AICD’s Disability Leadership Program, in partnership with the Australian Disability Network, is facilitating more inclusive careers.
In 2022, the AICD launched the Disability Leadership Program in partnership with the Australian Disability Network. Funded by the federal government’s Department of Social Services, the program aims to increase the leadership and governance capability of leaders with disability and provides full-fee scholarships to undertake the Company Directors Course, the Foundations of Directorship course or the Governance Foundations for Not-for-Profit Directors program at the AICD.
To date, 208 scholarships have been awarded. Here, we speak to three scholars about their experience with the program, how it may help to progress their careers and lay a foundation for inclusive and enabling leadership on Australian boards.
Gregory Ferrington MAICD
Member of the strategic advisory committee of Fire Rescue Victoria and regional council member of Adult, Community and Further Education Victoria
Gregory Ferrington may have been destined for a career in the community services sector. Growing up in Brisbane in the early 1970s, he recalls seeing people with disabilities and feeling a strong desire to help them gain equal access to opportunity. “I’ve always wanted to build up the capacity of others,” he says.
It was only in recent years that Ferrington overcame what he describes as “imposter syndrome” and acknowledged he had also lived with disability for most of his life. He says participating in the Disability Leadership Program helped to cement the governance skills he’d developed in roles such as former chair of Adult, Community and Further Education Victoria (he is now a regional council member), former vice- president of Neighbourhood Houses Victoria, and currently as a member of the strategic advisory committee of Fire Rescue Victoria.
“I was working at the Disability Resource Centre when I became aware of the scholarship and the staff and board encouraged me to apply,” says Ferrington, who resigned from full-time work in June this year due to ongoing chronic health issues.
“It was quite early in my journey as identifying as a person with disability, but I do believe that having people with disability on a board allows organisations to be much more nuanced in their strategic direction.”
A focus on community
Ferrington has experienced chronic illness since he underwent a kidney transplant during childhood. Over the past 33 years, he has undergone more than 40 operations and been admitted to hospital countless times.
He has worked in the community services sector for more than 30 years, including more than 25 years in the neighbourhood houses sector, where he has performed both managerial and governance roles.
“A lot of people with disabilities go above and beyond at work — longer, harder hours because of feeling inadequate,” says Ferrington. “I’ve had great employers over the years, but I’ve also had one or two who were not supportive of my health issues. I’ve been pushed out of roles or not given promotions. It was like, ‘Honestly Greg, we can’t give you that promotion because we need someone who doesn’t have to go off for dialysis’. There were certainly times when employers were not disability- friendly, but it’s changed a lot.”
Listen and learn
Ferrington says learnings from the Disability Leadership Program helped to reinforce that governance decisions he’d made in the past were right. “I particularly found learning more about legal aspects of boards very helpful,” he says. “Since completing the program, I’ve been much more confident in the questions I’ve asked about processes and finding out the steps that people have gone through to reach decisions.”
He says a highlight of the program was the Leader-to-Leader conversation series, which enables directors to hear from scholars with disability about lived experience in the workplace and on boards. The aim is to increase their understanding of the barriers people with disability face across business and the community.
“The whole program was an amazing networking opportunity,” says Ferrington. “The directors who didn’t identify as having a disability came with open ears and open eyes — and were ready to listen and to learn, which was fantastic. It was quite a special session.”
Power of self-belief
For other people with disabilities who are aspiring to leadership roles or considering participating in similar programs, Ferrington’s advice is to believe in yourself. “Particularly for those of us born in the 1960s and ’70s, we were often told not to pump ourselves up or to display confidence, but a bit of self-belief and confidence in yourself is so important. You've got skills that are valuable and that organisations need.”
Since retiring in June, Ferrington plans to spend the next six months focusing on his health. “But I’m not a ‘sit still’ kind of person,” he says. “I’ll probably look for another one or two board roles, so I can apply all the things learned from the Disability Leadership Program. I’m also really keen to mentor others. I’d like to transfer my knowledge to the next generation.”
Craig Clarke GAICD
Director at Estara, law interpretation director at the ATO
People living with disability have as much to offer as anyone, says Craig Clarke GAICD, a director at Estara and law interpretation director at the Australian Taxation Office. A recipient of a scholarship for the Disability Leadership Program in 2023, he says it’s time to make inclusiveness a matter of business as usual. “More often than not, it requires minor, inexpensive, modifications to schedules, venues and IT,” says Clarke, who became a C5/6 quadriplegic after sustaining a spinal injury at the age of 17. “To promote inclusivity and accessibility, we need people to understand that if a system is designed to benefit them, then they should be willing to put effort into it.”
