What Truly Matters

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I cannot remember when I first heard the quote, but whenever it was, I wished I heard it years earlier.

I recall it was a coach in the US, post game, responding to questions from media. His team had just won its way into an historic college basketball championship game, and he was being pressed to elevate the significance of the occasion.

His answer went something like “Because I understand what truly matters, I get to enjoy what seems to matter.”

He then explained that as the coach, he had seen wonderful personal development in the young men in his team. He didn’t need to say any more.

But yes, he would enjoy this moment.

Sport for most is a ‘heroes and villains’ business, and to the victor go the spoils. But this narrative often ignores what counts most, the “what truly matters”.

This coach was clear on “what truly matters” and he had seen progress in ways that few sitting in judgement could observe or understand, nor had an appetite for. I say this not out of disrespect for those tasked with questioning the coach, I am articulating the difference in “what truly matters”, and “what seems to matter” dependent on where you sit within the microcosm of this sporting system.

Perhaps the coach was also reminding those who communicate the game to the world, earning a living from the sport, to move beyond the shallow observations from the game itself, and not define its value by scoreboards past and present… even just for a few minutes.

You rarely see this from coaches, and when you do, it is mainly from those with plenty of silverware in the trophy cabinet, such that it affords them enough scope and space to give us a deeper insight, and it is priceless.

Great examples of this are NBA coaches Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, who try to rise above the banter, noise, and banality. A few hours well spent is listening to either talk beyond the game, even though basketball is the context of their conversation and learning. 

Fortunately, there is plenty of stuff available on YouTube and podcasts, a veritable rabbit warren of insight. An example is Dr Michael Gervais’ conversation with Steve Kerr in his outstanding ‘Finding Mastery’ podcast. In this conversation, it is clear that Steve Kerr understands winning, but he’s searching for something beyond that.

Podcast link to Dr Michael Gervais conversation with Steve Kerr, Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors

Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr

That coaches are narrowed in this way is such a shame, because in their heart, all coaches are teachers, and it shows up completely in the way they interact. I’d go as far to say most find it difficult not to teach when they have information to share and the capacity to awaken this in others.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear more insights, including the real learnings from the lived experiences from coaches whose teams are struggling with a loss of confidence and belief, not meeting performance expectations, or dealing with adversity, familiar territory for anyone who has held leadership roles. Unfortunately, they are reduced to a defensive position, left to justify their role suitability and the likelihood of keeping their jobs.

I can say with certainty that I made many of my worst choices as a leader when I lost touch with “what truly matters”. I cannot remember making a good decision when my thoughts were clouded by anger, fear or ego, and it happened often enough that I reflect with a sense of shame.

I have worked through this, in mainly healthy ways, but it is hard to budge and will return in my quiet moments.

I recall listening to a podcast with writer Michael Lewis, he of Moneyball, The Big Short and Flash Boys fame, who spoke of the need to “live outside the arena of our ambition”. He says our ambition doesn’t define us, and it is important that we do not allow it to.

Yes, ambition is important, but he suggests we only visit it for “professional reasons”. 

Michael Lewis

I like this, as it forces us to practice humility, particularly the role of learner/teacher. To stay grounded, never being above whatever your organisation, team or family needs from you. It allows you to recognise shortcomings and to behave differently to do something about it.

So how do we cultivate humility?

I recommend contemplation, a systematic process of reflection, going deep to go forward, lift your thinking to shift your thinking.

By definition, this means asking better questions of yourself.

The designCEO system is to set aside three hours of non-distracted time every three months to ask three questions.

1. What does this role expect of me?

2. What do I expect of the role?

3. What do I expect of myself?

I recommend time-blocking in the Cal Newport ‘Deep Work’ tradition, where you push yourself creatively, seek new ideas, avoid default thinking, ensuring the work you are doing is right for you, and right for those who rely on you as a leader.

Attack it with a purpose and performance mindset, such as “Who I am, and why I do it?”

Then in three months, repeat the exercise. Make it a habit, a ritual. Put it in your diary, an appointment with yourself every three months. Make sure you start afresh each time to ensure that you are not just reiterating what you wrote last time.

And how do we ‘inform’ this reflection?

Dr Michael Gervais, a psychologist and wonderful thinker on all things high-performance, talks about three elements:

• Being around, and in conversation with wise people (not just those who are within easy reach).

• Listen to yourself (Dr Michael is firm on the value of mindfulness, stating high-performance takes place in the present, when wisdom is revealed).

