{"id":53620,"date":"2018-05-17T08:12:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T08:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arielle.com.au\/?p=53620"},"modified":"2025-07-03T01:15:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T01:15:51","slug":"strategic-leadership-principles-cathy-burke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arielle.com.au\/strategic-leadership-principles-cathy-burke\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking The Definition Of Strategic Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 12<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Meet Cathy Burke. The former Global Vice President and CEO of The Hunger Project Australia and author of Unlikely Leaders<\/em><\/a>, provides a unique lens on strategic leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by her time spent working with women living in extreme poverty, she believes the ability to lead is inherent in all of us. Despite whatever difficult circumstances we may find ourselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: Cathy, welcome. We\u2019ve got so much to talk about. It\u2019s really great to meet you, and to have you here.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Thanks so much for inviting me. We\u2019re covering some topics that are personally meaningful to me. I\u2019m looking forward to the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: Me as well, and I know our readers will be keen to learn about your experiences and your views on leadership. But first, tell us about your background.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Happy to. For those who may not know, THP (The Hunger Project) works to end hunger and poverty and it has at its heart the human component\u2014understanding that humans, particularly those living in hunger, play the leading role to end it, rather than hoping or waiting for an external fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, I was with THP for 25 years. I was a volunteer for 5 years and then on staff for 20, mainly as CEO of THP Australia (THPA), and then Global VP. As CEO, I ran a small but devoted team that today supports 5 volunteer boards across Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These boards include some of Australia\u2019s most influential business and thought leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related: Ultimate Guide To Capex For SMBs<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was CEO, I fostered connections with McKinsey, Commonwealth Bank, Business Chicks and PwC, just to name a few. All of this gave me the opportunity to train corporate leaders in strategic leadership through immersion programmes in South Asia and Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related Article: Transformational Leadership: The Ultimate Guide<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These programs also gave THPA another income viable income stream beyond individual giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During most of my tenure at THP, women were at the centre of its programs. Last year, I left THPA and started my own consultancy. I mentor, and also run leadership programs for companies of all sizes, with a particular focus on women and millennials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related: Why Is Leadership Important?<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: Brilliant, thanks. Let\u2019s dive right in.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: Not too long ago, leadership coach Lisa Lai published an HBR article on the definition of strategic leadership<\/a>. She begins with a stark point. That if you ask asked the world\u2019s most successful business leaders what it means to \u201cbe strategic,\u201d you\u2019d get millions of different answers. Why is it so difficult to create a singular definition for strategic leadership?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Even I don\u2019t know what the definition is!! Maybe it\u2019s difficult to define because it\u2019s about people (our processes, motivations), and people are complex beings that are hard to label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategy is part art and science, so everyone has their own take on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: By striving for a clear definition, are we boxing ourselves in unnecessarily?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: I think so. It\u2019s helpful to have guidelines, but I feel strongly that we should approach leadership\u2014and life, for that matter\u2014expansively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things change. What worked for GM in the 80s won\u2019t work for them now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: What traits or characteristics do you look for when you develop leaders? Have you observed any trends?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Despite all the studies out there on leadership, I have to say that I don\u2019t think a fixed set of leadership traits or characteristics exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, that implies you either have it or you don\u2019t. I don\u2019t believe this. I believe everyone has the potential to lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an alchemical mix of mission, support and belief that triggers leadership. You might be loud, quiet, Harvard educated or non-literate. All of these factors make no difference to your ability to impact an area that is important to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related Article: Key Principles Of Strategic Leadership<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: You mentioned mission as a key leadership instigator. How important is clarity of purpose to coaxing out the strategic leader within?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: It is everything. If you don\u2019t have a clear purpose then you won\u2019t be leading, you\u2019ll be wandering in circles, exhausting yourself and others, and never achieve anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: In a 2015 PwC study of 6,000 senior executives, who were interviewed according to a specific criteria developed at Boston University, only 8 percent of them turned out to be strategic leaders<\/a>. And according to their methodology, women (and leaders over 45) appeared more likely to possess the traits of a strategic leader. Naturally, this reminded me of you. How did THP become focused on women?