People leader updates
This page is dedicated to supporting you with what you need to know, keep you informed on what matters most, and equip you with tools and resources to lead and communicate with your team.
On this page you’ll find...
Click on the below links to navigate this page:
- Top things for you to do as leaders
- Using our five ways of leading
- Pause Reflect Apply tool
- Leader Livestreams
Top things for you to do as leaders
Lead by example - wear a face mask
NSW Health strongly recommends that our people and our customers wear face masks in places where physical distancing is difficult. As leaders, we’re asking you to lead by example and wear masks in situations where it is recommended, such as when you're travelling or working on our network.
Wearing a mask is still a personal choice but it sets such a great example and encourages other people who are travelling on our networks to do the same.
Support your team’s safety, health and wellbeing
Coronavirus has been going on for many months now and our people may be feeling a bit fatigued by what is going on, the uncertainty and how it’s changed their normal. You or your team members could be finding that their mental health is suffering as the situation continues.
Watch this video to hear the team at our EAP talk through how MyCoach for people leaders can help you navigate any issue or challenge, as well as the different ways we can access support.
- If you’re a leader of a frontline team, talk to your people, listen to their concerns and try to reassure them of their safety – our COVIDSafe Transport Plan and all the measures we have in place are to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to help keep our people and customers safe. Familiarise yourself with our updated Plan to reassure your people on all the ways we are working together to protect them.
- If home isn’t a safe place – one tragic consequence of lockdown during Coronavirus has been an increase in incidences of domestic family violence and abuse in Australia. We need to support our people in getting help if they are impacted by domestic family violence or abuse. Here are the avenues of support available if someone in your team is in this situation.
- If someone in your team needs support – our Staywell hub has 24/7 available support for all of our people – please make sure your people are aware of the help and resources available to them, such as our EAP, MyCoach and our Mental Health First Aiders.
Using our five ways of leading
Our Five Ways of Leading model is designed to help support you in leading your team and all of our people in understanding the ways they can contribute – as leadership is for everyone.
Head to the Five Ways of Leading website for more information or check out the below podcasts and resources to support you in using our five ways of leading.
Five ways of leading podcasts
Our podcast series helps our people leaders learn from each other and leverage the Five Ways of Leading behaviours to support our teams. They make a great listen for your next walk or afternoon cuppa.
- Listen to episode one: featuring Transport leaders Rachel O’Reilly, Manager Planning and Performance ROM, Brad Crispin, Senior Manager Regional Customer Services ROM, and Daimen Standring, Shift Manager Train Crew Sydney, North and Central Region. They’ve come together to discuss how they’ve stayed connected and productive during this time through courageous and encouraging behaviours.
- Listen to episode two: focusing on resilience – it’s been a challenging time for all of us and so this is a must-listen for all leaders. Hosted by Howard Collins, Chief Operations Officer for Greater Sydney, it covers looking after yourself and the team at this time.
- Listen to episode three: focusing on being caring and compassionate. Host Elizabeth Mildwater, Deputy Secretary of Greater Sydney, discusses the effects of chronic stress on our minds and bodies with Transport’s Dr Armand Casolin, psychologist Eric Fleming and a panel of Transport leaders.
Food for thought resources and articles
Here are some articles and resources as some food for thought and guidance on our five behaviours, and how they apply to leadership.
- Courageous – is about accepting challenges, taking ownership and not shying away from the tough questions, and challenging current ways of working.
- The call to courage – Brene Brown
- Three must have traits for courageous leadership in a post pandemic world – Fast Company
- What’s courage have to do with leadership– Thrive Global
- Creative – is about encouraging our people to think differently and consider new ways of working requires creative thinking and courageous leadership.
- Strategies and techniques for inspiring innovation through creative thinking
- Characteristics of creative leadership – you’ll notice it connected with being courageous and sustainable, two of our other behaviours.
- Creative problem solving
- Experiment to learn
- Best books on creativity
Pause Reflect Apply tool
The pandemic has presented us with most significant shift in how we work in a generation. Now, more than ever is an essential time for teams to come together and reflect on their new ways of working to plan what their future might look like based on their experiences.
Use the new Pause Reflect Apply tool to initiate a team conversation and capture feedback to create a plan for how your team will work for the future. We encourage you to start a conversation with your teams or nominate somone to lead the activities for the whole team.
