#35 The Importance Of Being Clear About Your Core Values, with David McDermott, CEO of Evolved Strategy

I'm delighted to have worked with some incredible clients this year, including Grain Growers Limited, Surf Lakes, Deloitte and QLD Health. This has enabled us to provide strategy and leadership development support to our pro-bono clients Sea Shepherd Australia and Opportunity International Australia. 

It has also been a powerful year of fascinating conversations on the Evolved Leadership Podcast.

To complete 2023, check out our final episode of the year as Episode 35, where I speak about the top insights on the show through the year, and also share a personal example of one of my own recent leadership insights.

The story I share in this episode was prompted by an experience of feeling flat while sharing my own top values of Honesty and Enjoyment with my client group, while facilitating a core leadership development program module. I considered afterwards that much time and life experience had taken place since I arrived at those original values, so I took myself through the values reflection and prioritisation exercise again. And this time the highest values that emerged were Freedom and Inner Harmony.

These resonated much more clearly in terms of where I'm at in my own leadership journey and life. I was reminded of how important it is to revisit your values as needed, as much can change over time that causes values to be reprioritised.

There is a major project that is coming as a result of my own reclarifying of my personal values, which I'll share more on early next year.

For now, have a relaxing and rejuvenating break, and see you in 2024.

To learn more about what it takes to be an evolved leader, and to check out our other podcast episodes, go to:  https://www.evolvedstrategy.com.au

Transcript

00:08.80
davidmcdermott
Hi guys. It's been a great pleasure to have shared the content. We've shared with you this year. There's been some incredible guests on the show I'm personally delighted to have worked with some great clients throughout 23 such as grain growers limited. Hi guys. It's been a real pleasure this year to have shared the content that we've shared. Hi guys. It's been a real pleasure this year to have shared some amazing interviews with a whole range of guests I'm personally delighted to have worked with some incredible clients throughout 2023 grain growers limited the peak representative body for grain growing farmers in Australia. Ah, the amazing surf lakekes founded by Aaron Trevis who's also a guest on the show and their mission of creating a healthier world through building surfing communities and supporting deloitte with their leadership development as well as queensland health amongst others and that's. Enabled evolve strategy to provide support to our pro bono client c shepherd Australia and the microfinance charity opportunity international and we've had some really cool guests this year and I've just chosen a few highlights to share in in closing the year of

01:36.56
davidmcdermott
And we spoke to John Fung chief revenue officer at the real estate group domain speaking about the power of loving your executive leadership team peers that was a ah fascinating point that John made um where he spoke about the. The the common experience of leadership teams often going into fight in the in their elt meetings fight for their their own teams that they lead and and the things that they want for them and being closer to their own teams than they are with their and their leadership peers and he. Felt strongly and made the great point that really the healthy way is to ah, be closest with your leadership team peers and then take that out to the teams you lead, um, seeing seeing your leadership team is a place to collaborate to support each other. Ah, to support each other to to run your teams more powerfully and strongly rather than it being a battleground to try and scrap out for resources and how they're distributed to different teams so that was a really cool conversation. We also spoke to the founder of car next door will davies. And at the time will had just sold the business to uber and and it's now uber carshare and it was really fascinating to hear how he had built a purpose-based business that got to the point where eventually it was it was attractive as a assaleable business to uber and a successful sale.

03:07.50
davidmcdermott
So a really great win there for will and he stays on as the Ceo of of now uber carshare the owner of xenno diamonds and the founder of the reputation builder program Carl Schwntez talked about those magical moments of truth in your business. Carl spoke very insightfully about and Google he's an expert in in Google and particularly the Google business profile and i. Highly recommend you check out that episode to hear Carl's wisdom on what you can do to build your and optimize. Ah, your digital profile which for most businesses is an extraordinarily important part of um of how you present to the world Tom Hughes the general counsel at the mawson infrastructure group talked about the unique intersection of law leadership and bitcoin mining a fascinating conversation. And um, and I highly recommend you check that one out too. We spoke to Ryan Swenson the Ceo of ssoomy and heard about the organization's mission to create a world without waste by building a circular economy Ryan came from an executive position at Officeworks. And ah ps soomy came out of the office works group after purchasing the world's biggest garage sale and another great episode for ah for those interested in the whole space of the circular economy which is building and and getting a lot of traction these days.

