[00:00:00] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: How would you respond if a workplace crisis struck today? And what does it really take to build a career from the ground up? In this week’s episode, crisis expert Paul McFarlane explains how leaders can navigate the critical first 60 minutes after a workplace emergency with calm honesty and empathy. As the former senior chaplain with New South Wales Ambulance, Paul was on scene during traumatic events like the Lindt Cafe siege and the black Summer bushfires, so he knows what he’s talking about. Then CEO of SG services group Prabin Shrestha shares his remarkable career journey from part time cleaner to CEO, revealing how consistently demonstrating three core values being reliable, respectful and helpful has helped shape his thriving career and business. From SoundCartel, I’m Grace Jennings-Edquist, and this is Business Essentials.
60 minutes after a workplace crisis
Every business hopes it never happens. A serious workplace injury, a sudden death, a traumatic event involving your staff in those first moments after it happens, employees aren’t expecting perfection. They’re looking for someone who can bring calm, clarity and direction. So what should leaders do in the first hour after a workplace crisis? Paul McFarlane is managing director of responder Care and has spent more than 30 years supporting organizations through trauma and high pressure situations, including supporting paramedics during the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney and the black Summer bushfires, as well as the Covid pandemic. Paul starts by explaining to Nicole Goodman why the most important response often comes before a single instruction is given.
[00:01:43] Paul McFarlane: I think the main thing is it’s about actually controlling your own emotions, because you’re about to lead the team through a difficult journey, and they will be looking to you for to set the tone. So, you know, I would encourage people, if they get that terrible phone call saying something tragic has happened to actually just pause, take some breaths, think about what you’ve just heard before. You react to that. And often that buys you a little bit of time to, to think about what actually has happened. What do I know? What facts are there? You know, have I got the full picture? Am I hearing something that’s not quite complete? Those things are all sort of important to kind of have clear in your own head as a leader. And, you know, it’s okay not to be impacted by hard news that often it involves people that you know and care about in your own team. And another way to think about that is before you start caring for everybody else, you’ve got to actually make sure you’re caring for yourself and you’re looking after your own emotional response to that. So think about it in terms of a sequence. Look after myself first, get myself as calm as possible, and then have that conversation with the team.
[00:02:41] Nicole Goodman: Yeah. One of your other key messages is that people need facts before reassurance. What should leaders communicate when they don’t yet have all the answers?
[00:02:51] Paul McFarlane: I say that because what people notice is whether you’re being transparent and honest with them. So if you’re kind of stumbling along. It’s not quite clear what’s happened. The messaging is incoherent or a little bit disconnected. That can erode trust in the organization and trust in you as a leader. So my big takeaway is make sure that when you’re talking to people that you are transparent and honest. So this is what I know at the moment, and this is what I don’t know as well. And also people are wanting to know what to do next. What do we do now with that information? So okay, this is my current plan. We’re going to do this first and I’m going to tell this person and we’re going to make this call and we’re going to do this operationally to keep the business going, whatever we need to do. But as more information comes in, I’ll keep you up to date and then give some timelines and some sort of, um, understanding and expectations around when the updates will come and when further information is available. So if you find out more information and it’s relevant to the team, always best to kind of just quickly get a huddle together and let people know what the latest information is. Because if you don’t do that, it’s like a vacuum.
[00:03:54] Paul McFarlane: People will fill that with speculation and rumors. And so they’ll start hearing it through other means. In our modern world, of course, news travels really quickly through social media, through text messages, WhatsApp. So if there’s something happening within an organisation, there’ll be a lot of back and forth between team members. Much of that may be actually not true or inaccurate. And so you’re much better to sort of as a leader to say, well, this is what we know. This is the facts that as we have them, and this is how I found them as well, if you can actually say, I’ve rung this person, I’ll check with this person, I’ve got this information, the police, whatever it might be. So give a basis to it. And you know, the other thing is too, don’t, don’t try to answer questions for people if you don’t know the answers. Don’t try to make up stuff either. And that’s a risk to us as leaders where we, we try to be seen to be helpful. And I think this is the case or I think this is what’s going on when actually it isn’t, because that also then fuels speculation and misunderstandings in a workplace. You know, people often cope better with difficult news than dishonesty or a sense of dishonesty as well.
