The Marketing Academy so far: What’s the single most valuable insight gleaned? 

Going right back to basics. Our past has made us who we are today; for each of us those unique experiences have shaped our belief system, our values and how we show up with our teams, family and our community – the positive and the not so positive experiences all make us who we are. To really unlock exceptional leadership we need to reflect and embrace the learnings from those experiences, show our vulnerabilities to truly connect and only then can we actually understand who we are.

How to nail the TMAs entry requirements?  

Be yourself, don’t sell yourself. As simple as it sounds it can be a difficult concept to get your head around when applying for a place in a highly competitive program. To nail your TMA entry you need to understand your ambitions, have a sense of your shortcomings, your growth opportunities and show that you are prepared to deconstruct all that you’ve learnt and rebuild yourself; that process can be a little confronting!  I will add that if you don’t get in the first time, have another crack!

Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given and why? 

Spend significant time discovering and learning about your super powers, and double down on those – they make you, you. For me this has helped me to stop comparing myself against others, understand the value I bring to my team and CommBank and it has helped me to make some fairly significant decisions.  Know these also helps me to define where my development opportunities are and where I may need to seek out stretch.

The greatest professional lesson you have relearned/assumption to explode? 

Everyone has some degree of imposter syndrome, but if you can reframe the anxious energy into excitement, it completely changes the situation and it changes you and your response.  The power of thought has the ability to alter our physiology, the ability to shift perceptions and the ability to change your life; just think about that for a moment!

Greatest capability gap (individually and within your teams)? 

Having Oscar Trimboli spend time with us on deep listening had a profound impact on me, both professionally and personally.  The personal impact was quite emotional; have I not been really listening to my children? I noted the session on listening on the agenda for the first and second TMA Boot Camp, not expecting this would be the session to really speak to me.

I haven’t been listening, really listening.  The most precious gift is someone else’s time and attention, and I’ve not been giving that truly to many people both professionally and in my personal relationships with my friends and family.

Talent crisis: What’s the impact on your teams, how to navigate (what is keeping people from moving on?) 

As an iconic brand with opportunities to work on great projects and have an incredible impact on the nation we do attract great talent, but there are times where finding the right fit and capability can be a challenge and we may need to lean on our agencies to help fill the gaps for a period of time.

As an organisation CommBank supports our marketers to continually build capability (as a TMA sponsor we provide the whole team with access to The Marketing Academy Virtual Campus), try out new roles internally, to jump on to projects of interest and really set stretch goals.  We have an ambitious strategy and marketing is seen as a key enabler of that strategy so we remain close to what is really important, our customers and creative ways to engage and deliver.