, the blockchain. And it’s 80% men who have signed up. I’m not sure if it is a confidence issue, a time issue or it is just females don’t allow themselves the same amount of time to invest in learning due to other priorities.

I really want to encourage females towards the significant career advantages they can experience if they embrace and develop their understanding of new technologies. That goes whether you’re on a board, in a leadership team, an employer or employee. If you have an understanding of advances in the digital world, you’ve got the power to see where things are headed. It also provides a significant boost to career progression, as all employers are looking for people to lead digital initiatives or integrations.

You’re hosting a youth panel at the Bold Steps Conference this year. What’s it about?

I’m focussing on young people, particularly Gen Z. My panel of five young people will help the audience to understand the entirely different viewpoints held by the generation who is just started entering the workforce. They hold very different views and priorities about roles, careers and what’s next. In the gig economy, for example, young people are much more prepared to work on a project by project basis and less likely to commit to a long term career in one organisation. The young people on the panel will be sharing how they think about the future of work, skills and empowerment, education and lifestyle, and leadership. The idea is to give a really clear picture of the types of changes leaders should prepare for.

To join Frances Valintine, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, in conversation about Bold Leadership, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.

Cathy Quinn is one of New Zealand’s leading corporate and commercial law partners, and served as Chair of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts from 2009–2016. She was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 and holds several governance positions, including on the board of Fletcher Building, Tourism Holdings, the New Zealand Treasury and the New Zealand China Council. I asked Cathy to share some of her leadership insights with me.

What does Bold Leadership mean to you?

A lot comes down to the ability to project confidence — if you don’t show confidence in yourself, then you can’t expect anyone to follow you. When you do provide a confident and clear direction, often people will follow. It doesn’t always feel comfortable and you will sometimes have an inkling of doubt, but you have to project confidence if you want others to follow you and deliver on a strategy that you have agreed upon.

What are the beliefs or behaviours that can hold women back on the path to leadership?

One belief that can hold women back is the idea that you can have it all. That’s a myth. People have to make compromises whatever they choose in life. Most women can’t be at the top of their field and the most amazing mother and the perfect partner and the most beautiful and fit all at the same time. So, it’s helpful for women who aspire to leadership to work out what they are comfortable compromising in order to achieve their goal.

For me, I have devoted my life to my children and to my career, and that has meant sacrifice in other areas. And different priorities at different times. When I started working in the law, I was very clear that I wanted to be partner and I worked hard to achieve that in a relatively short time. By the time I met my then husband and had my children, I was able to surround myself with excellent people at work and bring in extra help at home. It meant that I could offer my highest value work and serve my clients while still seeing my kids enough to show them I loved them.

Something else that can hold women back is worrying too much about what other people think. This can be a particular issue if you are perceived as a successful woman, because some people will want to knock you down. It’s hard, but you have to be resilient enough to ignore those voices and make your own choices. Some people might have criticised me for working so hard when I am a mother. But I have a great relationship with my children, who are well-adjusted, fantastic people. I don’t think they suffered emotionally or otherwise by the time I spent working.

What were the beliefs and behaviours that got you to where you are? The things that have made the difference?

Quite simply, if you want to be successful, you have to work hard. I’ve always understood that. I don’t know a single person that I regard as successful who didn’t work hard to get there and then continue to work hard. Sometimes I encounter people who aspire to do X but are actually not willing to do the work or make the compromises necessary to get there. Either you’re up for it or you’re not. And I don’t criticise anyone who is not or who wants to pursue a more balanced life — everyone has their own definition of success.

Another important attitude is to be positive and to turn challenges in opportunities. When I took on the role as Chair of Minter Ellison, I remember one guy said to me ‘that’s a poison chalice’, because it was the beginning of the GFC. I said, ‘no it’s not, it’s fantastic because it means people will be prepared to change’. In a time of crisis, you can effect cultural change and we did that at the firm during the GFC. If you can look at things that other people see as too difficult and see the opportunity, you have a great advantage.

What will be your focus during the Bold Steps conference next month?

