Emeritus Professor Gary Martin

Professor Gary Martin is a thought leader on business management, leadership, and employee learning and development. A former academic, Gary is a highly regarded CEO, board director, newspaper columnist and social influencer.

With a strong insight into how to effectively educate people from all industries, Gary speaks to audiences about workplace trends and issues including remote working, ageism and bullying, and the rise of emotional intelligence.

Gary commenced as CEO and Executive Director of ­­­­the Australian Institute of Management in Western Australia (AIM WA) at the beginning of 2012.  In this role, he has overall responsibility for leading all aspects of the Institute’s business, which is focussed on building leadership and management capability both in Australia and internationally, and across the corporate, government, not-for-profit and community sectors.

He currently serves on the boards of the Council for Ageing Western Australia (COTA WA) and Volunteering Western Australia.  He is a former Chair of Telethon Speech and Hearing (TSH) in Perth, and Study Perth.

Prior to his appointment to AIM WA, Gary held several executive level appointments at Murdoch University in Western Australia, including Executive Dean, Pro Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor.

Gary has considerable expertise in leadership and management development.  As a regular columnist in The West Australian, Sunday Times and Perth Now as well as several mastheads in the Eastern States he discusses current and emerging workplace matters.

He was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Education in 2015, and is currently an Emeritus Professor of Murdoch University’s Business School and Zhejiang University of Technology (Zhejiang Province, China), as well as Honorary Professor at Guangdong University of Business Studies (Guangdong Province, China).

Professor Gary Martin speaks about:

• Respect in the Workplace. Leaders across the country are telling employees to do their bit to create more respectful workplaces. As straightforward as it may seem to tell people to be respectful to and of others at work, respect can be a slippery concept. One of the biggest mistakes many of us make when it comes to being respectful in the workplace is believing we know exactly what respect looks like. This presentation unpacks what respect means in the workplace.

• There’s a Dark Side to Our Positive Vibes  We are in this together. Everything happens for a reason. It could be worse. It is what it is.  Platitudes like these and others will continue to roll off our tongues as challenging times continue with many in the workplace attempting to put a positive spin on upsetting, disturbing or tragic circumstances. While there’s little doubt that there is merit in being positive in tough times, there’s also a disturbingly dark side to our overly optimistic ways – something called toxic positivity.  This presentation exposes the dark side to being too positive.

• The New Remote Way of Working  It doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon: more and more workplaces have employees working entirely in remote settings while others work “hybrid style”.  This presentation examines the issues, challenges and opportunities with our “new” way of working.

• The Ageist Workplace It is rarely blatant and often quite difficult to spot, but it is coming to a workplace near you.  Welcome to the not so wonderful world of ageism, where employees – usually over the age of 50 – are passed over for jobs, promotions and training on the grounds of age. Learn about what makes ageist workforce practices and what to do about them during this presentation. 

• The Rise of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in the Workplace Every workplace has someone like this – super bright but unable to “get” with the rest of the team. It could be that they lack emotional intelligence or EQ as it is known.  This presentation highlights the importance of EQ in the modern organisation, will attempt to define the concept, and will assist participants to determine the extent to which they possess emotional intelligence.

• The Six Q’s of Leadership  Most of us have heard of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and IQ (intellectual Quotient) and their importance as key leadership attributes. But EQ and IQ are no longer enough to ensure effective leadership. This presentation takes a look at some new and emerging but essential other Qs or attributes – MQ, BQ, TQ and AQ.

Gary can also tailor a presentation to suit your specific event theme or requirements.