Timeless Expectations of Good Leadership: Peter Ivett
Peter Ivett, a director of Viventé, has over thirty five years experience across a number of key facets of business, including sales, marketing, advertising and communication, organisational development, and strategic planning.
Peter has a broad range of managerial and leadership experience across a number of industry sectors. He has worked extensively throughout Australia and Asia.
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About Leadership
I kicked off this conversation with Peter by quoting the tagline on his Skype account and inviting him to comment:
Leadership is the ability to engage the hearts and minds of people in such a way as to cause them to take positive action.
Peter talked about some outstanding leaders and qualities he has observed about their leadership.
- David Thodey, former CEO of Telstra – vision and strategy
- Ann Sherry, Executive Chairman of Carnival Australia – the importance of valuing diversity and corporate culture
- Kate Borbach, CEO of kids swimwear startup Escargot – vision, optimism, resilience
- Greg Adcock, former COO at nbn Australia – creating structure and strategy, being flexible, engaging across the enterprise
Are Leaders Born or Made?
Some people have hardwired instincts to step up and lead. If there, that needs to be nurtured.
Create a pipeline of experience, for them to grow their ability.
Thanks Peter for the reference to the work of Nigel Nicholson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School, on evolutionary psychology. (I looked him up after the conversation with Peter and found Nicholson’s article – How Hardwired is Human Behavior? – which includes some interesting and quite nuanced observations about leadership.
Leading Today’s Multigenerational Workforce
There has been a lot said and written about the Millennials/Gen Y being quite different from pervious generations in their approach and expectations and thus, so it is inferred, needing a different kind of leadership.
Peter begs to differ.
He’s been working a lot recently with Millennials/Gen Ys and finds they want the same things he wanted when he was starting out in the workforce. They want:
- a good leader – who sets very clear directions
- autonomy – the freedom to operate and “figure it out”
- to know what they are doing is actually making a difference, has some significance and can be seen to be connected to where the company is going
- opportunity to learn and gain experience
How Special is Digital Disruption Anyway?
There’s always been disruption, with jobs destroyed and new jobs created.
The electric typewriter brought the death of the typing pool.
“There’s always been two guys tinkering in a garage somewhere.” Think Wilbur and Orville Wright
“Most people are watching their competition. That’s OK. But I would be saying, look beyond the horizon. Because experience suggests that disruption comes from somewhere you’re not looking.”
Examples – Sony & the MP3, the Swiss watch industry and digital watches (which they conceived but did not think would work in the market).
What to do if you are worried about disruption?
Do some scenario planning. (And some practical advice about how to go about doing that.)
What Keeps Business Leaders Awake at Night?
IT decisions
Challenge is that a) you are committing a lot of money up front and b) you won’t really know for a couple of years whether your decision was the right one.
Culture
Culture = “the behaviors that as leaders we encourage, discourage, or tolerate”.
“Culture is not a balance sheet item, but it sure affects the bottom line.”
People align much more closely behind the culture of your organization than they do behind strategy.
The leadership challenge is to build a culture where people want to come to work, a place where people can build their strengths and skills.
Peter has been consulting for the past twenty years with a particular focus on organisation development including:
- Business Strategy
- Culture Measurement and Development
- Communication and Organisational Change
- Executive Leadership Coaching
Peter’s clients include Westpac, NBNCo, NSW Department of Industry, Baycorp, Salmat, Audit Office of NSW, Vellex Transport, Salmat, Sandhurst Fine Foods, Standards Australia and Deakin Prime
Contacting Peter/Viventé
The Viventé website is very informative, about Peter and his colleagues, about the company, what it does and how you can make contact. If you or your company is looking for such services as Viventé provides, there is an invitation to get in touch with them for an exploratory, no-obligation conversation.
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Des Walsh
Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.
