Fit For the Future

Gihan Perera
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We have never faced us much uncertainty as we do now, and have never needed strong leadership as we do today. Navigate this fast-changing world with ideas and insights for leading through crisis, recovery, and growth, and being fit for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 1d ago

    What’s Really Going On?

    Your team members often know about problems, opportunities, and customer issues long before you do, and you won’t find out if you don’t make the effort to listen. But listening is only half the story – the way you do it sends a strong message about how much you value their opinions. https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on As a leader, what are you doing to understand what’s truly going on in your workplace – and especially to listen to your team members? They often know things you should know, and you would know if you listened to them. I was in beautiful Phuket in Thailand last week, speaking at a conference for a large franchise retail group in Australia. I was talking about leading people through change, because like many organisations, they’re facing a lot of change now, and want their franchise partners to know how to lead their people through change. After my presentation, a participant told me a story about one of the franchisees – an amazing story about how this leader listens to her people. Every Friday, they open the store to customer 15 minutes late. That 15 minutes is for her and her staff, and she askes, “What sort of things have come up in the last week?” Sometimes they’re positive things worthy of praise, and sometimes her team members tell her problems she doesn’t know about. By airing them in this short meeting, she – and other team members – learn about them, and can figure out as a group how to address them. This is an excellent idea – for two reasons. First, the obvious benefit is she’s listening to her team members, who are closer to operations and customer than she is. Every leader and manager should take a leaf out of her book, because you team members know things you don’t know – and you wouldn’t know if you didn’t listen. But I think the second reason is more important – it’s the signal and message she’s sending to her team. She’s explicitly willing to give up 15 minutes of valuable revenue-earning time to listen. In effect, she’s saying: “I care so much about your opinion I’m willing to sacrifice some of my revenue and profit to listen to you.” It’s a simple thing, and some team members won’t even realise. But they would realise if she asked them to come in early or stay late – on their own time. What are YOU doing for your team to demonstrate you care about their opinion? And then, do you actually listen to them? For more, join my free public online presentation “Keep The Change” soon, where I talk about building an adaptable team. Register here, and invite others in your team and your network as well. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-whats-really-going-on Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. Sep 29

    Safety In Uncertainty

    With constant change and uncertainty, your people need to feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas, and take initiative. As a leader, you play a huge role in creating that safe environment. When your people feel safe, it’s easier for them to embrace change, contribute ideas, and come with you on the journey rather than just doing what they’re told. https://swiy.co/go-safety-in-uncertainty As a leader, what are you doing to make your people feel safe when there’s a lot of change happening around them? I was recently running my “Future Scenarios” program with a group of senior leaders, where they look at what’s coming up in the future and – just as importantly – plan how to bring their people along on the journey. In the program, I share Google’s “Project Aristotle” research about high-performing teams. Named after Aristotle, who said, ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, Project Aristotle sought objective criteria for team effectiveness. Google expected the key factors were things like having the best engineers, the people with the greatest expertise and experience, and the people most qualified to do each role. But they found, to their surprise, that the real factors had little to do with expertise or experience. Obviously, that was important as a starting point, but the real factors were what are sometimes called “soft” skills. The most important is psychological safety, which is how safe people feel about taking interpersonal risks at work. You want your people to feel safe taking risks around their colleagues – even with something as simple as, say, asking a “stupid” question at a meeting. When you make it safer for them to fail, you make it easier for them to succeed. So, in my program, we discussed psychological safety and the leader’s role. Later in the day, a participant said, “Oh, yeah – that’s related to the conversation we were having about psychosocial safety.” That led to another conversation because psychosocial safety is different from psychological safety. They both relate to the employee experience and how safe they feel in the workplace, but they’re different – and that matters for you as a leader. Psychosocial safety is how your organisation has created a workplace to protect people from mental, emotional, and physical harm. This includes legal obligations, physical hazards, bullying and harrassment, working hours, mental health resources, and so on. The key is that psychosocial safety is broadly the organisation’s responsibility, while psychological safety is YOUR responsibility as a leader. Of course, everybody in the team plays their part in creating a psychologically safe environment, but ultimate they’re led by you. Your team members know whether they feel psychologically safe with you, and also whether you support psychological safety for the group when you’re in the room. So what are you doing to create psychological safety? As with many other things, it’s more difficult to create psychological safety in uncertain and volatile environments. Anxious and stressed people are more ready to criticise others, more insular, and less open to new ideas. They often think “Don’t rock the boat” or “Don’t make waves”. That gives you a bigger challenge. On one hand, you want your people to feel safe rocking the boat and making waves – but you don’t want them to capsize it in the middle of a storm! What are YOU doing to create psychological safety in your team? If you’d like to know more about this, join my free public online presentation “Keep the Change” about creating a culture of change and adaptability in your team. I’ll see you in the future. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-safety-in-uncertainty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. Sep 22