• Writing (I have become a strong convert to the value of regular writing, such as this weekly blog, to make sense of your thinking in a way that can be communicated with confidence).

I would add a 4th element to Dr Michael’s list:

• Setting aside time for learning (but not only focusing on ‘what did I learn?’ but also ‘what will I teach?’)

Humility is the ultimate sign of success, and in my experience, contagious, modelling expectations by showing a deep commitment to something bigger than yourself.

Then you get to enjoy “what seems to matter”.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Unexamined Beliefs

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I am not sure how many times I’d said “…culture eats strategy for breakfast” before I thought, “I don’t believe it”.

I think I heard this Peter Drucker quote when I was undertaking my first management education course, a four week live-in Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Melbourne Business School 25 years ago.

This course was the first step on a journey of wonderful educational experiences that I’d previously assumed beyond the scope of my capability.

I’d gone straight from high school to work in football, and through circumstance and situation found myself in leadership roles with no formal leadership, management or business training.

I didn’t even do a business subject at high-school, and now I am doing Harvard Business School case studies with some of the best educators in the country, and a cohort of leaders deemed ‘high-potential’ by some of the biggest organisations in town.

I was still in my twenties and about to start my sixth year as the CEO of Richmond Football Club, and I absorbed everything, filling notebooks and chunks of brain space with this newfound wisdom.

It was energising.

I left this course like a boy with a new toy, keen to show off my shiny new plaything.

I started rolling out the Drucker quote and had plenty of opportunities to do so. Such is the obsession with sport and its relationship with performance, people holding positions of leadership responsibility in the game are furnished with an audience well beyond their relative corporate standing, be it media or public speaking.

I’d say “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, and people would nod sagely, reach for their pen and notebook and write it down, just as I had. I even practiced my timing for maximum effect, and never once did anyone question it. Profound wisdom I thought, and I am happy to bask in its reflected glory.

The irony is, the reason I used it was to move beyond the classical sporting cliche, and perhaps with more than a little ego, show myself as someone who was bringing the latest in business school speak into my repertoire, and Peter Drucker, one of the great thinkers, was a safe pair of hands.

I was using a cliche so as not to appear cliched, and in doing so, it became what I now define as an ‘unexamined belief’, and the world is full of them, and they are counterproductive and potentially dangerous.

Now, twenty-five years later, I don’t believe the quote, and I have also instigated a process of reflective thinking in which, amongst other things, creates a process whereby I question my ‘unexamined beliefs’.

In terms of the Drucker quote, I now think of culture as an outcome, the product of many organisational behaviours, good and bad, particularly the personal conduct of the more influential individuals, mainly the leaders.

Our cumulative behaviours are the result of our organisational decision making, as basic as the standards we set, people we hire, systems we employ, conduct we reward, etc. Every organisational culture is different because every organisation has different inputs, all the consequence of decisions made (or not made) by those with whom decision making power wrests.

This penny dropped when I visited FC Barcelona in Spain a decade ago, a club I’d long admired and studied from afar. They are very experienced in hosting ambitious sporting clubs from all over the world.

The first piece of advice from their leaders was do not attempt to copy our culture, as proud and powerful as it is, make your culture unique and special to who you are.

I was a tad disappointed, hoping to bring back the FCBarcleona magic dust, but now understood that our ability to create a high performance culture would be a product of our capacity to make the right decisions more often, aligned to the values we will need to agree upon as they relate to the type of club we are seeking to build.

In other words, a simple formula, as Bill Walsh author of the fabulous book “The score takes care itself”, get the plan right, find the people.

“Running a football franchise is not unlike running any other business: You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy and then find the people who can implement it,” he’d say.

Yes, you can study and learn from other organisations you admire, seek out conversations with leaders who have a track record of building cultures, but I don’t believe you can ‘short-cut’ your organisational culture by copying another company’s culture. It is the product of a compelling, insightful and well-executed strategy and talented, high intent people to execute it.

I then started to examine my ‘unexamined beliefs’, and they were everywhere.

History is littered with great people with the courage and insight to question ‘unexamined beliefs’ and they have changed everything.

Sometimes, they are born out of bias and prejudice.

Perhaps football’s best example is the attitude towards indigenous players.

Aboriginal players do not play the game any better today than they did fifty years ago, when basically no indigenous players were in league ranks. They were held back by beliefs (racism), which has thankfully changed, and the game (and the nation) is much better for it, understanding that we still have a long way to go. I credit Kevin Sheedy as the key person, using both his insight and standing in the game, in changing this belief.

