Canterbury

It is quite rare for someone to leave the Board of an organisation to go and work in it but that is exactly what Arihia Bennett did at Barnardos.  She left her governance role on the Board in order to have the chance to move Barnardos forward and help make their vision for safe, healthy, educated children a reality.

“A new position became available during a restructuring.  It was an opportunity to show some regional leadership and make things happen.  The position would involve growing and leading people to better serve children, young people and families.  I had been working for some time in several directorship roles – which I valued and learnt a lot from – but in my heart I was still a practitioner.  I wanted to work,” Arihia says.

“I have always worked with people.  I started in social work which I absolutely love.  It had been my focus since school.  Later, I had also worked in tourism.  The new regional role at Barnardos allowed me to fuse some of the tools of leadership I had picked up and my people skills.  Today, I manage a team of ten staff who are located throughout the South Island,” she says.

She admits that managing staff spread over a large area has its own challenges.  “I see my role as leading, managing and supporting my staff.  I can’t know everything that is going on at every office.  The answer is to empower local leaders and managers.  My staff are each leaders in their own areas and I have to be there to support those at the coal face.  I aim to be the conduit between the national leadership and the regional teams.  That involves bringing the overall vision down into regional, local and community contexts,” Arihia says.

Her management style is honest, confident and direct.  “Managers have to believe in themselves.  They did not get their role by chance.  They were offered the chance to move into management because of who they are and what they bring to an organisation.  They have to think like that.”

Arihia credits her community development work in Ngai Tahu with creating much of her leadership style.  “The Maori community really teaches me.  A lot of my management style reflects their ground-up approach and their honesty.  In organisations, we tend to very diplomatic and measured.  My community is blunt, they don’t hold back.  It keeps me honest and helps me be prepared to admit when I’m wrong,” she says. 

Despite describing herself as a “solid Virgo” who likes to work in an organised, structured manner, social work has made Arihia used to working in conflict situations.  She refers to it as working through “trickiness.”

“When dealing with conflict, you have to be open to other perspectives.  Don’t have a result in your head when you move into a situation, be open from the start.  It is easier to work through conflict if you take a consultative – rather than authoritarian – approach and try to value others like you value yourself and your family.  Even if you can’t resolve the issue, this approach is worthwhile in itself – you have accorded people respect, seen where they are coming from and know their story,” says Arihia.

“This level of openness can be tricky for managers who sometimes feel they have to do everything and know everything.  They can feel like role models on show all the time who can never admit they don’t have all the answers.  It helps to realise that most people don’t like being an awkward customer.  Most want solutions and your role can be to help harness the positive within them,” she says.

She is adamant the differences between charities and businesses are over-stated.  “There is no difference really.  When I look around me and interact with my colleagues, I know we are driving hard.  A business works towards outcomes and so do we.  A business may be aiming for profit while our target might be a child successfully completing early childhood education.   Both organisations are based around growing people and equipping them with tools and confidence.  Both have to deal with the hard issues like non-performance.”

Arihia rejects the idea that charitable organisations are somehow more tolerant of non-performance.  She quotes Tom Peters who said  “the soft is hard and the hard is soft.”.  “It is quite simple really.  We measure our performance against our desired outcomes.  We have timeframes, requirements and deadlines that need to be achieved and reported against. This lets us quickly see where the non-performance is.  Leaders have to make the hard calls and address the issue immediately.  It can be too easy to talk around the problem.  Doing that just creates a culture of circle walking and dizziness.  That shows a lack of confidence,” she says.

“I believe in adopting an analytical approach to problems but not labouring over them.  Ask yourself:  How has this non-performance come about?  What stage of non-performance is this person at?  Above all, don’t look at the issue in isolation.  Consider what other factors are involved.  Managers need to get into the underlying issues and move things along.  You can’t be superficial.  What is presenting on the surface is probably only part of the underlying cause.  By spending some time addressing the real issue you can create a greater potential for the future.  Managers need to bring out the positive in people, invest in that person and help them grown.  That is how you improve outcomes,” Arihia says.

In the last Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Arihia Bennett became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work in the community - validation surely that her approach makes a difference.

“Ma mua ka kite a muri
Ma muri ka ora a mua”

Those who lead give sight
to those who follow
Those behind give life force
to those ahead

Website: http://www.barnardos.org.nz