Author: Tom Lofthouse

Like the rest of the world, Australia is facing a skills shortage. This is highlighted in the scarcity of skills required by the green economy and in WA, this is complicated by a heavy reliance on the fossil fuel sector.

To harness the economic potential of renewable energy and other green industries, we need a plethora of new skilled workers. However, one of the greatest challenges to growing the green economy lies in bringing about effective change across legislation, political strategies, industry practices, and the organisations that form the backbone of our economy.

How do we bring about change? It starts from the top, with effective and inspirational leadership.

Skills shortages extend beyond merely increasing numbers and re-skilling blue-collar workers; leaders don’t stop up-skilling when they reach senior roles, either. Lifelong learning ensures leaders have the capabilities to lead the changing demographics of their teams, in line with new legislation, societal expectations, and using the latest best-practice thinking.

The green economy combines sustainability, environmental stewardship, finding shared value and innovative business models, and requires a range of soft skills in addition to technical expertise.

The global focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requires more than an understanding of what ESG means. Leaders need to refine their skills in change management, communication, collaboration, and strategic development. These soft skills are vital for fostering innovation, collaboration, and adaptability in this dynamic landscape.

The following outlines key soft skills that are critical in the unfolding green economy:

Collaboration and teamwork

• Interdisciplinary collaboration: Green projects often involve teams from diverse fields – engineers, scientists, policymakers, and business leaders. The ability to work across disciplines is crucial for driving sustainability initiatives.
• Partnerships: Building relationships with local communities, governments, NGOs, and private-sector stakeholders is vital for developing sustainable solutions.

Communication skills

• Clear communication: Effectively conveying complex environmental issues, sustainability goals, and green technologies to both technical and non-technical audiences is essential.
• Advocacy and persuasion: Professionals in the green economy must advocate for sustainable practices, influencing policies and consumer behaviour through compelling messaging.

Leadership and change management

• Visionary leadership: Long-term thinking and transformational leadership are necessary to inspire change within organisations and industries.
• Change management: Successfully implementing green practices often requires substantial changes to business models and processes. Leaders must navigate resistance and guide teams through transitions.

Adaptability and problem-solving

• Flexibility: The rapidly evolving nature of the green economy demands professionals who can adapt to new challenges, whether they stem from policy changes or environmental crises.
• Creative problem-solving: Sustainability issues often require innovative solutions, necessitating out-of-the-box thinking to reduce waste, increase energy efficiency, or establish circular economies.

Ethical decision-making

• Integrity: Ethical considerations are vital in the green economy, balancing economic growth with environmental and social responsibility.
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR): Professionals should understand and apply CSR principles to align their practices with broader sustainability goals.

Emotional intelligence

• Empathy: Understanding the concerns of diverse groups, including communities affected by climate change, fosters trust and collaboration.

• Conflict resolution: Sustainability projects often involve balancing competing interests, such as between business profitability and environmental protection. Professionals need strong conflict resolution skills to find common ground.

Critical thinking and systems thinking

• Big-picture thinking: Professionals must grasp interconnected systems, both natural and man-made, to design sustainable solutions that consider long-term environmental impacts.
• Analytical thinking: Assessing data and trends critically is essential for effective decision-making in sustainability efforts.

Project management

• Organisational skills: Many green initiatives are complex and large-scale. Effective project management – including time management and resource allocation – is crucial.
• Risk management: Navigating uncertainties in green projects, such as regulatory changes or market shifts, requires strong risk management skills.

Innovation and creativity

• Innovative Thinking: The green economy thrives on creative thinkers who can develop sustainable products, processes, and business models.
• Entrepreneurial spirit: Professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset can capitalise on emerging opportunities in the green market.

Cultural awareness and inclusivity

• Global perspective: Understanding diverse cultural approaches to sustainability is essential, especially in regions like WA where projects may intersect with Indigenous lands and considerations.
• Inclusivity: Sustainable solutions must address the needs of marginalised communities, ensuring equitable benefits from green initiatives.

These skills complement the technical expertise required in the green economy, driving successful sustainability initiatives across sectors like renewable energy, green construction, agriculture, and transportation.

Developing essential skills for the future

The great news is that soft skills can be developed and applied immediately, whether through online courses, workshops, or larger qualifications. There is always room for growth, regardless of experience level.