The same with women’s football, and the prevailing view for decades that people will not watch women’s football, then 52,000 people turn up to watch the 2019 AWFL Grand Final at Adelaide Oval. Here, I credit Debbie Lee, a wonderful and unsung football person. Her achievement is even more meritorious given she did not have the platform of someone like Kevin Sheedy, and suffered the personal bias directed at women footballers, with every effort to grow the game met with resistance and prejudice.


The process is not hard and it starts with a simple question:

“Do I really believe this?

Then test it, put it out there, ask better questions. To do otherwise means you are ignoring your own ignorance.

At times you may be a lone voice, but you just might soon find a chorus of support, and change happens and the world becomes a better place.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Only One Player Can Kick The Goal, But It Is A Team That Scores IT

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I often joke that AFL clubs recruit the most selfish human beings known to mankind. The eighteen-year-old male. Yet, the first value we seek to teach is selflessness.

The player’s career will be defined by their capacity to make this transition. It is wonderful to watch it happen as young men grow. They become role players; recognising their value is not what they bring to the team, it is what they’re prepared to do for the team.

They learn that only one player can kick the goal, but it is a team that scores it.

For many, the transition is beyond them.

In recent years, a personal favourite is Adelaide champ is Eddie Betts. He is just about the most watchable player in the game’s history. A highlights reel like no other.

Eddie was dropped from Adelaide’s senior team this weekend. It is big news.

Eddie would be the first to admit his form hasn’t been up to his usual standard, yet he has still scored more goals than any other Adelaide player this season. He has kicked, 32, a reasonable return for a small forward in a year where scoring for all clubs has been low. Only seven players in the competition have kicked more goals than him.

It is a decision that can put the club, coach and player under enormous pressure. I am sure it is an intense topic of conversation in a city that loves its footy, and Eddie is a hero.

Adelaide FC came into the season with high expectations. But they have been inconsistent. And they are aging. Still, they remain in finals contention, sitting in eighth place.

The club is now in that challenging phase of trying to get the best from its current playing list to remain in the mix in season 2019, while having a keen eye on the next generation of Adelaide players. I call this the ‘future-now’ phase and a difficult balance for club decision-makers.

Eddie understands this. He is thirty-two and knows his time is nearing the end. The game has been good for him, as he’s been good for it, but he also recognises the need for his club to invest games in young players, to see if they have what it takes at this level, and someone has to make way.

Eddie was the beneficiary of this same system fifteen years ago when Carlton took a chance on him. They elevated him from their Rookie list and played him in the senior team. A tiny, under conditioned, enigmatic but inconsistent goal kicker. Now, 300 games and 595 goals later, he is a great of the game, in the very highest echelon of small forwards.

But he also knows the pressure the club and his coach, Don Pyke, will be under as a result of their decision to omit him from the team.

Eddie could be forgiven for some indulgence at this challenging stage of life, facing into his football mortality, but instead, he puts his club and teammates first, using his own popularity and standing to diffuse the situation via his personal social media platform.

He has made it personal, heartfelt and real. With a smiling photo taken in the Adelaide changerooms with the young man who has taken his place in the team, 20-year-old Tyson Stengle, selected to play just his second game for Adelaide, Eddie writes:

“Yes a bit disappointed to be dropped but at the same time super excited that this kid gets another run at AFL level, turn it on little brother”.

Tyson is also Indigenous, and a small forward.

One of my favourite leadership quotes is from TD Jakes:

“Your words tell others what you think. Your actions tell them what you believe.”

Eddie has left us in no doubt what he thinks, and what he believes.

Selfless.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Kevin is Decent

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

This is my drawing of Kevin, a homeless fellow I have got to know in the Melbourne CBD.

I have drawn him a few times, such as the drawing below. He has a remarkable face.

The second drawing started out as a large charcoal portrait of a man who has lived a storied life, enduring mostly tough times and hardship. 

After many hours I finished the drawing, but it remained on my easel for a number of weeks. Whilst it was a decent drawing of a friendly man whose face told his story, it said nothing about how the world mostly judged him.

I then vandalised my drawing. Cheap yellow paint and a fat brush, with only an outline of his face as though that is all people saw. The word decent is crossed out and repeated. Kevin has spent much of his life trying to prove this baseline perception over and over again.

I showed Kevin the work and he cried and thanked me. He then told me how he is trying to rebuild a relationship with his teenage son, who was living on the streets with him, but they had just found a place to live.