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: They pivoted to focusing on women after the Beijing women\u2019s summit of 1995. For two years after that, the then global CEO drilled into the issue of women and made the strategic decision to shift the org\u2019s focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in the early meetings around this decision in 1997\/8. It was a difficult decision at the time because the work THP had being doing up to that point was successful and funded by passionate supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The epiphany was that, in the villages where we work, women bear the major responsibility for meeting basic needs, yet are systematically denied the resources, freedom of action and voice in decision-making to fulfill that responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, we chose to stop doing what was successful\u2014but wouldn\u2019t get us to succeed in the overall mission of ending hunger\u2014and move to something new and unproven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empowering women is still at the centre of THP, though of course in 2018 it\u2019s been proven and is a much more mainstream approach (thankfully).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related: How To Showcase Leadership Skills On Your Resume)<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: From a leadership standpoint, what specifically made women a better focus than men?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: It\u2019s interesting. Men are not the ones agitating for fresh water in their villages. That\u2019s because no matter what, a man will always have water, even if it means his wife and children have to make 4 trips to the well and walk that water home 2 kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So men simply haven\u2019t needed to create seismic social change to get what they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, there is often resistance to a woman being empowered to take action for change in her community. Usually, though, her husband\/father comes on board and can be supportive and often proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But make no mistake, it\u2019s the woman who is required to navigate that empowerment journey for herself firstly, and then enroll the support of her stakeholders (husband, mother-in-law, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: What factor has age played, if any, in your ability to inspire leadership?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: Age is immaterial. I\u2019ve worked with 18-year-old women, married early, who are running campaigns to stop child marriages. And I\u2019ve seen older people ignited after years of not feeling adequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019ve met plenty of people in their 40s and 50s who could make the biggest impact because of where they\u2019re at in their career, their influence and networks etc., who don\u2019t lead at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: In your work, what distinctions do you see between personal purpose and group or corporate purpose?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: I heard from Michael Rennie at McKinsey that \u201cOrganisations don\u2019t change. People do<\/em>\u201d. And this is very true. What is an organisation but a group of people with an ideally shared goal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most people in an organisation gather meaning and purpose from their work and are dissatisfied and disconnected if they don\u2019t find it. Or they find a big misalignment between what is stated and what is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people in an organisation get in touch with their own ability to create change, this is the start of leading \u2013 no matter your title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related Article: Why Your Job Title Matters – And Doesn’t<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: Since you work with millennial as a specialty, I wanted to mention Deloitte\u2019s 2018 Human Capital Trends report: \u201cThe Rise of the Social Enterprise<\/a>.\u201d One behavioural trend they highlight is the move to self-empowerment versus group. The suggested root cause is millennials, both their embrace of technology and their expectation that their lives will be worse than their parents. Any comment on that?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: I think millennials use technology to facilitate an age-old hunger for meaning, purpose and belonging. And they are expecting more from their employers on the social responsibility front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True leadership must start from leading self, and this is when self-empowerment comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related: How To Provide Effective Feedback To Your Employees<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: How do you see this trend in the next major generation of workers influencing the quality of leadership in the future?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: It\u2019s getting stronger and stronger and I welcome this! Millennials don\u2019t accept what they\u2019re told just because \u2018it\u2019s the way we do things around here\u2019. And nor should they.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why I love working with them is because the idea that they can lead change is not totally foreign to them. They love the global connection I bring and the context \u2013 it makes sense that they are part of a larger world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do need support, though, to be able to make the difference they want to make (in their organisation and in their lives) – and not just expect stuff will happen because they wish it so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Younger women too still face inner and structural barriers to their leadership expression and I\u2019m passionate about supporting them to achieve this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Related: Australia’s Top Outplacement Services<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arielle: When it comes to the dynamic of individual versus group, how do the village and the corporation compare?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CB: It\u2019s difficult to compare properly because there are a lot of other factors including how social relationships are constructed in villages and rigidity of things like caste and gender. That said \u2013 we are all human!<\/p>\n\n\n\n