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Viv Maidaborn
Viv Maidaborn  Viv’s interest in leadership began during her years in health sector management at the then Waitemata Health/Crown Health Enterprise. An inquiry into balancing motherhood with a demanding job led to the Covey Leadership Centre and Viv left health management to consult for Franklin Cove Ltd. This was a first experience working for a multinational company, being part of an international group of peers in the field of business leadership. Viv’s career then moved to the community sector where she has been CEO of two iconic New Zealand organisations: Relationship Services and CCS Disability Action. Leading a human rights-based organisation such as CCS Disability Action has caused Viv to research and develop new models of service delivery, community development and policy advocacy in the national and international context. She has also developed and launched a start-up company Lifemark Ltd bringing this ‘supplier mark’ to the building industry where it indicates a home built to LifeStandards which assure the home is accessible, adaptable and easy to use for people of any age or stage of life. Viv is now chairman of the Lifemark Board. Viv is one of 15 social entrepreneurs active in a learning community supported by Stephen Tindal. She is a member of the NZ Taskforce preventing violence in families, the chair of an intergovernmental official and community sector group, Family and Community Services National Advisory Committee (FSNAC), a member of the Establishment Board of NZ Disability Support Providers Network. Key interests now are relationships between business, community and government, and the idea of consumers as a force for social change. What was your first significant business experience and what did you learn from it? My first business was a building business on Waiheke Island from 1982 to 1986. I learnt that business is a combination of technical, communication and business administration skills and that successful business needs them all in a context that balances creativity and discipline. I also learnt that many people don’t want others peoples’ initiatives to succeed if they challenge an existing stereotype, in this case a woman in a man’s industry. I learnt humour and persistence are way more effective than logical debate and that asking for help is an extremely effective way to change views. What were some of the challenges you had to overcome on the journey to achieving your personal and corporate goals? My career has largely been in the community sector. I see this as an ‘and/and’ space; it requires sound business practice and a total focus on values associated with purpose and vision of the organisation. The engaged community sector exists to create social capital for the common good. It has required me to develop my own sense of entrepreneurial behaviour in a context where business and business leaders don’t often see or acknowledge entrepreneurial effort. On the other hand the community sector at its worst is just service providers organising problems on behalf of the Government, who pays them. The challenge is to be on the learning edge of the best of what business is learning and also what community agencies are learning, and to play in that space between. The challenge is to be working so deeply in the cultural forms that make up families and communities in Aotearoa/New Zealand that we don’t just organise problems we heal them. What got you through the ‘tough’ times? Essentially I believe I create my reality. Certainly I create my experience and responses to what is going on around me. So stepping up, taking responsibility for what I can do has been the simple focus when times are tough. I find this very liberating when issues, concerns and social problems can be so overwhelming. My inner conversation is pretty much, “ok, where is my point of power here, can I change a belief I have about this? Can I change/influence someone else’s perception? What action can I take within my circle of influence?” I am a meditator more of the spiritual warrior type than the looking-for-silence-and-quiet type. I take the issues, dreams and aspirations for my work challenges and hopes to my meditations, and celebrate future successes, imagine problems resolved and engage all the creation and manifestation wisdom I have on this level. I find meditating grows hope, energy and resilience. It also grows me, and in the end I am the resource I take to the challenges in my business and personal life. Who are the mentors/role models that have inspired you and what important lessons have you learnt from them? During the 1990s, my son was born and subsequently was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition. As a result of juggling intense personal priorities with work, my boss at the time connected me with the Stephen Covey material, First Things First and then, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I finished up working for the then newly merged Frankin Covey Company. Stephen was an inspirational teacher. Personal discipline and organisation around what is most important remains a key building block for me. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of being part of a peer learning community, The Stewardship Learning Community. We have met for a week a year, worked together on building skills in transformative communication, creative expression, and developed our own practice around social innovation. Very often when I am presenting a paper, stepping up to a challenge, or making a contribution that I hope creates a new way forward for a group, I feel the rigour and presence of this group behind me. Kevin Dawkins who I met over 10 years ago when he ran Results Group, has become an important mentor and business coach through the development of Lifemark Ltd. Everyday he teaches me to look at things from another perspective, notice the environment, take it seriously, and don’t forget to dream big! What do you think are some of the essential characteristics of a successful CEO? • to be a learner more than a ‘knower’ – a curious inquirer of life • to perfect the art of delegation and of accepting advice • to be able to bring many elements together in a way that adds value – to synergise • to ask great questions • to take the decision and follow through with it • to want other people to succeed • to recognise and seize opportunities • to be personally aware and have strong generative values. What’s the best thing about being a business leader? I haven’t very often seen myself as a business leader, more a social innovator and a bit of a rebel in the cause of human justice! Without doubt though, the best thing about leadership is the ability to influence governments, communities, systems and laws toward an inclusive and just New Zealand culture. How do you find the balance between your social spirit and having to be accountable in your CEO role? I have