In a challenging business climate, success requires a high-performing team. These experts advise on who to hire and how to develop a diverse workplace culture that drives change.
“One of the biggest challenges for leaders going forward is the relentless pace of change — and the fact that it isn’t going away,” says John Greig GAICD, who took on the role of chair at Deloitte Australia in June 2024. “Board members need new skills to be equipped to lead into the future. Leaders are often grappling with whether a new shift will become the new normal.”
In an uncertain world, curiosity is a vital attribute in leaders, he says. So, too, is having confidence in your assessment of any given scenario. “Trusting your instinct is important, because part of what a board does is apply that judgement and experience to new and changing scenarios. You don’t want to be solely reliant on the data, because at the end of the day, it’s also about judgement — and finally being bold enough to take some risks. I don’t mean reckless risks, I mean thoughtful, calculated risks. You’ve got to be bold to actually make the change and move the board agenda forward on matters such as diversity — in all its forms.”
Risk, strategy and change management consultant Bryan Whitefield MAICD points to changing demographics in the workforce. According to a Brookings governance studies report, millennials will comprise 75 per cent of the workforce by 2025 with an increased proportion of mature-age workers. With younger generations typically being lighter on loyalty and placing more emphasis on learning and development than financial rewards, PwC notes in its latest Global Workforce Hopes and Fears survey that there are two competing forces at play — individualism versus collectivism, and corporate integration versus business fragmentation.
“Leading a diverse workforce with generational change and keeping it cohesive requires a lot of emotional intelligence,” says Whitefield. “As does responding to a changing customer base.”
Mentoring as a long-term investment
An effective leader must be consultative, with an ability to communicate the purpose of the organisation in a way that resonates with staff. Leaders who are active mentors and role models not only improve their own leadership skills, but help to build a high-performing culture with a pipeline of excellence.
“Mentoring should be seen as a long-term investment for your organisation,” says Christine Yeung, chair and founder of Asian Australian Organisational Psychology Inc, which helps to build pathways for Asian-Australians to obtain executive and board-level roles.
“It builds resilience for the organisation, because in this day and age, preparedness for change is critical,” she says. “A leadership pipeline can step up in a crisis.”
Role modelling and mentoring are some of the best ways to share hard-won lessons and wisdom with the next generation of leaders. Deloitte’s mentoring program provides internal and external mentors because it recognises that a mentor outside the organisation brings a different and broader perspective, which greatly assists the person being mentored, says Greig.
Kerrie Adaway, CEO of leadership consultancy Lysander, believes the benefits to mentoring are twofold — those from a personal perspective and those from an organisational one.
“Directors have worked their way into a position of authority and bring a huge amount of experience to the table,” she says. “They’ve found themselves in a role where they’re the custodian of the business, and part of that is having a deep understanding of what is going on within the business and within the world more broadly.”
Mentoring enables directors to access a broader range of team members and to take a pulse on different issues across the organisation. It also helps to build a positive culture across the organisation, she adds. “There’s a physiological benefit to mentoring. Being in a director role comes with a level of pressure that can translate into stress. Helping other people is scientifically proven to reduce stress and increase our dopamine.”
Diversity matters
The Deloitte’s 2022 report Bold moves in the boardroom notes that, “A new operating environment requires greater diversity of thinking to better respond to risks and maximise opportunities”.
According to Greig, diverse expertise, experience and skills in a boardroom have moved beyond optional to be an imperative for sustained success. However, he says there is more work required on this front. Many of the positive changes being made are incremental and require more boldness and leadership.
“There is commercial and strategic advantage to be had for boards that reflects the diversity of the markets in which they operate,” says Greig. “If we think about the cultural diversity of Australia, for example, do boardrooms reflect this diversity? I would say not.”
The Bold moves in the boardroom report found many emerging directors are experimenting with new appointments to ensure their boards continue to be fit for purpose. They are finding new sources of appointable talent and drawing in those who are transitioning from corporate life.
“Rather than relying on traditional CEO and CFO candidates, or directors drawn from their own personal networks, these directors at the forefront of change are looking for additional skillsets and capabilities,” states the report.
“There are empirically compelling arguments to say that diversity in leadership improves monitoring and decision-making,” says Yeung. “It is not only that it looks good for the board to be diverse, but it is proven to strengthen governance, reputation and performance.”
She adds that a diverse leadership team attracts diverse talent, which will ultimately make for better decision-making processes.
“When people are in the recruitment process, they look up who is on the board and the leadership team. If it’s a diverse team, then you attract different talent. That’s the board’s role — to challenge perspective, to think about those things that are ‘unthinkable’ or ‘impossible’. Those kinds of ideas don’t often come from the usual suspects.”
Drivers of excellence
Trust is a core aspect of high-performing teams. It is earned and nurtured in a number of ways, some innate, others learned. Research led by psychologist Ron Friedman PhD found five key behaviours helped develop a high-performing team. These, he notes in Harvard Business Review, are “exceedingly rare”.
Such teams don’t leave collaboration to chance, keep colleagues in the loop, share credit, believe disagreements make them better and address tension. When team members withhold information from the group, it can suggest a lack of psychological safety or an underlying power struggle. When members of the team go out of their way to keep others informed, it creates a culture of inclusion.
Embracing a growth mindset about relationships is a way successful people respond to setbacks, says Friedman. It lets the group see outcomes can be improved through effort, learning and perseverance.
Diversity of director skills sets creates more perspective and can make or break the success of the group. “Senior leaders who have crossed over from different career paths should be seen favourably — they possess the knowledge of several business languages and have been exposed to different viewpoints,” says Lawrence Lam, author of The Founder Effect and an investor in global founder-led companies.
Ego and prestige should never be underestimated when it comes to corporate motivation. “Many prominent business figures have met their downfall as a result of letting their ego surpass logic and common sense,” says Lam.
Personal interest can be another derailer. The “career-defining projects” of individual directors, rather than something benefiting the company in the long run, can drain company resources and diminish the effectiveness of the board as a whole.
This article first appeared under the headline ‘The art of high performance’ in the March 2025 issue of Company Director magazine.
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