If you’re interested in exploring the leadership skills you or your team will need for 2025 and beyond, call +61 8 9379 9999 to discuss your needs.

Together, we can Achieve More and build a sustainable and prosperous future for all.

In today’s dynamic job market, the pathways to leadership are varied, encompassing higher education degrees, direct experience, vocational education, or often, a combination of all three. As workforces evolve, industries demand increasingly specialised skills, and the economy faces a significant skills shortage, the traditional route of obtaining a university degree is being scrutinised. Is higher education still the golden ticket to career success, or has its value diminished due to oversubscription? How does vocational education stack up in preparing professionals for leadership roles? Should we re-assess the standard degree requirement for job roles across sectors?

The value of university degrees has prepared generations for successful careers, and provided an invaluable route to societal movement, however with so many graduates now flooding the market, some argue that a degree alone no longer guarantees a competitive edge. This oversubscription has led some to question the return on investment of spending years in academia, especially amidst soaring tuition fees and burgeoning student debts. Moreover, the rigid curriculum of many academic institutions can sometimes lag behind the rapidly changing demands of the modern workplace.

Vocational education is often seen as a ‘lesser’ pathway in Australian cultural norms, despite offering a more direct and often quicker route to employment, equipping students with specific skills tailored to industry requirements. For many, a university setting might be impractical, against their learning style or unaffordable. Vocational courses provide valuable opportunities, particularly for older workers, to update their skillset, making them more competitive in the job market.

Skills and labour shortages are two of the most pressing concerns facing societies and economies today. PwC’s 2023 Annual Global CEO Survey found that 52% of CEOs believe labour and skills shortages will significantly impact profitability in their industry over the next 10 years. During a time when businesses globally are having to respond to everything from the pandemic, economic and geopolitical uncertainty to stakeholder and competitive pressures, talent shortages are adding significant pressure. The report recommends a “skills-first” solution that ‘focuses on whether a person has the right skills and competencies for a particular role, rather than having the right degree, job history or previous job titles’. It democratises access to jobs and has the potential to deliver significant benefits to business, as well as society and economy.

Some sectors in Australia have already shown that an alternative route to qualification can be implemented successfully, for example, nursing, law, accountancy, IT and engineering. Employer sentiment is also changing; according to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, in 2021 40.2% of employers had jobs that require vocational qualifications, up 6.0 percentage points from 2019. In a post-pandemic era with a national skills shortage, cost of living crisis and renewed focus on the diversity of learning styles and job needs, vocational skills training is re-building its reputation as a viable pathway to senior careers across industries, and a necessary requirement as people work longer in a rapidly changing world, highlighting the need for lifelong learning.

As business environments evolve, the need for continuous education becomes more pronounced. Vocational programs, with their focus on practical skills and immediate applicability, are well-suited to address this need. They offer an agile response to industry changes, such as new legislation or shifts in best practices. For example, the new Work Health and Safety Act 2020 in WA and associated responsibilities such as Psychosocial Hazards, necessitate a quick and effective educational response, something vocational courses are designed to provide.

The Australian Government has already begun to look into this broader issue with the Australian Universities Accord, policy shifts, and associated funding structures such as Jobs and Skills funding to promote the uptake of vocational education to address skills shortages.

So, given this recalibration of the education sector, should companies relax recruitment degree requirements? This question is becoming increasingly pertinent in today’s job market. For strategic roles that require critical thinking, extensive knowledge, or leadership skills that benefit from a theoretical grounding, a university degree might still be preferable. However, there are many roles where this requirement is superfluous. Vocational qualifications often indicate that the individual has specific, practical skills and a readiness to perform in a particular role from day one. The practical emphasis in vocational leadership training also prepares learners for real-life leadership challenges, particularly as people-leaders.

As we celebrate Careers Week in Australia during our current skills and cost of living crisis, this seems a pertinent time to also look at job requirements and the perception of pathways to certain roles. The integration of vocational training and traditional education, combined with real-world experience, will likely become the most effective strategy for developing future leaders. This blended approach ensures that individuals are not only well-rounded in theory but also adept in practical, applicable skills that drive industries forward. The pathways to leadership are diversifying, and the educational systems that support these paths must adapt accordingly to prepare the leaders of tomorrow.

