Providing professional and personal leadership development for the Incident Controllers of today and tomorrow.
When you apply for a new job you may be asked to undertake an EI (EQ) test – Emotional Intelligence. The test is designed to gather information how well you will work with others, your ability to use non-verbal cues to read situations and make assumptions on how you will likely work through challenging personnel... Continue Reading →
As I write this week’s post my colleagues in the office are sitting in the lunch room in rapturous hysterics. The giggles have quickly turned to full snorts and gasps for air, the room now peppered with the sounds of table slaps and bursts of single words being said from faces streaming with tears that... Continue Reading →
I had a lengthy and rewarding conversation with a Unit Commander this week about the challenges of leading a Unit in the every-changing NSW SES landscape post Organisational Transformation. On top of a full workload, running a Unit can sometimes like a full time job and then some at the moment. In thinking about the... Continue Reading →
At the moment I am coordinating several recruitment activities for the Zone. Combining that with the recent experience of applying for jobs during the organisational transformation, this week I have been reading on the challenging concept of ‘unconscious bias’. Unconscious, or hidden, bias is defined as 'a normal human prejudice' about people or groups of... Continue Reading →
I often hear people refer to the NSW SES as their second family. In building a team we often look upon members as another family unit. In this week’s post, Simon Sinek talks about what makes a great leadership. In one example he asks, would we punish a family member for coming home with a... Continue Reading →
We can all probably recount the values of the organisation easily when asked, thanks to the nifty little acronym TARPS. But have you thought about your own personal values? It sounds easier than you think. Values are important in helping us navigate difficult problems, when dealing with challenging people and when making decisions that will... Continue Reading →
Ever come back from a muster meeting or a day in the office and know you’ve been flat out the entire time but can’t actually remember what it was that took up all of your time? This happens to us all, and stems from the invisible workload – the ‘remembering of things’. This article looks... Continue Reading →
Professional boundaries can be some of the hardest things for us to put in place and maintain. We all like to be the person who helps others, lends a hand and supports our teams to achieve goals. The problem is we can overload ourselves and lose the balance between our own work and the ‘extra... Continue Reading →
I listened to a great podcast last week on the power of self-talk. It looked at the psychological benefits of talking to yourself as if you were your best friend. Sometimes we can be twice or three-times as hard on ourselves when working through a problem as we would to a friend or colleague who... Continue Reading →
Pondering ‘wicked’ leadership problems recently, I considered what the strangest problem someone has ever come to me about when dealing with a team mate. It struck me, I’ve had 4 separate conversations about body odour being an issue in a team and how to manage the conversation the leader needs to have. Although it seems... Continue Reading →
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