active CEO Podcast #52 Francesca Boase Building Trust In Crisis Management

Francesca Boase – General Manager Edelman Australia

On this episode of the active CEO Podcast, Craig Johns speaks with Francesca Boase about building trust in crisis management, storytelling as an art of communication, leading change, the Edelman Trust Barometer and being a great mentor. We also discuss personal development, being a custodian of peoples careers, the pain of accepting feedback, workplace wellness, and managing her energy and performance.

Francesca Boase – Building Trust In Crisis Management

Francesca Boase is an experienced global corporate communications specialist who is committed to the community, health, fitness and wellbeing. She is known for building strong relationships, impressive personal development programs and competing at the world triathlon championships.

A genuine people person, she is passionate about mentoring, facilitating and leading teams. Her focus in corporate and financial communication, media relations, reputation management and strategic counsel, has given her the necessary skills to thrive in her current role as Managing Director of Edelman Australia, the world’s largest independent communications agency.

Educated globally, she went to Island School, Hong Kong; studied Journalism, Film and Broadcasting and completed a Post Graduate Diploma Public Relations at the University of Wales, Cardiff; and attended the Australian Graduate School of Management. Her previous senior executive appointments have included roles at Sharman Networks, PPR PR Agency and Sefiani Communications Group.

Fran talks about:

  • Growing up in Hong Kong in the 1980’s surrounded by many nationalities.
  • Acting and then communicating with absolute integrity.
  • Honesty and transparency are absolute fundamentals to building that trust.
  • The most important elements when it comes to being proactive in crisis management.
  • We are in constant state of change.
  • What’s its going to take for you to say yes.
  • Fear accompanies change or uncertainty.
  • What makes a really great mentor.
  • Strategies to use when determining your teams internal motivations.
  • Managing stress and the importance of wellbeing in a fast-paced environment.
  • Having high standards and integrity as a leader.
  • Noticing and recognising the cultural differences of the generations coming through.
  • Businesses increasingly have a role to play in building the trust of Australians.
  • Talking about workplace wellness and not actually doing enough about it.
  • Recognising people as human beings in a holistic sense.
  • Really have to take care of yourself first and then come in and tackle the day.
  • Managing competitiveness in a healthy way and figuratively in a healthy way.
  • How to help young people really appreciate and value themselves.

Active CEO Wellness Tip

Motion Call – Stand up and go for a walk when you receive a phone call rather than stay seated at your computer. It reduces distractions and ensures you get the value of motion leads to emotion when you are walking. You will be surprised how much exercise you can do and how productive your calls become.

Tweets

“Being able to effectively communicate means you can build trust, address issues, you can form an organisational and business point of view, and build a narrative and a story which is a very important part of engaging whether it is your target audiences, your staff or your customers.” Effective communication with Francesca Boase, on the active CEO Podcast.

“The bottom line is that people don’t come to work to achieve a business result. People come to work to be with other people. My experience is that being a leader and being able to communicate on a very human level is critical. Its critical to managing staff, it is critical for great client relationships. It is very important when you are dealing with very difficult situations.” Francesca Boase on communicating at a human level, on the active CEO Podcast.

“You genuinely need to have that recovery time. In terms of performance in a role that is very demanding, having a break and taking some time out is as important a lesson to learn to learn as is learning how to respond to a client or developing a communications strategy.” Francesca Boase talks about the importance of recovery with purpose, on the active CEO Podcast.

Resources Mentioned in this show:

Francesca Boase LinkedIn
Francesca Boase fran@boase.com.au
Edelman www.edelman.com.au
NRG2Perform www.nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn

High Performance Leadership

active CEO Podcast #49 Alex Baumann High Performance Leadership

High Performance Leadership

On this episode of the Sportspeople Recruitment active CEO Podcast, Craig Johns speaks with Alex Baumann about overcoming tragedy to win two Olympic Gold swimming medals, transforming coaches of high performance into high-performing coaches, high performance leadership, and his new role as Chief Strategist High Performance at Swimming Australia. We also dive into being a swimming parent, balancing wellness and performance, the importance of empathy and building trust, and the principles of high performance leadership.

