July 2018: Executive Officer’s Report

31 July 2018 by

Leaders can use the findings of neuroscience to improve their ability to be a person who engages, motivates and resources their staff/organisation.

This was the message of last week’s Radio National: All in the Mind podcast, “Leadership in mind”.

The podcast says that neuroscience has found that:

  • our brain structure/functioning impacts on our leadership skills and vice versa e.g. positions of power cause changes in brain functioning that make leaders less capable of empathy;
  • a person can change their brain structure/functioning and organisations can establish processes and a culture that can reinforce certain thoughts/feelings/behaviours.

In the podcast, Rasmus Hougaard, of the Potential Project, says that his study of 35,000 leaders found three essential leadership traits: mindfulness, selflessness and compassion.

Hougaard says that leadership requires these traits to work with the many workers who feel threatened, anxious, angry, frightened, disengaged and/or depressed by our society and economy’s constant change.

Another podcast subject, Sue Langley, of The Langley Group, says that staff are looking for employment that gives them: meaning, emotional well-being and connection with others. This is good news for the ministries of PJPs and other Not-for-profit organisations as these are these are often the characteristics of our mission-driven organisations. Langley also points out that it requires an effective leader to create these workplaces.

 

Leadership and governance have been a focus of much of my work over the past month. There was: another redrafting of our governance document, meetings to prepare for our annual canonical stewards forum, and participation in an ACBC formation for governance meeting.

 

New events:

  • 7th August 2018 Fr Timothy Radcliffe on the topic of The Church of the Future
  • 8th August 2018 e-Conference – Synodality in Practice: Listening to the spirit and Leading change
  • 27-29th August 2018 Health and integrity in church and in ministry by the University of Divinity
  • 28-30th August 2018 – The Synodality of the Church: Theology and Practice
  • 5-7 September 2018 Australian Catholic Communications Congress
  • 14th September 2018, Community Directors Conference
  • 21-23 September 2018, The Australian Catholic Youth Ministry Convention
  • 22-24 February 2019, Council of Australian Catholic Women Colloquium 2019

 

New website content:

The public news section of the AMPJP website now has the following posts:

 

Members of AMPJP can access the following news items that I have posted in the Member area of our website:

 

Looking forward to significant dates in August 2018:

UN dates[1] Australian Dates[2] Catholic Church Dates[3] Other Spiritual Dates [4]
01-Aug-2018 Beginning of: World Breastfeeding Week Tradies National Health Month
02-Aug-2018
03-Aug-2018
04-Aug-2018 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day
05-Aug-2018 National EOS Awareness Week (5 – 11 Aug)
06-Aug-2018
07-Aug-2018
08-Aug-2018 Dying To Know Day Saint Mary of the Cross
09-Aug-2018 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
10-Aug-2018
11-Aug-2018
12-Aug-2018 International Youth Day
13-Aug-2018

14-Aug-2018
15-Aug-2018 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Dormition of the Theotokos (Orthodox)
16-Aug-2018
17-Aug-2018
18-Aug-2018
19-Aug-2018 World Humanitarian Day Speech Pathology Week (19-25 Aug)
20-Aug-2018 Be Medicinewise week (20-26 Aug)

Natural Fertility Awareness Week (20-26 Aug)

21-Aug-2018 Eid al Adha (Islamic)
22-Aug-2018
23-Aug-2018 International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition
24-Aug-2018 22q Awareness (24-31 Aug)
25-Aug-2018
26-Aug-2018 Raksha Bandhan (Hindu)
26-Aug-2018
28-Aug-2018
29-Aug-2018 International Day against Nuclear Tests
30-Aug-2018 International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
31-Aug-2018

[1] http://www.un.org/en/sections/observances/international-days/index.html

[2] http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/special-dates-and-events

[3] https://www.catholic.org.au/calendar#year=2018&month=1&day=1&view=month

[4] https://www.harmony.gov.au/events/calendar/