He had hope, feeling strongly about the need to be close to his son at this time of life, something he didn’t have at that age.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

I Was Born With Big Ears, So I Figured I might As Well use Them

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

In elite sport, and in my experience, it is the curious and courageous learner-teacher that separates the great coaches/teachers.

Hall of Fame coach Allan Jeans is my favourite example, and his influence on generations of football people is evidence of his remarkable leadership legacy.

The reason for this is simple. For Allan Jeans, identity was fundamental, and he educated and coached based on ensuring you had an understanding of where you have come from, where your place is now, and providing a clear understanding of where you were heading.

The basis from which he built this was trust, and Allan was the type of person who trusted easily, and trusted freely.

Whilst he had a somewhat intimidating veneer, his warmth and wisdom quickly become apparent, as he did what he could to help you find who you are, what you want to be, and what you want to stand for.

And for many young people finding their way in this most distracted of environments, identity can be elusive.

It needs to be taught.

You quickly learn however, to benefit from the Allan’s wisened methodology meant leaving your ego at the door, opening yourself up knowing that your confidences were safe, and you would be emboldened by his preparedness to reciprocate your openness.

While Allan’s booming coach’s voice was legendary, his silences were even more profound.

“I was born with big ears, so I figured I might as well use them”, he would say, and listen he would. He also had a unique way of creating the space required for you to work it out for yourself – surely the best form of teaching.

“Success needs no explanation, failure accepts no alibis”, he would say, knowing fully that building resilience means you have to learn from your disappointments. That’s how you find out who you are.

As a personal reflection, my greatest regret as a leader was not spending more time teaching. There were too many times I allowed myself to get lost in far less meaningful aspects of the role, the busyness, the stuff that really doesn’t matter.

With leadership, if you understand what really matters, you get to appreciate what seems to matter.

Teaching really matters.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Curiosity VS Certainty, Growers VS Arrivers

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I first met Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley over twenty-five years ago. At the time, he was a precocious young football talent who, in a matter of months, had become the hottest prospect in the game. 

Still a teenager, he was dominating a very strong South Australian football competition, playing for the famous Port Adelaide Magpies, his season culminating with a Jack Oatey Medal for best-on-ground in a Premiership team and winning the Magarey Medal as the competition’s Best & Fairest.

As CEO of the Richmond Football Club, I was one of the many AFL club representatives beating a path to his door, trying to win the signature of this young football tyro by whatever means the player rules of the time vaguely allowed.

We fired our best shot but fell short, even with Nathan’s meteoric rise through the ranks, we were too late to this game. Lesson learned.

Nathan eventually found his way to Collingwood via a single season with the then Brisbane Bears, in which he managed to win the inaugural Rising Star award. Every step of this convoluted and complicated journey to the Magpies highlighted on the back pages of the papers in all the footy loving states.

At Collingwood, he would enjoy a storied career as one of the greatest players to represent the game’s biggest club: Captain, Brownlow Medallist, six-time Collingwood Best & Fairest and seven-time All Australian.

He was a star.

It seems entirely appropriate that Nathan Buckley is now coaching the club he represented with such distinction. It must be said, however, that many of the game’s ‘stars’, including returning club heroes, have been unable to make this transition. While generalities are often misleading, history tells us most successful coaches were ‘role-players’ during their playing days, likely self-made footballers able to build on their learnings as players when transitioning into the teacher/mentor role so fundamental to coaching.

This narrative was prominent for much of Buckley’s first six years as Collingwood Senior Coach. He failed to take his team to the finals for the previous four seasons and all the tensions and clamour that go with it, before reaching last year’s Grand Final, losing by less than a goal, in a match the Magpies led for all but a few minutes.

It was a game of moments, and for Collingwood people, it is a loss that will never get any easier.

Like many, I was taken by Nathan’s poise, humility and dignity in the scenes that followed the loss. Again, this should not surprise, but for many it did, but this is the young coach we have watched grow, emerging from the foreboding shadow of a playing career which built a perception of the person as a fiercely focused, standard-setting, perfectionist athlete.

I doubt there has been a more watched person in the history of Australian Football than Nathan Buckley. It was more than 25 years ago that he announced his arrival as a player of immense capabilities and single-minded determination with all the media scrutiny that followed. The judgement has continued unabated, monitored and opinioned by a game that cannot get enough of people like Nathan Buckley.

Much of the commentary has a ‘heroes and villains’ storyline, and Nathan has been positioned as both. Over the years, our paths have crossed only a few times, but this view did not accord with the person I found to be engaging, thoughtful and generous, even when he didn’t have to be.