Alex Baumann

Alex Baumann sets very high standards, doesn’t settle for mediocrity, and has a proven record in leading successful teams and sport organisations. He is one of the worlds’ leading sports administrators, International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee, husband to Australian swimmer Tracey Taggart and humble sporting parent of two International swimmers.

He was born in Prague Czechoslovakia, however grew up in Canada winning two swimming gold medals and setting two world records at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Alex holds an Honours degree in Political Science from Laurentian University, a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Queensland, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Laurentian University.

His career has included working as a sports administrator in Canada, Australia and New Zealand with roles as CEO and Executive Director roles at of Queensland Swimming, Queensland Academy of Sport, Canada’s Road to Excellence Program, Canadian Olympic Committee’s Own the Podium, High Performance Sport New Zealand and is currently the Swimming Australia’s Chief Strategist, High Performance.

Alex talks about:

  • When you have some success early on you want more.
  • Swimming with the Dr. Jeno Tihanyi and the legendary coach James ‘Doc’ Counsilman.
  • Winning the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games 200m IM and 400m IM swimming gold medals in World Record times.
  • Coping with the tragedies of losing both his father and brother.
  • A majority of Gold Medallists have had to deal with some sort of trauma.
  • The pressure of being the current world record holder going into an Olympic Games.
  • Balancing athlete wellbeing and high performance.
  • Transforming coaches of high performance into high-performing coaches.
  • You get the best out of athletes when you can empower them.
  • Winning when it matters to inspire a nation.
  • Embracing pressure, rather than seeing it as a negative.  
  • How Wilma Shakespeare guided his introduction to sports administration.
  • The ability to challenge in a way that doesn’t offend people.
  • The differences in High Performance leadership in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
  • How a CEO or leader balances resources versus being resourceful.
  • Sometimes we get too complex to get that additional 1%.
  • There was not one word of winning in the Swimming Australia High Performance strategy.
  • One of my challenges is ensuring I have enough balance between work and family life.
  • The importance of urgency and the need to react quickly.
  • You have to keep doing new things and reinventing yourself through new things.
  • What drives each individual?
  • Once you think you know it all, you are dead in the water.

Active CEO Wellness Tip

Commitment To Excellence – Own where you want to go, constantly work at it, have the discipline to strive for excellence around how you are going to do it and why you are going to do it and make sure you put that plan into action. You need to commit to excellence if you want to be excellent.

Tweets

“Pressure is a positive thing as ultimately it gets the best out of us. Obviously if there is too much you get stiff, you just cant perform, The negative thoughts come into your mind and the pressure gets to you. Embrace it versus letting it consume you.” Embracing pressure with Alex Baumann, on the active CEO Podcast.

“When I got to the Olympics I had been through it all. You could throw anything at me and I would still be able to perform.” Alex Baumann on overcoming adversity, on the active CEO Podcast.

“I can’t worry about external things. I have to just concentrate on what I have to do. I have done the physical preparation, I am psychologically ready, I’ve competed against all these guys and I have beaten them.” Alex Baumann understanding the pressure of being an Olympian, on the active CEO Podcast.