[00:04:49] Nicole Goodman: Can you give us some examples of workplace crisis things that happen in the workplace that one might not consider? What have you seen?
[00:04:57] Paul McFarlane: Sure. I spent 20 years of my career working in the ambulance service. I was a senior chaplain and that was around supporting the mental health and wellbeing of paramedics. But we also would get called out to support community members or organisations if a crisis happened. So a paramedic crew would go, there’d been a tragic event and then suddenly they call us in to then support those that are impacted because people are often stunned and they don’t know what to do. So many organisations that I’ve worked with really have no plan for this, and so they’re often quite lost. So what are some things that happen? Um, you know, it can be people taking their own life at work. So that does happen from time to time. So suicide is a real thing. I saw that quite a bit around building sites and construction and sort of areas like that. You know, people having a heart attack, even someone fainting at work can be quite confronting. You know, if someone collapses or, you know, has an episode or, you know, people might have a stroke or something like that. These things do happen in workplaces and or a fall at work, you know, so simple things like trip and injure themselves, you know, like someone falls or cuts themselves, you know, I mean, it might be quite minor, but it looks dramatic and people will react in different ways.
[00:05:59] Paul McFarlane: Not everyone’s great around blood or chaos and trauma. Obviously, you’d have accidents like, you know, the warehouse out the back, a forklift accident or a transport accident. I’ve had examples where even in my own workplace at the time, in the ambulance service, one of our own colleagues was critically injured in a car crash. So that’s not uncommon either. Someone’s travelling for work and then something’s happened. And then, of course, you know, there can be things like fires. A lot can go wrong. You know, where a car crashes into a cafe. That’s happened as well. So they’re all pretty catastrophic things. But you know, across Australia, on any one day these things will be happening somewhere. And don’t think it can never happen to your workplace because it can, you know, and, and that’s not even counting, you know, malicious things like criminal activity or terrorist activity or those things that also have been known to happen in Australia as well. And it’s better to have a plan beforehand. And you’ve vested in your team already to make sure that, you know, they’re able to kind of manage that.
[00:06:52] Nicole Goodman: Lastly, Paul, one of the things that you also say is that the first hours can shape the next six months. What have you seen organizations do well, and what mistakes can make recovery that much harder?
[00:07:05] Paul McFarlane: We often think as leaders that we’ve got policies in place that will protect our organization, and there’s an element to which that’s useful. But what people remember more is the leadership during that situation. People won’t remember policies. They’ll remember how you made them feel, whether they felt supported, whether they felt safe. So our boss was really good. He gave us the time off we needed. He supported us or she supported us. And so the memorable things that people take away, that calm the situation and make them sort of, I think, recover a little bit better over time is communicating often communicating clearly with the team, communicating with empathy to the team. So understanding that they’re feeling this pain as well and acknowledging that, you know, it’s hard for them and it’s hard for you personally. Also, I think a good organization has high visibility with leadership. So the leaders are circulating amongst the people regularly and they’re accessible and available to people. So they’ll be in the meal mailrooms. They’ll be popping around the desk, they’ll be talking to people, they’ll be high visibility. So that’s really, really important. Also, a good leader will keep people connected. So one of our most protective things for our mental health is good social connection. So if someone’s getting isolated, a leader might pick up on that and make sure someone checks in on them, you know, follows up on them, etc. they might do that themselves. So those are things that people remember. But of course, the flip side is true too. Poor leadership would look like disappearing. So you announce that something bad has happened and no one sees you for a while.