I’ll be MC for a discussion with the Governor General, Her Excellency Dame Patsy Reddy, who was one of two people who first recruited me into law.

Throughout the conference, I want all of the speakers to tell attendees what can be learned from their experiences very honestly. Not just the rosy stories, but the honest truth about what you might need to do to take the next step in your career.

Who is a leader that you have admired in your own career?

Dame Patsy is one of them, because when I started my career it was inspirational to see a female commercial partner in a major law firm. Her Excellency was one of the country’s top tax lawyers at that time.

I also had a generous mentor in Peter Ratner, who was a fantastic lawyer and taught me to always understand the root of the problem you are dealing with. He taught me that doing things the same way because ‘that’s the way it’s always been done’ wasn’t acceptable, you need to ask ‘why?’. He also taught me that I needed to differentiate myself in order to be someone that the firm would want as a commercial partner, because good commercial lawyers are a dime a dozen. I set my focus on New Zealand’s insider trading law, which was just being drafted, and became an expert. I wrote book chapters, talked and ran seminars all around New Zealand. Peter was both inspirational and a giver of concrete advice. He pushed me to take on challenges outside of my comfort zone and always backed me up.

All of the women in our On Being Bold Group are women I admire. They are each very different, but every one of them is inspiring, leads in their own way and generously shares with others.

If you had a billboard to write one thing to NZ women aspiring to leadership, what would it say?

I want to encourage women to just get on and do it. I could offer Nike’s tagline, but instead I might quote Amelia Earhart, who said:

The most effective way to do it is to do it

To join Cathy Quinn, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, in conversation about Bold Leadership, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.

Dame Therese Walsh describes her career as a game of two halves — the first in financial and audit roles and the second in the sports industry, where her posts included COO of Rugby New Zealand 2011 Limited (which hosted the Rugby World Cup), executive roles in the New Zealand Rugby Union, Director of NZ Cricket and Head of New Zealand for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Limited. Dame Therese is currently the chairman of TVNZ, a director of ASB Bank, Air New Zealand, Contact Energy, Antarctica NZ, and On Being Bold, and is Pro Chancellor of Victoria University. I talked to her ahead of this year’s Bold Steps Conference, where she’ll be MC.

What does Bold Leadership mean to you?

For me, it’s about taking every opportunity. I don’t mean do everything, I mean don’t be self-inhibiting when there are opportunities that you want to take. It sounds really simple, but it can be hard.

My career has been about grabbing the opportunities that have come along. I’ve never had lofty career goals, I have just done a good job, met great people and taken the opportunities.

Just put one foot in front of the other and if you do, it’s incredible how far you can walk.

When times are tough or overwhelming, putting one foot in front of the other is a very powerful technique. It keeps you moving forward when otherwise it would be easy to give up.

What themes will you be exploring as MC of the Bold Steps Conference this year?

This year, I want it to be quite gritty. We’ll dig deep, past the high-level messaging and into the hard things, the things women really need to know to progress their careers and overcome the challenges that they face. It’s about getting to the real advice, lessons and thoughts that can make a difference.

Are there any limiting beliefs or behaviours you have noticed that might cause women to stumble on the path to leadership?

We’ve all heard the story that women typically want to be 80% prepared before they go for anything, whereas a man can be 50% prepared and feel he’s in a great place. Women tend to worry a lot about what we don’t know or may be unable to do. We’re less likely to lift our heads up and go ‘everyone’s in the same boat, so let’s just keep going’.

And is the story true, in your experience?

Yes, I find it all the time — though I must note that it’s a generalisation. Even at director level, women tend to err on the side of over-preparation and be very conscientious. If I am meeting or interviewing both men and women, the women are more likely to have notes and be highly organised. Women tend to compensate for their perceived lack of ability or insecurity with over-preparation. It can be a great tool — I employ it myself from time to time — but it can also be limiting when overused.

Are there other limiting factors?

A second thing is that women don’t tend to be as assertive, aggressive, or extroverted as men in the workplace because of how we will be perceived. Like I read in one article “Women are bossy and men are decisive”.

