All the very best to territory students, teachers and support staff as they return to school in 2022. May teaching efforts and learning endeavours be satisfying for everyone connected with education in all urban, town, community and remote locations. May school attendance, notwithstanding Covid, be possible each day.

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Parents are passing their children off to schools, before and after school care and school holiday care programs. These agencies and their employees are supposed to bring children up, excusing parents of their prime duty of care.

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The Education Minister and her department are playing coy about releasing information on whether or not modification to Year 12 scores occurred in the period January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2021 (Grade change allegations, NT News 27/12). Awareness about the matter is deemed not to be in the public interest. On the contrary, the public, including parents, students and potential employers, have every right to know if grades have been compromised (fiddled). This matter should be brought into the light of day.

A great deal is made of the need for interpreters and translators to support Indigenous Australians in the NT who are said to have no understanding of English. English has been the dominant and prime teaching language in all schools, including remote schools, since the 1960’s and 70’s. To say that people have little or no understanding of English is totally wrong.

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Speech and speaking clubs like Toastmasters are offered a new challenge; developing within members and through community workshops, the ability to speak clearly, expressively and audibly while wearing masks. With this facial coverage becoming an ongoing and prescribed need, such training is becoming essential.

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The closure of ‘Flip Out’ will be very disappointing for many children and young people in Darwin and the Top End. One after another, venues catering for the recreational needs of youth seem to be closing their doors. Hopefully this will not be a continuing trend, because they need things to do and places to go.

As your headline suggests (‘Engaged parents the key’, 18/1) meaningful partnerships between school and home, provides the very best foundation for the education of children. Craig Deed (LaTrobe school of education professor) is right in saying that in uncertain Covid times, parents need to involve more than ever in educational engagement with schools. Partnerships should be an everlasting educational element.

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Dr Rose Cantali (‘Standup to your kids hellbent on romance’, NT News 21/1) worries about parents being scared to talk with their children about issues of life and living. Communication between parents and children is also enhanced if parents are good listeners, confidants and advisers. Communication with children is not enhanced if parents in their eagerness to point out what they consider right, rush to judgement on their children.

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Speech and speaking clubs like Toastmasters are offered a new challenge; developing within members and through community workshops, the ability to speak clearly, expressively and audibly while wearing masks. With this facial coverage becoming an ongoing and prescribed need, such training is becoming essential.

Paper Prepared for the

Pacific Womens Diamond Jubilee Conference

Held in January 1982

A dilemma of the developing Aboriginal society is one of attitude. Women can play a vital role in societal development, if the society will let them.

There is abundant evidence to show that young Aboriginal women can do well at school, and that they do achieve. The dilemma is ‘for what’. Often it is for a return to the camp life, where child bearing and child rearing provide the only relief from the monotonous domestic routines that follow.

Aboriginal society is patriarchal. It is what men say that counts, and what men want that happens. Aboriginal women have vision, for they are thinkers and they know what they want. But they often don’t have the power in their society to put their thoughts into action. They just don’t count enough.

This so often means that education only frustrates teenage girls growing up into women, because education shows the girls concerned what they could be and trains them toward doing things they learn about. In the end however, it means nothing because society tells them they must fill a position in life that puts them into a less important position than men.

Aboriginal culture and tradition is important. But often men, who are the custodians of this culture think ‘back’ to it without thinking ‘forward’ enough to the changes forced on Aboriginal society by the time and place in which we live. Women in Aboriginal society seem more futuristic; they think to the future and with education gain the understanding they need to play a part in the change that happens.

Economically, the men command the money the community earns, even when that money is earned by women.

Time and time again women will be asked to hand over money they have earned, so it goes on other things than providing food for families and children in those families. I have frequently seen women interrupted in their work b y those coming to demand money for this and that. Woman contribute to local economy by seeking work and earning money. But too often that money is taken by demand and disappears.

Many women became frustrated because they earn money they never see. They have to earn it while still doing huge amounts of ‘looking after’ at home.

Aboriginal society might be more progressive if women had a say in the development of that society – both locally in each community and overall by their membership of land councils and other organisations. While women can influence the thinking of their men by talking to them, they never actually do any of the (wider level) talking. If they could put their thinking into action, many communities might be further advanced than they are.

It is not so much a question of education and training for women that is a worry, but one of what satisfaction the education and training is giving. If any. It seems to be that training gives women a chance to earn money that others can take. There needs to be training in the thinking that is necessary if Aboriginal women are to come out as spokespersons and leaders who can be seen to lead in their communities.

Education and training to be successful must succeed in enabling Aboriginal women gain that confidence necessary to their emergence, so they are seen as a visible voice for their people. If education only ‘trains’ to the point of giving skills and work understandings to women, then they will continue to be hidden in a culture that traditionally allows men to be seen and keeps women hidden.