[00:08:23] Paul McFarlane: So that’s terrible communication that’s really delayed or patchy or poor in some way. People remember what you don’t tell them as well. Um, if rumors were to circulate in the workplace and they’re not addressed, you know, it just feels uncertain and unsettled for everybody. So much better to step in and address those when they come up and just make sure people know this is actually what the truth is. So that that gets dealt with pretty quickly if they just go straight into an operational mindset. So we’ve got to get the business running. We’ve got to fill their role. We’ve got to do something. So it becomes an activist kind of approach when actually what you need is, okay, we’ve got to catch your breath. This thing’s happened to one of our people. One of our friends. Let’s work through that. And yes, we will obviously need to keep the business running, but that’s not the priority for this next short period of time. You know, let’s let’s make sure the team’s okay, and then we’ll gather around and we’ll go, how are we going to cover this? Operations can be fixed. The if the people feel safe, connected, cared for, supported, they will generally do much better in terms of recovery and getting through that experience. But if you ignore the people and go straight for the operational side or the the filling the gaps in the business and just expect everyone’s going to soldier on, then you generally will have a poor outcome. And people will remember that as an uncaring workplace, in the middle of a tragedy or crisis.
[00:09:34] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: That was Managing Director of Responder Care Paul MacFarlane.
From Cleaner to CEO: Building Leaders and Stronger Businesses
Now to one CEO’s recipe for success. Great leaders don’t always start in the boardroom. Prabin Shrestha began his career as a part time cleaner before working his way up to become group CEO of SG Services more than 30 years later. I interviewed him about his career journey, and I heard how values, opportunity and investing in people have been central to his success. I started by asking Prabin. Looking back, what were the defining moments that made the biggest difference in his journey?
[00:10:13] Prabin Shrestha: I started part time cleaner when I was doing my university back in 9596. Um, the defining moment was working as a cleaner. That was just a part time just to get through my studies. And at that time, so I took the business as my own. That’s how I took it. So I had hearts and my soul into what I was doing. Um, the defining moment was people trusting on me, the owner, back then. The man is trusting on me, giving me the opportunity to create more opportunity within the business. And then believing in me is a defining moment. I think like I’ve done every step of the business in cleaning space. Um, and I think it was the defining moment was people trusting on me and liking who I was and what my effort was put in.
[00:10:55] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: So can you just talk me through briefly, just in a couple of sentences? What was your progression? So where did you go after part time cleaning during your university studies? How did you progress up through the business?
[00:11:05] Prabin Shrestha: Where it started was part time cleaner. Then the next step was was given the opportunity to be a site manager, then moved on to the area manager, then moved on to becoming the division manager, which is obviously looking at a bigger space. Then what happened was, down in my life, I finished my degree in Bachelor in Business Accounting. Then that’s when the business looked at bigger picture of finishing my degree gave me the opportunity to be more account executives down the track, then become the group CEO of the business. Because obviously it takes all the numbers and the operations and the marketing, and I had to be involved in every part of the business. So I think, look, experience being on the ground level on the field was one thing, but also having the education backed up was the other advantage for me. So having both the education and the profession and the experience in the cleaning industry was very advantageous for me to move forward in my career.
[00:12:02] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: So like you just mentioned, you’ve obviously worked at every level of the business. What do you think many leaders miss when they become too disconnected from frontline employees?
[00:12:12] Prabin Shrestha: Look, I think the CEO is still more focused on the KPIs and the numbers. But not to forget, we need to connect with our people out there who actually deals with all our clients and every day in, day out. So spending some time with them now and then, I think gives you insight of where how we can improve. And I think they have the best ideas when it comes to operations. So I think we got to listen to our people, be with them now and then and listen to their ideas as well, just to improve our service out there to our clients.
[00:12:39] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: Now, I understand one of your passions is creating genuine career pathways. How can smaller businesses, even those without large corporate structures, how can they help employees see a future with the company?