Resources Mentioned in this show:

Alex Baumann LinkedIn
Alex Baumann Wikipedia
Swimming Australia www.swimming.org.au
International Swimming Hall of Fame Bio
NRG2Perform www.nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn

Recommended Reading:

Swimming With Alex Baumann: A Program for Competitive and Recreational Swimmers link

active CEO Podcast Sasa Sestic (The Coffee Man ONA Coffee) – A World Beyond Coffee

active CEO Podcast #47 Sasa Sestic A World Beyond Coffee

A World Beyond Coffee
Sasa Sestic ONA Coffee
World Barista Champion
Project Origin
2000 Sydney Olympics
Sasa Sestic – Founder & Director ONA Coffee

On this episode of the active CEO Podcast, Craig Johns speaks with Sasa Sestic about escaping three wars, transitioning from 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Handball player to entrepreneur, creating ONA Coffee, the powerful impact of Project Origin, winning the 2015 Barista World Championships and a world beyond coffee. We take a deep dive into building a team of innovators, creating a competitive environment, chasing excellence, collaborating with winemaker Tim Kirk from Clonakilla, The Coffee Man movie and book, and the realization that coffee was much more than a social drink.

Sasa Sestic – Podcast Interview Brief

Sasa Sestic is a World Barista Champion, Olympian, philanthropist and remarkable entrepreneur, who immigrated to Australia in 1997, from humble beginnings in war-torn Bosnia. He is considered inspiring, authentically raw and a fun entrepreneur to work with, who authored the award-winning book The Coffee Man. His outstanding sporting ability allowed him to represent Australia in European Handball at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

While working in a Canberra bakery he found his true passion and an obsession for not only perfecting the ultimate cup of coffee, but also finding and roasting the world’s best coffee beans. He has a heart of gold and his devotion to donate thousands of dollars to the farmers who produce the coffee beans in places like India, Honduras and Nicaragua. His love of coffee has led to two Australian and the 2015 World Barista Championships, as well as owning a range of café’s including The Cupping room, ONA Coffee House, ONA Manuka and High Road.

Sasa talks about:

  • His dad surviving -15 degree nights to put food on the table.
  • Playing European Handball for Australian at the Sydney Olympics
  • Transitioning from athlete in 2013 to Barista entrepreneur.
  • Working in 3rd world countries to help them develop great coffee, grow there amazing coffees and see that we are doing something good for these communities.
  • The DNA of ONA Coffee which is community driven and family owned
  • A lot of failures; every time we failed it help bring us closer together.
  • People who love coffee, obsess with coffee and want to innovate.
  • Developing innovative coffee processes that are used globally.
  • Collaborating with winemakers Tim Kirk from Clonakilla.
  • O.C.D – ONA Coffee Distribution Tool
  • His first trip to India in 2011 changed the way he approached coffee.
  • Going deep into the Amazon Forest to search for the coffee bean DNA.
  • The story behind The Coffee Man movie.
  • Introducing consuming countries with the farming countries.
  • The future expansion of ONA Coffee.
  • Flying to Switzerland to understand the science of coffee.
  • Wanting to change the way coffees are sold.

Active CEO Wellness Tip

Talent Is Not Enough – Discipline, hard work and really putting that time into achieving your goals. Talent will only take you so far. What is the plan you are putting into place and implementing to ensure you achieve that performance that you desire?

Tweets

“Very competitive environment, very high paced, all high achievers, we all love competition and the competition gets the best out of us.” Sasa Sestic explains the ONA Coffee environment, on the active CEO Podcast.

“One of the issues we have is that when we reach these high goals, we don’t spend enough time celebrating. We just set another higher goal. Trying to be the best we can be. We want to compete with ourselves.” Wanting to spend more time celebrating with Sasa Sestic, on the active CEO Podcast.

“2007 is when I realised that coffee can be so much more than a social drink. So much more than something that tastes reasonably nice. A lot deeper purpose to being able to serve a great cup of coffee. We can make the world a little bit better.” Sasa Sestic’s approach to a world beyond coffee, on the active CEO Podcast.

Resources Mentioned in this show:

Sasa Sestic www.sasasestic.com.au
Sasa Sestic Instagram
ONA Coffee www.onacoffee.com.au
ONA Coffee Instagram
Project Origin www.projectorigin.com.au
NRG2Perform www.nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn

Recommended Reading:

The Coffee Man Book
The Coffee Man Film