Building My Leadership Toolkit

20 Oct

by Desmond Muzorewa

I have always been a technically oriented professional until a few years ago when I decided to develop my leadership skills. An initial step in achieving this goal was to augment the ongoing technical actuarial CPD activities with more formal qualifications in leadership. This led to my enrolment in the Public Sector Management Program with The Queensland University of Technology, and the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program with Guardian Actuarial. Through these programs, I built a robust toolkit of strategies that I applied in establishing a parkrun event in Port Pirie (“local event”). While technical skills are important, I realised that their prominence progressively diminish the more one transitions into leadership roles as these require a more holistic, big picture and strategic approach to solving problems.

Being an avid runner and parkrun enthusiast, the first thing that I looked for shortly after relocating to the beautiful regional town of Port Pirie was a local parkrun event. To my disappointment, there was no local parkrun event. The closest event was at least 45 minutes away, which was less than convenient. parkruns are free, weekly timed 5 km community events where everyone is welcome to come along and walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate. The absence of a local event presented an opportunity for me to apply various leadership tools in facilitating the establishment and ongoing maintenance of one, the Memorial Park parkrun. It is in this context that I will discuss how I built and applied my leadership toolkit.

Identifying and solving problems in my community

The recognition of the absence of a local event as a problem; creation of a hypothetical “big picture” roadmap to finding a solution and embarking on the journey to solving the problem was the first and most important step in practically applying the tools in my toolkit. This is because one of the most important leadership attributes is to constantly scan the environment, seek to identify and quantify any gaps, think of possible solutions and muster the courage to initiate transformative action.

While identification of key stakeholders was necessary in establishing a local event, a good understanding of each stakeholder’s interests and needs, power and influence dynamics; and appetite as they related to the establishment of a local event was pivotal. With a diverse pool of stakeholders, comprising the Port Pirie Regional Council (“Council”), individual Councillors, Community members, Insurer, parkrun Australia and parkrun Global (collectively referred to as parkrun), an assessment of the interaction of the above-mentioned attributes was of significant importance. This is because an optimal solution would have to maximise each stakeholder’s requirements while minimising any areas of risk, discomfort or concern.

Balancing risks and needs of stakeholders

A good example of balancing various stakeholders’ interests related to the establishment of a suitable course, which met parkrun’s specifications in order for the event to be insurable and safe for parkrunners and the community at large, subject to the available Council land and other requirements.

Consideration of all these requirements culminated in the designing of a three-lap kettle bell shaped course within Memorial Park along a combination of grass, sealed and unsealed paths. This course addressed parkrun’s need for compliance, the Insurer’s need for reasonable residual risks, the parkrun community’s need to safely use the park and Council’s need to allow equal access to all community members over the duration of the event.

An analysis of stakeholder’s level of interest as it relates to their level of influence was important. This is because an understanding of each stakeholder’s interest and influence dynamics guided the nature of engagement I had with each stakeholder and structure of communication both of which were effective in influencing the desired outcomes.

Council had a high level of interest and high level of influence, which lead to a more concerted interaction characterised by collaborating on each aspect of the key decisions and co-designing of all solutions including the outline of the 5 km course. On the other hand, the general community members with no knowledge of parkrun were an example of low interest and low influence stakeholders. My interaction with them was more informative. I provided this cohort with balanced and objective information with limited ongoing monitoring and management.

Applying skills from my leadership toolkit

Application of systematic thinking in managing others and myself contributed immensely to the success of the establishment of this local event. This approach entailed undertaking a self-awareness exercise, understanding, managing and developing others. The self-awareness exercise involved understanding my strengths and weaknesses resulting in the effective engagement with all key stakeholders including Council, parkrun and prospective volunteers and participants. As part of this exercise, I learned about the other stakeholders’ work and engagement styles. This helped me to understand their priorities and how they aligned with or differed from mine.

The combination of a good understanding of all stakeholders and self-awareness allowed me to determine the best level of engagement, method of engagement, consideration of timing issues and resources requirements, identify individuals who were responsible for engagement, key messages to communicate and manage associated risks. This assisted me in establishing high quality engagements and effective relationships with the various stakeholders.

The key results were that parkrun authorised the establishment of a local event, Council provided landowner rights and fully funded the initial set up costs, the local parkrun community responded by submitting expressions of interest both as participants and volunteers.

The power of coaching

Following the attainment of the above milestones, an important pursuit was to establish a core volunteer team that would assist in the ongoing maintenance of the event. This process included identifying individuals who had a basic understanding of parkrun and were passionate about the same.

Coaching is a powerful methodology that I continue to apply in order to create a positive volunteering environment and support the dedicated core team of volunteers to perform and thrive. The coaching approach fosters a mindset that is more guided by inquiry, curiosity and positive support while at the same time keeping a focus on the strategic and operational objectives of the local event and parkrun at large.

The benefits of this approach, which include enhanced meaning and purpose, more fully engaged volunteers, greater creativity and greater preparedness to explore and experiment have already started to manifest.

Technical actuarial skills + leadership skills = maximum impact

The process I undertook in establishing this local event fits perfectly in the mould of the actuarial control cycle in terms of the problem definition, solution design and results monitoring iterative process subject to external influences such as public interest, policies and procedures, risk management and various compliance matters.

A significant distinction to the way I previously applied this process is the placement of a greater emphasis on the holistic strategic view of the project. This was characterised by the application of various leadership methods including project management, stakeholder engagement, communicating to influence, managing self and others, and enabling self and others for productivity and performance.

My experience highlights the versatility of the actuarial skillset coupled with leadership attributes, particularly the effective applicability of this aggregated skillset in solving non-traditional actuarial problems.

Application of the recently acquired leadership skillset, supported by my strong technical actuarial acumen allowed me to successfully introduce this free, community-lead, socially focused physical activity aimed at fostering community integration and friendships while creating a healthier and happier community.