    Don’t Lead From The Front

    In a fast-changing world, you don’t know all the answers – and you’re not expected to know them. Instead of dragging people along or expecting them to simply follow you, meet them where they are, walk alongside them, and turn the journey into a shared experience. https://swiy.co/go-dont-lead-from-the-front As a leader, what are you doing to inspire the people in your team? Yesterday, I took our cocker spaniel, Jasper, for his regular 20-minute walk – around the block, through a local park, then back home. Even though this is the same walk Jasper takes every day, he treats every walk like a new experience. He doesn’t walk in a straight line, and is always straying off the “straight and narrow”, sniffing around, stopping to examine something new he’s “discovered”, and so on. That walk reminded me of Back to Back Theatre, a theatre group in Geelong that has won international prizes for their performances. What makes them different is they only employ actors with disabilities or who are neurodivergent. These performers see, perceive, and act in the world differently – and that creates unique experiences for them, the organisation, and their audiences. When director Bruce Gladwin accepted an international award for Back To Back a few years ago, he described his approach to work like this: “I want us to walk the path while full of curiosity. It’s like going on a walk with a three-year-old child, not taking a three-year-old child on a walk.” There’s a lesson in there for all leaders. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not comparing the people in your team to cocker spaniels or three-year-old children. But I hope you do have people with diverse perspectives, behaviours, and ways of thinking. As a leader, are you dragging them along – like taking them on the walk – or are you going on a walk WITH them? The best leaders know they don’t have the answers, and even the answers that worked for them in the past might no longer be fit for purpose. To succeed in a fast-changing world full of uncertainty and change, we must all tap into the diverse perspectives, diverse thinking, diverse behaviours, and diverse experiences of people around us. As a leader, you’ll be far more successful if you walk the journey WITH your people, not in FRONT of them. I’ll be talking about this in my next free public online presentation, “Keep the Change”, which is about building a culture of change agents. It’s open to everybody, so register here and invites others in your team and network, too. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-dont-lead-from-the-front Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. Sep 15