04:36.45
davidmcdermott
The founder of surf lakes I mentioned Aaron Trevis um just another shout out for that interview an absolutely cracking conversation and and a really unique business model in a space in the sports and recreation space Tony Gosby Smith the founder of my old. We spoke to Tony Goldsby -smith who is the founder of my old business consulting firm second road where tony explained how the ancient art of rhetoric is the tool that's needed to solve wicked organisational problems and tony was speaking there about what is also sometimes called complex problems. Those problems that don't have an answer and where you need ah a conversation with the right people in the room to progress the problem so that things actually move forward in a positive way and we also spoke to ross farrelly the director of ai and data science at ibm where ross who also has a masters in applied ethics. Talked about the ethical implications of the explosion of artificial intelligence in today's world so there are just some of the highlights. There are many more wonderful conversations. The intention of the podcast is to share the experience of successful organisational leaders who make the world a better way. A meaningful the intention of the podcast is to share the experience of successful organizational leaders who make the world a better place in a meaningful and tangible way and at scale I personally started the show with a purpose to demonstrate. How.

06:10.34
davidmcdermott
Organisational leaders who focus on an inspiring mission and that is the key distinction who focus on an inspiring mission and build a successful organisation out of it. Get 2 big wins 1 they are more profitable in the long term than if they had only focused on making money for money's sake. And you can check out our interview with will davies the founder of car next door for more detail on that and how in will's view car next door certainly became more profitable by having a purpose focused business model than if it was just making money for money's sake and 2 they attract a much higher quality team around them than they otherwise would have which creates an infinitely more enjoyable experience internally within the team as well as externally for customers and clients so you can check out episode 0 where I share more detail on why I started the show. And I speak there about my original inspiration coming from a period of my life in my early 20 s being involved in a global youth leadership charity by the name of Luca leadership that ran these mind-blowing six-day residential programs for young leaders in the foothill in the foothills of the tuscan town of Luca in italy. And from that experience I was left with a great clarity that leaders from all sectors could choose to create organizational missions that were inspiring and uplifted humanity in their own unique way and I've often said to my podcast guests in the initial stages and.

07:44.87
davidmcdermott
As we're speaking about them coming onto the show that they don't need to be saving the whales. Although one of our guests sea shed Australia does do exactly that but more that their organisation needs to improve the quality of people's lives in a clear and measurable way. At scale so to complete the year I'll leave you with one of the most powerful leadership insights that I had in 2023 and this came up when I was running a leadership development program module for a client taking them through a core module that involves. Clarifying what your highest personal values are and how that aligns with your organizational values and objectives and at the time I shared my own top values by way of example, which at that time were honesty and enjoyment. But as I spoke those out I felt flat. And ah and I considered afterwards that a lot of time and life experience had passed since I originally arrived at those values so I sat down and I took myself through the values and reflection. Um.

08:53.45
davidmcdermott
So I sat down and I took myself through the values reflection and prioritisation exercise again and this time the highest values that emerged for me were freedom and inner harmony and these resonated much more clearly at this point in my own leadership journey and life and. I was reminded just how important it is to revisit your values as needed. Um a lot can change over time that causes values to be rep-prioritized if you'd like to learn more about how that values prioritization process works exactly and and how that can benefit. You and your leadership team feel free to reach out. Go to evolvestrategy.com a and and get in touch. There's a major project that's coming as a result of my my own There's a major project that's coming as a result of my own re clarifying of my personal values which I'll share more on early next year for now have a relaxing and rejuvenating break and I look forward to sharing more powerful content in 2024.