That’s changing as it’s becoming more acceptable for women to be their true selves, whatever that may be. We can help by being careful not to critique other people’s behaviours in a judgemental way. Also by not holding back our own behaviours, because we have to be our true selves.

The last thought, that I know a lot of my colleagues share, is that women need to let go of the idea that you should do everything yourself or else you’re a failure. In fact, you need to get as much help as you can. You can’t be a mum and a leader in business and also still mow the lawns and do everything else. You actually have to seek help, whether it is paid help or family support.

What things have made the difference for you, in getting to where you are today?

My personality has helped. Firstly because I’m a little stubborn — so even when I thought I might give up, I never really have. I also gravitate towards the centre of things, which puts me in the right place for opportunities.

Equally important is that there have been people who have helped me along the way. They’ve sat me down and said ‘you can do this, and I’ll help you’.

Chris Moller, who was the CEO of NZ Rugby when I worked there, is the single most influential person I’ve had in my career. He constantly tried to develop me, push me into opportunities and provide me with a support and advisory base. Chris didn’t get caught up in the whole ‘woman thing’ or say things like ‘you’re a mother, that must be hard’. He treated me like he would anybody else.

What was it like, being a woman in the sports industry?

The sport part of my career is interesting because that’s particularly where I’ve worked with a lot of men and had to stand out in that environment.

Working in sport was fun but also challenging and it taught me a lot about the difference between men and women. Fortunately I was born 10 years after three older brothers, so working with older men came quite naturally to me. In terms of diversity, one thing I brought was a lot of objectivity because I was not a sports fanatic.

While I enjoyed it, working with men had its moments. Especially when I first started, because there were different rules around how people behaved back then. I got called ‘love’ many times and was often taken as someone’s secretary rather than a member of the senior leadership team. I remember the first time I presented the financial statements to the AGM of NZ Rugby — a journalist wrote his story about there being a female presenter and the voting forms at the AGM being pink! When I went to my first NZ Rugby board meeting, everyone stood up. Fortunately we’re not doing that anymore or people would be standing up and sitting down all day long.

If you could write a billboard aimed at NZ women aspiring to leadership, what would it say?

We are all the same

It’s important to know that everyone’s in the same boat. When I was younger, I’d go to listen to inspirational women speak and I’d hear about their fabulous success without many of the difficulties. It could be quite disheartening — I’d leave thinking I could never be like them because I would find hard what they ‘obviously’ did not. The truth is that there isn’t a human being around that doesn’t worry about things or feel insecure or incompetent sometimes. More than ever, men and women are both experiencing family issues and career issues. We’re all the same and we all need to pick up and keep going.

To hear Dame Therese Walsh talk more about Bold Leadership, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.

By Toni Moyes

Joan Withers is one of New Zealand’s best known and most admired company directors. She is the Chairperson of Mercury and The Warehouse Group, a director of ANZ New Zealand and has authored two books about women in business leadership. I talked to Joan ahead of this year’s Bold Steps conference.

What does Bold Leadership mean for you?

Bold Leadership is having the confidence and the capability to attract others and to inspire, motivate and support them in achieving predefined goals and objectives.

I know that sounds like a textbook statement, but for me the single most important attribute is getting a great team to work with you and to continue to want to work with you.

When you see great leadership in action, then it’s apparent. And it’s similarly self-evident when leadership is lacking, or worse, missing in action. At governance level, occasionally you see Chairs prepared to front when there is good news about an organisation, but not so keen to come to the fore and stand behind the Chief Executive when he or she is having to front some less than positive news.

In terms of personal attributes, I like Jim Collins’ Good to Great, which shows that the best leaders predominantly had two characteristics — strong personal humility and, perhaps paradoxically, very strong commercial will. So the whole ‘ego on a stick’ thing is out.

In New Zealand, I believe we are in a golden era with many of our leading CEOs operating at a very different level than the generation 20 years ago. I think of Christopher Luxon — who is speaking at the Bold Steps conference this year — a leader with integrity and humility, who is absolutely passionate about Air NZ and about New Zealand. I also think of the CEOs I have worked with directly — Fraser Whineray (CEO, Mercury), Kevin Kenrick (CEO, TVNZ), Adrian Littlewood (CEO, Auckland Airport), Nick Grayston (CEO, The Warehouse) — all have different styles but are very strong in terms of their ability to galvanise people into action, to define the parameters of success and then support and challenge others to get there.

