In the ever-evolving landscape of today’s business world, certain companies play a pivotal role in guiding organizations through change, enhancing efficiency, and attaining strategic goals. With their specialized expertise, impartial perspective, and versatile skill sets, these firms become invaluable partners for businesses striving to excel in a dynamic and competitive environment.
Marion Burchell, Managing Director of Azolla Holdings Pty Ltd, leads this bespoke management consulting company based in Australia. Since its inception in July 2020, Azolla has successfully served a diverse range of global clients. Marion brings a wealth of experience and achievements in strategy, innovation, and leadership, particularly within the enterprise and government sectors.
Armed with a distinctive set of skills and a rich professional background, Marion delivers unparalleled value and impact to Azolla’s clients. As a trusted advisor to CEOs and senior executives, Marion offers practical and pragmatic solutions to their unique challenges. “My mission is to help leaders and their businesses be the best they can be by providing practical and pragmatic solutions that meet their needs,” states Marion.
Azolla- Setting Clients Up for Success
“Azolla is built on helping people, teams, and organizations to be the best they can be,” says Marion.
Shaking off the traditional process employed by consulting companies, Azolla offers integrated services, including strategy, innovation, and leadership services to the enterprise and government sectors. The company uses authentic co-design methodologies that leverage the collective knowledge, skills, and expertise of all team members. Furthermore, it customizes designs to seamlessly align with each team or organization’s unique culture, capabilities, and capacity.
Marion created Azolla when she saw people struggling in the workplace, whether feeling trapped in a job or struggling because their work was not achieving the desired results. Often people felt frustration, disenfranchisement, and disengagement as they went through the motions of living in a status-quo work environment. Marion used her experience in reshaping the working process to have a bigger and bolder impact on everyone.
“We spend an extraordinary amount of time at work or working, and in many cases, organizations lose sight of their purpose and why. Systems and processes are no longer contemporary. Teams use status quo thinking or delivery. Limited resources become scarcer with increased workloads,” says Marion. According to Marion, transitioning to technology alone cannot solve disruptive challenges. In her view, sustainable solutions can only arise through the re-design and renewal of business processes. “Our Massive Transformational Purpose (MTP) is to create the Azolla effect across organizations. It is the future of work,” she says.
“Azolla”, Marion explains is a small, unassuming aquatic plant that changed the history of our world by changing the environment to create the atmosphere we have today. Doing so created the environment for other organisms to grow, flourish, and find their potential. The impact was so profound that scientists call it The Azolla Effect. “It’s an analogy for what we do. We help our clients (people, teams, organizations), create their Azolla effect.” says Marion
Promoting Gender Equality in Leadership Roles
Marion herself has overcome odds and surmounted gender-related obstacles to create a successful and empowering career. She feels that as a woman in leadership, the navigation around gender stereotypes, especially in situations where traditional male-dominated approaches are the norm, can pose a challenge. Marion recommends that a woman should set the tone and boundaries of how she wants to be treated by being clear and managing expectations right from the start. “For instance, in my first executive role, at our first executive meeting, I made it clear that I would not be taking minutes and that an alternative solution would need to be made such as an executive assistant, or rotating minute taking,” she shares.
“In meetings where women are significantly outnumbered, we have strategized to ensure our voices are heard at the table by supporting each other and re-stating what another female has stated and emphasizing its importance.”
"Empathetic leadership helps to build psychologically safe places where people feel valued and respected, resulting in increased productivity, innovation, and job satisfaction"
The Importance of Mentorship
Acknowledging the merit of mentorship for career advancement at various stages of life, Marion says, “It is important to have a safe relationship to seek advice from successful women who can help pave the way for your career.” Marion has had beneficial relationships with both male and female mentors which helped her to appreciate diversity. A female CEO helped her overcome certain behaviors that no longer served any purpose in life or the life she wanted to curate. Marion has done the same for her mentees. “I believe we are all here to learn and help each other, and that means being authentic and sharing our experiences.”
Marion’s Lessons of Leading Authentically as a Woman
When working in male-dominated fields, Marion often finds herself as the lone female presence. Instead of fixating on this, she proactively contributes her own unique perspective to the matters at hand. Recognizing the impact of gender dynamics on perceptions and interactions, Marion, from the outset, is meticulous about setting clear boundaries. By managing people’s expectations regarding her identity, principles, and preferred modes of engagement, she ensures a foundation for respectful and effective interactions within these professional spaces.
In Marion’s perspective, achieving greater independence involves a strategic investment in education, the cultivation of diverse skills, and the expansion of professional networks. This multifaceted approach positions women in more powerful roles. Marion advocates for women to flex their style, emphasizing the importance of adaptability in navigating diverse work contexts. Drawing from skills acquired over their professional journeys, women should be adept at employing various tools, including a sense of humour, straightforwardness, and assertiveness, to effectively engage with people and situations.
“Empathetic leadership helps to build psychologically safe places where people feel valued and respected, resulting in increased productivity, innovation, and job satisfaction,” says Marion. However, she advises that empathy is a part of the leadership toolkit and should be used in balance with other skills such as charisma, the ability to mobilize people towards a vision, and so on. Studies show that women often excel at empathy thus making them effective leaders.
Balancing Resilience and Vulnerability
In her journey as a leader, Marion has demonstrated that great leaders can balance resilience and vulnerability. Resilience is needed to push through and deliver results through challenging times. Carrying the team with them to achieve these outcomes through open discussion requires vulnerability. However, vulnerability especially for women, is a double-edged sword and should be strategically employed.
“I know I don’t have all the answers, but I do know what I am good at, and that is navigating complexity with a keen strategic focus, having strong networks that can make things happen, and galvanizing a team that delivers,” says Marion.
Future for Women in Business
According to Marion, the digital age stands as an uncharted frontier brimming with possibilities for those possessing the tenacity, determination, and visionary outlook to seize them. This era holds the potential to level the playing field, allowing individuals from diverse backgrounds, regardless of their location, to craft products and services that address market needs.
Technology is the enabler of every business. While leaders do not have to be technical experts, they do have to understand the opportunity it presents and its ability to expand market share and create disruption in the marketplace. As such, women are uniquely positioned to provide new insights and perspectives for existing and new businesses, while creating new market opportunities that have previously been ignored, underestimated, or not understood. Now, more than ever, opportunities exist for women to be the master of their destinies.
Words of Advice
“Life is a journey and you’re on a bus. If you don’t like where the bus is taking you, you get off at the next stop and wait for another bus whose destination interests you,” says Marion.
