In a nutshell
I work with teams and groups - facilitating processes that enable the leadership changes that need to happen for individuals and businesses. There are a number of endangered species on our continent, not least being “The Leader”. I, for one, am impishly optimistic about our ability to conserve and restore real, responsible leadership, but this comes with a caveat: it will take conscious effort on a large scale.
My Style
Energy is art. Moving a team from where they are to where they need to get to, cannot be achieved via a recipe. There is no magic formula to develop a leader or a team. I am mindful, grounded in the science of business and psychology, and committed to listen to the answers that come from the wisdom of the crowd. The age of the guru is dead: I have a sharp, yet subtle spotlight that helps your team
find their own solutions. I have an ability to bring together the world of business, psychology and value chains – my clients appreciate that I can take lots of STUFF OR NOISE and simplify it in a useful way. Having said all that, without humour I think I would have checked out by now...
My motto
If something frustrates us, we have one of THREE choices:
Change it or DO something about it.
Leave the situation.
Accept it as if I have chosen it.
(P.S. Complaining about it is NOT one of the choices available)
Mindfulness
“Wherever you may go, may you be there.”
First and foremost, my foundation is to be here, now, turning down the volume of the stream of commentary that comes from my personal value system. I practice mindfulness and the fruit of this is an increasing ability to hear what people and groups really say and really mean. Not with what I think should be said or might be meant.
Change
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s exactly the opposite.”
J.K Gailbraithe.
Process Work is my bedrock in understanding the dynamics of change and transformation processes (or the lack of change, as implied by Gailbraithe in his quote above about how little can change even after revolutionary changes in economic ideology). The principles taught by my many teachers in this field help me to make sense of what is emerging
in a team or group. I have come to terms with the fact that there is no objective observer and that the best way I can serve my clients is to enable them
to interpret their own patterns and behaviour –
I need to provide a solid platform, simple observation,
and courage to be honest with them.
Business Science
Before I made a 180 degree change in my career to follow my gut feel into the field of leadership development, I worked in my own businesses. I studied management accounting even though my school counsellors warned me not to. One of the best mistakes I ever made! Although it did not turn out to be my main game, the world of business, economics, accounting, law and computers was an education I will trade for nothing.
Psychology
Although I am a registered psychologist, I have no couch, so to speak. I trust research in individual, social and organisational psychology to understand how best I can help clients identify the barriers and opportunities in the process of change or transformation.
Organisational Development
and Behaviour
Leadership decisions alone cannot bring about change. They need to be translated into the real world of the organisation’s day to day life via conscious changes in KPI’s, mental models, communication strategies, structures, remuneration principles etc.
Leadership
The amount of research produced on this topic comes to a sum total that I, personally cannot pronounce, let alone understand. In short, this field is filled with contradictions and complications. I enjoy the challenge of finding the simple truths that stand the test of time and sharing this in equally simple ways.
Sustainable Value Chains
The longer I work in this field, the more I am convinced that the leader’s role is to align and integrate their organisation’s value chain, while seeing that this value chain lie within a wider value chain. A business is part of a value chain of suppliers, producers and sellers. This value chain lies within and depends upon the limited capacity of the value chain of our earth’s ecology.
I have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I established a number of small to medium enterprises over the past fifteen years, among others being a founder member of Capitec Bank. It became clear that my passion and purpose were in the field of leadership development and organisational wellbeing and was fortunate to make a career shift accordingly. I am often complimented for my ability to work with a wide variety of complex leadership challenges. Most of my work consists of facilitating conversations between team members, various links in an organisation’s supply chain or between a variety of suppliers and their customer. Getting different functions and units to work cross functionally is one of the challenges I enjoy most. Other pieces of work include facilitating leadership development processes, culture transformation, mindfulness, value chain integration and emotional maturity programmes for leaders in a
variety of businesses:
Woolworths- Old Mutual
- V&A Waterfront
- The Jupiter Drawing Room
- Standard Bank
- Absa
- Department of Water Affairs
- Discovery
- Microsoft
- Total and
- Volkswagen.
I am a part time lecturer at the Stellenbosch Business School, a plenary speaker at international conferences like the Organisational Design Forum in the U.S.A. and the Supply Chain Forum in Australia and I enjoy making time for part time journalism, writing for CEO magazine on leadership issues and group dynamics.
PROJECTS COMPLETED IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
Financial Services:
Bringing together executives from a retailer’s financial services and an international bank after the finalization of the JV agreement to form one cohesive leadership team. I worked with the CEO and the
HR director to design the process as new issues emerged. They are beginning to establish a clear,
new identity with 4 specific values and aligned around a change plan wrt their strategy and culture
for the business. Initially there was a high level of mistrust, frustration and resentment, yet the team
has managed to turn this around through clear and consistent leadership behaviours and management practices.
Civil society, the government and the unions:
One of 10 facilitators to with Dr Mamphela Ramphele in bringing 3 sectors together to think about the future of education: civil society, the government and the unions. This meant that 140 people sat down to look at ways to resolve the current crisis in education through collaboration. We utilised the Dinokeng scenarios as backdrop for this work.
A Corporate Financial Services Company has been a client over many years. I assist their CEO to develop his leadership team as the issues that challenge their organisation emerge. I assist them to :
build relationships with other leadership teams within the same organisation, especially those who deliver part of their value chain (e.g. administration, service, product development).
Develop their individual and team leadership competencies – we follow this up yearly and therefore have the ability to measure change and find the right “NEXT STEP”, rather than putting them through development in a random fashion
Connect their strategy to their people practices.
High Profile Ad Agency:
I spend about 2 days per month in a Cape Town and Johannesburg ad agency to facilitate the critical leadership conversations with regards to organisation development, help with complicated management and people issues, coach individuals and advise on OD issues like organisation design, performance management etc..
Major Food Retail Chain:
Helped a food retailer’s leadership team to implement their new structure and to ensure cross functional collaboration within each team (all 25 teams)
Major National Retail Chain:
Mediated conflict between a major retailer and individual strategic suppliers to identify mutually beneficial solutions to long standing problems.
Major Financial Services Company:
Facilitate a leadership Think Tank every quarter for a financial services company leadership team, each time focusing on a specific OD issue, most recently their team dynamics and individual capacity to lead the transformation within their business. I partner with the MD and their HR director.
I am really fortunate to work with inspiring and soulful people in wonderful and weird places. These people are, or were, leaders who worked
for the following brands:
- Absa
- Woolworths
- Sanlam Investment Managers (SIM)
- Standard Bank
- Santam
- Discovery
- The Foschini Group
- Old Mutual
- Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIGSA)
- Old Mutual Corporate
- OMSTA
- Old Mutual Retail Mass Market
- Old Mutual Properties
- The Jupiter Drawing Room
- V&A Waterfront
- The Department of Water Affairs
- KPMG
- Expro International
- The X-Pert Group
- Edcon
- QK Meat
- Masterparts
- Fair Cape
- Volkswagen
Different ways to get hold of me
Phone:- +27 (0) 82 921 2007
Email Address:- dina@dinaoelofsen.com
Fax number:- + 27 (0) 866 707 7842
Office number:
+27 21 674 3337