From a young age, Dulise Maxwell was fascinated by Japanese culture. Although it seems a big step from that passion to her current role as executive director of people and culture - corporate at QLD Health, there is a common thread.
"I was undertaking study and working in Australia, China and Japan that tended to be around cultural morays and how people from a business perspective engage with the cultures of other areas. That actually has a direct relationship with the world I'm playing in now - but at the time that's not what I was thinking about!" she says.
Maxwell's current career trajectory commenced when she was then asked by the Queensland government on two separate occasions to set up commercially viable businesses for them in the international training and consultancy area. "That's when I started to have teams of staff - and like so many new young leaders I moved into the role without understanding what it meant to lead teams. I discovered that was where I was getting some of my greatest passion from - working with people and bringing out their best to achieve the best outcomes for the business."
Maxwell commenced study in strategic HR and business development, and subsequently moved into a career in the strategic HR and OD space. The consultancy she ran parallel to that career, which kept up her interest in Australian/Asian cultural morays, also morphed into helping businesses be more effective and efficient about how they engage their people to deliver business outcomes.
Maxwell is only two months into her role at QLD Health, after spending time at the ATO as national director of leadership. Her brief there was to help the organisation shape a leadership culture and then build its capability for everyone in the organisation to effectively lead the organisation. With a staff of 20,000+ nationwide that was no easy task, but Maxwell claims it was "a great deal of fun, an enormous opportunity".
A fresh take on leadership
Her personal belief is that leadership is a state of mind evidenced by behaviour - not merely a position. "That means anyone can demonstrate leadership behaviours - they can be cleaning floors or working in a call centre, or they can be a CEO of a company - but the empathy, integrity, the desire to encourage others to do their best can be demonstrated by anybody."
Throughout her career, Maxwell notes that many companies she's worked in or consulted to were in the unfortunate practice of promoting technically excellent workers to positions of management, and then providing limited support to that person. "People are recruited on a rudimentary ability to answer some basic questions - but it's based on your brilliance in your previous job. Now you're asked to do a completely different job that you're not prepared for. You'll have teams of people you'll be accountable to and accountable for."
This 'sink or swim' mentality often triumphs simply because there's no recognition that management or leadership might be a tough task, and asking for help is frowned upon. It's only when that poor person starts to sink that a coach is introduced or remedial action is taken. "The danger is they then might be looked at as a poor performer. In reality they might be brilliantly able to lead but they just need some help to know how you do it," she says.
Maxwell maintains it's unrealistic to expect HR to be on top of how new managers are progressing - "it's got to be the line manager - and if the line manager is highly competent, that's the stuff they'll be looking for - signs that the person is not coping".
Getting her bearings
Maxwell's current role at QLD Health is quite different to the ATO role. She heads up the entire HR and organisational development strategic function for QLD Health, an entity that employs 73,000 staff. "That doesn't mean we do it all - we look after the strategic direction but we work highly collaboratively with all of the other parts of the organisation. For example, we have directors in each of the districts who are also responsible for people and culture. We're looking to form a good strategic powerhouse to work with us in partnership. I believe strongly that you don't do these things yourself. You must have brilliant partnerships throughout the organisation, and there are components of the people system being lead in a whole variety of ways throughout the organisation," she explains.
"We need to work collaboratively for the good of the staff and then ultimately the main reason we're doing that is so we can provide a better service for the people of Queensland."
HR in the public sector
With her current role and her experience at the ATO, Maxwell is well placed to comment on public sector HR. She notes that HR does operate differently across different government agencies and departments, but downplays public/private sector differences.
"I don't see any real difference between public sector and private sector when it comes to people and cultural issues - because they're all just organisations," she says. "Whatever the rules are that are handed down through legislation for codes of conduct, etc, you have the same things applying to private and public sector organisations. The biggest changes of course are more around the business model - revenue driven or budget driven and so on - but in reality the way we engage people, the way we create the best possible workplace environment where people are enthused to come to work, have volunteer mindsets, and they feel supported, and the way in which we run effectively and efficiency - is very similar to the private sector."
And just like the divisions and sectors of large private sector organisations, there will be differences in business needs and corporate culture between government departments. The same differentials will apply between the Federal sector and the various States. She says, for example, that QLD Health would be quite different to QLD Rail. "The way health is, and the type of employees we have when we're dealing with the ill, the infirm and maybe even the dying of Queensland, is very different to the types of employees that Queensland Rail might have. Therefore the way we build each culture to support our people will be quite different," she notes.
Engagement and performance
Throughout her career Maxwell has been well aware of the link between engagement and performance. "An organisation will never reach peak performance if you haven't won the heads and hands, the hearts and minds of your people. If all we're looking for is the heads and hands, and we tell you what to do and you'll sit quietly while we tell you what to do, no organisation in the 21st century will survive on that model. People are too well informed, they can say what they want, share the best stories, the worst stories," she says.
Enormous effort must be put into engaging employees, and Maxwell claims the key to this is to be clear on your employer brand and then recruit people with the right attitudes and behaviours (the right skill sets are a given).
"If you get that alignment you get people who are at least partially aligned with your value sets, your cultural attributes. As long as you fulfill your EVP and the psychological contract you're making with those people through your employer brand, you will have their hearts and minds. You'll then only have to live up to it and deliver."
The benefit of an engaged workforce speaks for itself: "It's like iron filings and a magnet - if all the iron fillings all aligned and heading in the same direction there's a huge magnetic pull created - and you'll have a high performing culture," Maxwell says.
HR rewards
Given the broad corporate canvases in which she works, and despite formal recognition from state AHRI awards, it's surprising to hear Maxwell's nomination as her proudest career development. "For me my greatest success has been my client's successes - be it internally or externally - who have started working with me around a particular challenge or issue and when we finish working together they can see that we've addressed the issue, met that challenge, and they are in a better place," she says.
"Also, to have people trust and respect you. HR can be fairly challenging. One of my greatest joys was when I was working in an environment where we'd been having a lot of industrial issues. After quite a fierce meeting one of the unionists stormed past my secretary into my office, to tell me he'd came to see me because he had some feedback from his members. He said their perception of me was that I was bloody tough but always fair and I meant what I said. That was a great compliment!"