Crystallize Consulting

18/07/2024

Hey all, we’ve never really had a big focus on social media however now with the new website we’re getting lots of visits to our page which we are loving to see! Would be amazing if we could hear from you. We’d love to have a chat so please reach out! Cheers!

30/06/2024

The third episode of The Leadership Crossroads with Tim Hicks is launched! Dr Travis Kemp is a true thought leader in the he fields of executive coaching, strategic leadership, peak performance, and organisational psychology. In this podcast episode hear Dr Kemp share his inspiring life journey how his first job was an entrée into engaging with people and understanding how to work with people or not, to being a physical education teacher, a personal trainer, a psychologist, an adjunct professor, entrepreneur, and company director. You’ll hear how following his nose and his heart has informed career choices at crossroad moments, the meaning, and benefits of adventure for leadership, what it is to take the middle road to making decisions, the essence of leadership, perspectives on psychology and coaching psychology, and sound advice on the five core considerations in engaging a coach. Please enjoy this engaging conversation that will inform and hopefully inspire you.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WTIiHZtH9BnNleypmS2yg?si=3Fa2iumkQOaBc6brWROBpg

Listen to this episode from The Leadership Crossroads with Tim Hicks on Spotify. Dr Travis Kemp is a true thought leader in the he fields of executive coaching, strategic leadership, peak performance, and organisational psychology. In this podcast episode hear Dr Kemp share his inspiring life journe...

09/04/2024

I'm excited to share Leadership Crossroads.

Every leader's career is defined by the moments where they stood at a crossroads with a critical decision to make.

With the pressure and power for these decisions to make or break, we are now rewinding the clock and unpacking those moments.

In episode one, I sit down with Dan Rosen, President, Australasia at Warner Music Group who shares a pivotal career decision to prioritise family over a new job opportunity.

Listen here:

Every leader's career is defined by the moments where they stood at a crossroads with a critical decision to make. With the pressure and power for these decisions to make or break, we are now rewinding the clock and unpacking those moments.

13/02/2023

I'm proud to say that I have recently renewed my membership of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and as a Master of Coaching Psychology (Sydney Uni) and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the ICF I have not only met stringent education and experience requirements, but have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the coaching competencies that set the standard in the profession.

Click on the link below or cut and paste into your browser to view a short video and discover how to know if a coach is qualified and the process of searching for an ICF Credentialed Coach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xt92ndYEE8&t=3sProfe

01/02/2023

Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilising members of a team to adapt, learn and grow into the change required to attain the high performance necessary for success.

Here's six tips for team leaders to consider in transforming the team to higher performance.

Get up on the balcony. A phrase you would have most likely heard of before. The concept of 'Get On The Balcony' refers to idea of gaining a larger perspective in the midst of action. Heifetz and Linsky describe as follows 'the skill getting off the dance floor and going to the balcony- an image that captures the mental activity of stepping back in the midst of action and asking – What’s really going on here? ' ' Effective leaders resist the tendency to be swept up in the action and are able to move back and forth from an active and reflective position. Looking at the problem from the balcony allows leaders to better observe patterns and identify the best move forward.

Identify the Adaptive Challenge. There’s a big difference between a technical challenge and an adaptive challenge! It is critical for leaders to be able to discern the differences. A technical challenge is defined as those that can be solved by with the existing knowledge, whereas adaptive challenges require new learning. When the problem definition is clear, a technical solution is possible. Otherwise leaders need to learn a new way to creating solutions.

Regulate Distress. As the leader be mindful of not overwhelming but providing enough tension to maintain urgency. Not enough tension leads to boredom and complacency, too much leads to unproductive tension and stress. Challenge the unproductive norms you are noticing and ask questions to raise tension to an appropriate level rather than give answers.

Maintain disciplined attention. People tend to slide back into old behavior patterns and unwitting leaders must be able to avoid the tendency to restore equilibrium. Identify distractions, refocus attention on tough issues and reframe issues to get at the heart of what matters to get progress.