Not a Mickey Mouse qualification
Estara is the trading name of the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of South Australia, an established NDIS provider and the peak body for spinal cord injury in the state. Clarke, whose qualifications include a Masters in Law, says the organisation’s board has a preference for AICD qualifications, which prompted him to apply for the scholarship.
“I received a scholarship for the program and I was not scared to study as I have undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications,” says Clarke, adding he was impressed by its depth. “It’s not a Mickey Mouse qualification. It really does make you stop and ask yourself, what is my role on this board? What am I bringing to the table? What is the role of the organisation I’m governing in society and what is the social contract the organisation needs to observe and adhere to?”
Clarke notes the skills and insights gained from the program have been valuable in his overall professional development. “Dealing with people of different mindsets, risk analysis and management, and how you approach an issue you don’t understand, were all valuable learnings,” he says. “I’ve also come to understand the significance of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and what the future may hold.”
When everyone is included
Clarke believes the lived experiences of leaders with disabilities can contribute to creating more inclusive and effective governance in various sectors. “Service providers operating in the vulnerable person sector need to have their finger on the pulse — and people with lived experience can direct them quickly to the wrist,” he says. “Organisations operating in the NDIS sector are confronted with many vexed issues — the requirement to service high-cost vulnerable persons who have exhausted plan funds is one example. At the same time, as a director, you have other statutory obligations.”
As a leader with a disability, Clarke has advice for others facing challenges to accessing leadership roles. “Life is a challenge, everyone has them,” he says. “If you need help and have a goal and want to do something, then ask for help. Develop a network of people you can talk to. Their time is valuable and often given without a cost, so use it wisely. And always follow through. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.”
Clarke sees inclusive governance practices playing a vital role in building a just society for all. “Read No Greatness without Goodness by Randy Lewis and you envisage a society that is just, functioning well and providing a good basis for happiness,” he says. “Organisations in society need diversity at the board level so they don’t lose touch with what society is really like.”
Rabia Siddique GAICD
Chair of the CEO Institute WA, non-executive director at Wesley College Perth and Auspire
In 2005, Rabia Siddique GAICD was serving as a legal officer in the British Army when she was deployed to Iraq with a male colleague to assist with the rescue of two Special Forces soldiers from Iraqi insurgents. During the ordeal, Siddique and her colleague were taken hostage. After their release, he was awarded a Military Cross for outstanding bravery while she was told never to speak of her role in the rescue attempt. Siddique developed PTSD and, in 2008, successfully sued the UK Ministry of Defence for discrimination.
“I appear today as a strong, stoic, confident leader,” says Siddique, chair of the CEO Institute WA and a non-executive director at Wesley College Perth and Auspire, the Australia Day Council of WA. “But I'm also someone who has been broken more than once, who has been reduced to rock bottom, who has been desperate, distressed and hopeless. My diagnosis with PTSD formed the seeds and drive for a lot of my work and inspiration to become a good leader and to teach others to be values-based, courageous leaders. This is the positive gift that has come from that injustice.”
Rigour and understanding
Siddique’s law career started with Legal Aid WA in the 1990s before moving to the Office of Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions,
Member Resource where she became one of the youngest federal prosecutors in Australia. Since leaving the British Army, her legal work has focused on human rights and criminal law. She is also a member of the adjunct faculty for the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW.
Siddique applied for the Disability Leadership Program to expand her governance skills. “Having served as a leader and a voluntary board director at NFPs, my natural progression is to look at paid board positions for private companies and listed corporations,” she says. “The Company Directors Course is essential for that kind of transition. My career needed that rigour in terms of governance and board direction, but I didn’t have the financial resources, so I applied for a scholarship.”
Siddique describes the program as one of the best CPD courses she’s done in her career. “As a result, I’ve been able to bring even more rigour and understanding to my existing board roles. I feel more confident in the value I bring to a board as a director. Financial management in particular was my Achilles heel, but I feel a lot more confident in that area now.”
Impact of diversity
Siddique believes the lived experiences of leaders with disabilities can enhance inclusive and effective governance in various sectors. “We bring diversity of experience and thought,” says Siddique, who is also partially deaf as a result of her military service. “Having a physical or mental disability can also build resilience. We see the world differently and often bring a different perspective on the impact and importance of decisions, whereas other people may unintentionally have blind spots. I hope to bring not only the diversity of thought and experience that comes with being a person with a disability, but also to advocate for greater diversity and equity in terms of gender, cultural background, sexual orientation and age.”
She adds we must also have people willing to advocate, sponsor, mentor and champion people to follow them. “I hope to be able to do that by proving my excellence and professionalism as a worthy, valuable, impactful leader. By doing that, I’ll be able to bring others along with me.”
This article first appeared under the headline 'Enabling Leadership’ in the August 2024 issue of Company Director magazine.
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