You’ve said that inspiring others is an important attribute of leadership, but it can be daunting. How do you do it?

There’s no shortcut or silver bullet to being an inspirational leader. The only way to do it is to lead by example and in accordance with your values — ultimately you must walk the talk.

It’s easier to inspire once you have a track record because people can just look at your CV and understand the experience and credibility you are bringing to the role. It is much harder for people coming in to a large leadership role for the first time.

A transition I think about a lot is women going into their first senior exec or CEO role — it can be tough. To establish credibility, you have to convince people that you will lead from the front, be there to support them and you will put in the hard yards. You have to do the detail work to understand the critical issues and the value drivers to speak with authority. And you must show really good judgement, because in every big job there are times when you have to make a line call and your team will look at you and evaluate how you make those calls.

What would you say to women who aspire to leadership but don’t know the path to get there?

I disagree with the view that women don’t know the path. The path is doing whatever it is you are doing today very successfully. As well as you possibly can.

Do everything you can to take control of your own learning and development. It’s not enough to rely on your employer to provide developmental training. Take everything they give you, but that’s not going to differentiate your from your peers because they’re probably getting the same. You differentiate yourself by going out and finding ways to extend your knowledge and relevance. Have an idea of where you want to go, but remain flexible enough to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities when they come up.

In my case, I did an MBA when I was 36. I didn’t do it because I was ambitious, I did it because I was insecure. I kept getting promoted and I thought ‘I don’t deserve these positions, I’ve got no tertiary qualifications and I didn’t even do University Entrance’. Completing my MBA was the best career move I ever made.

Other things I would say are to never stay working for someone you don’t like, trust or respect. And don’t let other people steal your intellectual property! It happens more than you think. All great CEOs allow people who work for them to present and take credit for the good ideas they bring. If you find the right person to work for and do a great job, they are going to promote you, be incredibly proud of you and revel in your success.

What are the attributes that have made a big difference to you, in your career?

To start, unfailing integrity — I can thank my father for that and for the great work ethic he demonstrated.

It’s also been my belief in the importance of teams and how teams work. I think I’ve exhibited behaviours that supported the people that worked with me, while at the same time setting goals and expectations, rewarding success and addressing underperformance.

Giving regular feedback is of paramount importance. As is what they call ‘MBWA — Managing by Wandering Around’, to have visibility within the business and also to customers and stakeholders.

Showing empathy in human situations, that’s a hugely important thing.

The great irony is that I learned as an executive and as a CEO, that it was the things I enjoyed doing the most that paid the greatest dividends. The dross jobs like writing reports or approving expenses added very little value. When I was responsible for sales organisations, it was stuff like finding great employees, setting goals, assisting them to reach their full potential and then congratulating them on their success, I loved those roles. Understanding just how important it is to tell people how they are doing is a lesson I have never forgotten.

I also liked getting out there in the industry — especially in media, where talent is the biggest differentiator. It was fun to have broadcaster Paul Holmes fly you down for a negotiation session with him and his lawyer. Actively retaining his talent in the lead up to the Crown’s sale of Radio NZ’s commercial stations was critical, because otherwise he was potentially going to defect to the competition! It might sound like a junket to do that on a Saturday morning, but in terms of value to the company it was huge.

Tell me about a leader you looked up to in your own career. What was it that you admired about them?

The leader that I most admire is David Kirk. He was Group CEO when I was CEO at Fairfax for four years. I am in awe of his success in every field he has tackled — as an All Black, a GP, an executive and Chief Executive and now as he chairs a number of boards and has his own private equity firm.

What I admired about David was his ability to set you goals to provide challenge. But also to provide support and continually reinforce his expectations of what you needed to do. One of the things I loved most about him is the fact he had no time at all for organisational politics and approached all of the activities he was involved in with a clear, unequivocal agenda. He always really inspired me and others in the team to achieve his ambitions for us.