[00:12:52] Prabin Shrestha: Look, even with a small business like we’ve been there. We were small companies like myself. I’m the greatest testimony to SKG now. Even when the business was very small, they gave me every opportunity to go through the training, mentoring, preference, training, everything. So look, and there’s always an opportunity within the business, you know, like I moved from cleaning space to accounts accounts to back to cleaning. Uh, so there’s always opportunity within the business. So I tend to look within the business, uh, what strength we got in our people. And there’s been a lot of testimony. Even now today, people have moved from operations to BD business development, people from cleaning has moved into accounts from cleaning has moved into it. So that’s the ethics I’ve got, is to look within our business what we have and then explore out if we don’t have anything capable people individually in the business.
[00:13:39] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: So SG services has grown significantly over the years, and I believe it’s now, um, about $250 million National facilities services company. So it’s large during periods of rapid growth and change. How do you protect culture while continuing to innovate and expand.
[00:13:56] Prabin Shrestha: The values has for me been very, very important. It doesn’t matter how big we grow and I keep on saying it always follows up from the leadership. If the leaders have the value to them, definitely they’ll follow down to the managers and the supervisors and the cleaning team as well on the ground. So for me, values are we got values in place, respectful, being helpful and reliable. Those three values are crucial in our industry when we’re dealing with people. And it seems to be falling from the top to the bottom. So I think your core values always plays important, but some company does follow and some company doesn’t. But for me, the core values are important and I tend to keep that in mind into my team day in, day out. And I can see that with our individuals, all the executives, all our managers, it seems to be attacked with those values day in, day out.
[00:14:45] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: Mhm. No, I like that idea of being guided by your values in that way. That’s great. So let’s talk just briefly about some of the I suppose the lessons you’ve learned along the way. So if you could leave Australia and business owners with one piece of advice, perhaps something you’ve learned from your own journey, what would it be?
[00:15:01] Prabin Shrestha: Look, uh, most important, uh, is, uh, connect with your people. Very important. Obviously, listen to them. I think it’s very important. Sometimes we tend not to see what they can bring into the business. I think it’s very important with the people hands on. I think makes a big difference. Um, what they have to say and from the experience, I think we as a business, we can take a lot from them and improve our services out there to our clients. But for me, most important is, uh, stay connected. That’s what it is to with your people.
[00:15:31] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: So private, I’m interested to know, when you first started out, you were a student. You were towards the bottom of the ladder. Did you look up and think, I want to be group CEO? Like, did you always have this plan in mind or has it taken you by surprise?
[00:15:42] Prabin Shrestha: No. Look, it hasn’t taken me by surprise, but it’s never been my goal. Like promotion is even today. Like, um, obviously this, uh, happened three months ago, and, uh, we were in were discussing for five six months because I was very careful what to take on and not to. And our promotion has never been my main focus. It’s always been want, but never been focused. Like you got to love what you do and then you get best out of it. Promotion I think comes within, um, within when you perform and give your heart and soul into what you’re doing. And that’s again, for with me myself, it’s proven that, um, I didn’t ask for any promotion, not that way. It was always given to me and actually was asked to take on the role. So I think if you have those three core values, as I said, being reliable, helpful, and respectful, I think if you follow those three core values and it’s very stick with it. I think the promotion comes by itself, you know, and that’s what I tend to do within the business with my colleagues as well. If I see that, I give them every opportunity to for the next promotion as well. So I think being yourself and being real and being very honest, reliable and helpful and respectful, I think goes a long way. And the promotion, I think comes itself. Look, I’m not surprised what I’m what I’m today, but obviously it took me the last 31 years to get where I am, but, um, I always knew that someday it was going to come because on my 30 years with SKG there, there’s been a lot of promotion along the way. So I saw it was coming, but it was just a matter of time, but also dedicating and giving whatever you can back to the business as well.
[00:17:08] Host – Grace Jennings-Edquist: That was CEO of SKG services, Prabin Shrestha. Thanks for joining us for this week’s episode. Follow Business Essentials Podcast across social media and head to www.BusinessEssentialsPodcast.au for more. Business Essentials is a SoundCartel podcast. Producers are Nick Schildberger, Nicole Goodman and myself. Technical production is by Pete Letts. I’m Grace Jennings-Edquist thanks for listening. We’ll bring you more business essentials next week.