This tool follows on from the How we work tool and is designed to plan for the next phase – to support our people to continue to work through significant change.
We know from our pulse check that leadership and support, continues to drive feelings of safety and wellbeing, which makes it really important that we take steps to address this at a team level. The August Pulse Check survey indicated that our people’s experience of leadership and support has been declining – from 77% in May to 68% in August. This means that fewer people are feeling supported by their manager, team and senior leaders at the moment.
As a leader it’s really important we ensure our people feel supported to have a conversation with their team to shape their future ways of working. Check out the Pause Reflect Apply article to learn more about the tool and how to use it with your team.
Leader Livestreams
2021 COVID-19 updates
- 15 July livestream, with Kirsten Watson, Rob Sharp, Dr Armand Casolin, Karen McCarthy and Roger Weeks.
- 7 July livestream, with Rob Sharp, Dr Armand Casolin, Karen McCarthy and Roger Weeks.
- 30 June livestream, with Rob Sharp, Dr Armand Casolin, Karen McCarthy and Roger Weeks.
- 24 June livestream, with Kirsten Watson, Rob Sharp, Howard Collins, Pete Allaway and Dr Armand Casolin.
2021
- 2 June livestream, with Tara McCarthy, Rob Sharp, Julie A Morgan and Oliver Bradshaw, focusing on how we are building successful places for communities.
- 14 April livestream with our new Secretary Rob Sharp and Rachel Simpson.
- 3 March livestream with Peter Regan, Tracey Taylor and Simone Roberts.
- 3 February livestream with Rodd Staples, Peter Regan and Kirsten Watson.
2020
- 18 November livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Peter Regan and Vinesh Khosla.
- 21 October livestream with Elizabeth Mildwater, Kirsten Watson, Suzy Grierson and Jonathon Crocker.
- 7 October livestream with Tara McCarthy, Carol-Anne Nelson and Melinda Ottley.
- 23 September livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Evy Gomo and Colin Rhodes.
- 9 September livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Richard Host and Sherrie Killiby.
- 26 August livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Peter Harvey and Kristen Greentree.
- 12 August livestream with Kirsten Watson, Sam Ghosn and Lewis Clark.
- 29 July livestream with Rodd Staples, Joost De Kock, and Kathy Baker.
- 15 July livestream with Rodd Staples, Mark Kourouche and Trudi Mares.
- 1 July livestream with Rodd Staples and Mark Hutchings.
- 17 June livestream with Rodd Staples, Tracey Taylor and Tim Reardon.
- 12 June livestream with Rodd Staples, Tracey Taylor, Dr Casolin, Elizabeth Mildwater & Charlie Elias.
- 10 June livestream with Rodd Staples, Kathy Baker and Anne Hayes.
- 5 June livestream with Rodd Staples, Julie-Anne Tooth, Dr Casolin, Anna Andrews and Adam Berry.
- 3 June livestream with Rodd Staples, Tracey Taylor, Tania Orr and William Murphy.
- 29 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kathy Baker, Dr Casolin, Chris Bennetts and Kristen McKendry.
- 27 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kathy Baker and Anne Hayes.
- 22 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Tracey Taylor, Dr Caoslin, Howard Collins & Suzanne Edwards.
- 20 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Joost de Kock.
- 15 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Karen McCarthy and Steve Bakous.
- 13 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Barbara Wise and Mark Hutchings.
- 8 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Claire Murdoch and Rob Austin.
- 6 May livestream with Rodd Staples.
- 1 May livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Elizabeth Mildwater and Christian Severino.
- 29 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Susie Mackay and Karen McCarthy.
- 24 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, Carol-Anne Nelson and Sonia Mackay.
- 22 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Peter Regan.
- 17 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Pete Allaway.
- 15 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Elizabeth Mildwater.
- 9 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Howard Collins.
- 8 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Carol-Anne Nelson.
- 3 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin, and Tony Eid.
- 1 April livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, and Dr Casolin.
- 27 March livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Suzanne Holden.
- 24 March livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, and Dr Casolin.
- 18 March livestream with Rodd Staples, Kirsten Watson, and Dr Casolin.
- 10 March livestream with Kirsten Watson, Dr Casolin and Karen McCarthy.
- 5 March livestream with Kirsten Watson and Dr Casolin.