Meet Dr Margaret Byrne

Margaret has a BA and MA from Oxford, and postgraduate qualifications in adult learning from Bristol University.

In 2005, she completed her PhD, exploring how leadership potential is identified in meetings. Margaret holds three awards for innovation in the design of executive developmentand change management programs. Career highlights include securing $1 million in sponsorshipfor her research, getting three of her films broadcast on SBS and winning a contract with the PRC Government in Beijing. Margaret is known for the way she balances intellectual rigour with a passion for practical outcomes that make a measurable difference to leaders and their organisations. Clients value her ability to stimulate strategic thinking and change at all levels. In 2004, Wollongong University appointed her Honorary Advisor on Leadership and Change. Outside Australia, Margaret has worked and consulted in China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, UK, New Zealand, France and Italy, as well as in four Pacific nations. She is a qualified executive coach.

 In 2007, Margaret was an ACT Winner and National Finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award.

More about Dr. Byrne's presentation at the Summit 

‘reMix - How Diversity Can Become Your Firm’s Best Talent Management Strategy’

For most law firms today, the engine driving any strategic success they may claim is their talent. But in an era of increasing skill shortages, law firms are now in the thick of what’s been termed a ‘war for talent’. Today talent is tougher to find and develop, and easier than ever to squander and lose. So it’s no surprise that how to manage talent well comes high on the strategic agenda of every firm. Yet many still lean heavily on outdated ways of thinking that don’t match current workplace realities and don’t take account of today’s demographic pressures.

This lively and practical session will challenge outmoded views of diversity and show you how your firm can harness the strategic possibilities of diversity to compete and win in the talent war. In an increasingly diverse world, the talent-powered firm of the future will be one that:

• Understands how to segment employees and identify those career factors that affect the decision of different groups to stay with the firm or leave

• Accepts that there will be multiple drivers of engagement if they want to hold on to diverse pools of talent

• Creates customised value propositions that can inspire and motivate quite diverse clusters of people

• Adjusts management practices to engage the full range of talent in the firm and accelerate performance

In this presentation, Dr Margaret Byrne will draw on research evidence she collected for her doctoral thesis and from her many years of consulting experience in professional services firms, here and internationally. She will also show the link between modern ways of thinking about diversity and the two core concepts of talent management and, what’s increasingly being termed, ‘human capital strategy’. You will take away practical advice for your firm about how to attract and hold the diverse talent that will drive success into the future.
 

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