Lenore Miller’s lifelong curiosity for human behaviour and why people do what they do led her to a career focused on understanding workplace behaviour and how to bring out the best in people. She has extensive experience working with organisations to maximise employee engagement, productivity, and leadership capability.

Lenore combines her expertise in people and culture with solid business-based data, enabling an organisation to take the pulse of their workforce. This provides invaluable insight and gives businesses the ability to harness the full capability of their most valuable resources.

Born and raised in the Hunter, Lenore is the Director of Delivery for Iedex, an Australian owned and operated business that uses their proprietary software to provide useful, relevant, and meaningful workplace data.

• Tell us a little bit about your career path?

It’s kind of interesting because I haven’t had a linear career path. When I was younger I compared myself to my peers from senior high school and university who just picked one thing, like teaching or architecture, and just went for that career path. I tried all kinds of different things. I went from employment to self-employment and back. I worked for businesses, both large and small. I kind of wondered what was wrong with me because I hadn’t stuck with one thing.

As I’ve matured, however, I’ve realised that my approach has really served me well because it allows me to have the confidence to back myself in anything I might choose to do. In reality, what it’s given me is real career freedom.

• What do you believe has shaped your leadership style?

I think there’s probably three broad things that have shaped how I show up as a leader. The first one is commitment. For me, that’s around my commitment to my own personal and professional development. That’s been flavoured by a lot of things; the modelling of people who have led me in the past; the interaction that I have with people that I get to lead because I just learn so much in that space; and the people that I work and interact with, including my peers and clients.

I also think the ability to be empathic. It is such a privilege to be able to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and understand where that person’s coming from. It’s allowed me to have some really deep conversations with people on my teams that I might not normally have so I can understand who they are and what they want. Sometimes that allows them to leave an organisation with grace because they decide it’s not really for them.

The third thing is my belief in people. Our people don’t come to work every day wondering what they can mess up today. They really come to do their best work. I think it’s my job, as a leader, to provide that really healthy workplace culture that allows people to show up. It’s my job to coach and lead them, and help them find their way in their career.

• What is one actionable task you incorporate into your diary every week?

The one thing that I always make time for in my diary every week and hopefully most days, is communication. It’s communication with my team; that could simply be finding out how their weekend was or it could be coaching, training or finding out what work we’ve got coming up and what’s happening with clients.

The other one is communication with our clients. I think it’s really important to have your finger on the pulse of whether clients have feedback, including positive and constructive. I want to hear that so we can make the appropriate adjustments.

The third one is communication with potential clients. I never want to get too far away from really understanding what people in the community and in the business community want from us.

• What do you believe makes business unique in the Hunter?

I think we’re unique because we have such an awesome environment in which we’re able to attract fantastic leaders who come here for great positions as well as enjoy a great lifestyle.  I think that really helps us to retain great leaders here in the Hunter.

I think people in the Hunter look for simple things in great leaders and in businesses. They look for businesses that make a contribution to the local community, whether that be our local sporting team, a not-for-profit, or sponsoring fabulous awards or innovation. People also look for representation locally. They don’t just want to work with an organisation that has representation in the large capital cities, they want someone local that they know they can trust, rely on and have a face-to-face meeting with.

I think the other thing we look for in business in the Hunter is a total commitment to the local environment.

• Which local business leader do you find most inspiring?

We have some sensational leaders in the Hunter. The one person that stands out for me is Mark Fitzgibbons, who’s the CEO of NIB. The reason I select Mark is because NIB has gone through some amazing change, growth, and transformation over the period that Mark’s been at the helm. They’ve kept that company culture through those changes, embraced diversity and they’re at the forefront of innovation. That business is absolutely thriving in every direction. I think that it takes a special kind of leadership to bring all that together and to take your team on that journey.  My vote’s for Mark.