In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, an organisation’s ability to deliver quality, cost effective products and services in a global market is essential to its survival and growth.

LMA’s sister company Think Perform are leaders in delivering transformational business improvement programs, built around strong values and respect for our client organisations and their people. We are the best at what we do – partnering with organisations to achieve operational excellence and a sustainable future.

We recently filmed a video with one of our clients in WA, Character Cabinets and Stone with Character in which CEO ‘Squeak’ Van Duyn and his team explain how engaging Think Perform to train and certify their workforce in lean manufacturing resulted in a more efficient and profitable business creating a happier workplace with more satisfied clients.

“We all know that Lean is not something that you arrive at, it is a continual journey, there is no destination as such, and so it’s something that we will continue over the years to improve, improve and improve.” ‘Squeak’ Van Duyn.

Click to find out more about Think Perform.

Ground  breaking  and  inspiring,  this  is  a  unique  event  that  will  challenge  your  thinking  and  give  your  corporations  and  teams  a  different  perspective  in  non-traditional  roles  for  women.  An  amazing  line  up  of  leaders  who  ask  the  right  questions  and  challenge  the  norm.

LMA is proud to support this event and encourage individuals and companies to accelerate the need for diversity and strengthen our future in the supply chain and logistics industry.

This event will change the think tanks of government and industry and will showcase support for women.  Hear and learn that there are exciting careers and opportunities in every part of the supply chain and logistics field.

When: Friday, 20 October 2017
Venue: Leonda By The Yarra, 2 Wallen Road Hawthorn, VIC
Time: 12noon to 4.00pm
Cost: $165.00 per person
$1,650.00 for table of 10

Women in Logistics Lunch Event Info

To book your spot click here

Achieving economic stability and security remain important discussions around gender equality in the workplace.  However, the issues around stability alone are not where the conversation about women in the workforce should end.

Fittingly, the UN’s theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was ‘Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030’. In a timespan of less than 15 years, the UN envisions a world where women are equal in comparison to their male colleagues in pay, leadership representation, respect and in the owning and celebration of success.

Highlighting these ambitious and seismic shifts in the labour market in the context of women’s empowerment is essential to changing the current landscape and shape of the game at work across all industries. Policies are needed to bridge the gender pay gap, address the gender gap in leadership and entrepreneurship, and ensure that equal access to education, capital and social protection is not a luxury but the standard.

While dreaming and hoping for policy and general progress is a great step, it is not the running leap needed to make real change happen. To make positive change happen, everyone has to be a part of the conversation.

In a talk at TEDWomen, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (author of Lean In) discusses three key points she sees as pivotal for women reaching for and staying in leadership positions. Her underlying message was that individual actions are what will change the message we are sending to and receiving from women. The key change? Changing the conversation from ‘one day I’ll do it’ to ‘right now, we can do it’.

Women are half the world’s potential. Unleashing it requires access to leadership opportunities as well as gender-sensitive policies and regulations that welcome a more vibrant economy that benefits everyone. Changing the conversation and changing the outcome is not something to focus on ‘one day’ – it is something to focus on every day, for both women and men.

This year’s Women World Changers event will gather together top business, government and community leaders to discuss an ambitious but necessary agenda around equal representation, myth busting of gender and stereotypes, the way to lead with influence and impact, and how we all have a role to play in reimagining what leadership means.

This year’s outstanding speaker lineup is headlined by Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama and Elizabeth Broderick, Australia’s longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner (2007 – 2015).

By attending this dynamic and critical event, participants will be engaging with empowered and driven women and men striving for a better understanding of what the obstacles are in the way to an empowered and active equal workforce, and what strengths we all already possess to make individual changes now in every workplace.

This one day leadership event will drive critical dialogue to tackle diversity and equity challenges facing Australian organisations in order to challenge established thinking, change the game and inspire action. Women World Changers is an event for all who want to be an instrumental part of a conversation that will elevate women, the economy and the future prosperity of our nation.

Event details:

Melbourne & Sydney | 9th & 11th October – Please click here to take advantage of our LMA discount.

Achieving economic stability and security remain important discussions around gender equality in the workplace.  However, the issues around stability alone are not where the conversation about women in the workforce should end.

Fittingly, the UN’s theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was ‘Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030’. In a timespan of less than 15 years, the UN envisions a world where women are equal in comparison to their male colleagues in pay, leadership representation, respect and in the owning and celebration of success.

Highlighting these ambitious and seismic shifts in the labour market in the context of women’s empowerment is essential to changing the current landscape and shape of the game at work across all industries. Policies are needed to bridge the gender pay gap, address the gender gap in leadership and entrepreneurship, and ensure that equal access to education, capital and social protection is not a luxury but the standard.

While dreaming and hoping for policy and general progress is a great step, it is not the running leap needed to make real change happen. To make positive change happen, everyone has to be a part of the conversation.

In a talk at TEDWomen, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (author of Lean In) discusses three key points she sees as pivotal for women reaching for and staying in leadership positions. Her underlying message was that individual actions are what will change the message we are sending to and receiving from women. The key change? Changing the conversation from ‘one day I’ll do it’ to ‘right now, we can do it’.