Having spent a lifetime in the game, I learned that some people are into growing, but most people are only interested in arrival. The ‘arrival’ people create all the commotion that distracts from the critical work of the ‘growers’, who are playing a much bigger and far more important game, energised by all its possibilities, and significantly, not overwhelmed by its ambiguity.

It is a kind of curiosity vs certainty mindset.

Their world is not black and white. The ‘growers’ see a more nuanced world, full of greys, and they’re able to operate in it. They have crafted this capability over time as learners, being prepared to be an un-learner as part of their personal growth.

The football world has spent most of the last 25 years thinking of Nathan Buckley as an ‘arriver’, but he strikes me as a ‘grower’, and perhaps he always has been as it is easy to overestimate the role talent plays with those who can make the game look easy.

This feeling was confirmed when listening to a terrific podcast recently, “The Howie Games” where Mark Howard interviews Nathan. He talks with openness and vulnerability, such as his relationship with his father, including the letters his dad, a Vietnam Vet, wrote when he was at boarding school in country Victoria, having grown up in the Northern Territory.

The conversation moves onto that period a few years later when every AFL club is chasing him. He’s asked about a ‘brown paper bag’, an old-time recruiting technique when a player is handed cash, literally in a brown paper bag, in this case, $10,000 in a cafe in Adelaide, as an incentive to sign with a club.

They were reflecting on how times have changed, and what massive news such a move would be today had it been found out.

Nathan then reflects “I sometimes think, at times you can get caught between eras, between the old way and the new way”.

He then pauses.

“We’re always between the old way and the new way.”

The words of a leader.

The words of a grower.

I was telling this story to my wife Cecily, and she commented:

“Do you think if Nathan hadn’t had his recent success as a coach, we would have ever got to see this side of him?”

It was wonderful insight, and the answer is probably not.

Even after a quarter of a century of intense scrutiny, the world is now only getting to know Nathan Buckley the ‘grower’, a true representation of the man, at the very time we thought we knew everything we needed to know.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Just So You Know, I stuffed This Up Many Times

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I often use the parenting experience as a metaphor for leadership.

There is a moment all parents will relate to. It is the day you put your newborn child in your car for the first time. The baby has gone from the sanctuary of the womb, to a hospital with all its reassurances, and now rests in a baby capsule in the back of your car.

You drive, timidly, most likely at around half the speed limit, trying to come to terms with just how unprepared you are for whatever challenges this little bundle will throw your way for the remainder of your life.

Such is leadership, with each day reminding you of the gap between what you thought you knew, and what you actually know, and with that, the ebb and flow of confidence and belief.

I was reminded recently by author and thinker Evette Cordy (who has a wonderful book titled Cultivating Curiosity) of a quote by Anais Nin which reads:

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

In this context, I believe it is essential leaders have an acute sense of their leadership ‘WHO‘. To lead with authenticity, what I describe as a “fully self-expressed leader”, allowing you to build and sustain trust, but as importantly, maintain personal confidence when feeling overwhelmed by your leadership challenge.

Now that I am in the business of mentoring leaders and their organisations, it requires, almost by necessity, a process of self-reflection on my part. When teaching, or giving advice, there are many times I lean forward and say, “Just so you know, I stuffed this up many times”. While I enjoy the opportunity of coaching from the context of my ‘lived leadership experience’, some of these reflections are most uncomfortable, sitting somewhere between embarrassment and shame.

With this in mind, I have given a lot of thought to the notion of the leadership WHO, which I have tried to express in a vaguely mathematical formula.

We have all heard of IQ, a standardised test to assess human intelligence, and most will be familiar with EQ, our emotional intelligence, the capability to recognise our emotions and those of others. I have put together a LeadershipQ formula, seeking to articulate the components of an individual’s personal leadership offering, in particular, one which is a reflection of our leadership WHO.

It starts with your PERSONALITY, your personal differences and characteristics. Most of us would have a collection of personality profiles undertaken over the years, all seeking to define our personality type, motivations and values, and in doing so providing insight and understanding, perhaps to varying degrees, depending on your perspective.

Our personality is unlikely to change much, it is our DNA, and even the baby in the back of the car already has much of their personality hard-wired.

We then add your FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITY, noting that it does not just relate to overall competency, it is a focus on the skills and talent required to do this job well, as well as the means by which you are able to maintain personal belief. To move too far from your personal capability, particularly your deeper experience and expertise, while seeking to lead, runs the risk of a loss of confidence as you face too many new issues without enough context and understanding.