If you had a billboard to write one thing to NZ women aspiring to leadership, what would it say?

I really don’t like slogans, but one thing I would be prepared to say is:

You are better than you think you are

That’s because in general, women are more insecure about their capabilities. I’ve had recounted to me several times the sort of story — a man might come and say ‘I’ve been a manager of the Tyre Centre in Penrose and now I want to get into governance and I’m ready to go’, whereas a woman might say ‘I’m interested, I’ve been reporting to the CEO, I’m just not sure if I’m ready.’ There are certainly some exceptions to that, but in general, women are better and more capable than they think.

To hear Joan Withers, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, talk more about Bold Leadership, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.

By Toni Moyes

Royal Reed is a highly respected, award-winning lawyer and businesswoman, the Founder of Prestige Law and a Director of On Being Bold. Looking ahead to the Bold Steps Conference 2018, I asked Royal about her own leadership journey.

Tell me about your journey to Bold Leadership?

I’ve become a leader by accident. I migrated from Taiwan in 1995 and there were many restrictions in my culture and background that meant women were typically not allowed to be leaders. Young women were not encouraged or anticipated to be leaders.

But in New Zealand, people from my community were forced to give me a chance at leadership because I had the English language and legal skills that others didn’t. When I took that opportunity, I came to realise that my presumption that it was better for women not to be leaders was false.

What are some of the beliefs about leadership that you see women struggle with?

One of the most self-limiting stories we tell ourselves is: “I’m not ready yet. If I’m good enough, someone would have come and told me that already. Someone would have come and picked me or promoted me. If I do more preparation, THEN opportunities will come.’’

It doesn’t work like that. You need to actively seek out opportunities. You are not Cinderella waiting for a prince to bring you a shoe. You have to go and buy your own shoes!

Also, lots of women get the message that they are not good enough — too weak, not comprehensive in their background and thinking, lacking the decision-making capacity or the ‘right friends’ to help make an important decision. But our decision-making capacity is just as good. In my experience, my ability to challenge the status quo and bring fresh ideas has been very valuable and often welcomed as refreshing and overdue.

What did you do to get where you are as a leader?

A few years back, I realised that I didn’t want my life to be a revolution. Some of us are better to make baby steps. Every week, I can make a small improvement — for example, in my communication skills or in my ability to be resilient. I like to be in the mode of constantly improving and finding ways to better my chances of feeling confident.

What are some of the messages you’ll be sharing at the Bold Steps conference this year?

I want to recognise that many women who have the ability and talent to make great leaders are not in management positions in big corporates, or not ever intending to head into those roles. They might be younger, in smaller companies, non-profits, education — and these offer just as significant opportunities for leadership.

I’ll be encouraging all women interested in leadership to invest early and plan their professional progression. Just like you might save up every month for your trip to Fiji — you should be doing that for your career.

If you could write a billboard for women forging their own path of Bold Leadership, what would it say?

“FIGHT ON!”

To hear Royal Reed, alongside Governor General the Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy and 16 of New Zealand’s most senior business leaders, talk more about Bold Leadership, check out the Bold Steps Conference 2018.

By Toni Moyes

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

A less elegant version of this maxim has been percolating in my head for about a year. Then recently, Ian Wright, the remarkable entrepreneur behind Wrightspeed, told me its name — “Hanlon’s Razor”.

I love Hanlon’s Razor. And I say — ignore it at your peril.

So deep is my affection for Hanlon’s Razor that I make it broader. In place of “stupidity”, I will happily substitute “miscommunication, negligence, haste, poor instructions, lapse of judgment” or even “good reasons, of which I am unaware.” Similarly, I give “malice” a wide interpretation that would extend to all forms of intentional wrongdoing.

Hanlon’s Razor is so important because good and intelligent people make mistakes all the time and it is rarely worth damaging your relationship by assuming that they have deliberately wronged you. In fact, this would usually amplify the overall harm and slow down its resolution, as people find it hard being accused of malice when really they’re just mistaken or misunderstood.

