Management anchor points

A KEY rESpONSiBiliTY OF THE lEADErS THAT i COACH iS OVErSiGHT OF pErFOrMANCE iNDiCATOrS - AND iT’S SO EASY DUriNG BUSY TiMES TO GET DiSTrACTED BY THE UNrElENTiNG TiDES OF OpErATiONAl ACTiViTY. WEEKS pASS QUiCKlY UNTil THE MOMENT OF rEAliSATiON ArriVES Or SOMETHiNG GOES WrONG. TO NEGlECT THE rEViEW OF HOW prOJECTS ArE prOGrESSiNG Or HOW THE TEAM iS MANAGiNG THEir lOAD Or iF THE SAlES pipEliNE iS FUll CAN BE DETriMENTAl TO ONGOiNG pErFOrMANCE.

To help prevent running with the tides, try using anchor points. Make a list of the critical management areas you are responsible for and then drop these as anchor points into your calendar. For example, each Tuesday morning, you might set aside half an hour to review your team’s productivity levels. Every Wednesday, you might allocate an hour to check in with each of your managers to see how they are travelling. Once a month, you might meet with your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to review the month’s performance. These calendar entries will serve as reminders to anchor you in the critical areas you are responsible for and ensure that, even in busy times, you are still fulfilling your management role. Even with these calendar anchors, many find their days become a blur of interruptions and requests, with to-do lists always seeming to be yet-to-bedone. Building on the above critical anchor points, it’s essential to take control of your time by establishing a routinised way of working. For example, the mornings might be given to your primary office related responsibilities and the afternoons to meetings and dealing with the email and phone requests from the morning. This routine provides stability and further ensures that we are fulfilling the most critical aspects of our role. Adequate rest provides an anchor against the prevailing headwinds of busyness, ensuring focus and energy are directed to key areas of responsibility, where they will have maximum impact. rest provides the context for clear thinking … and cohesive actions (Hodge, 2021). Most of us are aware working from rest is promoted by adequate sleep, diet, and exercise. However, the discipline to achieve this is a challenge for many. A helpful method i found was backing off. When i start to feel blown off-course and/ or overwhelmed, i deliberately back off and slow my pace. i accept a lower rate of output and celebrate not stopping. previously my auto-response was to increase the pace when overwhelmed, until exhaustion took over and stopping became inevitable. This ultimately didn’t help the quality and quantity of my output. Changing my approach steadied me and improved my effectiveness. Former Formula One racing driver, Jackie Stewart also found this to be true. He recounted a story where he and a colleague were leading the field in a race, when they were directed from the pits to ease-off the pace. He says, “the more we ‘eased off’, the faster our laps became.” He went on to say that “sometimes the best way to raise our level of performance is to back off rather than to push even harder” (Stewart, 2009). Another way to work from rest is to regularly “pause” – even if only for two or three minutes, to review and plan/replan. review items completed (which is a powerful encourager and mood-booster), then plan the next priority actions. This helps to pace activity and build a sense of calm and space into each day. it’s also a great way to maintain energy levels. introducing standardised agendas to routine meetings can be a powerful anchor point too, ensuring precious time isn’t wasted in unfocussed communication. Standardised agendas can include items such as:

½ mindful-moments to open and bring everyone’s focus into the room (or zoom); ½ regular check-ins with project progress and routine Kpi reviews; ½ well-being checks; ½ reviewing learnings from recently completed work; and ½ other items as needed.

Being in a management role is demanding and leaders are called upon to manage huge loads with accompanying stress. Building anchor points provides a sense of order and the assurance that critical management tasks will be completed because they’ve been included in our schedules already; as has time for rest, self and other-care, review, planning, and learning. Anchor points can help ease even the most chaotic of times, so we stand a greater chance of meeting our performance requirements.

Ray Hodge

Business Coaching & Consultant www.rayhodge.com.au Stewart, J. 2009. Winning Is Not Enough. London: Headline Publishing Group.

Hodge, R. 2021 How Efficiency Changes the Game. Developing Lean Operations For Competitive Advantage. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

IT’S NO SECRET...

ElECTriCAl iNSpECTiON AND TESTiNG iS AlWAYS A CONTENTiOUS TOpiC. DESpiTE EACH STATE’S ElECTriCAl rEGUlATOrS ATTEMpTS, iT rEMAiNS AMONG THE HOTTEST TOpiCS iN OUr iNDUSTrY. THAT’S WHY iT iS AT THE TOp OF THE rEGUlATOrS rADAr NOW.

Every one of us should be aware of this (electricians, electrical contractors, and asset owners) as each one has a part to play and can be held liable.

