161. Simpatico conference speaker Vicki Webster talks to us about the dark side of leadership

Vicki Webster is an organisational psychologist with over fifteen years consulting experience in leading teams to design and deliver evidence-based leadership and organisational development solutions that drive cultural change and increase manager and employee engagement, and capability.

She has consulted organisations across a range of industries, including healthcare, financial services, retail, information technology, mining, manufacturing, government and education.

As the driving force behind Incisive Leaders, Vicki also presents as a guest lecturer on organisational psychology topics such as Dark Side of Leadership, Effective Performance Reviews, Careers in Organisational Psychology for University of Queensland and Griffith University, and has delivered to the supervision of registrars seeking endorsement as “Organisational Psychologist” (Psychology Board of Australia).

Vicki’s research PhD investigated leader derailment, and follower resilience to toxic leadership. Published in Stress and Health journal, The Conversation:  Toxic Boss at Work, Inpsych: Assisting organisations to deal effectively with toxic leadership in the workplace, and co-author of How to Get Ahead without Murdering Your Boss.  Six simple steps to actively manage your career.  

Specific areas of expertise include: leadership assessment, leadership development, bright and dark side of leadership, organisational development, personal resiliency and career resilience.

In this episode we talk about:

  • Vicki Webster’s background as a leadership development specialist
  • Dealing with the dark side of leadership
  • Effective leadership
  • The high level of self-awareness required in order to understand what our strengths are
  • Having a good level of self-regulation
  • Having to stop trying to control everything and allow people to use their own skills
  • Encouraging people to have a voice that is more diverse than that which you can come up with as a leader
  • The importance of humility and courage as a leader
  • The most important factor in building trust with your people
  • Humility and vulnerability – traits that are essential when building connections and trusting people
  • The two very destructive behaviours
  • The leader’s responsibility
  • The biggest issues of leadership
  • Vicki’s advice to business leaders who are just starting out
  • The importance of being organised, and having systems and processes as a leader
  • Taking organisation to the next level of maturity
  • Gaining respect successfully to manage the team
  • Vicki’s earliest food memory
  • Bringing groups of people together through food
  • The Simpatico Connect conference that she will be speaking at
  • How she got involved with Simpatico Connect
  • How you can connect with her at the conference
  • Understanding the bright side of leadership
  • The nature of leadership
  • The strategies used to avoid derailing
  • The responsibilities of going beyond our behaviour as an organisational leader and not allowing toxic leadership to creep in
  • Vicki’s PhD studies
  • Her great interest in organisational psychology
  • The ability to be creative when solving problems
  • The importance of leaders who are highly independent
  • The organisational well-being program
  • The book entitled How to Get Ahead without Murdering Your Boss

Vicki Webster earliest and fondest memories around food

“I have a great love of Italian foods. And I bring that home when I cook things like spaghetti. That was very sophisticated back in the day. It’s not too rich and it just feels in-spirit when I eat Italian food. I love it.”

Know more about Vicki Webster

Who would you love to have dinner with and where?

“It would probably be Margaret Wheatley. She is a bit of a thought leader and philosopher and I like a lot of her insights. So it would be interesting to just be able to talk one on one with her. It would be probably on my deck.”

Last meal on the planet?

“Italian with a really good red wine. Pasta with chili and anchovies.”

Resources

Where to find Vicki Webster

WEBSITE: http://incisiveleaders.com.au

Twitter: https://twitter.com/incisive_leader

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/vickiwebsterincisiveleaders

Author: Ronsley Vaz

Ronsley is the founder & chief day dreamer at AMPLIFY. He is an author, speaker & serial entrepreneur.

He has a Masters’ degree in Software Engineering and an MBA in Psychology and Leadership. He is known as the creator of We Are Podcast – the first Podcasting Conference in the Southern Hemisphere, and the host of The Bond Appetit Podcast and Should I Start a Podcast. He has an audience of over 3 million in 133 countries.

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