Give work back to people. All too often, in hierarchical settings, people tend to look up the chain of command, expecting senior management to meet challenges for which they're responsible. Letting people take the initiative in defining and solving problems means that leaders need to learn to support rather than control. Instil confidence in others through encouragement and support.

Protect voices of leadership from below. Leaders must rely on others within the team to raise questions that may indicate an impending adaptive challenge. They have to provide cover to people who point to the internal contradictions of the enterprise. Those individuals often have the perspective to provoke rethinking that leaders may not.

Adapted from: The Work of Leadership by Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie

01/02/2023

A simple application of the hospital ER triage system:

As leaders, our minds are sometimes full of competing priorities and interests. To reduce cognitive load and cultivate improved attention consider triaging like an emergency room doctor. Prioritise your workload according to the urgency of the task. Emergency specialists use a colour coding system that I have adapted for you:

Red = immediate and critical activities. These are top priorities that'll give you the best ROI from your time.

Orange = emerging issues which could turn into a crisis.

Yellow = urgent but non critical activities with deadlines ≥ 48 hours.

Green = semi-urgent and non critical, important but they can wait.

Blue = non-urgent activities can be actioned when time permits.

Each morning, scan your WIP list and flag all your actions.

Hot tip! Remember for this to work effectively, be a disciplined leader in your assessment of what code you give to your actions. This will avoid incorrectly prioritising just the actions you like or love instead of the should's or must dos that are most likely more important to addressing your strategic goals!

Also, by using this triage system effectively, you will also soon re-train and change your brain to stop reacting as though everything on your to-do list is red.

17/04/2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications continue to unfold it's normal for people working at home to experience a wide range of thoughts, feelings and emotions such as feeling stressed, anxious, worrisome or fearful. Fortunately you can consciously work to build new neural pathways to trigger happy chemicals instead!

As the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications continue to unfold globally, in Australia and in our community, it's normal for people working at home to experience a wide range of thoughts, feelings and emotions such as feeling stressed, anxious, worrisome or fearful. Emotions that are not necessaril

01/04/2020

The new world of working from home precipitated by impacts financial, physical, psychological and social well – being. Besides the risk to people, the business is at risk of disengaged employees is raised. There is no better time than now to support leaders to build physical, psychological and social well – being with with consequent improvement in overall leadership, team and organisational performance.

Were you set up already? The new world of working from home (WFH) has introduced challenges we’ve anticipated and many that we have not. Prior to COVID-19 many of us grew accustomed to the relative solitude of working from home.

21/02/2020

Six Leadership Mindsets that help with Complexity

At the HR Leaders Conference in Sydney this week, Ciela Hartanov – Head of Practice Innovation and Strategy at the Google School for Leaders delivered a brilliant visionary keynote. The HR profession is at the cutting edge of what business is and will be. HR professionals have an important role to play in being the leader that leaders will come to for insight, advice and coaching. There are six mindsets she believes are important that have utility in an evolving world, the future of work and leadership;

Speed of Innovation
As speed of innovation is increasing, business cycles are shortening leaders are the lynch pins to making the transition required to adapt to a world where transformation, 100% of the time, is the new norm. Leadership mindsets are critical for change. Carol Dweck, Stanford University, Professor of psychology published about growth mindset. Microsoft popularised growth mindset as a powerful tool for transformation. It's become a new buzz word to the extent that is means everything and it means nothing.

So what does Mindset mean?
Mindsets are a way of thinking that help us make sense of the world and ourselves. Mindsets are a set of beliefs and values that have a direct link to the why we behave as we do. The power of Mindsets rests in the fact that if we help leaders to work with mindset, to uncover the assumptions they hold, to reveal their identities, to listen deeply and understand what's important to them, they will be able to be choiceful and behave differently. If for example a leader defaults to a trusting mindset they will be open, honest and transparent communicators. Conversely a leader without a trusting mindset will land with others as closed and defensive. The power of mindset is that it correlates directly with behavior. What we get is more adaptable mindset and behaviors that are more able deal with complex, uncertain, ambiguous situations and circumstances.