    Build Their Judgement

    You can’t empower your people just by telling them to take more ownership. You need to build their judgement step by step, so you feel confident letting go and they feel confident making decisions. Over time, you reduce how much they depend on you, avoid becoming the bottleneck, and build a team that can act more independently and handle change more effectively. https://swiy.co/go-build-judgement As a leader, what are you doing to be able to trust your people more? I was running a leadership workshop recently, and we were talking about trust – especially in an uncertain world, where nobody really knows what the future holds. Of course, to be an effective leader, your people must be able to trust you. Even if you can’t give them certainty, you can still give them confidence and clarity for the future. But, in this workshop, one participant said, “What you’re saying makes sense for my team to be able to trust me, but my problem is I often don’t trust THEM enough.” In other words, when she delegates a task to them, she doesn’t trust they have the knowledge, experience, or wisdom to do it well – especially if things change along the way. This is common, and she herself recognises it’s bad for everybody. It’s bad for her team members because they don’t get to develop skills and grow. And it’s bad for her because she is either overworked (taking on work she can’t trust delegating to somebody else) or a bottleneck (always having to micro-manage everything they do). Does that sound familiar? If so, what can you do? Well, the bad news is you can’t just click your fingers, send them on a training course, and hope they learn everything they need to know to gain your trust. The good news is you CAN do it – but step by step, not all at once. Instead of focusing on “trust”, think about building good judgement in your team. Part of the reason you’re a leader is because YOU exercise good judgement – that’s why your own boss trusts you. Now, it’s your turn to build that in your team. Here’s a simple activity that helps to build judgement – not in a training course, but in everyday work. The next time a team member asks you for your help, before you offer any advice, imagine saying: “I trust your judgement.” and then letting them do whatever they think best. You don’t have to know what they will do, but you trust them to do the right thing. Keep in mind you’re only IMAGINING saying this. If you can actually say it confidently, go ahead and do so. It will make your life (and theirs) better immediately, and reinforces your trust in their judgement. But sometimes you know it would be inappropriate – and possibly even negligent – to simply assume you could trust their judgement. In that case, of course you address their immediate need: Give them the answer. Show them the process. Pitch in and help. Even do it yourself with them watching to learn for next time. But don’t stop there. After helping them, ask yourself: “What do I need to do so that next time she or he comes to me, I CAN say, ‘I trust your judgement’?” Usually, you can’t trust their judgement yet because they don’t know what to do, don’t know how to do it, or something is getting in their way. So, you use this as a development opportunity, and work together to do what it takes to build their judgement for next time. This isn’t a perfect process. You might try something to build their judgement, but find that next time it still isn’t enough. That’s OK – you just keep doing this over and over again. Does that sound like a lot of work? Well ... maybe. But if you don’t do this, you’ll be stuck forever. More importantly, you’re building your CULTURE, which happens through consistent behaviour, not just one-off interventions. If you’d like to know more about building a culture of change, join my free online presentation, “Keep The Change”. Register here, and feel free to invite others in your team and network as well. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-build-judgement Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. Sep 8

    Your Tone Sets The Culture

    As a leader, you set the tone for how your team’s culture. The environment you create isn’t just about the physical workplace – it’s also about whether people feel comfortable sharing new ideas, trying different approaches, and adapting when things shift. And with so much change ahead, you want people on your team who don’t just accept change, but are ready to embrace it and even lead it. https://swiy.co/go-your-tone-sets-the-culture As a leader, what are you doing to build a culture where your team members thrive and flourish? I was in the Perth CBD recently for some client meetings, and then went to work for a few hours at Australia’s newest university campus: Edith Cowan University. This campus is only about six months old, and when they built it, they had the opportunity to build a very modern university, and that’s exactly what they did. The entrance is open, spacious, and airy; and it celebrates our Indigenous cultures and of course Edith Cowan. They have many options for student collaboration, with open tables, study booths, quiet areas, and many other options. Not surprisingly, digital options are also widely available, with chargers and powerpoints everywhere. The lecture rooms and seminar rooms all have high-tech digital facilities for presenting and facilitating; and I presume they also support recording and live-streaming for students who aren’t attending in person. So the physical workplace reflects everything you would expect from a 2026 university campus. And, if it’s used well, it can support and facilitate a thriving culture of collaboration, discussion, learning, and innovation. But of course that physical workplace doesn’t automatically CREATE that culture. It supports it, but the people create the culture. And the same applies to your team, too. As a leader, YOUR tone sets the culture. A major part of your role is to create an environment – physically and in other ways – where people thrive and flourish. They feel confident speaking up. They know how to respectfully challenge others. They go out on a limb, knowing somebody else isn’t going to saw it off. And especially, they are open to change – because we all KNOW we’re facing a lot of change in our future. You want an environment where people feel comfortable with change, are open to change, and ideally embrace and lead change. Look around at your physical workplace environment. If it’s supports and facilitates change, that’s a bonus. But that culture starts with the people. That might sound obvious, but many workplace cultures just don’t encourage change. In fact, if anything, they push back against change. And that generally starts from the leader. For more about building a culture of change, join my free online presentation, “Keep the Change”, where we look at the six kinds of change cultures, and I help you identify yours and take simple, concrete steps to elevate it. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. So register here, and invited others in your team and network, too. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-your-tone-sets-the-culture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. Sep 1