Women are half the world’s potential. Unleashing it requires access to leadership opportunities as well as gender-sensitive policies and regulations that welcome a more vibrant economy that benefits everyone. Changing the conversation and changing the outcome is not something to focus on ‘one day’ – it is something to focus on every day, for both women and men.

This year’s Women World Changers event will gather together top business, government and community leaders to discuss an ambitious but necessary agenda around equal representation, myth busting of gender and stereotypes, the way to lead with influence and impact, and how we all have a role to play in reimagining what leadership means.

This year’s outstanding speaker lineup is headlined by Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama and Elizabeth Broderick, Australia’s longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner (2007 – 2015).

By attending this dynamic and critical event, participants will be engaging with empowered and driven women and men striving for a better understanding of what the obstacles are in the way to an empowered and active equal workforce, and what strengths we all already possess to make individual changes now in every workplace.

This one day leadership event will drive critical dialogue to tackle diversity and equity challenges facing Australian organisations in order to challenge established thinking, change the game and inspire action. Women World Changers is an event for all who want to be an instrumental part of a conversation that will elevate women, the economy and the future prosperity of our nation.

Event details:

Melbourne & Sydney | 9th & 11th October – Please click here to take advantage of our LMA discount.

To obtain, and maintain, a job in any field, you need a solid repertoire of technical skills. Doctors need to know how to accurately diagnose and treat disease. Carpenters need to know how to use a hammer. Accountants need to be adept with numbers.

However, beyond these technical skills, what do these or other professions really do? What keeps their clients and customers coming back to them time and again for their expertise and skill?

For certain, loyal clients and customers are thinking about the quality of the work these professionals are able to produce. Beyond that, there is another set of qualities that will continue to build and maintain professional relationships for years to come. Within these professions, and indeed all lines of work, it’s the soft skills that matter.

While your technical skill and prowess may set you up as an individual or a business, your people and personal skills are what most people will remember you for. Your attitude, your ability to communicate effectively, your emotional intelligence, along with a host of other attributes can be the things that really separates you from others in your chosen line of business or career.

According to the recent Deloitte Access Economics report, ‘Soft skills for business success’, soft skill intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030, compared to half of all jobs in 2000. ^[1] In fact, ten out of the sixteen ‘crucial proficiencies in the 21st century’ identified by the World Economic Forum are non-technical. In an increasingly competitive and global economy, these skills are so crucial they can be the deciding factor between success or failure.

Before we delve any further, what are we talking about when we say ‘soft skills’?

The phrase is often used to describe the skills which characterise relationships with other people and how you approach your life and your work. Often phrased as ‘people skills’ or ‘interpersonal skills’ elements of soft skills include communication skills (now seen as essential for each and every profession), decision making skills, self-motivation, leadership and team-building skills, problem-solving and time management skills. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of what we are talking about when we refer to soft skills, it does provide an overall picture of the competencies and capabilities expected when we are discussing non-technical skills.

Looking ahead, why are soft skills becoming more important than ever before?

While changes in technology and the continual digitisation of work are both major factors in the rise of the emphasis on soft skills, it is pivotal to look towards the more general trends regarding how future leaders are being chosen and trained.

According to Deloitte, many businesses are steadily transitioning away from traditional models of hierarchical organisation based on tenure and expertise. Instead, there is a reliance on having more flexible teams whose members have a wide variety of perspectives, backgrounds and skills, allowing the business to react quickly to new developments. Under the older, hierarchical model, credentials are provided by universities and accredited institutions, with skills certified often only through credentials. Under the new model, credentials are unbundled and less rigid, and certification of employee worth and expertise can be obtained in many ways.^[2]

So, how can training in soft skills improve your career and business?

One thing to first recognise is this: like ‘hard’ or technical skills, soft skills can and should be a part of every employee’s ongoing development and training.

Traditionally, people don’t receive adequate soft skills training – either during vocational instruction or as part of on-the-job training. Even with all the evidence behind the science of soft skills, there is still a tendency to assume that everyone knows and understands the importance of taking initiative, being open and cooperative, and producing consistently high quality work. The assumption that soft skills are universal and are engrained as a inherent part of our knowledge continues to lead to lost productivity, missed opportunity and an overall sense of frustration.

A simple way to increase productivity, encourage opportunity and replace frustration with contentment is to focus as much on soft skills training and development as you do on traditional hard skills.

With these soft skills you can excel as a leader. Problem solving, delegating, motivating, and team building are all much easier if you have good soft skills. Knowing how to get along with people – and displaying a positive attitude – are now crucial for success

In the near future, our technical skills, no matter whether we are doctors, business owners, builders or technicians, will be taken as a given. Being able to satisfactorily complete a job with technical skill will no longer be enough to survive in a globalised world. The differentiating factor in our future success will be our ‘soft skills’.