Katharina Naswall, University of Canterbury and Sanna Malinen, University of Canterbury

Most workers will be familiar with this scene: a meeting that goes round and round on a topic – one that may not be important to the priorities of the company. People leave the meeting frustrated and unheard. And the whole experience is repeated the next time everyone meets.

But does this have to be inevitable? Or is there a better way to organise how we interact within teams to support effective decision making?

Team decision making is thought to be critical for organisational success. Yet there are often real challenges that lead to conflict and confusion.

In our ongoing research, we define effective team decision making as a process of understanding a complex problem, identifying alternative solutions, and finally selecting the most appropriate option to meet the team’s objectives.

For this process to work, it is essential there is a culture that promotes diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. This leads to increased experience, intelligence, competence and task-relevant knowledge, as well as better overall problem solving capacity for the team.

Creating a safe environment

But creating an environment where team members feel safe to share their thoughts and opinions, especially if they are not in line with the majority view, is often easier said than done.

This is where the concepts of psychological safety and independent thinking come into play.

Psychological safety means team members can express their ideas and opinions without the fear of negative responses. It permits challenging others – even those in a position of power.

When team members operate in an environment with high psychological safety, they are more likely to share their diverse perspectives and ideas. This leads to better decision making.

Independent thinking means team members are encouraged to share their perspectives without modifying or moderating them.

This enables them to collectively engage in critical thinking and challenge the status quo. It can lead to more innovative and creative solutions and can also foster a sense of ownership and buy-in among team members.

By supporting independent thinking, teams can develop a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability, essential in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Feeling safe and included

Our study investigated the relationships between positive team culture factors – psychological safety and independent thinking, as well as inclusion, and their impact on effective team decision making.

Participants from 35 New Zealand-based decision-making teams completed an online survey asking them to recall a complex decision faced by their group. They were also asked whether their group demonstrated effective decision making.

We found participants who described higher levels of psychological safety were more likely to report effective decision making. For example, over 60% of those who agreed to the statement “I feel safe offering new ideas, even if they aren’t fully formed plans” also agreed with the statement “the selected solutions were of high quality”.

Feeling psychologically safe and able to communicate without fear of negative consequences is important for effective decision making.

Effective decision making was also more likely when team culture encouraged independent thinking. This suggests that to function effectively, teams need different perspectives to improve how information is processed and complexity is addressed. This is further enabled by a psychologically safe environment.

Our findings related to inclusion were mixed and dependent on how it was defined. When inclusion means the appropriate participation of team members in the decision-making process, it was associated with effective decision making.

But when inclusion was defined as being “perceived as an esteemed member of the group and belonging”, it was not significantly related to effective decision making.

So perhaps feeling “truly part of the team” is not essential, so long as team members are brought into the decision-making process whenever they can add value.

We also found longer tenure within a particular team was positively associated with effective decision making. Familiarity with colleagues has been shown to be especially helpful in ambiguous, uncertain and changing work environments.

Understanding team dynamics for better results

Our study shows both psychological safety and independent thinking are important for effective team decision making.

Leaders play a crucial role in promoting psychological safety within their teams. They can model behaviours that support psychological safety by exhibiting vulnerability, being authentic, and being willing to listen and discuss new and innovative ways of doing things.

It is essential leaders make creating a positive team culture a priority – one that fosters psychological safety and encourages team members to share their unique viewpoints.

Leaders can do this by:

1. Following an effective decision-making process. This involves considering the team’s objectives, understanding the problem or opportunity being addressed, applying a range of perspectives, considering more than one potential solution, and selecting solutions that are best aligned with the team’s objectives.
2. Fostering psychological safety by having a shared set of values and a clear vision to support constructive discussion. Encourage curiosity instead of allowing defensiveness, and frame decision making as a team sport – not a win (or loss) for the individuals whose ideas are supported (or discarded).
3. Supporting independent thinking and expression by allowing team members to share their view before they are exposed to the views of others. This could involve a poll, or pre-meeting written contribution. Leaders should also avoid unduly influencing team members by sharing their view first, or by very narrowly framing the scope for team discussion.

Following this approach, leaders can unlock effective decision making and improve overall performance – banishing unproductive team meetings for good.

