Episode Details

In this episode you'll hear from Greg Steele, CEO Arcadis Asia Pacific.

He is also the Chairman of Engineering Aid Australia and on the board of Roads Australia. He was the Managing Director of Hyder Consulting before the Arcadis takeover.

I came across this special man at a mindfulness conference where his authenticity and honesty about the challenge of keeping balance in the corporate world blew the audience away. I couldn't wait to get him on the show.

We cover the importance of making sense of things, making choices and making things happen. And how to drive change, using diversity as a strength and mindfulness to keep you focused.

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Key Points:

Greg's top quotes from this episode include:

1) Back yourself but be prepared and don't be afraid to speak your piece. I think one of my early lessons in my career that was very formative.

2) I liked the notion of strategy. I think I was born with a competitive streak. I liked the notion of out-competing, outperforming and other companies. The whole notion of financial performance, HR, really having a broader view of an organisation. Strategy is the thing I guess I fell in love with. Trying to find a way to outperform and win. That's what I liked more than anything and I guess that's where my ambition started to grow.

3) Some of the biggest lessons learned for me was listening to bosses in team meetings and then walking out saying I will never do that. This guy or girl has just totally demotivated the whole staff with that speech. Yeah, funny enough a lot of my lessons learned and maturity came through what not to do.

4) I wasn't a strong candidate for my first attempt at a CEO role. I reflected on that, and I said, things are not going to change, people have got me pigeon-holed as a business development, strategy, marketing type person. I had to change. For the second time in my career, I changed jobs, went back to Hyder. A company I thought was a huge opportunity. Really, not a pay cut but really a backward step. A backward step because I had to do some things to change people's perception. I was never going any further in my current role unfortunately. At Hyder I took on the strategy of the clients but also all the corporate services. Legal, HR, all those things that I needed to help broaden my career. Not quite a P&L but nevertheless getting some real experience in lots of different areas. I did that and there was some changes in leadership both nationally and globally. Out of that within two years, I was the CEO.5

5) I made some mistakes, of course. Some mistakes early on and then I realised, I have to think about this, I just can't make off the cuff decisions here. There's a lot more depth I needed in a couple of areas. I was a little bit concerned about the financial aspect in the matrix but in the end having a very good CFO and I still currently do, is we really play a good team.

6) A big mistake leaders make I think is there's a propensity of people in leadership roles to try and do too many things. I think focus is key to leadership and a successful organisation. Making choices, is you just would love to do some things and you just can't.

7) Three keys to leadership

a) Making sense of things - Where is the marketing heading, what's happening here, what are our competitors up to? Okay, where do we need to go? Differentiate

b) Making choices – Choices need preparation, understanding, thinking through, having data, some factual evidence as to the decision you're making. It might originally be led from a gut