My Aussie Easter celebration was great!

In my previous post, I said that I would miss the traditionnal Easter lunch with my mum and family in Conakry. However, having missed Guinea's Easter experience enabled me to really enjoy Australia's Easter celebration, with the Davies family ( My boss, his wife, daughter, mother and father.)

It was an honour for me to be invited twice (saturday and sunday) to enjoy chocolate, and high class food, cooked by the exceptionnal mother of my boss.

I must admit that the valuable time spent with Lynn allowed me to notice as she said herself that "mothers speak the same language...." and i woul add the word "great" to that because I feel that she is one. I was able to notice many qualities she share with my mum....

Given the quality of the food we enjoyed, I even said to her that I would easily grant her 3 stars of "Michelin." in recognition of her cooking performance. :)

i learned a lot during these two evenings.

On saturday, we arrived at around six. I was taken by my boss's dad to a garden tour. After that, the barbecue started. I knew that Barbecue is enjoyed in Australia. However, what I did not know is that it is a matter of men. Men do surround the BBQ set, place the steaks and saussages on the grill and manage the whole process until it is ready to be eaten. Women would thet sit aside or make sure a salad is ready to accompany steaks and saussages. You always learn something in life. I promissed myself that I will buy a BBQ set and take it back with me in Guinea in order to continue enjoying this strong socializing enabler.

In my country, we have tea gatherings that look like BBQ: it is called "attaya" It is a tradition that comes from the arabic culture. People can spend 3 to six hours enjoying a strong chinese tea while having any sort of discussions.

On sunday, I found out through my boss, why we actually have starts on the Australian flag. It is the southern cross. A constellation that is found in the souther hemisphere during the night that helps to now where the south is. When you know where the south is, you are able to determine the three others and then find your way.

The way I continuously build knowledge over leadership related topics

one of my favirorite newspaper in Australia is the weekend australian, particularily, the weekend professional section. 

In the feb 16-17 edition, there is one article that captured my attention. As I believe it may also be of interest to many leaders/workers, i have decided to share with you what I have retained...

The article talks about the burnout at work that "catches the best." Burnout occurs when we work too much. In today's world, there is many high performing people that are work addicted and finally get to be burnout.

According to Karen Barker, the symptoms are the following:

- people complaining of not javing enough time to spend with family even during weekends

-taking work at home, sending emails all the time while they are supposed to be in relax mode

-taking work everywhere and everyday

The author defines burnout as "... A work-induced exhaustion that is particularily common among professionals working on time sensitive projects or in sectors where stress is part of the job. Nurses and doctors experience it ; so do lawyers, traders, social workers and police officers...... Excecutives in charge of projects or teams experience it, often without knowing it."

We also learn in this article that burnout is different from stress. Burnout is said to be a "physical or mental exhaustion or both."

The consequence of this is that your enthousiam, energy at work is low which affect your efficiency.

When victim of burnout, there is a "downward spiral" that starts. An example that is pointed out is those who are not used to be emotional, become emotional. They continue to believe that their presence is required even if they are out of energy. 

If you have accumulated a lot of annual leave, you might be....

If you do not eat well and stopped your routine daily exercices you might be........

If you work long hours a day you might be......

The author advise that if the case is strong enough, se better go and see a doctor, specialist of the case, rather that relying only on a coach.

There is a pledge that organisations should really pay attention to this phenomenon and take actions that preserve the mental wellbeing of those who work in their premises.

Actions can be the following according to the article:

- encouraging people to openly and overtly speak about their work. This call leaders to put in practice their emotional intelligence capabilities

-do not overburden people with work (considered to be a good retention strategy by the way)

-ensure the "basics" of good working environment is met "good job, good pay, good desk, time off for lunch" this will get employees to deliver at their best.

- showing that you care about your employees by respecting them, thanking them quite regularily about their useful contribution to the organisation, allowing them to take time off for important privatr life events for instance...

I hope that this would have added value to you. Happy easter !

Happy Easter..I will miss mum's food..and enjoy the Davies's one :)

While everyone is exited here in Perth ( I guess it is the same elsewhere in the country and worldwide), may I take this opportunity to wish you a happy easter!

Actually, as you guys, easter means a lot to me. Thanks to my dear catholic mum, since I know myself, we have been celebrating this event in my parents house in Conakry. For the past 6 years since I came back to Guinea after a long stay abroad for my studies, I have never missed the easter lunch at home. This year, I am going to miss it!

However, celebrating it in Australia is another great experience as well. As of today, we will have 4 days leave for the purpose. In Guinea, we do not have such a privilege, although we have some public holidays for religious celebrations (both muslim and christian).

I have the privilege of celebrating both events all the time as a muslim being the son of a christian exceptionnal lady from Haiti,  married for 50 years now to my exceptionnal dad.