We therefore advise building your leadership game on domains that you understand and enjoy, but also understand your weaknesses, and whilst always seeking to improve, where possible, complement your offering with fellow leaders with strengths in the areas you do not naturally excel.

When I hear the statement from new leaders which goes something like “I didn’t know what I didn’t know”, in our experience, it should be “I didn’t know, what I did know”.

Of course, functional capability also takes into account the specific leadership competencies required to do this job well.

We then add your NATURAL GIFTS. These are an expression of who you are and your uniqueness. From your gifts come your purpose, a means by which you can sustain high energy and focused attention. They are more than your strengths, they are an expression of the work you love to do, and therefore the aspects of the role you will be naturally drawn to.

As part of our designCEO work, we profile Natural Gifts, and the feedback has been excellent, allowing individuals to recognise their uniqueness in relation to their leadership values and capacity.

These three elements, PERSONALITY, FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITY and NATURAL GIFTS are then divided by your BS, and yes there is an element of the colloquial BS, but more specifically, your BLIND SPOTS. These are not your weaknesses, as most often we are conscious of our weaknesses, and they are less likely to derail us than our blind spots (often referred to as derailers).

Most often they are a ‘shadow’ of our strengths, and when they do appear, your first response is likely to be “I should’ve known better”, or “I should’ve seen that coming”.

All of these elements are then multiplied by two factors, those being:

Firstly, your EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, your EQ as previously defined. We have all experienced very talented people who are unable to leverage their abilities as a result of their inability to emotionally connect. Issues such as a lack of empathy, low self-control and self-knowing or poor relationship skills, diminish the value their unique capabilities would otherwise provide.

We use EQ profiling extensively in the designCEO work. Without wishing to overemphasise its value, perhaps the most important aspect of EQ is that it is coachable. We have many examples of individuals who have developed the habits and behaviours to make significant changes to their emotional competencies, and in doing so, realise the full value of their expertise and talent as leaders.

The final piece of the formula is the leader’s METTLE, their leadership and personal resilience. We ask, has the leader established the leadership identity and habits to allow them to sustain the inevitable personal challenges of leadership? These include their physical and mental well-being, learner mindset to develop their leadership craft, relationships and whatever personal activities allow them to actively manage the many trade-offs that challenging leadership roles will inevitably produce.

In many ways, the majority of the designCEO work focuses on establishing leadership mettle, as without it, you cannot sustain any authenticity or personal energy in a leadership role.

We must always remember that no leader brings a ‘full leadership game’, and we are all a work-in-progress at some level. To build our game however, leaders must embrace learning, because simply, no one is going to do their learning for them.

So how do you measure up on our LeadershipQ formula?

If you or your team need help with the development of your LeadershipQ, let’s chat.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Well, You’re In The Wrong Caper

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

I often use the parenting experience as a metaphor for leadership.

My personal experience is that leadership finds you wherever you are now, with your current knowledge, understanding and take on the world, but never leaves you where it found you. You will be changed, different in so many ways that you will sometimes struggle to relate to the pre-leader version of yourself.

I remember a well-known, somewhat outspoken AFL footballer, who after his retirement coached his own team at state league level. I heard him speak after two years in the role where he made the statement:

“I’d like to publicly apologise to every coach I’ve ever had”.

Leadership had changed him, finding him somewhere and leaving him somewhere else, and if this statement is anything to go by, a more humble and generous place.

Given the multi-faceted challenge of leadership, and its transformational forces, how do you ever know where you are at, and where you are going? The sense of disorientation can overwhelm, and with that, the fundamental need to remain grounded.

There is an element of ‘buckling-in for the ride’, understanding that any effort to control the many factors that will forge their independent and often random paths, is exhausting, and mostly futile.

In response, I often hear leaders speak of the need to find ‘clarity’, and my first thoughts are “Well, you’re in the wrong caper”. There will always be complexity and complicatedness in ambitious organisations, hence the need for quality leadership to match this challenge.

While clarity is an ideological objective, there are means by which you can frame this ambiguity with a simple and powerful routine to maintain leadership confidence and a way forward.

It only requires the setting aside of an hour or so every month, a fresh journal page and a pad of sticky-notes. At the top of the page, add the date, and then write down the simple question:

“Do I believe in my people, and do they believe in me?”

Then set about answering it.

Take a 360-degree view, taking the perspective of all of those with whom you require their belief- your Board, your boss, your fellow leaders, staff, and even your customers and key stakeholders.

Ask yourself: “What makes me believable?”