What is it:

in simple terms, this testing ensures the electrical installation (if you install, alter, or modify a circuit) has been completed correctly and will not endanger personnel or property at that site.

in addition to inspection and testing triggering the requirements in AS/NZS3000 Section 8.3.3, are the verification requirements for compliance of all electrical work to comply to AS/NZS3000. This is so it doesn’t impair the safety of the existing electrical installation. (Think of this as “like-for-like replacements).

There are also periodical inspection and testing requirements (AS/NZS3000 Section 8.1.3) set out in other standards (AS/NZS3019), dependant on your building’s classification.

in all states and territories, an additional “Certificate of Compliance” is required. Called different things from state-tostate, they are a mandated and required process. The asset owner should receive this at the completion of the job.

Let’s review the facts:

We have Federal and State requirements that must be adhered to in relation to the work performed by electricians daily. The processes which govern what must be achieved, are set out in various standards, acts, bills, and regulations.

Australia and New Zealand federal requirements:

½ AS/NZS3000 (2018) Section 8 sets out the requirement across

Australia and New Zealand. ½ AS/NZS3017 (2007) sets out the methods of inspection and testing for satisfying AS/NZS3000. ½ Workplace Health and Safety Act (2018) provides a balanced and nationally consistent framework to secure the Health and Safety of workers and workplaces. ½ Workplace Health and Safety Bill (2019) provides a national model law and is intended to provide the basis for nationally consistent work health and safety laws. ½ Workplace Health and Safety regulations (2021) provide the basis for nationally consistent work health and safety laws. State requirements:

½ Electrical Safety Act ½ Electrical Safety regulation ½ Workplace Health and Safety Act

These form our “legal requirements” for inspection and testing for everyone from electricians to electrical contractors, to asset owners.

What is the issue?

1. Complications ensuring tests comply

½ Two required tests come from tables 8.1 and 8.2 of AS/NZS3000. Unless the electrician carries around these tables, they aren’t 100% assured the tests are compliant for that circuit. ½ potential for misunderstanding the testing parameters and passing a failed result.

2. Paperwork

lost documents, illegible writing, incorrect test results, missed tests, reduced productivity, reputational damage, storage issues.

3. More administration work

Filing, storing, ability to retrieve when requested, reputational damage

4. Lack of duty of care/oversight by electrical contractors

½ if no one is going to check your work – why bother testing? ½ Even if the paperwork is returned, it’s rarely reviewed for compliance

5. Inability of “oversight” by the Regulators to ensure this process happens

½ Most state regulators do not have the labour to have inspectors in the field reviewing current jobs (even if they did, the state would need a digital lodgement system to allow them to see where electricians were each day)

½ i will credit Victoria ESV and

Western Australia EnergySafety for their process of knowing where electricians have been, provided the notices have been lodged. These factors combined put our industry, your business, and its reputation at risk. The asset owners face prosecution now, under WHS Act Section 5 (the pCBU (person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) rulings), so don’t think that it’s just the electrician that’s going to be at fault. Company directors of assets are liable, and have been fined, for electrical safety and compliance failures.

Let’s review the legal ramifications of this:

it’s your duty of care as an electrical contractor to ensure that this process and testing is completed to Australian Standards, and this documentation is stored for the required period. Contractors have the obligation to produce and maintain the certificates of compliance in accordance with each state’s requirement.

An asset owner, or a pCBU, is liable for all electrical safety and compliance within that structure. As well as to maintain all documentation to provide any case of indemnity.

Failure of this does end up in court with fines and penalties and electrical contractors and electricians have lost their licences.

Let’s look at some statistics from the Electrical Regulators:

The recurring top two penalties are:

1. Inspection & Testing

Failure to test, or test in compliance with AS/NZS3000

2. SWMS

Failure to implement, or follow, a safe system of work

Each of these issues are 3-4 times greater than any other prosecutions recorded. This illustrates the magnitude of the issue in the industry.

The regulators are focused on methods to reduce this and you may have seen some of the precursors with the changes in AS/NZS3000 AMD 2 and the recent CpD requirements for licence renewals.

Where do we go from here?

Electricians – know what AS/NZS3000 Section 8 and AS/NZS3017 says and the proper ways to inspect and test – it’s their job. Electrical contractors – review your state’s Electrical regulator “Electrical Contractor Guide” – a great resource to assist you in your requirements as a contractor. Queensland Guide is located at www.bit.ly/worksafeqldecg

Asset owners – the document put out by the federal government “Managing Electrical risks in the Workplace – Code of practice” is a great place to start to get to know your responsibilities. Each state also has their own. This is a must have document for all asset owners.

remove the risk around paperwork – Use digital tools that will make the work easier for your electricians in the field (validating all test readings to the standards, providing transparency, removing the burden of paperwork, automatically providing certificates of compliance directly to your customers at the end of every job, and satisfying your storage requirements – removing your regulatory, legal, and reputational risk.