Human on the Inside with HKA’s Lisa Martello
Human on the Inside. We’re big believers in the power of human skills. But don’t just take our word for it - the evidence for excellence powered by human (‘soft’) skills is everywhere! In this engaging, ever-enlightening series, we speak with industry leaders, innovators and game-changers to learn a little about their personal career journeys, and how human-led strategies, philosophies and cultures are proving a force for good in their working worlds …
Maxme: Welcome Lisa, and thanks for stepping into the #SuccessIsHuman Spotlight!
You’re currently Director - Infrastructure Delivery in the HKA Asia Pacific leadership team, and are also responsible for leading the infrastructure advisory offering in Victoria.
HKA is a professional services company with fabulous people all over Australia and the world, providing advisory services at enterprise, portfolio, program and project level.
Simultaneously, you’re a Board Director and the Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Portfolio
for NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction), driving national initiatives to improve the representation and participation of women in construction in Australia.
In 1 sentence (ok, we’ll give you 3), what do these roles entail?
Lisa Martello:
My job is to build HKA’s portfolio of infrastructure advisory work in Victoria, seeking opportunities to apply our insights, expertise and fabulous people to the world of project management, project controls, commercial management and delivery.
I get to lead city-shaping infrastructure projects, work with amazing people from all over the world, travel, and attend events. I get to learn something new every day and I love that.
In my role as a Board Director with NAWIC, I get to drive strategic change across the Australian construction industry, working on things like diversity and inclusion, workplace culture and behaviours, as well as more structural improvements, like the pipeline of talent, adequate site facilities and equipment for women.
M: Whilst you’ve recently joined HKA, you’ve previously worked as Package Director - Melbourne Airport Rail (MAR) at Metro Trains Melbourne. Through this role you lead the Airport Station and Viaduct sections of the Melbourne Airport Rail project on behalf of the railway operator/maintainer and delivery partner. This meant working closely with Rail Projects Victoria and the Department for Transport & Planning, and leading a team through requirements development, value engineering, target outturn cost development and procurement A big role. Prior to this, you worked in England as a Programme Delivery Manager on the High Speed 2 Rail project and in other senior leadership roles such as Senior Project Manager - Digital Transformation with Exterion Media and Project Manager - Cooling the Tube. Incredible growth and international experience!
How does all this work speak to your personal purpose and what drives you as an individual?
LM: I am (and have always been) a people person. I am fascinated by the interactions and behaviours of individuals and teams and I love figuring out how to bring the best out of people to not only achieve project goals, but also ensure people have a great time along the way. In my industry, often one of those outcomes would come at the expense of the other, but it doesn’t have to be that way. To achieve both, you need good leadership and I have been honing those skills for more than 15 years - it will be my life’s work! It will never be finished.
As an individual, I have always been quite career-focused. From my first day of school (when I got up and dressed in my school uniform at 4am, such was my excitement), I have always loved learning new things. I spend my life wishing I had a bigger brain and a better memory to absorb all the things I want to know and remember! But if I’m truly honest, my ambition has really been driven by my wanting to be the person that gets to make the decisions. Every time I would find myself faced with a boss who (I believed) was making the wrong call, I would think to myself “well, I’m just going to need the next job up then aren’t I). And then I would put the work in and go get it.
On a more personal note, I have always had an intense desire for financial freedom and independence. I attended a Power Workshop at a Women Leaders Summit recently where a Coach called Simone Weston said that, often, our first understanding of power comes from our childhood and it’s not always a positive lesson. That is true for me. My mum was trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage because she didn’t have the financial freedom to leave. I vowed to myself at a really young age that I would never be financially dependent on anyone - that has really driven my focus on study and career.
M: Tell us a little about your personal education pathway/s - what led you to where you are now? How closely do your formal qualifications match your current career?
LM: I’m actually quite a linear match when it comes to study versus career! My undergraduate degree was in Management, IT and Modern Language (Spanish and French) which I studied at the University of York in the UK. I chose that course not knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up. I figured management would be useful, my IT skills needed some improvement and I LOVED (and still love) languages. After that I tried to get onto a graduate scheme in London but kept being pipped at the post - lots of almosts. It was coming down to a lack of work experience, so I decided to temp for a little while and ended up working as a Bid Writer for a security services company. It was there that I discovered my love for writing, and for projects! I loved writing the bids and trying to win the work for the company, but I was sad that I didn’t get to have any involvement in the projects we won. That sparked the idea that perhaps project management might be up my street and so I started applying for project management graduate schemes specifically.
I earned a place on the London Underground Project Management grad scheme and I absolutely loved it. I got to rotate around different areas of the business, working on projects ranging from track renewals, to power upgrades, to station modernisations and heating and ventilation. They also sponsored me to do a Masters in Project and Enterprise Management at the University College London and invested in my professional qualifications (such as Association of Project Management foundation and practitioner).
