Author: SILA Team

Mark Yettica-Paulson is the Indigenous Lead for the SILA Program. He is also the Deep Collaboration Lead for Collaboration for Impact and CEO of Super Native Unlimited.

Mark Yettica-Paulson is an experienced intercultural leadership and collaboration specialist, and an Australian Indigenous leader from the Birrah, Gamilaroi and Bundjalung peoples, from South East Queensland and North East NSW regions.

As the Indigenous Lead for the SILA Program he provides a rich perspective of First Nations leadership development and collaboration from his 20+ years of experience working in the field, facilitating the  exchange of intercultural leadership knowledge and providing expert advice for engaging with Aboriginal communities across Australia in locations where the SILA Program is held.

A First Nations leadership lens

“First Nations leadership development applies a cultural lens to governance and empowerment within Indigenous communities,” Mark explains.

“It harnesses a “dual-pronged approach”, to support Indigenous leaders to fulfil their own leadership desires within their community, and to develop skills to lead other people, from non-Indigenous, and multicultural backgrounds in Australia.”

The First Nations lens also looks at how leaders from diverse social and cultural backgrounds can develop the necessary strengths, awareness and practices “to lead together” with Indigeous people, to achieve better outcomes for all.

“The concept of cultural governance is central to the First Nations leadership model, which considers and establishes culturally appropriate ways of working with Indigenous communities. For organisations to blossom, they must determine who holds authority, and where decision making rests, within different contexts.

“We need to think about the kind of governance structures we need, and who the top layer of authority should be. This is important to ensure that organisations fit the cultural makeup and cultural comfort zone of key stakeholders,” Mark says.

For First Nations communities, “our highest level of authority is invested in our senior people, our elders, who are the custodians of our traditions and customs. They are the ones who hold governance and are ultimately the ones who we would want to represent us as we move forward,” he adds.

Adaptive strategies for strong leadership

The SILA Program encourages leaders to dive deep, have hard conversations with themselves, their coaches, their teams, and others, to establish authentic connections and achieve enduring positive impact.

“We are facing some big issues in Australia and the world, and new ways of thinking and operating are required to shift the dial on key issues, such as equality and climate change,” says Mark.

SILA explores adaptive leadership models to investigate challenge and complexity and Mark believes we have to be “adaptive enough to let go of the things that we once thought of as the pillars of our society, and the ways of doing and being that no longer serve us.”

Doing so requires tough conversations and courageous action, grounded in authenticity.

“We’re going to need different ways of knowing, being and doing, in order for us to save the planet, be better leaders, and carve out an identity that really feels like ours,” says Mark.

“That takes bravery and commitment, and summoning the strength is just like the moment before you step out on stage. You’ve got to conjure up self-belief, and know that you’ve got this and that change is truly possible.”

By Melissa Abu-Gazaleh | Managing Director, Top Blokes Foundation

This article was originally published in Philanthropy Weekly, the digital newsletter of Philanthropy Australia.

“One of the main indicators of a successful organisation is whether the CEO continues to grow and learn.” This sentence, said by Australia’s most significant and well-respected funders at the inaugural Social Impact Leadership Program launch event stopped me in my tracks.

Having established the Top Blokes Foundation, a leading boy’s mental health organisation that helps young males build the skills to lead healthy and safe lives, I was no stranger to learning. Learning how to reduce the rates of male suicide, incidences of mental ill-health and all forms of violence. That skill of learning means we’re always delving into the hard, difficult and messy issues that young males face.

I knew as CEO, I had more learning to do which is why I applied to be part of Australia’s ground-breaking leadership program for the social sector, SILA, a collaboration between the Myer Foundation, the Sidney Myer Fund, the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and the Paul Ramsay Foundation and delivered by the Centre for Social Impact.

What I didn’t realise was how the program would have me asking some of the most critical questions that all for purpose CEO’s should be asking themselves.

From undertaking a series of activities including an organisational diagnostics assessment, wellbeing assessments, 360 reviews, coaching sessions, learning circles, three retreats and a three-month sabbatical, I have come to learn that as leaders in our field it is actually our responsibility and obligation to ask ourselves the hard questions, both in our work and of ourselves and to continually sit in the discomfort of those learnings.

At the end of the program, here are examples of the challenging questions I believe all for purpose CEO’s should ask themselves:

1. Do I actually understand my leadership shadow and is it driving cultural change?

Every leader casts a shadow. Our intentions, behaviours and language influences how we build our internal culture. But when was the last time we asked our teams how they experience our display of power, authority and influence?

How do we become more conscious and deliberate in the leadership culture we’re building to ensure it will drive positive cultural change within our organisations and within the communities we serve.

2. To what level am I helping our leadership team to instill a culture of curiosity and exploration throughout all levels of the organisation?

I just completed SILA’s three-month sabbatical, where I stepped away from the day-to-day of the Top Blokes Foundation and used the time to reflect, examine and explore the complexities of the social issues we’re working so hard to address.

I used the time to challenge my own assumptions, to understand the levers of change and to sit in the unknown. I learned that this sense of reflection, clarity and energy can be a source of innovation.

And in that time, I couldn’t tell you how many people would say that a sabbatical is a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

My question is, why just once in a lifetime? Why can’t we embed a culture of reflection and clarification and instill it as a core value?

