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Home Blog People & Values First Leadership; What works and what doesn’t With Lucy Starbuck & Jayani Samaranayake
20Mar

People & Values First Leadership; What works and what doesn’t with Lucy Starbuck & Jayani Samaranayake
By Sonia Goss | Blog, Podcast, lucy starbuck, jayani samaranayake, people, Culture, diversity | 20 Mar 2023 |

Forming a connection when working together in finance roles for a big global company, Lucy and Jayani found that most of their conversations centred around “If you thought about the person first, the outcome would be different”. They brought these conversations to life in their podcast ‘The Steam Engine’ where they talk about value based management with a people-focused mindset.
In the latest episode of Real Talk With Outperformers, Brad chats with Lucy and Jayani about culture, diversity, leadership, management, people and values in the workplace and let’s just say, the entire conversation was very insightful. To find out why, read on and listen to the entire podcast, links below.

Here are some of the podcast highlights;

The start and importance of their podcast – The Steam Engine

After having many conversations in their workplace around people, culture and values being a priority in business leadership, Lucy instigated the idea of starting a Podcast. Jayani explains that one of the podcast’s purposes is to share hers and Lucy’s experiences, the good and bad, to help benefit those who might just be starting their professional journey.  Lucy also describes the podcast as a guide to those who maybe looking for different options when making choices in the workplace or may see their discussions as ‘permission’ and confidence to go down the path they have already chosen.

Fulfillment first

When asked their thoughts on people now realising that they don’t have to be ‘slave to the next pay cheque’, Lucy talks from a macro perspective, about how over time, the objectives of workers has gone from working to survive, working for more money and now working for fulfilment. Because job satisfaction is now a key consideration for people when choosing between companies to work for or staying in the business they are already part of, it’s important for leadership teams to balance - meeting business objectives and ensuring employee fulfillment.

A focus on diversity

Tying in fulfillment and a ‘people first’ culture, Lucy and Jayani talk about the time the Jayani put together a team that included people from many different industries because they offered different perspectives on how to implement the strategy to meet business objectives. Lucy explains that the common individual goal was to gain experience and personal and professional growth and to “make a difference”. Jayani describes this as is a good example showing how diversity in the workplace is not only about gender, culture or race, it also now encompasses people with different industry experience and skills.

Leaders as role models

One of the touch points discussed in the podcast and in fact, Lucy and Jayani’s podcast, The Steam Engine, is how important it is to showcase different problem solving skills and an understanding that change in how issues are resolved is instrumental in business today.

Understanding individuals and their values

Jayani says that one of her biggest professional learnings is the importance of understanding individuals and their values to support them in getting them in getting what they actually want.

Overcoming leadership traps to encourage a culture of values

Brad asks Lucy and Jayani their thoughts on what they see as the traps that leaders trip over when it comes to understanding the values of the individuals that work for them and their answers are very insightful.

Lucy believes that there are a few points in answering this question

  1. Some leaders are stuck in the mindset of “that’s what we’ve always done this and we will always do it” and not reviewing past strategies to see if they worked and ask if they are “fit for purpose” not.
  2. A desire to be in control and the person who knows the most. This comes down to accepting that when managing a diversified team initially, managers will not know how to lead the team and essentially will have to be “Out of control as a leader to be in control, eventually.”

Jayani considers vulnerability is key to avoiding leadership traps when it comes to understanding the individual values of team members. She refers to herself as an example when she went from an a finance role in which she was very comfortable in to a very different position and allowed herself to say “..this is new to me. I’m going to learn from you, and I will bring a different perspective so that you can learn from me as well”

Neurodiversity in the workplace

Brad, Lucy and Jayani discuss the acceptance of Neurodiversity in businesses and believe that leaders’ absence of understanding of the benefits that come with working with neurodivergent people stems from the lack of control managers feel when dealing Neurodiversity in the workplace.

Shared Experiences

Brad asked Lucy and Jayani to share a story about a time when their boss “absolutely pissed them off” and the dynamics that played out. He also asked them about their experiences with amazing leaders/managers.

Both ladies had excellent examples that shed some light on how the outcomes could have been different if the situation had been handled differently. To find out what their stories are and listen to the entire podcast, go to;

Listen on Spotify 🎧

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