Kennards Self Storage April eKourier

MESSAGE FROM SAM Nev Kennard presenting Sam Kennard with his 20 Years of Service Award at The 2010 KSS Achievement Dinner

O ne of the favourite small parts of my job in the last couple of years has become the Q&A with new Team Members. This is where I join Wayne Brown with the new employee training session for an unrestrained and unlimited question and answer session. Nothing is off limits. Our new Team Members can ask any question they like. The purpose of this is to enable candid, authentic dialogue from the beginning and to show that we are genuine about the openness we seek from each other in the business. The sessions began a couple of years ago and are loose and unstructured. The questions I get asked in these sessions are wide ranging, thought provoking and stimulating. Many arise about our business history, our future and ambitions; many personal questions about me, my career and family; and a number of questions emerge about how a person can get ahead and flourish. This last area is what I want to expand on now. Personal development has been central to KSS for my entire career. It is clearly a legacy from my father

In short, a fixed mindset is where we our intelligence and capabilities are static. As such, we would avoid challenges; give up easily; reject or ignore feedback; and feel threatened if others succeed. A growth mindset person believes their intelligence can be developed so they will embrace challenges and effort; accept criticism and are inspired by and learn from the success of others. Adopting and using growth mindset is the best response to the question in my Q&A’s about what we can do to prosper and succeed in work and our personal lives. Take an insatiable appetite to learn. Do not fear being wrong or not achieving something. Give things a go. I would like to think that the culture of KSS is a growth mindset culture. We do not have all the answers, so encourage feedback, suggestions and innovation. We foster and encourage learning everywhere. We like new ideas, challenges and change. I hope my answers in the Q&A sessions will be helpful.

and his own passionate personal pursuit to grow and develop. He believed it was vital to success. It is certainly part of our DNA. I am not sure I have always answered the questions about how someone can grow and develop to succeed very eloquently. We strongly believe in fostering personal development. The company has an extensive range of formal and structured learning opportunities for people to dive in to. However, I have often tried to explain that the strongest characteristic for personal growth or stagnation comes from within each of us. It is our appetite to learn and our ambition to be the best we can be. Recently, I read a book that very elegantly explains the difference in our thinking and approach to personal development, and how this then manifests in the varying outcomes we have in life. Dr Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset, articu- lates how the way we think can influence our lives. In particular it says people have either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. It is a simple, yet powerful concept.

Sam Kennard Chief Executive Officer

3 Kennards Kourier April 2021