Impacting community through coaching capability

Guest Bio Jonathan srikanthanAtlassian Foundation Director/Co-founder of Young Change Agents

Jonathan or Jono Srikanthan, is the Atlassian Foundation Director and the co-founder of Young Change Agents, a social enterprise aimed at helping our young people see problems as opportunities. Jono gets excited about being able to make a positive change in his community and leading, motivating and empowering others to do the same in their community.

Jono has managed two iconic Australia Foundations, Qantas and Atlassian, where he has had the opportunity to harness business resources for the betterment of society. Jono's focus areas include social innovation, corporate foundations, social enterprise, skilled volunteering, people leadership, organisational & career coaching. 

SHOW NOTES 

In this episode, Jonathan Srikanthan, Atlassian Foundation Director talks about all things Atlassian, 1% pledge initiative, giving back to the community, tips for aspiring foundation managers and pro-bono coaching to the non-for-profit sector. Jonathan shares insights about his coach training with IECL and how coaching capacity can contribute to and have impact in our communities. It's a great episode with lots of gold nuggets. Please note this episode was recorded in early 2020 before the pandemic. 

Transcript

Renee:
So Jono, what can we as coaches or can organizations in general learn from the All Black psyche? You're a fan. 

Jono:
I was surprised you put this question in here actually because for Christmas, I got given a book called Legacy and I highly recommend it. I'm only halfway through it mind you, which talks about what businesses can learn from the All Blacks. And the first chapter really stood out to me and the chapter is called Sweeping the Shed. So there's a tradition in the All Blacks that the top player of the game or the player of the match has the responsibility at the end of the game after all the work and the lockers are down, when people have changed and they go out that they have to clean it up, they have to pretty much sweep it out sort of thing. And it's a tradition that's been going for a while now. And the idea there is to maintain or bring humility back into the role back into players. To think that no one person is bigger than the team and bigger than the game. And I think that's something that we as coaches and we as organizations, businesses could really learn and the people we're serving and the people and the team that we're part of is actually bigger than us. And so humility, I think, is something that I'm learning a lot in my roles but as a coach and in Atlassian, the organization I'm working for. 

Renee:
And speaking of Atlassian. What's it really like to work at Atlassian? 

Jono:
You should know, you guys are based in the same building that we are. You know about our t-shirts and you know about the dress code that we have, but that's really very peripheral. It is probably one of the most remarkable companies I've ever worked for. The values are at the core of everything that we do. There's five values that govern it. Two of it has got some pretty interesting language in there, but it really hits home about what we are and what we're trying to do. And for me that was the first thing that I really learned about the organization and then still do very much value. It's a highly innovative, very strong culture in what we do, but at the heart of it, there's a real genuine focus on giving back. And I'm speaking in the context of working in the foundation, the charitable side of Atlassian, it is very generous in terms of...