The Six Leadership Mindsets
Ciela suggested there are six mindsets that are believed to be important that have utility in an evolving world, the future of work and leadership;

1. I must know myself and get over myself. Humility is central to achieving this – it's not always about you.
2. I’m not a hero. Opposite to the self - aggrandising view so present in western society exemplified by glorification of the individual whilst minimizing the contribution made by the collective, e.g. Time person of the year.
3. I trust even without the data. Yes analytics are critical – where would we be without engagement, culture and EVP surveys! Yet we don't and we won't always have the data to make sense of what’s going on and to make a decision.
4. I embrace tension to make progress. In the new world of working there will always be complexity, there will be risk and there will be uncomfortableness. Embracing the tension as positive is the new way forward for at this edge of chaos created by complexity is growth.
5. I might not be ready. Having the curiosity to look and see what other answers, what other perspective are there?
6. I have power. In complex we need to understand how leadership have broader impacts.

Brains Built for Change
What we know about neuroscience is that our brains are built for change. We have the capacity to establish new pathways, repattern ourselves, change our mindsets and behave differently. With deliberate practice, reflecting deeply and intentionally taking a step back from the cognitive overload we’re accustomed to, we create opportunities to create and try new micro actions. In so doing build the capacity to not adapt to an increasingly complex and challenging world is enhanced.

The HR profession is at the cutting edge of what business is and will be. HR professionals have an important role to play in being the leader that leaders will come to for insight, advice and coaching.

13/02/2020

Vale Tony Grant. Tony encouraged, counselled, taught, facilitated growth, and inspired. Without him I would not have been able to build a coaching practice and consultancy. His legacy will live on with many a Sydney Uni Master of Coaching alumni. @ Sydney, Australia

12/12/2019

The Downside & Upside of the Controlling Manager. Picture this well respected manager; they set high standards, provide strategic direction and execute. They’re driven, take charge and achieve. This all sounds admirable. So what’s the issue? There’s an underlying need to control and win. A pattern of placing results ahead of people, of setting unrealistically high standards and fear of failure prevails. The tendency to control limits the formation of trusting relationships. Messages are inadvertently sent that they don't really want to collaborate. Consequently, followers remain silent. Creativity and insight remain latent. Engagement declines. The manager compensates by working harder to achieve results and in the process becoming more frustrated the team aren't doing their job. When coaching executives like this it’s important to enhance awareness of unhelpful patterns. Instead of asking the executive to stop being this way, it may be helpful to ask; “How is this behavior working for you?”, “What is it costing you?” and “When does this show up?”. These questions open the door to raising self-awareness. With , the manager can learn how to address liabilities, and move their team to new levels of engagement, performance and achievement.

11/12/2019

In previous posts I defined inherent and associated meaning and how a manager can facilitate employee meaning. Now here’s four steps for an employee to take for more meaning at work themselves!

1. Core Values. They lie dormant beneath the surface of action. Assessing core values helps illuminate what really matters – your personal compass bearings. Values give purpose and legitimacy to goal directed actions. Get a coach to help, download value cards from actmindfully.com.au or use images cards from ccs.cards
2. Strengths. A strength is a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that’s authentic and energising, and enables optimal performance (Linley, 2008). Get your strengths assessed using realise2 at strengthsprofile.com
3. Ask Questions. “What am I doing when I’m most energised, focused and in the moment?”, “What hopes and dreams do I have?” and “What really matters to me?”. Answers to these questions are indicative of core values and strengths and will assist in creating and navigating a pathway forward.
4. Engage your Manager…..in a conversation about shaping your existing role or designing a new role, so that you invest more personal resource tapping into your core values, strengths and where there’s inherent meaning.

Build clarity on meaning and tap into a powerful reservoir for higher satisfaction and engagement at work. After all, you spend a significant amount of your time at work, so why not make it count?