HERE’S WHAT WAS COVERED:

DOMINIC:

I personally had a habit back in the day of charging it to meetings, knowing what I knew, saying it out loud, and actually not making any progress.

Just hearing my own voice. And so for those inclusive meetings around saying we don't just want to hire for cognitive diversity, we want to give those constantly diverse people and inclusive environment where they feel comfortable to speak up, where they feel comfortable to disagree.

We talk a lot about respectful dissent and so for us, meetings are a chance for us to spa and that respectful dissent creates friction. The friction, friction creates ideas. It's about finding a way for everyone, whatever their working style, learning style, or communication style that has a voice. Some people have a voice by speaking up, some prefer to write it down, so prefer to draw it.

And so finding ways of engaging with our people because we want that, that cold run of ideas to create the best idea, not just the loudest voice in the room.

AMBER:

And do you find that there is a gender bias within that? Like do you find that there are women that are less likely to speak up in a meeting or do you think it's more of a personality trait? You were talking about being an extrovert. How do you think of that?

DOMINIC:

I think there's a multitude of things. His experiences, cultural norms, different countries have done in cultural norms. There's gender, there's age, there's height, right? I control into a room as a six or four guy tone of voice. There are many facets.

I think the first key is to understand your, your style. And for me, learning that has been important. So I know how I impact others. And then like knowledging the other styles aren't better or worse than mine. They're just other styles. And there was a time in my career where I thought my way was the best way.

And I think getting out of the way of my ego and realizing that there are many ways is more valuable than just thinking this one bite.

AMBER:

So getting out of ego. I like what you said there. Do you think that, because I, I personally feel that the future of leadership is empathy and self-awareness, which means getting out of ego. Do you believe that that is where we're heading in terms of the C-suite?

DOMINIC:

Oh, there's no doubt that EQ is becoming more powerful and more profound than its impact. I think there is an inherent challenge with that, which is I see a whole lot of people downloading books on IQ, reading about empathy, and therefore thinking they have empathy, right? If you look at future skills like curiosity, empathy, creativity, you can't learn them by reading them. You learn them by doing them, by role modeling and getting them wrong. Vulnerability isn't something that you can read about something you need to do. And I think we're in this stage of democracy, which is what we call it around you learn by doing.

So therefore, how can you create an environment where you can do and where the opportunity to learn is there in case you do get it wrong. And I think there are many corporate organizations that are punitive in the way they treat failure.

So why would you be vulnerable? Why would you get anything wrong? Because everyone's doing the Chesapeake and that perpetuates the wrong behavior. It perpetuates this world where we think everything's certain and it's all about the loudest voice. And actually when you think about empathy is around being able to walk in that other person's shoes, which is not an easy skill to demonstrate.

AMBER:

You also spoke about the four L's, which I thought were particularly poignant to what we're talking about today. Can you run us through them?

DOMINIC:

Yeah, so the four L's are a technique I use every quarter on myself as a leader and then also with my team. It's what did I love about the previous quarter and I should do more of that. What did I lows? I should stop doing that. What did I long for the thing I wish I could have done, I should start an inbox and only add that in if I take out a loan and then what did I learn from the previous quarter, the fourth hour.

And the thing I learned, whether it be a success or a failure is a story. I then go and tell my peers, people around me so they can learn from my mistake or my failure. So it creates this system of continual learning

AMBER:

I liked how you made it clear that we're all busy people and for us to do more of the things that we love, we are going to need to actually start crossing out more things.

DOMINIC:

The things you start will be the hard cause then you and the things you stop will be easy because you've done them for years.

AMBER:

Right. I love that. Now you're obviously growing your personal brand and doing things like speaking and everything today. How else would you recommend people to grow their corporate profile?

DOMINIC:

I think just own it. I think some people over communicate it. They have adjusted their most important thing. For me, it's gotta be authentic. And then you just kind of own it as in what are the trade offs, right?

What are the trade-offs of having a brand of a certain style and a certain way. And once you do those two things, everything else is easy because if you've got that self-awareness we talked about, you will listen, learn and that, that, that brand versus being fixated on that brand.

AMBER:

And have you sought out a lot of um, uh, mentorship and guidance when you're doing your professional development?

DOMINIC:

I've had mentors my entire career. I normally have two or three on the go at any one point in time. And they are very important to me because the biggest existential threat to me is believing my own bullshit. And so mentally because they are independent to me, I seek them out for specific skills, but their ability to just call you on the stuff that you could hide from is amazing.

AMBER:

So you think that's probably the key, a key trait that you're looking for when selecting a mentor.

DOMINIC:

So everyone has to be able to do that. But I then look for people with a specific skill that I'm trying to acquire.

AMBER:

Give us a run through. Like how would we like to actually go out and find a mentor? Like what? What's worked for you in the past? You tuck out to your network.

DOMINIC:

Really incredibly simple. I pick the one thing I'm trying to learn cause I realize it is a gap. I keep my eyes and ears pale for someone that has that. And when I see them, I approach them and I go, Hey, Hey, Hey, you're really good at this thing. I've self-identified. I'm not, I would love to be able to acquire that off you. How do we go about doing this?

AMBER:

Seems like a very brave conversation to have. Have you ever had someone say no, sorry mate?

DOMINIC:

Most of them say no. And you know how much that costs you? Nothing. Wow. Yeah. Again, it's just an ego. If you let the ego go, it's free. So it's one of those things whereby I ask, cause I'm always asking busy people. Most of them say no. And I'm like, Oh Hey, cool. At least I still know what I'm after. So it's not a loss, it's just I've not yet made the game.

AMBER:

And I guess in that way you could say that you're always getting the right mentor.

DOMINIC:

It's mutual, mutually beneficial.