Developing inclusive leadership through the Stockland Leadership Experience

The Stockland Leadership Experience (SLE) for Senior Leaders was launched in October 2016 for roll-out across our top 145 leaders. The purpose of the programs is to develop our senior leaders ability to:

• Operate more inclusively,
• Lead customer-centric innovation with greater agility,
• Lead and drive personal and organisational change,
• Increase emotional intelligence and self-awareness,
• Develop habit to build resilience and wellbeing, and
• Build more collaborative working relationships with peers.

To create a learning experience, the SLE is centred on our Purpose of “creating a better way to live” for the communities in which we operate. Leaders are set in the context of a community for a week, and are set a challenge to address, supported by a faculty of experts in the fields of innovation, inclusion, mindfulness and leadership effectiveness.

Our first program was centred in Maitland, where we are investing in a $412 million dollar shopping centre redevelopment. The Maitland region is experiencing an economic downturn due to a slowdown in mining, has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the state and is one of the centres for the re-settlement of Syrian refugees. It was in this context that the leaders spoke with the community members about: “How can we create a better way to live in the Maitland Community?” Throughout the experience leaders were guided by an inclusive leadership expert to develop their listening skills and reflect on how their biases might get in the way of listening. This gave leaders an understanding of their own biases as well as a set of tools they can adopt back in the workplace to use with their teams and customers.

Feedback on the program from our first cohort and the executive team has been exceptional, with an 88 per cent approval rating. We've seen a positive shift in leaders operating differently with their teams, adopting mindfulness and innovation techniques in their work. The program will be rolled out to a further 75 leaders in FY18.