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Page 3 of 5
Winning teams
Success comes from great management teams and the key to putting
together or appointing a good management team is diversity, according
to Yates. But she warns that if everybody on the management team looks
and sounds the same, then that's not a great management team.
She says building a successful management team is about being open to
new ideas, with a willingness to accept that ideas will come from many
different sources.
"So, a good management team is a mix of people with different skills
and leadership styles, and a good leader is wise enough to listen to
them all," Yates says.
She agrees that people are the strength of any business: "Particularly
for service firms, where all we really have to sell is the quality of
our ideas, and the people who develop, manage and integrate them.
"The disconnect happens when we tell our people that they are our
greatest asset, and then expect them to work 60-80 hour weeks, or are
disrespectful of their family commitments, or religious obligations.
Great leaders don't just say people are our greatest asset, they walk
the talk as well," Yates says.
According to Yates, the term frequently used in business these days,
"creating a culture of success in an organisation", is just meaningless
jargon.
"I can't think of too many people who set out to create a culture of failure," Yates jokes.
"I think there are certainly effective leaders who contribute a great
deal to the success of an organisation. However, it is the efforts of
everyone working together and the skill of the leader in getting the
right team and helping them operate effectively."
Yates regularly speaks to many managers, particularly through her
coaching roles, and she describes the management style that she would
advocate as being one that is very open, transparent and consultative:
"It seems to me that that is the way to get optimum results out of
people."
New York magazines
In her past careers, Sandra Yates has been President and CEO of Matilda
Publications Inc., a company she founded with her then business
partner, Dr. Anne Summers, in New York in 1988, when they raised $US20
million on Wall Street, and completed only the second woman-led LBO in
US corporate history.
After being sent to the US by the magazine division of Fairfax to start
a magazine similar to Dolly , Yates and Dr Summers successfully
launched Sassy (a magazine for teenage girls) and led Ms. magazine to
its highest ever circulation. Yates ranks her time in New York
publishing as one of her greatest achievements.
Most recently, Yates was Chairman of creative advertising agency
Saatchi and Saatchi Australia (known for its popular ad campaigns for
clients including Toyota, David Jones, Westpac, and The Sydney Morning
Herald ) from 1996 to 2004, and has recently stepped back to enjoy a
more relaxed role as a director of their advisory board.
For confidentiality reasons, she is unable to elaborate on the details
of her current duties with Saatchi and Saatchi, but says that her new
role will see her working in an area that she's really passionate about
- talent development and enrichment programs for emerging stars.
And while Yates's past experience in publishing has been on the
business side, she has recently started a weekly column for The
Canberra Times ; which she describes as a lot of fun.
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