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The Value of The Right Person In The Right Role
Sally Langer • October 18, 2018
Sally Langer, Partner of Derwent Perth chaired a fantastic panel session at EY along with event partner’s Red Emu Advisory. Richard Goyder, Chairman of Woodside Energy, the AFL and ex Wesfarmers CEO; and the aspiring Zoe Yujnovich, Chairman of Shell Australia, shared their valuable insights and experiences around successful staff recruitment, assessment and retention. Keith Gordon, Director of Red Emu Advisory, introduced the event and incorporated an interactive polling exercise which asked the 100 plus attendees the question,
“At my organisation, we have the right people in all our critical roles?” Andrew Madams, also a Director at Red Emu Advisory, joined the panel alongside Richard and Zoe and highlighted the emerging trends he is seeing in relation to the ‘diversity’ of candidates and also how high performers and their ambitions are being managed.
When asked by Sally, “How do you make a call that someone isn’t right for the business”, Richard answered that it’s important to do your due diligence and assess an individual’s track record and performance but from time to time you do get it wrong. And if someone is acting inappropriately within the business, Zoe believes action needs to be taken as
“By ignoring bad behaviour you are silently endorsing it.”
The panel agreed that the traits they look for in CEO candidates included; commerciality, resilience, capacity to communicate, curiosity to develop and strong values when it comes to ethics and compliance.
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