A check list could include questions that relate to your leadership values, such as:

1. Do I do the right thing, even when it’s hard?

2. Have I established well-understood performance expectations, and do I model these?

3. Am I consistent in my personal attitude and motivations?

4. Is the strategy that I have played a role in developing convincing, compelling and well-articulated?

5. Are my actions consistent with my words?

6. Do I have the technical expertise and experience to be believable in this domain?

7. Am I building track-record to support my assertions?

8. Etc etc

For each of the questions, ask yourself:

1. What are two of my behaviours that support this value?

2. What are two of my behaviours that are outside of this value?

3. What is a leadership habit that will allow me to embed this value more consistently?

Having completed this, then ask the same questions of your people, those who you lead. Should any of the answers be negative, or if you are questioning individuals, then ask yourself:

“What am I doing about?”

At the end of the exercise, you should have added a few new tasks to your ‘to-do list’, encouraged and energised that you can make the impact as a leader that was the very motivation for taking the role in the first place.

These are the leadership habits and routines we teach and coach as part of our designCEO offering, remembering:

A high-performance culture requires high-performance behaviours, which are established via high-performance habits.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

What I’ve Learned About Vulnerability

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

Last week, Western Bulldogs footballer Tom Boyd retired from AFL football citing physical and mental health issues. He is 23 years old.

Just two years ago, Tom, a former number 1 draft selection, was close to the best player on the ground in the Western Bulldogs’ Grand Final victory, as the club broke it’s 62 year Premiership drought, the longest in the AFL.

His coach, Luke Beveridge, struggled to compose himself as he spoke about Tom.

“When you reflect on Tom’s career, there are lots of emotions,” Beveridge said.

“At the end of 2016, we thought the footy world was Tom’s oyster. We didn’t see the black dog creep up on him and at that time we weren’t really aware that he had struggles historically and so it is sad because of what could have been in his footy career. But since then he has had some enormous struggles.”

On Friday, as part of an event for a wonderful organisation Sport and Life Training (SALT), I was asked to interview two Premiership coaches, Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn) and Damien Hardwick (Richmond). Both spoke openly about their own emotional challenges, and those of friends, family and of course, the young men they coach.

They quickly and comfortably went into a space, that until recently, would never have been a no-go zone for leaders in the ultra-competitive and unforgiving world of elite sport.

This is a place, I now go to regularly when speaking to leaders, as I reflect upon my own personal challenges as a leader in the game I love, but has given me the best and worst of moments over more than three decades.

Unfortunately, and perhaps with some regret, I did not go into this space, my darkness, while I carried with me the title of CEO of an AFL club.

When I speak with leaders as part of the work I now do, with my only responsibility being to my family and myself and not a professional football club, people will speak of my preparedness to show this vulnerability.

Because I get to speak about it often, it is perhaps less about vulnerability, but I’d like to think it remains generous.

So what have I learned about vulnerability?

Firstly, it is part of who we are, our essence, and to try and be invulnerable, is to try and be something or somebody that we are not.

Secondly, to try and control it, you are deluding yourself, pretending to be someone who can deal with the challenges of life, so many of which are out of our control, in a way that is not human.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, by not showing vulnerability, you are making yourself unavailable to be helped by those who can, and are willing, to support you, share your burden, be your friend.

One of my favourite quotes is from the author David Whyte, who heavily informs my thoughts on personal growth:

“If your eyes are tired, the world looks tired also”.
Nothing tires your eyes more than suppressing your vulnerability. The antidote is personal compassion, and the bravery and generosity this requires then builds the resilience necessary to lead.

To do otherwise, is simply, not worth the risk.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Stop Talking - Start Teaching

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

The first advice I give to leaders…”Stop talking, start teaching”.

Last weekend we saw a wonderful example of this.

Jarryd Roughead, champion Hawthorn player and captain was dropped from the senior team last week. From a performance perspective, he responded by kicking five goals, but an act that just happened to be captured on video was far more significant.

In the field of battle, in the middle of the MCG, Jarryd is seen taking time to coach his young opponent, Reuben William. I have never seen this before in 35 years of involvement in the AFL. It is a wonderful moment.

Jarryd Roughead has had quite the football journey, four Premierships and the captaincy of his great club, but also a career put on hold by his courageous fight with cancer. He has achieved so much as a player, but it seems his best is yet to come. 

When leaders undertake the programs we offer at designCEO, the question isn’t “What did I learn today?”, it is “What can I teach tomorrow?”.