Hanlon’s Paradox

I find Hanlon’s Razor simple (a feature necessary to satisfy its cousin Occam) and also extremely valuable. Yet I notice that it can be hard for people to remember in practice. I’ve started calling this Hanlon’s Paradox.

My evidence for the “valuable” part is a personal hunch that it’s right. When I’ve been the cause of hurt to a person or project, my interior monologue usually goes:

****, I’m an idiot. How can I fix this?

and not:

****, my plan to bring ruin to others in furtherance of my own wicked agenda has been exposed!

This has been my observation time and again, not just of myself but of others. It honestly feels self-evident. Though I bet there is some proper research telling us that errors are more common than intentional harm too!

In spite of this, we’ve all seen someone jump to the conclusion that an evil motive must explain the consequences he or she is observing. Or we’ve been that person. Some examples might be:

My co-founder is asking questions about my performance because she is plotting to force me out of the company.

My husband “forgets” to take out the recycling because he is trying to make me go insane.

I wasn’t invited to the meeting because they are trying to hide something from me.

I wasn’t promoted because the decision-maker doesn’t appreciate me.

She didn’t respond to my email because she doesn’t care about our friendship.

All plausible explanations, but hardly the most likely. I’ve reasoned like this myself at times. Why do we do it? Why might Hanlon’s Paradox exist?

I’ve only got some very underdeveloped ideas: Are our primitive instincts more alert to malicious actors than benevolent fools? Do our egos encourage us to believe that others always have us in mind when they act? Do our deepest insecurities tend to drive the stories we tell ourselves about the world? I’d love to learn more from wiser minds than me on this subject. Please tell me what you think.

Hanlon’s Practice

If we agree that promising relationships can perish on the trash heap of broken dreams when Hanlon’s Razor is forgotten, what can we do?

1. Take a moment — When you notice yourself reacting to feelings of pain or anger, it’s a good time to check in with our friend Hanlon. Whether you need a micro-pause or to take yourself for a walk, make space to consider innocent intentions.
2. Prepare — Taking a moment is really hard to do if you haven’t prepared. Invest some time to reflect on Hanlon’s Razor and how a range of explanations can often explain a person’s behavior. Talk about it with your team, organization or family.
3. Post-mortem — In fact, both 1 and 2 are hard. Occasionally, we might (accidentally and without malice) forget Hanlon’s Razor and jump to the wrong conclusion about someone. Mistakes are the best opportunities to learn.

I don’t want to end without acknowledging that malice is a real threat to guard against in our lives. Stupidity is also a problem — maybe a more dangerous one in today’s world. My wish is simply that more of us, more often, figure out which one we are dealing with before we react.

Note: I published this article previously, but not via Medium which I have since realised is a better way. Extra thanks if you read it twice!

I’ve just done myself the phenomenal favour of taking 10 weeks out from work in between start-up jobs. As a woman who has been continuously employed since age 11, it was a wild step into the unknown. But after four years of heavy lifting in start-up land, some time out was calling me. Loudly.

Isn’t it obvious how to take a break? You might think so, but for me it took some figuring out. Starting with why, my purpose was:

• Recover and recharge my powers!
• Notice and consciously integrate the many, MANY lessons I’ve learned at rapid pace over the past 4 years
• Reconnect with my values, so I can pursue the life I really want instead of just falling into the next thing.

But, as sometimes happens with new things, I got off to a shaky start…

I grade myself a C for the first 3 weeks. Finally, a long break but I felt unexpectedly stressed out. Thankfully, I’ve turned it around and at week 8, my break is an A+ experience. So I wanted to very humbly share my DOs and DON’Ts, in case they inspire or resonate with someone else. Here’s the short version:

DON’T:

• Rush into planning your future or your next job
• Crowd out your time by taking all the meetings and catch-ups you didn’t prioritise while you were working
• Start your next job before it’s started
• Worry! (Be happy)

DO:

• Take the time, it’s worth more than money
• Go gently through the discomfort of not being busy and facing uncertain about your future
• Clearly articulate the things you value in your life and rank them in priority order
• Get healthy
• Ask, “what’s the one thing I could do that could have the most transformative effect on my life?” and do that
• Spend time with oracles and the people you love the most

And, now, the long version:

DON’T:

Rush

Don’t rush to plan out your future if you don’t have to. My lifelong conditioning as a “hard worker” landed me knee deep in multiple job interviews within a week of finishing my last job. I created circumstances where I felt pressured to make a decision when I hadn’t done the personal work I wanted to inform my next career move. Gah!