To start your people on the journey to better soft skills, both Thrive Alliance and LMA have a range of short to longer term courses that can help you to achieve your goals. For a course designed to develop the ‘total person’ through permanent behavioural change and a deeper development of soft skills, learn more about LMA’s The Performance Edge course. To learn more about how a better understanding of emotional intelligence in the workplace can assist your leaders and team members, visit Thrivealliance.com.au and view the available short courses here.

^[1] Deloitte Access Economics “Soft skills for business success”, DeakinCo, May 2017, p1

^[2] Deloitte Access Economics “Soft skills for business success”, DeakinCo, May 2017, p9

^[1] Deloitte Access Economics “Soft skills for business success”, DeakinCo, May 2017, p1

^[2] Deloitte Access Economics “Soft skills for business success”, DeakinCo, May 2017, p9

As with any other relationship in your life, your work relationships can be pivotal to your feelings of contentment, adequacy and success.

However, just as with your personal relationships, your work relationships do not magically become strong and fulfilling overnight. Developing and maintaining them for optimal results can require a special set of skills and attention, skills that are more natural to some than others.

This set of skills tends to fall under the concept of emotional intelligence. This concept was introduced and popularised by psychologists in the 1990s, but business leaders quickly took to the concept and have now made it their own.

Essentially, emotional intelligence refers to the capacity of someone to identify, evaluate and manage their own emotional state, while also being able to correctly identify and manage the emotions of others.

This last point is particularly important when we consider how important being able to correctly ‘read’ others can be in a workplace environment. Depending on the nature of your work, you may interact with people a lot or only occasionally. Regardless of the volume of interaction, when those interactions do happen they can be extremely important to both your individual success and the success of those around you.

Those who do possess higher levels of emotional intelligence often possess a few key advantages over those who are yet to develop this increasingly important skillset. In high stress environments, those with high levels of emotional intelligence are more likely to be able to cooperate with others, manage stress, more consistently resolve conflicts and learn effectively from previous mistakes. Those who actively develop their emotional intelligence are better able to manage the daily stresses of work in a positive way and outperform their peers.

So, what key behaviours do those who possess high levels of emotional intelligence exhibit that separates them from those who do not? There are a few that can be easily identified from the many writings on emotional intelligence in the workplace:

• They practice self-awareness. They are aware of their own shortcomings and are forthcoming about these with others. They are able to recognise strong emotions in others, and be able to clearly determine what has caused others to feel the way they do.
• They self-regulate. Instead of allowing their emotions to control them, they are able to control their reactions to people and situations so they do not have a negative effect upon others.
• They are self-motivated and internally driven. Those with high levels of emotional intelligence are not driven by external factors alone, such as deadlines or fear of failure. They are driven by an internal sense of accomplishment and self-determined standards that push them to achieve more.
• They are highly empathic. They have the ability to recognise, comprehend and experience the emotions of those around them. By doing so, they are able to literally put themselves in someone else’s shoes, increasing the likelihood of positive resolutions to difficult and stressful situations.
• They have great social skills. Those with high emotional intelligence are able to interact and negotiate with a wide range of people. They are able to effectively read people to understand their perspective and adapt their approach accordingly.

In particular, leaders who demonstrate these behaviours are more likely to be successful in their roles, have stronger relationships with their team members and are able to resolve conflict-related issues that arise in any leadership position. While some roles such as Software Developer or Accountant may not have a lot of face-to-face interaction time, the behaviours that come with having a high level of emotional intelligence are absolutely vital to the success of a leader in any field.

Leaders who are self-aware and self-regulate will be seen as reliable, resilient and trustworthy. Those who present themselves as such are more likely to gain the trust of those around them, encouraging a more open and honest working environment that benefits everyone.

Those leaders who are seen as self-motivated will inspire others to find their own internal motivators. By focusing on what makes them happy and content at work, leaders are opening up others to consider what individually inspires and motivates them in their own performance. Team members who are more self-motivated will be more likely to set goals, manage their own performance and direct their energy effectively into high pay-off activities (HPAs) that make them feel active and instrumental to the success of themselves and those around them.

Leaders who are empathic and have highly-developed social skills foster a rapport with their team members as individuals with unique backgrounds, personalities and strengths. Leaders who are able to meaningfully connect with team members as individuals are also able to work through problems with team members as they arise. Work related or personal issues are not simply sidelined or ignored, instead leaders with high emotional intelligence are able to pre-empt the best course of action for those around them.

Great leadership and high emotional intelligence are highly-related. Developing your emotional intelligence will greatly benefit your career prospects, your ability to lead and your work/life balance.

LMA’s associated company, Thrive More, currently offers three distinct Emotional Intelligence short courses that are specifically designed to improve your Emotional Intelligence quickly and effectively. Click one of the links below to find out more or call 1800 333 270.

Applied Emotional Intelligence For Leaders

This in-depth, two day course equips leaders with practical concepts, tools and techniques on how to apply emotional intelligence in the leadership of others.

Applying Emotional Intelligence

Our one day Applying Emotional Intelligence course provides leaders with practical tools and techniques for applying emotional intelligence in the leadership of others.

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

In this half day introductory course leaders learn about the science of emotions and emotional intelligence and explore practical tools and techniques for applying it in the leadership of others.