Thereafter, throughout my career I have always tried to do some regular formal study (I believe study keeps your mind fit). I achieved PRINCE2 project practitioner certification, engineering construction contract (NEC) accreditation and a range of other professional qualifications for my trade.
I am also in Australia on a Temporary Skills Shortage visa under the ANZSCO job description of ‘Construction Project Manager’, and gaining access into the country in this way requires a (very thorough) government assessment of your skills, qualifications and experience against your nominated job description. So in summary - they match!
M: If you could share one piece of career advice to your 21 year old self it would be ...
LM: If it doesn’t feel right, it’s because it isn’t. Get the hell out.
M: Maximising the potential of individuals, communities and businesses through the power of human skills is the reason Maxme exists. Can you tell us a little about the role and / or value of human skills in your workplace right now?
LM: I always joke that if projects went according to plan, you wouldn’t need project managers, so I think human skills are invaluable in industries like construction. I love seeing the increasing use and intelligence of technology, and I am excited (and scared) to see the rise of AI and the game-changing impact it will have on our inputs, outputs and ways of working, but as per my first answer, for me projects are all about people.
Almost every problem I have ever been faced with in my job is a people one. Here are some examples:
Someone is having a hard time at home and can’t focus, they dropped the ball
Two teams don’t get along and can’t work together
The team leader is terrorising the team
The site supervisor is a bully
Optimism bias is shrouding the real project status.
The project team has fallen out with the local community
There is a blame culture and people don’t feel like they have the psychological safety to call out issues.
We can get really caught up in the ‘stuff’ - what we’re building, the technical jargon and complicated engineering matters, but more often than not, it is people and their interactions that spell the success or failure of a project.
Something that frustrates me in my world, is that we still rarely see leaders hired for the skills that (every study ever says) we need, like empathy, vulnerability, emotional intelligence, charisma, strategic vision and planning. Still we see job descriptions riddled with technical requirements and ‘delivery’ prowess and I think the resulting cracks have been showing in the construction industry for a long long time, but the fact that we make money and we get stuff built is drawing our attention away and leading us to believe “it ain’t broke”.
So to me, human skills are paramount and need to be given more attention and fanfare in the construction industry.
M: Self Awareness sets the critical foundation for all Maxme learning experiences. With that said … what’s your strongest trait / personal super power?
LM: I think my superpower is team leadership. I genuinely care about people and I want to see them achieve their potential and be happy. I also want to achieve the project’s goals.
I have always found that by treating everyone as an individual, making space for everyone to be themselves, finding out what they want and helping them achieve it, you can achieve that trifecta: potential, happiness and project goals.
M: And on the flip side, what’s one human / ‘soft’ skill you’ve had to really work on improving over the course of your career?
LM: I don’t know what the word would be, but the skill I am always working on is not jumping in too fast.
I am that person who would form my thoughts quickly and tend to “go first”. I have learned as a team leader and a team member that I need to pause, for longer than feels natural or comfortable for me to allow others to share their views.
M: If you could share one piece of career advice with recent Uni graduates or candidates keen to work in the Construction Industry, what would it be?
LM: Choose your entry point carefully. The construction industry is a wonderful place to work, with amazing opportunities, but it can also be difficult and unpleasant and sometimes unsafe. A lot still needs to change, and so research the organisations you are considering thoroughly. Read their websites, news articles, Glass Door reviews, ask around, ask great questions in your interviews. Find out what makes them tick and make sure it’s a safe space for you.
If it turns out not to be, don’t ‘stick it out’ - move on immediately, you won’t ever regret that decision.
M: You’ve been granted approval to add one University graduate to your team, but have 100 applicants, all with outstanding academic results. How do you find your perfect candidate - what are you looking for?
LM: I would set a practical challenge for them which tests their street smarts, common sense and initiative.
It might be something like a briefing challenge for a senior leader in the team, where they have to sort through useful, useless and somewhat helpful information and quickly assimilate a summary briefing for the leader before they head into a meeting.
Tasks like this test confidence, intelligence, communication skills, adaptability and initiative, and they help ‘translate’ on paper skills into real life scenarios. It can also help distinguish between those that are just naturally good at interviews or natural academics but aren’t so good at the practical application part.
M: In the words of John Dewey, “education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.”
What’s next on your #learning agenda?
LM: Oh my goodness, so many things. I want to write a book, I want to do a PhD one day into something around diversity, inclusion, culture or leadership.
And I want to carry on with my flourishing side hustle, my instagram and Linkedin ‘alter-profile’ (as a friend once called it) Catching_Bees.
I created the account one year ago to shine a sarcastic light on the good, bad and ugly behaviours and experiences affecting us in the workplace and it has grown to a collective 4,000+ followers in that time. I am educating myself every day about the inner workings of social media, the algorithms and theory behind how we engage and what with and why. So more learning on that front for me to come in 2024.
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