Crowd out your time

Many of us in start-up land wish we had more time to help out other start-up teams who would like our advice or work. “Finally,” I thought, “I’ve got so much more time to help. Yes, I’ll take all of those meetings.” At the same time, I could book coffees and lunches and catch-ups with friends and ex-colleagues I hadn’t seen enough of. Before I knew it, I was spending my evenings answering emails and most days heading into the city for some kind of meeting. I even felt the need to do my hair and dress nicely (not my favourite). My life looked eerily similar to when I was working.

Start your next job before its started

Around week 5, I had decided on the work I was going to pursue next and was dutifully planning how I could spend the rest of my time out preparing to do my next job. Chris Miller (a great coach based in Wellington) called me out on this. “Toni,” he said, “I have no doubt that you will be excellent in your next job. You’ve created this time out from work for a reason, so don’t spend it on work.” Wise words, Chris.

Worry

Closely related to all of the above, don’t burn your cycles on worry. I’m not in the habit of quoting All Blacks coaches, but as Steve Hanson said: “worry is a wasted emotion”. After all, “we suffer more often in imagination than in reality”, says Seneca.

DO:

Take the time

For successful professionals, there comes a point when your time is more valuable than earning x incremental money. It’s always possible to make money and impossible to make more time.

You might want to change your surroundings as a circuit breaker for your old routine. I’m coming to you from a lovely bamboo co-working space in Ubud, which has certainly worked for me.

Go gently through the initial discomfort …

of not being busy all the time and not knowing what the future holds. The future will be awesome. Today, freedom is a gift, so be present. Interesting, the more space I allowed, the more opportunities came my way. Plus, I needed to get bored enough to get creative.

Examine what you value the most

Do you know what you are doing with your one precious life? Or might you have been too busy to notice for the last few years? If it’s the latter, now is the time.

I had the vague laundry list of things I valued highly, but I needed to articulate them more specifically and — this is critical — prioritise by ranking them in order. For me, this has been key to stepping confidently into my future, knowing I’m on solid ground to make decisions.

Get healthy

“Health is wealth” says my yoga teacher and every sane person ever. Life in a fast paced start-up can be mentally and physically taxing. You could be suffering from adrenal fatigue, chronic sleep deprivation, monkey mind, too much time at your computer and not enough strengthening your body, or even feeling depressed after a big journey has come to an end.

I’m feeling stronger in all ways from putting energy into ditching unhealthy habits that crept up, resistance and cardio training, sleeping plenty, yoga, eating properly and getting close to nature. All of this stuff creates more time than it takes in the long run.

The one thing

Instead of trying to do everything you’ve been meaning to do, ask “what is the one most transformative thing I could do for myself during this time?”, and do that. Make that one thing your top priority. It took me a few weeks to find mine, but now I have. It’s what my heart knew I ought to be doing, but kept ignoring. Now I’m working on it every day and I feel super-stoked.

Nurture love and seek wisdom

Don’t crowd out your time but there’s no need to become a hermit. Spend time with the people you love the most and with people who can offer wisdom for your journey. I’ve spent plenty of time with myself but also with my family, my best friends and with a couple of coaching Ninjas who ask the right questions to power me up. Business or executive coaching might seem like a weird thing to do when you are not working, but actually I’ve found it fantastic — I aspire to be my authentic self at work, so it all adds up.

So there you have it. I’ll definitely be prescribing a break like this for myself again. 8 weeks in and one of the best things is that I am feeling totally psyched and energised to go back to work again. Having two more weeks remaining in my break feels pretty damn good too!