Creating an industry of extraordinary leaders

Pia Coyle reflects on lessons from MFA 5+ and her own leadership journey. 

At last week’s MFA 5+ Inspiration Series event, Extraordinary Leadership: the power of change, keynote speaker Gerard Penna shed light on the two characteristics of extraordinary leaders – warmth and strength. PHD Managing Director Pia Coyle joined him on stage to discuss how we can apply the lessons to our industry.

Here, she shares her own leadership lessons.

Attending last week’s MFA 5+ event and sharing the stage with Gerard Penna to dissect our approach to leadership was a great experience and taught me a lot.

It helped me realise that the balance of warmth and strength is an evolving continuum and, as leaders, we adjust the mix of both depending on the situation we are in and who we are dealing with. 

I’m at the point in my career (and life) where I know that building trust with people paves the way for buy-in when you need to make the hard decisions as a leader. 

If people know that you see them and value them as a person, that you hear them when they have concerns or questions, and that you have a considered and well-balanced approach, even when they don’t fully agree with the direction being taken, they will be much more open to supporting it.  

How to build trust

Trust is built by listening (and actually hearing!) what people are saying, and also by always fostering open communication. 

When I started my role as Managing Director of PHD, I resolved to make sure that I communicate more than I ever had before, and it is definitely helping in aligning people to the vision, and helping us all to feel like a bonded team. 

I’m only three months into the new role, but we have built a culture of feedback, communication and action, and it’s refreshing. 

Truth pays back

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell people the whole truth, to bring them on the journey and to admit when we get it wrong or are finding it hard, but the payback is worth it. 

I want my team to always feel they can talk to me about anything, and that there will be an outcome (even when they don’t agree with it). 

The best leaders I have worked with have always been open, vulnerable and frequent communicators, there’s something very powerful in knowing what’s going on. 

Context is everything, and when married with trust, you have a killer leadership combo.