Driving Innovation in the Legal system through Responsible Leadership - An Interview with John Denton
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 2:59PM 
Recently I caught up with John Denton who is the Partner and CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, one of Australia’s leading commercial law firms.
John has had an interesting life that has been formative in his movement into leadership.
In his previous career as a diplomat he worked in three autocratic states: The Soviet Union, Bangladesh and Iraq. In this way, John learned that a future in law required an essence of democracy. The concept of participation in society with a healthy, functional democracy moved close to the left hand side of his chest.
So, when it comes to the discussion of leadership and responsibility of leaders, John had no problem in providing a quick summary of his thoughts on this subject during our 15 minute interview. He covered the importance of three things - integrity, teamwork and culture.
John explained: "Leading responsibly is all about operating in context - ethically, morally, and most importantly with integrity - –This must be set firmly within your own mind.
“My experience in business as well as in the worlds of diplomacy and philanthropy tells me that the leader sets the moral compass, the boundaries and the example. The thing that inspires me about that is how the people around you take up the challenge and surpass your expectations.”
Which brings us to John’s second point. “The most successful leaders of organisations look at what works with teams as well as which teams work. The hallmark of business today is the continuous nature of change. This is challenging, but it’s also an opportunity because with every transformation and re-structure, the successful leader considers team building and development.
"It is not just about building and renewing processes. Cultural development is the key and team growth liberates everyone to achieve more."
It’s inspiring to speak with someone who has achieved dramatic financial (and otherwise) turnarounds in his organisation speak so strongly about the human attributes he seeks to build in his organisation. Especially something as elusive as trust.
“Trust encourages living beyond the current boundaries of business. When leaders trust, problems can be solved via consultation with both clients and staff. We need to look at growth through problem solving while maintaining the core values and culture we believe in.
“Thus, an open environment is key to the business model of our future - not one that is internally focussed, but one that is open to the external world, new ideas, people and ways of operating.”
And this is where John’s ideas strayed into another of his favourite topics – Australia’s need to show leadership in our region. There is no point waiting for the world to come to us: hence our interest in open trading environments, competitiveness and distance shrinking technology.
If we look at the current situation for Corrs, John is continuing to look for ways to raise the ambition of the firm and the individuals within it. They recommend their clients do the same. They have re-cast the mission of the firm to a global initiative, with a focus on 'world class'.
“I firmly believe Australian business has a role in our global economy, one that is even more important now that Asia is the global economic engine. That role includes driving and building relationships with Asia and the rest of the world.
There’s another angle, too – the importance of building institutions to support justice as our influence expands overseas.
“In Australia we have a strong judicial system that reflects what we believe in for our country. It has given us great strength as a country and global influence on which we can now expand.”
But that’s a bigger topic than 15 minutes will allow. It does, however, make relevant one of John’s favourite sayings:
“If everything’s working, you’re not trying hard enough.”
Growing internationally, not everything will work perfectly. For John, that’s OK. He’s a problem solver.
Reader Comments (1)
Great interview. You both did well, given the 15 minute timeframe. Would have enjoyed more concrete examples, both positive and negative -- maybe next time? I appreciate John's emphasis on "raising the ambition" at Corr's and elsewhere. In my experience, ambition is a mood: the mood that accompanies conversations for possibility, i.e. innovation conversations. Its opposite is the mood of resignation, which accompanies the "conversations for no possibility" which are very prevalent in large enterprises. Good luck.