Five reasons Indigenous Australians make perfect leaders

Australia’s first people have the clear potential to become highly effective corporate leaders.
With striking similarities between their cultural values and current business leadership practices, it’s apparent that this demographic represents an untapped resource whose insights could yield significant competitive advantages. There are five key reasons why.

1. Follow from the front
Unlike many collectivist cultures that see themselves as ‘part of the group’, Indigenous Australians see themselves as an ‘individual part of a group’. This mindset ensures group importance remains paramount while full self-identity is retained. This ability to lead as one but follow with the many is a defining characteristic of influential leaders.

2. Emotional connection to a purpose
The power of stories in business is a central topic in countless contemporary case studies and leadership keynotes. With the use of metaphor and imagery offering an easy-to-understand connection to mission or purpose, the act of storytelling itself also conveys crucial leadership vulnerability and emotion. A feature of Indigenous culture, this message-conveying ability has obvious potential for facilitating effective change and motivational leadership within a business context.

3. Resilience
Commonly cited as a necessary entrepreneurial asset, opportunity-seeking tendencies are viewed as a key attribute of long-term successful leadership. Despite historical disadvantages and social, economic and cultural divides, these tendencies remain highly evident within many Indigenous Australians. This is particularly true among the younger population who understand the necessity of hardship.

4. Collaboration
Through a social and cultural emphasis on the importance of community and respect for group members both weak and strong, Indigenous Australians have built sound collaborative and team sensibilities. This inherent desire to ensure that everyone within a collective has a voice represents a hallmark of strong team leadership.

5 . Humility
A willingness to be part of a team and attribute successes to the people around them is a trait possessed by only the most successful leaders. Within Indigenous culture, similar humility draws its origins from deference to elders and life-long access to community role models who re-affirm the belief that improvement is always possible.

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Mahdi Beh, Rebecca Bradshaw, Stephanie Koutoulas, Lucia Robson and Samuel Mitchell – Current students of the Master of Management.

The Italian Job

When it comes to improving dispute resolution systems pertaining to the emergency and essential services, there’s always something to be learned from other jurisdictions.

While we haven’t really given this much thought in Australia, the move away from arbitration at the federal level means we need to come up with an alternative model. This thinking formed the backdrop to my recent visit to our good friends at the University of Bologna in Italy where I was able to discuss my own comparative work on collective bargaining and dispute resolution systems. While Italy obviously has a very different legal system, political structure, and socio-cultural mores, I believe there are still lessons to be drawn from the contemporary experiences of both countries.

Interestingly, both Italy and Australia allow some sort of collective bargaining where their police are concerned. The key difference is this: while our police can go to arbitration and are prevented from striking (thus minimising the chances of civic disruption), the civil (but not the military) police in Italy can strike, with their bargaining disputes tending to be resolved, I’m told, politically and in the absence of any real arbitration. So, while our move away from federal level arbitration is necessitating the need for an alternative, I don’t know that looking to Europe for inspiration is the answer. While drawing lessons from other territories can certainly be highly beneficial, the political environment for police labour relations in Europe makes it probably less instructive for Australia than other (common law) examples.

On the flipside, our Italian friends were very interested in the dispute resolution lessons they could draw from both our experiences as well as other dispute-resolution models I’m looking at. Considering Australia’s serious history and knowledge of arbitration, there were some audience members very interested in hearing about different models as well as their potential application to other spheres, such as commercial banking. On a closing note, I was going to mention the amazing food, wine, fashion and cars I encountered on my trip, but that would just be boasting.

Author: Giuseppe Carabetta – Senior Lecturer  at the University of Sydney Business School

The Value of Difference

As someone coming from a sports management background, commencing my Master of Management degree at The University of Sydney Business School earlier this year was a daunting prospect.

During the first week I even suffered from the perception that because of my particular background, I maybe wasn’t quite as capable as the other students, who I assumed would have far greater knowledge about business management in general. I needn’t have worried. I quickly learned that coming from such a different background to everyone else was actually a big plus, enabling me to bring different perspectives to the group assignments that we’ve worked on.

Those perspectives have been of particular interest to the rest of the cohort, who possess expertise in areas as diverse as finance, philosophy, and design. With my sports management pedigree having taught me a lot about teamwork and getting the best out of team members in a competitive environment, I’ve been able to contribute many useful insights to our group situations. At the same time, the experience and capabilities of others has also strengthened my own rapidly expanding knowledge base.

But the other great thing about the Master of Management degree is that it really opens your eyes to different possibilities. Prior to starting this course I’d never thought about things like starting a business or becoming an entrepreneur or going into consulting. These are now areas that I’m considering, possibly in combination with my sports management experience. Already I’ve come up with a whole lot of ideas that I never would have imagined otherwise. In the process of doing this course, I’m learning to step outside of the norm and to think outside conventional frames of reference. I’m learning the value of pushing the boundaries of possibility and making that space my own.

Author: Abby Veverka – Master of Management student

Patience: The Forgotten Business Virtue

Ever noticed how we are so caught up with having to do things quickly?

Technological change and globalisation have pushed society towards expecting things instantly. Global companies are able to operate 24/7, with many employees expected to answer emails from their mobiles and sick days have become ‘work at home’ days. 

This mindset and constant ability to be contacted has resulted in many people becoming obsessed with getting to our destination via the shortest possible route rather than guaranteeing the best possible outcomes. I think this approach means that we are actually missing out on some invaluable opportunities and possibilities. If we are really interested in excelling, I think we need to be patient enough to say, ‘let’s stop, step back and look at this problem from another angle. Let’s take the time to listen to other viewpoints, opinions and perspectives’. This is the key to ensuring the best thinking, solutions, strategies, and products.

This is a mindset that I have attempted to apply at the University of Sydney Business School, regardless of the looming deadlines that we often face. On one occasion we had to develop a video pitch just four days before its due date. There was only one problem: none of us knew how to make a video. However, we succeeded because we were patient enough to sit down and learn the process instead of just expecting that someone would instantly be able to do it for us.

In another imminent deadline situation, we took the time to listen to each group member’s opinions and ideas. While this time-consuming exercise required a lot of extra compromise and discussion, which became frustrating at times, it nonetheless enabled us to gain new insights into our project and arrive at a more comprehensive solution.

On a much larger scale, some of the world’s most successful businesses already know the advantages of taking the long road. Indeed, some of the best CEOs have started at the very bottom of their organisations, working their way up over years and gaining crucial tools by learning every facet of their business along the way. Shortcuts and fast tracks are not always the most effective option. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, patience is something I aim to keep applying wherever necessary – deadline or not. After-all, rushing to the finish line often means missing out on the chance to be your best.

Author: Kate Morison – Master of Management student