Leaders' Secrets Revealed

Ep 22 Kathryn McAnalley Interview: Drop the Ego

Details

15 April 2020

With a long history working in government Kathryn has fine tuned her leadership skills and self-awareness to lead and manage a team that she finds a joy to work with.

Why listen

Key points I took away:

1. Lose the ego – we don’t have to have the solutions or the answers – trust the team to help create these
2. Provide mentoring and creating buddy opportunities within the team – more senior team members with more junior team members
3. Look for ways to give junior team members an opportunity to see the bigger picture – take them to senior meetings so they can hear what gets discussed
4. Kathryn is a delegation expert – and knows that she can’t do everything. And she is also aware that a manager can’t delegate everything. She focuses on what work is coming in and who is best placed, has the capacity and interest to do it. It’s also about balancing project work with reactive work so everyone has specific work to call their own

Kathryn’s 3 leadership tips

• Take a collaborative approach to problem solving – and take a step back to allow the team to do some critical thinking
• Provide constructive feedback, with sensitivity to the person’s feelings
• Lose the ego and think about the whole team

And finally, in being recognised by peers and colleagues and being included in the IPAA Victoria Top 50 Public Sector Women for 2019 – Kathryn has realised that mid-level managers and leaders can make a difference. We don’t need to be at really senior levels to have a positive impact.

Other links

• https://jobs.vic.gov.au
• https://www.vic.ipaa.org.au/top-50-public-sector-women-2019

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