Education to be really meaningful must succeed in enabling women to rise to a point of making social and economic decisions. Women have to be seen as equal

Final in the series

14. EVERLASTING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

The issue of gender in leadership is going to go on and on and attract more more criticism from organisations perceived not to be paying the court due to the subject. With the passing of time, more and more women are being appointed to fill key roles in the leadership domain, especially within some of the ‘people oriented’ organisations.

Education for instance, was once dominated by men at all senior levels within schools and within Education Departments. Genuine concerns about the non-representation of women in educational leadership roles were frequently heard. That has all changed; during the past two decades, women have become the majority gender in educational leadership positions in Australian schools.

A recent photograph published in ‘LinkedIn’ by the NT Education Department illustrates the point. The photo was of Principals and Assistant Principals appointed to Territory schools for the start of the 2022 school year. There were 25 people in the photograph. Five were men and twenty were women.

Progress may be slow and some women may feel their gender is moving into key leadership roles at a snail’s pace. But comparing 2022 with 1972 is like comparing two different worlds. Women ARE on the move into Leadership Land – and that’s the way it should be!

13. ENDEAVOUR AND BALANCE

While autocracy, firmness and long distance focus is a part of the female leadership psyche, so too is the engagement of all staff within a collective and shared context. All staff are encouraged to contribute ideas and to identify as sharing with their colleagues in progress and direction. This collective ownership promotes the ‘oneness and unity’ of staff with each other in what is a true manifestation of synergy in practice.

12. EXTRAORDINARY FORWARD THINKERS

Female leaders generally set their sights on endpoints and goals that are further into the future than can be envisioned by their male counterparts. Their approach to hurdles and barriers is ambitious, meaning that ‘gutters and washouts’ along by the way are quickly smoothed by a process of management that is always forward looking. Completing and finishing tasks that lead to ultimate outcomes is a hallmark of female leadership not always as apparent among their male counterparts

11. OUTSTANDING DEDICATION

My appreciation of female leaders is that they are unswerving from their focus on the aims and goals of establishments they are leading. Men can be easily sidetracked or diverted by circumstances that crop up along the way. This can lead to altered agendas and lost focus. Distraction from purpose and function is not a problem for most women leaders, who keep things on track.

Periodic evaluation including awareness of KPA’s is a part of the way women oversee the agencies for which they have responsibility. Those within the organisation are encouraged to set goals that can be identified and revisited during performance management reviews. Dates attaching to these requirements are met more faithfully by women than by their male counterparts.

9. PERSPECTIVE: VISION MELDS WITH REALITY

Female leaders have bifocal vision. They are able to view and consider various aspects of organisational process and function at the same time. They have acute, wide ranging, fish eye vision of their organisations while at the same time being able to relate to particular issues at specific locations within the ambit of their leadership coverage. They are able to be above (on the balcony) and within (ion the dance floor) of the establishments they are leading at the same time. The depth and breadth of their perspective is quite outstanding.

Men on the other hand, seems to have capacity to be within one organisational dimension. Or another but non able veto cope with more than one perspective (need) at the same time. This causes them to overlook particular needs, meaning (because of this oversight) trouble can bounce back at some time and often not too far into the future.

Their abilities type women as being competent leaders, in a way that sometimes eludes men.

9. OVERALL PLANNING AND ORGANISATION

Women in leadership roles, in my experience, are meticulous planners and organisers. Everything requiring detailed planning is met and very little, if anything, is left to chance. The casual and somewhat cavalier attitude that some men have toward forward planning is not a characteristic of female leaders. The attitude of ‘she’ll be right” that exists among some men in leadership and management position, is not a characteristic of their female counterparts.

From experience, I believe women to be excellent when it comes to including others within the organisation in long term planning. Participation is encouraged and those willing to share ideas, acknowledged and applauded.

Female leaders are great when it comes to engaging others in activities that lead to the synergistic planning of long term goals and outcomes.

8. WOMEN HAVE EMPATHY

Women are known to be task oriented. As leaders, they are keen that those in charge of carrying out functions within organisations, fulfil their responsibilities. They are not given to accepting limp excuses for why tasks have not been completed. In terms of expectation, they cannot easily be bought off by questionable reasons given for non performance. Women who are leaders expect those working within organisations will have the same levels of focus as they themselves manifest.

However, female leaders are sensitive and if there are3 issues confronting employees, these will be taken into account. While expectations are not diluted time constraints may be relaxed, allowing an extra period for task completion. If leave needs to be offered for personal, priority reasons, female leaders are often known to extend the empathy necessary to accomodate the situations being confronted by subordinates.

