TCC graduate leadership
Townsville City Council graduate leadership program (2022 to current) – we created a program spanning two years to support cohorts of graduates transitioning from onboarding through the early years of their careers at the council. TCC recognises the need to support graduates’ mental wellbeing, build a supportive graduate community, and provide the groups with tools to connect with their new teams and build leadership capabilities.
The program includes quarterly workshops delivered face-to-face, online video materials, plus one-to-one executive and positive leadership coaching.
South 32 mindful leader and mindfulness at work programs
South 32 mindful leader program and mindfulness at work South 32 and GEMCO (2017 to 2021) – over the years, we have run multiple wellbeing and leadership programs for South32.
Cannington mine is in North Queensland, about 90 minute’s flight from Brisbane. BHP discovered the deposit in 1990, and has been the world’s largest silver mine for much of its life. Its massive operation is serviced by teams flying in from Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane.
The 2019 program for 25 superintendents at Cannington Mine equipped the team supervisors with the following tools:
- Emotional self-management.
- Situational awareness training.
- Listen to and connect with colleagues
- Mindfulness tools to handle conflict and connect teams.
- To handle the challenges faced by fly in fly out crews
- Improve energy levels
The program was over three months with two day-long workshops, delivered at the mine, supported by MSCEIT emotional intelligence online assessments and one-to-one positive leadership coaching. In-house research into the program points to significant improvements in participants’ resilience levels (24%) emotional wellbeing (26%) and focus (8%).
The Mindful Leader Programme – Inclusive employers group London
Initially, we worked with the managing director of Inclusive Employers Group, Richard McKenna, on a one-to-one positive leadership program. Richard wanted to learn mindfulness tools that he could share with his team, help him handle stress, and build his leadership capabilities. In addition, he wanted to apply mindfulness techniques to his work routines to help him collaborate, listen to, and lead his team better.
Following our work with Richard, we were asked to run a mindfulness at-work program for his London team over five weeks. The program included weekly Monday morning Zoom catchups supported by online content and resources.
Inclusive Employers Group is the UK’s premier diversity and inclusion training organisation.
St Patricks college senior leadership team (SLT) resilience 2022 and current
The principal of St Patrick’s College in Townsville and the senior leadership team asked us to create an eight-month positive psychology program for the seven members of SLT. The college had chosen the word resilience for the school’s theme that year.
St Patricks is one of the largest girls school in North Queensland, providing day and boarding education from communities around the Townsville region and the Torres Straights. The remit was to equip the team with evidence-based tools they could use to aid collaboration in SLT and use in their teams and with students to build optimism, resilience and grit. The program was in part to address the
challenges of the pandemic.
The program included:
- One-to-one positive leadership coaching for SLT
- Three, day-long workshops plus monthly hour-long webinars
- The program modules explored:
- VIA (values in action strengths) profiling – how to use strengths to build resilience and connection with colleagues
- Self-compassion research of Dr Kristen Neff – how to build a self-compassionate mindset
- Emotional agility research of Dr Susan David – exploring emotional expression and emotional suppression
- Applied positive psychology techniques – building a growth mindset toward setbacks and adversity
- Brain nutrition and stress resiliency
- Applications of mindfulness in catholic education
Following on from this successful program, in 2023 we were asked to create a one-day “strengths at work” workshop for all teachers and support staff at the school.
The day provided the group with tools to:
- Explore Cappfinity’s strengths-profile tool
- Understand their own and each other’s strengths profiles
- How to bring more of their unrealised strengths into the workplace – bringing their best selves to work
- How to compensate for weaknesses at work by sharing with colleagues and through understanding how top strengths can be used to mitigate weaknesses
- Using strengths to give and receive feedback
- Building a community which celebrates honest feedback conversations
NQ SMT communication and collaboration
NQ Dry Tropics are the leading natural resource management body for the vast Burdekin Dry Tropics region. They are a not-for-profit organisation committed to sustaining North Queensland resources for current and future generations. Their focus is on education, sediment runoff, reducing the impact of farming and mining on the barrier reef and improving farming standards and land use effectiveness.
After 18 months of working with the wider NQ Dry Tropics on a program to connect the team and provide them with leadership skills, Scott Crawford, the CEO, asked us to create a tailored leadership program for four members of the SLT.
They wanted practical tools to:
- Improve collaboration and connection around the organisation’s departments and focus areas
- Use strengths profiling to deepen relationships within the SLT and throughout the organisation
- Integrate strength profiling with the development of their updated corporate strategic plan
Brolos Board Perth – communication and collaboration program
Brolos, based in Perth, is one of the world’s largest rock lobster fishing and processing organisations. Chairman, Basil Lenzo asked us to create a leadership program for the board members of Brolos. The program lasted for six months and included group workshops, MSCEIT emotional intelligence profiling and positive leadership coaching.
The board wanted new tools to:
- Collaborate better
- Explore counterpoint – understanding the difference between dialogue and debate and how to adopt a mindful approach to board conversations and interactions with the exec team at Brolos
- Develop greater self-awareness of their emotional intelligence abilities
- Provide practical techniques and frameworks for developing more resilience, optimism, self-awareness,
- awareness of social signals of others and sensitivity to context
To do this we introduced:
- Richard Davidson’s model of emotional style
- The RUUM model of emotional intelligence (recognising, using, understanding and managing emotions)
- MSCEIT – an online tool to identify emotional intelligence
- Neuroplasticity and personal growth
- Neuroplasticity and emotional agility