    When Leaders Say No

    When your team brings you new ideas, do you embrace them or push back? If you push back, it’s probably for a good reason (time, money, resources, tried it before, etc.). But when your people hear “no” often enough, they learn there’s little point suggesting anything new – and will stop. https://swiy.co/go-when-leaders-say-no As a leader, are YOU the biggest barrier to change in your team? A few weeks ago, I spoke at a leadership conference about being a future-ready leader in times of change and uncertainty. Afterwards, a participant came up to me and said, “Look, I like your ideas, but ... I have a young, inexperienced team who are always suggesting new ideas. But they don’t know much about our industry and just don’t realise how impractical and expensive these ideas are. So I’m constantly having to knock them back.” It reminded me that a few months earlier, I had spoken at another conference. Again, a participant approached me afterwards to ask for some ideas about where to learn more about AI. I was happy to help, and gave him a list of useful resources. He then said, “Can I be honest with you? The reason I’m asking is because I don’t like my job, and I want to find something better. My boss doesn’t like new ideas, and every time I go to him with an idea, he rejects it.” So ... two very different stories, looking at two different sides of a workplace relationship. Now, if I was making up a fake inspirational story, it would turn out that, by coincidence, that boss and that employee were actually in the same team, and, say, the employee would build a successful AI company that discovered some miracle cure that would save the boss’s daughter’s life! Right? No, that didn’t happen! They didn’t know each other – and were from two completely different workplaces in different industries. But those two kinds of people are common in many workplaces. On one side, you have people with ideas who approach their manager or leaders with those ideas. And they often get knocked back. And it’s usually for a valid reason. The leader will say something like: - “We don’t have the budget for that." - “We’re too busy right now.” - “That’s not part of your job.” - “We tried that once, but it didn’t work.” As a leader, are you saying those sorts of things? If you are, I’m sure you’re doing it with the right intent. For example, if you say, “We tried that once, but it didn’t work”, it makes sense, right? Why would you waste time, money, and other resources on something you know hasn’t worked before? But – and this is really important – if you do that every time somebody comes to you with an idea, then after a while they’ll stop coming to you with ideas! Maybe not the first time. The first time they might go, “That didn’t work. I might try it again next time.” But if you keep doing that, eventually they’ll learn that there’s no point raising new ideas with their boss or manager because nothing’s going to happen. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon, and for the rest of your life. And then you’ll say, “My people just don’t take initiative. They’re just not proactive. They never come to me with any ideas.” Guess what? It’s because YOU created a culture where change and new ideas aren’t appreciated, let alone embraced. So, even though you didn’t intend it, YOU might be the biggest barrier to change in your team. Of course, you can’t embrace EVERY new idea – that would be irresponsible and negligent. But you must find the right balance. To explore this further, download my worksheet with ten things that leaders and managers say that stifle innovation and change. Work through it with your team to find more useful and responses. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever say those things again, but it will give you a different perspective, so you can choose when and where you say them. Download the worksheet: https://swiy.co/go-when-leaders-say-no Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Aug 24

    AI For The People

    As you plan for an uncertain future, it’s easy to get caught up in new technology (AI, I’m looking at you!). But don’t lose sight of what matters most: people. Use AI to help your people – customers, employees, and others – so you can work better, make better decisions and achieve better outcomes for everybody. It must always be people first, AI second. https://swiy.co/go-ai-for-the-people As a leader, are you focusing on the most important thing for the future for yourself, your team, and your organisation? I spoke last week at the Planning Institute of Australia conference in Perth, talking to local and state government planners about navigating an uncertain future. Many of the planners in the room are already thinking twenty or thirty years ahead, so they know what it means to plan for the future. But – like everybody else – they need to plan for an unknown future in a world that’s constantly changing. How do they – and WE – do that? I love the theme of the conference the Planning Institute chose for this year’s conference (borrowed from Shakespeare): “What is the city but the people?” I reckon that’s a perfect lens for us all when we’re thinking about the future. It’s not just for planning cities, but for teams, organisations, families, and communities. Put people first, and then build everything around it to support people. This applies especially to technology like AI, which everybody wants to use (good!) but sometimes with a focus only on the technology (not so good!). Turn that around and ask: “What is AI but for people?” AI is there to help us make better decisions, free us to do better work, and support us in building better teams. For more about this – specifically around AI – come to my free, public online presentation “Next-Level AI”, where I’ll show you how to make this the focus of your AI initiatives and growth. It’s open to all leaders, so please register and share the link with others in your team and network, too. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-ai-for-the-people Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. Aug 18