Awareness of needs and sensitivity to situations of genuine need are hallmarks of outstanding female leaders.

7. WOMEN HAVE AWARENESS

Women who lead have a 100% awareness of what is going on within and around their organisations.

Their sixth sense, womanly intuition, enables them to know what is happening within the school, company or enterprise. They have a sense that keeps every aspect of their domain within their mind’s eye. Men’s awareness is less broad, less perceptive and far less acute.

Knowing their places of work so intimately enables female leaders monitor the performance of their teams. They are not nosy and intrusive, simply aware. I believe Gail Kelly, Westpac’s CEO demonstrates these leadership principles. so too, do many women who are involved within leadership teams. What blessings they bring to their workplaces.

6. SHORT TERM PLANNING AND TIMETABLING

Women are adept at timetabling and planning; they are meticulous plan followers. I believe they are far better at meeting deadlines than men who are in charge of organisations. Over the years I was blessed to work with ladies as members of leadership teams and had cause to thank many of them over the years for keeping me focussed and on track. Our leadership ‘mix’ always included men and women and without female contribution we would have been less effective leadership teams. Many was the time I had cause to thank the female cohort for reminding me of and insisting on the follow through of timelined obligations.

One of my smartest moves was to delegate (both task and decision making responsibilities) to ladies who were members of our leadership groups. They ensured that we managed in an ‘on time and on task way’. For mine, they come up trumps.

5. SUMMARISERS AND SYNTHESISERS

It is common for women to be demeaned by men, who have them as garrulous and gossiping. This is entirely unfair and equally, incorrect. Both men and women are want to wax lyrical in social situations but when it comes to business and organisational propriety, women are far from idle chatterers. They are quick and adept at taking on board information about issues, summarising succinctly and drawing out the main points conversations confirm as needing attention. In my opinion, they do this better than men.

The capacity of ladies to synthesise and extrapolate to directions it would be wise to follow is well established. It is a fact that women have this capacity. To listen but then quickly work through to a point of where the organisation, based on information to dater, can go forward with confidence makes them people who contribute magnificently to organisations

4. CUTTING TO THE CHASE

Women cut to the chase and don’t dither around the edges of issues. When confronted by tasks, they quickly align the best and most efficient way to get from task start to goal accomplishment. They do accept advice but are able to synthesise and sift valid suggestion from what might be extraneous. Women are less bogged down when it comes to dealing issues than many men. They are definitive in approach and get things done. While appreciating the contributions of those who approach shared tasks positively, they are not in the business of treating foolishness lightly. While valuing the contributions of some men within my operational sphere over the years, I knew that if something needed to be done quickly, efficiently, accurately and conclusively, it was best to delegate management and decision making to a woman.

3. FOCUS

From working with many women over the life of my teaching career I can vouchsafe for their clear goal orientation and crystal-like focus. Ladies, far more than men can divine a path that leads through from aims and objectives to goal outcomes. While there are always exceptions, I felt that women with whom I worked were less likely to be sidetracked by diversions than men. Their approach and priorities establishment helped me, in terms of reminding about the fact I needed to keep on time and on task. Oven many years, I was blessed to have some outstanding female members of the leadership groups which developed at my schools.

WOMEN HAVE 360 DEGREE VISION

Another quality vested in women and often lacking in men, is a capacity for 360 degree vision. The expression ‘eyes in the back of their heads’ fits because of the totality of awareness with which ladies are blessed. After a staff meeting involving 40 or 50 people, I always felt it wise to ask the women members of my leadership team for their feedback because the meeting elements I missed (body language, eye expression, non-verbal contact between people) they picked up. This enabled us to appreciate the meeting more fulsomely than would have been possible for me alone, or in conversation with another male. This is just another quality with which women are blessed and which men can fail to recognise.

WOMEN ARE AWARE OF THEIR SURROUNDS

Women are all seeing, all knowing and able to join in fifteen conversations at once. I mean this in a totally appreciative and complimentary context. The broad based awareness women have of their surrounding environment makes them the superior gender when it comes to awareness. They have, in my opinion, a panoramic appreciation of what is going on around them. Ladies read body language and more empathetically understand reactions of others than do men. Not only can they contribute to a conversation in which they are participating; they also gain appreciation of the tenet of surrounding dialogue. These finely honed environmental skills add to their situational awareness. As a male leader, I was always wise in seeking feedback from female staff leaders on matters we were dealing, for this helped inform in a way that was beyond my own interpretative capacities

Quite often interesting or unusual topics will confront people, providing an idea or a stimulus for action that might follow. This could include the germs of ideas for projects and the thought of topics that might translate into speeches and presentations. Unless the thought is put down at the time it occurs, it will in all likelihood not be remembered later and therefore becomes lost.