What if giving employees paid time away to explore and examine could lead to our sector’s most interesting innovations? I came to the realisation that one of my core priorities as CEO should be to create a culture of innovation by embedding curiosity and exploration as key values.

3. Can operating in fight or flight mode helps us achieve our organisation’s mission?

When meeting other for purpose CEOs, I’m never surprised by how quickly the conversation moves to the fast-pace nature of our work, the feelings of exhaustion and the sense of being overwhelmed. I’ve yet to meet a for-purpose CEO who doesn’t wake up at 2am with a panic thought about a detail they may have missed.

We often feel like our busy minds lead us to constantly operate in a fight or flight mode and we’re constantly fed messages how this isn’t healthy. Instead, we’re encouraged to achieve balance and calm (what even is that?!) in our roles.

So, I’ve been questioning, how would our relationship with stress and exhaustion change if rather than trying to move away from the tension we instead welcomed the benefits of functioning in fight or flight? Could it help us thrive even further and amplify our effectiveness as leaders? If we continued the pursuit to stop operating in this state, what are the impacts on our work and the people we’re ultimately trying to help?

4. Am I stepping into my authority and how do I better understand my growth edge?

Why do so many for purpose CEO’s battle imposter syndrome? Are our own sense of fears and limitations impacting how we step up and into our authority, the very authority we’ve worked so hard to earn? Are we struggling because we’re actually trying to find the line between confidence, skill and humility? What if we better understood our own vulnerabilities and used these as leadership strengths. Could we become better leaders?

The CEO role can be incredibly lonely at times. SILA has helped me find my tribe. The very people who simply understand the deep commitment and resilience needed to pursue long term social change.

We’re sharing our passions, our struggles and our personal and sometimes incredibly deep grief. We sit with each other and know how tiring yet exhilarating our leadership roles are. We sit with each other knowing that we do this work because it’s hard and we’re built for hard. We’re reigniting each other’s spark and we’re becoming stronger than we were the day before. And true to that funder’s observation, we are all seeking every opportunity to grow and learn.

SILA has already been transformational for our organisation, in more ways than I can currently acknowledge. If you’re a VIC or TAS CEO and you’d like to strengthen your leadership capabilities, I strongly encourage you to apply for the upcoming SILA Program.

Thursday, 3 February 2022

Applications for the second cohort of the five-year Social Impact Leadership Australia (SILA) Program have launched today, with the aim of bringing together for-purpose leaders from Victoria and Tasmania over 10-months for a comprehensive and dedicated leadership and capacity-building program, starting in July 2022.

SILA is a $9.6 million collaboration between four of Australia’s major foundations: The Myer Foundation and Sidney Myer Fund, the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Over five years, SILA will be offered to for-purpose leaders from all states and territories in Australia. Participants in the current Cohort One (2021) are based in NSW and the ACT and applications are now open for Cohort Two, for CEOs based in Victoria and Tasmania.

The evidence-based and fully-funded program, delivered by the Centre for Social Impact, is specifically designed to meet the needs of Australian for-purpose CEOs to help build the capacity of their organisations through leadership development, organisational capacity building and tailored executive coaching.

SILA aims to disrupt common ideas of leadership to create greater social impact across Australia.

Over 10-months, 24 selected leaders within each cohort participate in a series of immersive learning experiences, a sabbatical, one-on-one coaching and dedicated capacity-building support for their for-purpose organisatons.

Applications for Cohort Two are now open to social purpose CEOs from Victoria and Tasmania, who meet the eligibility criteria.

Funding of the program allows for participants to apply from across both states, including from regional and rural areas, with travel and associated costs covered.

Leonard Vary, CEO of The Myer Foundation and Sidney Myer Fund, said that the idea for SILA stemmed from a collective desire among the funders to address underinvestment in capacity building across the sector, to support for-purpose leaders through building their leadership skills, positively influencing their organisations, and creating a strategic network of like-minded leaders across the country.

“Beyond the professional development and the network we are creating through this program, SILA is a powerful way to influence and develop the entire sector across Australia, and importantly ensure that our leaders are ready to lead for greater social impact.

“We’re excited to see the next cohort get underway as we expand the program throughout Victoria and Tasmania.”

Cohort One participant, Penny Dakin, CEO of the Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth (ARACY), based in Canberra, said that there is a lot of competition in the for-purpose sector for funds, skilled staff and opportunities, and praised the SILA program for disrupting that approach.

“The premise of SILA is that we’re much more powerful as a sector when we’re united and driven by what’s common between us, with shared skills and language. It’s about making us stronger,” Ms Dakin said.

A core feature of SILA is the fully-funded sabbatical which enables participants time to reflect and apply learnings from the program while their organisation receives capacity funding and executive support through an identified ‘Step-up Leader’.

CEO of Top Blokes Foundation and Cohort One participant, Melissa Abu Gazaleh, said that the sabbatical gave her the space to reflect on her learning and development, personal wellbeing and a strategic project.

“I was equally excited about giving the Top Blokes team an opportunity to grow and lead by the experience as well,” Ms Abu Gazaleh said.

Applications for Cohort Two close on 15 April. An online information session will be held on 9 March from 3:30pm AEDT.