Leadership

4 myths about redundancies – and how to ease a difficult transition for your staff

4 layoff myths – and how to ease a difficult transition for your staff

“Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets.”

These are the words of Didier Elzinga, CEO of Melbourne-based software firm Culture Amp, reflecting on his experience of navigating a difficult transition. Making staff layoffs can be a shock for any company, but the impact can be more profound in highly collaborative environments like the company Elzinga had built.

Here, Elzinga dispels some of the myths surrounding staff layoffs and shares his learnings on managing change, dealing with fear and more.

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The secret to retaining your employees? Focus on career advancement

The secret to retaining you employees? Focus on career advancement

Leaders overlook internal promotions at their peril. In a Pew Research survey, 63% of respondents who left jobs in 2021 cited a lack of advancement opportunities as a reason. And a 2022 study by consulting company McKinsey noted that a lack of career development and advancement was the most common reason given for quitting a job. With that in mind, here are three ways NFPs can use career development to retain employees for longer.

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“Clarity, optimism, tenacity and persistence” – Leadership lessons from Lin Hatfield Dodds, CEO of The Benevolent Society

Lin Hatfield Dodds has spent her working life focused on people and communities who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, most recently leading over 1,500 staff as CEO of The Benevolent Society, Australia’s oldest charitable organisation dedicated to meeting the needs of vulnerable groups in society. In the lead-up to her keynote presentation at the 2023 Not-For-Profit People Conference, Lin spoke with us about her leadership journey and how she faces and overcomes challenges as the CEO of Australia’s oldest charity.

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Eight ways NFP managers can vastly improve their communication skills

When it comes to communication, we all tend to think we’re pretty good at it.

Truth is, even those of us who are good communicators aren’t nearly as good as we think we are. This overestimation of our ability to communicate is magnified when interacting with people we spend the most time with.

These eight strategies will help you to overcome the communication bias that tends to hold us back, especially with those we manage or work closely with.

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A once-in-a-lifetime leadership opportunity for NFP CEOs

Good leadership is crucial for NFPs to succeed.

That’s why four major Australian foundations have announced a collaboration to create a 10-month, national capacity-building and leadership program for CEOs in Australian not-for-profit (NFP) organisations.

The Social Impact Leadership Australia program (SILA) is an evidence-based program specifically developed to meet the needs of Australian CEOs and build the capacity of their organisations directly and indirectly.

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