    When AI Breaks The Rules

    Did you hear about the gym in Melbourne that was accidentally hacked by AI? As a leader, that should raise a warning about the training and guardrails you give people when they use AI at work. It’s your responsibility to make sure you’re protecting your data, your organisation, and your brand from AI that doesn’t follow the rules. https://swiy.co/go-when-ai-breaks-the-rules As a leader, do you know how much power you’re giving to AI when you use it at work? You might have seen the recent story about a gym in Melbourne that got accidentally hacked by AI. Yes, ACCIDENTALLY! A gym user, Andrew, created an AI “assistant” to help him with his admin, and asked that assistant to book some gym sessions for him, using the booking form on the gym’s website. Simple, right? To his surprise – and shock – he found the AI had hacked the gym website to accomplish the task! First, although the website only allowed bookings a few weeks in advance, the AI discovered a way to book sessions for Andrew months in advance. Second, when the AI found a session that was full and the three waitlist spots were also taken, it figured out how to cancel one of the waitlist people (without their consent, of course) to make space for Andrew. So what happened here? First, let’s be clear this didn’t have dire consequences, like loss of money or breach of privacy. But this story made international headlines because it showed a real-life example of the power of AI to go off the rails. Andrew gave the AI a task, and the AI figured out how to do it – even in ways that were never intended. Nobody said it wasn’t allowed to book months in advance or kick people off the waitlist. It simply discovered that it COULD, so it DID. And it wasn’t even trying to be “sneaky”, like somehow sending a virus or malware to the gym’s website. No, it just found two unadvertised “features” of the website software that it could use to achieve the task it was given. As a leader, this should make you sit up and take notice – for two reasons. The first is EDUCATION. When you and your people use AI at work, do they really (and I mean REALLY) understand the potential consequences? It’s bad enough having AI “hallucinating” information in a chat, but at least you can manage that by carefully checking and double-checking everything it says. But now we’re talking about autonomous AI agents you ask to do some work for you. Are you sure you (and your people) know how to clearly describe the task, explain what the AI is allowed to do, and – just as importantly – be very, very clear about what it’s not allowed to do? The second reason is SECURITY. Are you sure your IT systems are secure from external AI agents that could “hack” them – even unintentionally? You might say that’s mainly the responsibility of your IT department. And you’re right – it MAINLY is. But IT departments can’t control everything – for example, somebody carelessly leaving private customer data on a publicly-accessible web server. They might have put it there temporarily – say, to make it easy for somebody else to download it – and forget to delete it, somebody else’s AI agent could stumble across it. So, as a leader, be sure you’re educating your people and tightening your security – to protect yourself, your organisation, and your brand. For more about this, join my free, public online presentation about next-level AI. We’ll talk about this and other issues you need to consider as you’re embedding – and trusting – AI more in your organisation. It’s open to all, so register now and invite others in your team and network, too. Register for the virtual masterclass: https://swiy.co/go-when-ai-breaks-the-rules Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About

We have never faced us much uncertainty as we do now, and have never needed strong leadership as we do today. Navigate this fast-changing world with ideas and insights for leading through crisis, recovery, and growth, and being fit for the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Gihan Perera
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2026
  • Episodes
    410
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Gihan Perera
  • Show Website
    Fit For the Future