29 Apr
Experiences from the Leadership Frontline
Learning how to be a better leader never stops, and I’m pleased to report that the two days I recently spent with my peers at the 2024 RiSE Leadership Conference in Sydney was amongst the best couple of days I’ve spent on my own leadership development in quite a while!The conference featured 7 keynote speakers and over 50 real estate leaders who shared their unique journeys with us.
The wonderful Jelena Dokic kicked us off. What an inspirational woman! She shared her incredible journey, the highs and the lows and the courage it took for her to perform when the ones closest to her were toxic. The key learning from Jelena’s session was that we all need a “Todd” in our life, that person who not just gives you the honest feedback you need but also supports you along the way.
Hunter Johnson, CEO of The Man Cave has impacted the lives of 20,000 young Australian men and spoken to more than 65,000 school kids. Unfortunately, boys are growing up with a lot of confusion and without a safe space to share their stories and connect with peers, they can descend into loneliness and anger – a dangerous place for them to be. Hunter shared the story of ‘Declan’, who just needed someone to provide him the safety to share his story that then enabled him to connect with his peers. We all have Declan’s in our businesses, our role as leaders is to bring out the best in them.
Dr Lucy Hone talked about life, death and everything in-between. The reality is we’ll all experience loss, and how we react, how we help ourselves and others and what we avoid is all part of the journey. Resilience is like a stew with different ingredients, and everyone makes their own unique stew.
Thomas McGlynn from Bresic Whitney shared how better leadership equals better culture which leads to better teams. A great question was asked in this session – what does your business need to look like if you were to stay in it for the rest of your life?
Kristen Hansen, founder of EnHansen Performance explained what our brains go through when we lead a team. She highlighted that to be at our best all day, we need to rest our brains every 90 minutes for at least 10 minutes. To achieve insight, your brain needs to be in a relaxed state.
Karen Maher, a leading work health and safety consultant shared that with so many changes in working environments right now, it is critical for leaders to be ahead of the game to keep their people safe and well at work.
Our last keynote speaker was Victor Perton, founder of the Centre for Optimism. What a delight, especially when we ended the session with yoga laughter! Sometimes overlooked, optimism is critical in helping us cope better with stress and build stronger relationships. It is also underpinning our resilience, allowing us to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward. Happiness can be linked to 100 different things, and it can be easy to lose. But joy is lasting and you can celebrate it every day.
The two days at the Rise Leadership conference taught us about overcoming limits, managing challenging behaviours, resilience, the neuroscience of leadership, building psychological safe workplaces and building an optimistic culture.
My favourite quotes from the event were:
- Self-worth is not a group decision
- Be the boss that you needed at the start of your career
- Adversity shapes character and it does not discriminate
- Be a damn good human
- Think from the heart rather than your head
- We can’t control our circumstances but we can control the response
- Do great work with great people
- Laugh more – yoga laughter is the best
- Optimism is a state of mind not a state of the world
- What will it take to create a generation of Elders
- Are you good enough to be better
- Leadership isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s a continuous journey of adaptation and growth
As leaders, an investment in our own leadership journey doesn’t just help us, but it also helps the teams around us. RISE focuses on the mental wellness of our leaders and people so that we can have thriving businesses. You cannot have one without the other. I urge you to book into RISE 2025 early as it will be an invaluable investment in your own leadership success.
Congratulations to the RISE team and thank you to all the leaders who shared their journeys with us.
Sadhana Smiles,
CEO Real Estate Industry Partners
