Favourites with Malcolm Broomhead AO FAICD

Candid conversations with directors on the interests and insights that have shaped their careers.

Most valuable career lesson? 

I’ve had some great mentors in my career who showed me the way to get people engaged is to ask them, not to tell them.

In my role at Orica, I asked groups of people in each of our locations what they thought we did and didn’t do well and, if we were the best in the world, what would it look like? Then I’d ask them to write it down.

If you approach it in this way, you’ll probably get the same answers you would come up with yourself, but it gives a sense of ownership and creates enormous commitment. That was a great lesson for me.

Early career risk that paid off?

I started out as a civil engineer, but enjoyed the business side more than the technical side. I did an MBA and applied for a job in the finance department at a mining company, but it turned out to be trading foreign exchange.

I got the job, even though I knew nothing about it. I thought, I’ll just watch the other folk and pick it up. But the other folk weren’t there.

They’d all been fired, which is why I got the job. Within three or four years, I was a CFO. Looking back, it was a huge leap that made a big difference. I think incrementalism gets you nowhere in life.

Top-of-mind governance issue?

For the industries I’ve worked in, safety is the key issue. It has a quantum level of concern above other issues.

Prediction on the future of leadership? 

Leaders have to be prepared to change long-held attitudes very quickly. The role of the leader is to look out the window at the big changes that are coming, otherwise you’ll miss the boat.

Favourite method to unwind? 

I set myself unreasonably high goals and keep raising the bar. Looking back, I wish I’d been a bit more balanced, because nothing comes for free.

It’s important to rest your mind, but as it’s like a muscle, it also needs other activities. I’m trying to learn the German language again.

I grew up in Papua New Guinea, and there were a number of Germans there at the time. I studied the language at school and did a couple of courses along the way, but never finished it off.