learnt to think of balance over a time period, say a year rather than a week. In this way I can build in balance without thinking it will happen today! I have developed an annual discipline that balances professional and personal learning, spiritual practice, exercise and time with my family and friends. I have a wonderful house in the Marlborough Sounds that makes an immediate getaway a constant possibility. I wonder if in the community sector a CEO’s social spirit might be more wanted and needed than in a pure business role, nonetheless there are times when the processes and procedures of employment mean I am very focussed on being the CEO and this is sometimes different from how I would respond personally. In these situations, I get good supervision. What are some of the core values you took with you to your role as CEO of CCS? Have these changed over time? • A core belief in the value and importance of an engaged community sector in a healthy dynamic country. • Social justice and equitable outcomes for people • In the context of the environment and sustainability I have been very focussed on the people and what makes environments work for people • At CCS Disability Action, I have learnt a lot more about inclusion and how unconscious design or attitudes can exclude people from participation, making contributions or even from choices about places to live, work or with which people to be in relationship. I would place a much higher value these days on the intrinsic value of life. Just what about your current role keeps you turned on and what have you done to ensure your team is continually motivated? The work we do with disabled people and their families keeps me turned on to the organisation and my part in that, this ranges from specific day-to-day personal support, right through to systemic change work with employers, government and the wider public. Teams within CCS Disability Action are very motivated by making a difference for disabled people, and for working for an agency with strong values that does what it says it will do. In a sector where we pay over 20 percent less than comparable roles in government or private sector agencies, being a great family friendly place to work is key as well. It comes down to communication, culture, flexibility and acknowledgement. What have you learnt about effective leadership and managing people? • I rely, an enormous amount, on having the right people around me, knowing people’s strengths and playing to those strengths in a diverse team. • Having clear performance expectations and results areas, in combination with good systems for development and accountability are critical. • Be accountable and hold people to account. • Communicate early. • In the end though I find management happens best at the systems and process level, and leadership at the personal and energetic level. What is your strategy when it comes to engaging and managing staff? What can businesses do to attract higher calibre employees? Be a great place to work. CCS Disability Action recruits great people nationwide by being a strongly values-based organisation, people work here because we add value and meaning to their work life. I hear very regularly in recruitment processes how important people find it to be part of making a positive difference in society. Also, we really do want diverse work teams made up of all the diverse New Zealanders who live in our communities. New migrants often find their first work experience working for us. In return, we recruit people with skills way above where we could pay if they were New Zealand trained and experienced. It is definitely a two- way process. Part of the diversity of staff at CCS Disability Action is working with disabled people. A very simple thing other employers can do is open up to the possibility that disabled staff can add real value to how each business can see the potential of the disability community as a consumer market. How have you balanced your social goals with the business side of your work? In our context, these are very integrated. Our learning edge is being more in the space between pure community models (not for profit) and business models (for profit). Developing social enterprise is a key focus for us. What is the most unusual request you’ve had in your current role? Working with disabled people keeps the reality of life very much in the front of mind. One day a senior colleague and I missed a flight home from Auckland. No big deal usually, but in this situation it required finding an accessible hotel, and accessible van to get us there, then me changing roles and becoming support worker for my colleague, including shopping for overnight essentials, toileting, showering and dressing routines that night and in the morning. I got good feedback actually and I think we were both pretty chuffed how well we had managed the situation. As an employer, a really good thing to remember is that people used to receiving personal intimate support have great skills at clear directions, can manage any situation without causing the other person embarrassment and have a fantastic sense of humour. How important is it to have a supportive and encouraging partner at home when setting up your own business? My partner is also a community organisation CEO. Our challenge is to find the balance between providing incredibly useful critique and feedback to each other, and stopping work. We are still working on it! What are some of your current personal and business goals? Business Goals: • To achieve 30 percent of new homes built in New Zealand within five years built to the Lifemark standard, thus beginning the move to accessible, adaptable New Zealand homes. This will be through the Lifemark Ltd social enterprise where this week we are celebrating government support through the 2010 budget. • To achieve a compounding fundraising strategy that enables a $5 million a year investment in supporting families where a child is born with a disability. Government contracts a small amount of this work but we want the freedom to respond directly to families when and how they would like it, so we are aspiring to move beyond dependence on government funding in this area. • In collaboration with the wider social services sector, make children a key election issue in the 2011 election. • To achieve the goal that no one under 60 is living in a Rest Home by 2012. To ensure all disabled people have options about community living by 2012 as well. Personal Goals: • to sew well enough to do a great job of a winter coat • to be part of growing active engaged citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand • to lift 20kg in pump class at the gym • to perfect the art of creation and manifestation magic • to connect regularly with my nieces and nephews and be part of their growing changing lives. Do you have a motto or saying by which you live your life? The Future Creates the Present Against the backdrop of the Past. |