Toxic workplaces and leaders are the number 1 workplace health & safety risk in any organisation. 

I believe our workplaces can become places where everyone belongs. Where organisational culture engages everyone. Places where individuals and the collective are inspired, challenged and supported to become the best version of themselves.

 We now live in a world where depression is globally the number 1 cause of acquired disability; where anxiety and loneliness are norms and health and happiness are pipe dreams.

There is a better way. But it requires us to open our eyes to the environment around us. It requires us to take time, to listen and observe and be consciously aware of ourselves and the impact we have on those around us.

It requires us to become masters of kintsugi: to become virtuosos in the art of transforming toxicity into trust, skilled in creating durable organisations and cultures that grow through challenge, nurturing the resilience of individuals, networks and communities.

Our leaders are still exhausted, burnt out individuals drowning in seas of stakeholder expectations, continually dashed against the rocks of culture, organisational structure and strategy execution. Emerging leaders eagerly participate in programs designed to help them ‘step up into a bigger game’ only to return to their workplace discovering there is little support for, or commitment to, innovation, change or expanded role autonomy. And employees are showing signs of ‘purpose fatigue’ experiencing compounding dissonance as the chasm between words and actions ever expands.

The Oxford Dictionary chose “toxicity” as the word for 2018. Indeed, toxic does seem to best sum up the leadership and cultures that were on display, in Australia and globally. From the behaviour of Australian cricketers, through to the actions of institutional leaders in the faith, community and financial sectors, toxicity seems to be highly infectious: a contagion that is universal, blind to differences of race, culture, faith, gender, sexual identity or age.

 I understand the complexity of leadership in 21st century workplaces.  I get that leaders trade more in compromise than curiosity and that every decision seems to leave someone worse off.

 I understand how tired you feel and how the very last thing you feel like doing is meditation, going for a walk or spending time journaling. I understand the loneliness you feel and how you increasingly feel less like yourself.

 Having been a CEO and a senior executive staff member to some of Australia’s most impactful political and institutional leaders and organisations, I know what it takes to achieve resilient high performance.

Ultimately my purpose for being is to help reshape our workplaces to become places that support, promote and nurture individual resilience, growth and development.

Where work doesn’t permanently damage and hurt.

In fact, it is my belief that if organisations fail to properly grapple with these challenges, business (not for profit, social enterprise, corporate and public institutions) will go out of business.

Competitive edge can only be achieved when all organisational resources are effectively synthesised into one harmonious body, sharing the same purpose and working with complementary intensity.

The achievement of this ideal requires creativity, curiosity and patience and a willingness to understand the true nature of leadership: service before self.