For this week end, I am certainly going to enjoy a dinner with the Davies ( my Boss and His wife) who are both great Chefs and are in Perth from Guinea only to spend this great event with family.

Enjoy choclates but not that much :)

Having breakfast beside the swan river......

One of the greatest experiences I would have gone through while in Perth, is definetely having my breakfast with the swan river on the background. 1 week end alone and the other with Moctar, a colleague from Simandou, who is on secondement as me but fifo (he goes on site for one week and come back to Perth the oder...) Moctar and I enjoy going to cafes beside the Atlantic Ocean in Guinea. So we share our pleasure together here in Perth, few miles away from the Indian Ocean,  and it is a time for us to discuss over challenges our country face at the moment, our respective secondement experiences and also, share some vision over were we want to be in the coming years. Both of us left family behind, with pregnant wifes....

At times, we meet other people, get introduced to each other, exchange few words... Most of them are amazed to know that we are coming from far away to enjoy such a wonderful experience (personnal and prefessional) thanks to Rio Tinto.

I take this opportunity to humbly pay a tribute to this company that has sutainably and comstructively shaped my life since I joined it in Mid-april 2008. Rio Tinto is a company worth to work for... A company that gives you back what you offers it in terms of efforts.... A company that rewards its committed employees not only through good pay, but through good corporate culture, policies etc. We know as employees of Rio Tinto, that the company pledges Duty of Care and it first applies it towards us.

I cannot tell the extent to which working for Rio has provided me with the opportunity to develop both on the personnal and professional side.

In 2009, i discovered the journey of being a young leader and enjoyed 2 months later, a Frontline Leadership Program semminar in South Africa, precisely In our sand mining operation of Richards Bay Minerals. After the three sessions which enabled me to fly to South Africa three times, I discovered what really make this company a great one, through values its promote. This type of training is crucial to give insight to leaders over what leading in a modern corporate( whose first objective is ensuring people go back home safe)?is all about.

I am an economist in training. I am always forcing myself to look at things one or two steps behind. My trip to Richards Bay enabled me to see how the sustainable development Policy of Rio Tinto is more than nice words that you read on corporate websites. Actually, I have been able to notice that our know how in mined area rehabilitation is a reality as I was shown areas that looks like if nothing happened there! The vegetal cover has been amazingly restored. Trees are back to normal.....

I felt secured to know that Rio Tinto environmental standards are higest enough to really ensure that mining and environment protection can be two convergent goals if companies are responsible enough....  This is part of the Duty of Care spirit.

Respect, Integrity, teamwork, Accountabilty are the 4 core values of Rio Tinto and I can assure you, having spent 5 years working in there, that they are living as 4 pillars that supports the latter in its every sense of the term sector leadership standing.

In these times of challenges in the broader mining sector, I believe that these values, more that ever, will continue to be the strong pillars above which our company will be stronger, cost-competitive and high value producer for its key stakeholders.

Merci a Rio Tinto!

Friday.... An important day in Australia...

You would tell me that friday is important everywhere in the world!.... However, the way it is valued and celebrated in Australia merits consideration! In Perth, I have the privilege of staying on Murray Street located in the Central Business District. There is a lot of restaurants and most importantly, pubs... This is where people gather on friday afternoons around many glasses of beer!

I am just amazed when I see many people sitting around a table, talking, smiling, laughing... being just friendly and happy!

Beer in Australia, more than anywhere else in the world, is a strong socialization incentive. It has a strong gathering power.

However, this should not skip the fact alcohol should be consumed moderately especially for health and safety purposes. In the mining sector for instance, being fit for work is binding for our own safety as well as others.

On the work side, I am learning a lot. While moving my project forward, I am also going through some online safety modules to understand deeper the Health and Safety auditing framework of Rio Tinto.

I have gone through many Health and Safety audits  in Simandou as far as training is concerned. Providing evidence of competencies held by staff, showing compliance against element 6 of the HSEQ Management System etc.

This time, while discussing with a specialist of HSE auditing in Iron Ore, he offered me the possibility to go through these online modules that will kind of give me the big picture view I am seeking to have when it comes to auditing.

I must admit that it is very interesting and I now figure out much better the logic behind what I used to experience in Simandou. This is what taking one or two steps back to have a look at the bigger picture is all about...

I am also going through my self paced "managers essentials" programme learning. I am on the first module named "feedback skills for leaders"

Interesting! On the introduction page of the first module, I have enjoyed learning that in providing feedback the leader is like the steersman, sitting behind the boat, with a hand on the rudder and corrects the direction of the ship. He actually constantly compares the actual direction with the intended direction and applies a negative correction.

To sum up, leaders use feedback as a communication tool much as they would if steering a boat. Leaders set the direction or goal and then use feedback to correct (critical feedback) or praise (positive feedback) progress towards the goal.
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