It can be wise to carry a small, unobtrusive notebook which can accomodate a few key words or succinct thoughts about these good ideas when they occur. Once noted down, the thought is intact, preserved for later recall and development.

A source book can be an invaluable tool and useful prompt for the development of future speech presentations and/or workshop topics.

If presentation feedback is genuinely desired, the preparation and distribution of a feedback sheet may be useful.

Points for consideration for comment might be included. The format and size of the feedback tool should be considered. An A4 sheet may be too large and a smaller size slip might be the way to go. If audience members are in an auditorium or seated in chairs without tables, the feedback sheet needs to be of appropriate size and hopefully supported by a backing device to prevent it from going out of shape when being used. It may also be prepared in a way that supports headings and other points the speaker may like to have emphasised.

After presentations, consider what you have done well and what you might do differently and better next time. Internalising an attitude to commendations and recommendations about presentations is not a bad thing.

Accept the appreciation offered by others and accept advice they might offer to aid your improvement.

Repetition for general emphasis is achieved by the repeating of a whole sentence. This has better and more immediate impact if the repeated sentence is short, rather I than being too lengthy.

That was no welcome.

That was no welcome.

Rather than:

The welcome given by the footman at the door was very lukewarm.

The welcome given by the footman at the door was very lukewarm.

‘Short’ adds to impact for the listener.

Repeating a word, phrase or short sentence for the sake of emphasis, can be a positive and reinforcing strategy for audience purposes. It graphically notes the point or the statement into the minds of listeners. It is a useful, and graphic strategy because it can appeal to audience imagination. It is a way of making a point that sticks indelibly and stays with listeners long after the presentation has concluded.

When speaking, avoid discordant and out of sync cheque movements. There include nodding, jerking and moving cranial features in a way that takes the audience focus away from what is being said, directing it toward what head nodding and bobbing is going to happen next.

Just another feature to be avoided. But awareness and therefore avoidance is nine tenths of the challenge met.

Another idiosyncrasy and one to be avoided at all costs, is closing the eyes when addressing an audience. This can happen in an entirely involuntary way, be completely unintentional and yet happen.

Many presenters err in believing that a loud voice is the way to go when addressing an audience. In fact, booming tones are a turn-off and fly in the face of persuasion through the use of voice. The incessant noise that can emanate from the drumming tones of presenters, is not what audience members want.

Loud voices are usually quite lustreless. Tone is sacrificed to the volume of delivery. Using a constantly loud voice may convince the speaker of personal importance. Yet the opposite opinion is evoked as a reaction from those who have to suffer through the listening.

Such inclination to presentation should be avoided.

When speaking, oralise punctuation into verbal text in the same way as it is done by people who are writing. Punctuation introduces pause, and acts to subtlety reinforce points being made. Those pauses provide listeners with the time to think about the significance of what has been said. Full stops incorporated into speech are exceptionally important in this regard.

Without pause reinforced by punctuation, speakers can go on and on AND ON. The message being delivered can become lost in verbosity.

Punctuated speech which amplifies pause is about superior oral delivery.

Audience members are usually waiting with anticipation about what they’re going to hear. Good presenters are people who carefully outline what the going to be talking about, before they begin. If they let an audience know what they’re going to be covering during a presentation, listeners are left in no doubt about how the session will unfold. Listeners know how the topic will be introduced, what key points will be discussed, and how the conversation will be wrapped up. This approach offers clarity that would otherwise be lacking.

If there are particular aspects of the topic more interesting to some audience members that others, they have time to mentally prepare for that section of the delivery. In any case following the progression of the unfolding conversation is definitely helped and illuminated by the summary suggested.

Presenters who do take an interest in audience and touch base in formally with them following an event, can earn admiration which translates into recommendations to others.

Many presenters look for follow-up at opportunities with different groups and other times. Recommendations that come from an earlier presentation can help when it comes to establishing forward genders for these presenters. The value of the “personal touch” can never be overlooked.

It is wise, polite and a manifestation of good manners for presenters to spend a little time meeting audience members after the presentation. I can be quite irksome from the viewpoint of audience response, for somebody to present and then rush straight off to another appointment, with a selected host, or just to disappear altogether.

I believe the part of a presenter convincing listeners of the speech worth, comes from staying behind and rubbing shoulders with people in formally at the end of the session. I this helps to convince people of his or her interest in them. There is a certain “humanity” about following this line of action.

Using a palm card with key words and highlighted points is generally enough to prompt a speaker who knows his or her subject. Succinct summative points usually suffice. A casual glance down, keeps presenters pointed in the right direction. Reminders of the elements to be canvassed together with the order of their presentation can all be incorporated onto a small card.

I highly recommend this strategy.



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