Time to roll up your sleeves

Corporates will roll up their sleeves in an innovative approach to developing leadership skills beginning in Docklands next month.

Former director of the Fox Classic Car Collection and CEO of the Auto-Horizon Foundation, Brian Tanti, has paired with HR academic and Docklands local Jillian Cavanagh to create a series of workshops aimed at corporate leaders.

A master craftsman, Mr Tanti says many of the lessons learned in a workshop or through manual skills can be applied elsewhere.

“A lot of the values that you place on yourself as a craftsman or a master craftsman transcend the workplace,” Mr Tanti said.

“I think being introduced to an ethic of caring about what you’re doing through the example of a mentor who embodies a spirit of either craftsmanship or excellence can actually carry over into other pursuits you might take up, beyond what you do in the workplace.”

Brian Tanti’s Workshops will be held at Mr Tanti’s Docklands-based workshop at the Automotive Centre of Excellence and will see participants learning car restoration skills.

“I think one of the things we’ll do in this program is give them that opportunity to work with their hands and do something creative and constructive and learn from it,” Mr Tanti said.

Ms Cavanagh said she had designed three workshops, which were aimed at managers, supervisors, HR managers, CEOs and “anyone who wants to be involved in a creative and innovative leadership workshop”, but could also create workshops tailored to specific organisations.

“Fundamentally, one of the reasons we have developed these workshops is that a lot of managers and supervisors plateau in their thinking and a lot of them don’t believe they can make change in the workplace,” Miss Cavanagh said.

“These programs are designed to challenge managers and supervisors to hopefully get them to look at their organisations and see what is not working,” she said.

Mr Tanti said he had been running corporate events and tours at his workshop for more than 20 years and said often corporate leaders would ask questions about working to a high standard.

“What we’ve tried to do with Jillian’s support is create something that has an academic framework around it,” Mr Tanti said.

“We’re not here to make them into good tradesman but I think a lot of the values around aspiring to a high standard are universal and we can certainly give people a very different experience.”

Organisations interested in taking part in one of the Brian Tanti’s Workshops should email [email protected]