The research presented in this article was conducted by Story Dealy Cottrell as part of her MSc thesis, in collaboration with Lloyd Mander of DOT Scorecard

Katharina Naswall, Professor of Organisational Psychology, University of Canterbury and Sanna Malinen, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, University of Canterbury

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The art and science of selecting and building the future leaders of your organisation is an investment that not only secures the present but lays the foundation for a thriving and sustainable future.

Whilst outside hires can bring new energy and expertise, it’s important not to overlook the talent within existing teams, nor the ability to nurture and grow your people with a strategically planned talent pipeline. The opportunity for promotion is not only beneficial for retention and motivation, it can be much more cost-effective when managed well.

Set a clear shared vision

The first step is defining and communicating a compelling and inspiring vision. This ensures everyone is working to a shared goal and enables you to identify the diverse skills and capabilities needed to achieve it. You can then craft a leadership team with the skills needed to guide the organisation toward shared goals.

Identifying potential

Forward-thinking organisations look beyond seniority and tenure to identify individuals who display a combination of skills, adaptability, and a passion for personal and team growth.

• The willingness and capability to step up and fill critical roles during challenging times shows responsibility and proactivity. Asking your people about their long-term career ambitions provides insights into their desire for growth and leadership and helps align junior staff with pathways to career progression.
• Assessing how individuals react to failure and pressure is crucial; true leaders demonstrate resilience, learning from setbacks and using them as opportunities for improvement.
• A keen eye should be cast on individuals who not only excel in their current roles but also demonstrate the capacity to inspire trust and influence their peers.
• Good communication skills entail not only the ability to convey ideas concisely, but to actively listen, empathise, and adapt communication styles to diverse audiences.

Even with all these boxes ticked, new leaders need support to successfully transition and make meaningful impact in their new role, addressing any weaknesses with upskilling through mentorship, training and KPIs.

Setting your people up for success

• Promoting talent from within comes with unique challenges, particularly when new leaders are tasked with managing former colleagues. Courses such as Managing Your Mates helps address the particular challenges of setting boundaries, communicating expectations, and resetting relationships within this new dynamic.
• Setting expectations and providing the tools needed to navigate challenges and uncertainties as they arise helps set new leaders up for success. Courses such as Manage Change Effectively and Risk Management can be helpful in providing tools and strategies to engage and motivate teams during transitions.
• Leadership is not confined to making strategic decisions; it involves understanding and managing emotions. Leaders with high Emotional Intelligence possess the capacity to recognise, understand, and manage their own emotions, and those of team members. Often seen as innate, it can in fact be developed. Programs such as Developing Your Team, and short soft skills courses enhance leaders’ self-awareness, empathy, and relationship management skills.
• Effective communication is paramount for leaders in any field. Leaders must articulate a clear vision, inspire confidence, and foster collaboration. This comes naturally to some, but it is valuable to build on these skills through courses such as Communicating as a Leader, where individuals learn principles of effective communication, gain insights into human behaviour, and acquire tools to convey messages persuasively. Courses also provide practical experiences, such as public speaking or group projects, allowing individuals to refine their communication abilities in real-world scenarios.

Lifelong learning and support

• Mentorship plays a pivotal role in this process; experienced leaders can offer valuable insights, guidance, and wisdom to those navigating the complexities of leadership for the first time. Mentees gain access to a wealth of knowledge, enabling them to make informed decisions and avoid common pitfalls.
• Coaching complements this support system by providing personalised guidance tailored to the individual’s strengths and areas for improvement.
• The provision of opportunities is essential for honing leadership skills. Offering challenging projects, secondments, and exposure to diverse experiences allows emerging leaders to test and expand their capabilities.
• Constructive feedback helps individuals understand their strengths and areas for development. A supportive environment that encourages continuous learning and growth empowers new leaders to navigate challenges with confidence, ultimately contributing to the overall success of the organisation.
• Finally, lifelong learning. Professional development should be individualised, tailored to the areas an individual needs or wants to work on. It is also most effective when self-led. Courses such as Development as a Leader helps build the self-reflection skills and forward planning to identify and plan areas for improvement within leaders, and within their team.

Building future leaders requires a strategic and comprehensive approach combining education, experience, and ongoing development. By embracing these principles, you can ensure a pipeline of capable leaders ready to steer teams toward a prosperous and resilient future.