Challenge yourself to answer this same question when you finish that podcast that captured your attention, or that book that just made sense.

Take the time to write a few notes, collect those important first thoughts, the memorable quote, the compelling argument, the insightful take.

Then build into your routine deliberate time away from the busyness of your day-to-day, to curate your thoughts by aligning the new thinking against your personal experiences and current beliefs.

Have they shifted, changed your view, or added greater depth and meaning to your understanding, be it your broader view of leadership, or a more specific, perhaps tactical approach to your leadership challenge?

Finally, ask yourself “Can I teach it?”.

This question will force you to go even deeper, test your assumptions, seek feedback, as well as encourage important conversations with trusted colleagues, acknowledging their wisdom, and adding even greater depth to your understanding.

This process requires humility, courage and generosity. The vulnerability of not knowing, the bravery to acknowledge this, and then magnanimity to share your learning.

In elite sport, and in my experience, it is the curious and courageous learner-teacher that separates the great coaches.

Allan Jeans is my favourite example, and his influence on generations of footballers is evidence of his remarkable leadership legacy.

As a personal reflection, my greatest regret as a leader is not spending more time teaching. There were too many times I allowed myself to get lost in far less meaningful aspects of leadership.

If you understand what really matters, you get to enjoy what seems to matter.

Teaching matters.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

I Don’t Have The Answers

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

‘It is the hard days that define us.’

Those mornings when you wake up, and as your conscious mind stirs, your reality hits you. 

I have tried to capture this feeling in this drawing.

You are bereft of ideas, inspiration and personal confidence. Yet, sleepless night and all – you still have to lead.

You have no option.

So, what do you do?

Your first inclination is to ride in on your metaphoric white horse, as the person with all the answers, a stirring speech, a serve of inspiration, and everything will be ok.

I call this the ‘feeling better’ syndrome, but ‘feeling better’ is very different to ‘getting better’.

The ‘getting better’ leader owns up. “I don’t have the answers”, they say, “but I am confident the answer is in this room”.

Create the space in which others can lead, and watch as things start to ‘get better.’

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.

Great Teams Need Great Role Players

The thoughts I’ve recorded here have all been inspired by the wise people I’ve met, books I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, people I’m coaching and the insight they have given me. I thank them all of them for going deep to find their wisdom.

My goal is to match their generosity by sharing some brief ideas, quotes, as well as a recommendation each Friday for you to ponder.

The concepts are taken from years of daily journaling and in the moment note-taking in my Moleskine journal.

Great teams need great role players.

Those grounded individuals, who in developing their ‘game’, focus their personal efforts on how they become a better teammate.

They understand their shortcomings but have the personal insight and humility to build a game almost in response to, and despite of, their weaknesses.

These are rare characteristics, and worth their weight in gold.

Great role players appreciate the strengths of others, but they do not resent their talent; they seek to amplify it, understanding their own efforts will often go unseen as a result. Rare will be the public recognition that will be reserved for their higher-profile teammates, and they are fine with that.

They know only one player can kick the goal, but it is a team that scores it.

Great role players are lifetime learners, understanding they must remain ahead of the game, never taking their role in the team for granted. Not only do they have an appetite for learning, but they also have an equally intense hunger for application. As a result, their most powerful influence is as a role model, as the combination of attitude, ethos and humility is contagious.

While the star players can inspire, lift the team in the moment with acts of brilliance, it is the role player who is more likely to shift the team culture through the consistency of their behaviours, setting a standard, exemplifying the attitude of team above self.

For the role player, it’s not about being the best at something in the game…it’s about being the best at something for the team.

My favourite role player in the AFL, and perhaps my favourite player overall, is Richmond midfielder Shane Edwards. He exemplifies all of the values I have articulated, and while he is a talented player, he has become so much more in a team of far more profiled individuals, improving every year of his long and mostly unsung career. My guess, he would be a favourite teammate of those big-name players and loved by his coaches.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to identify and develop the role players, a highly underestimated aspect of leadership.

It starts with recruiting, not sacrificing culture for talent, and being steadfast in hiring individuals with a track record of self-responsibility for personal development.

And if you get it wrong, and you will, being prepared to make a quick call, and as the legendary coach, Allan Jeans would say…

“Your first loss is your best loss”.

Beyond recruiting, valuing and encouraging the importance of the role player must form part of your systems and symbols, roles and routines.

Your attitude to the notion of ‘role player’ will also say so much about you as a leader, what you really value, the behaviours you reward, building trust, as well as your personal commitment to establishing a sustainable team ethos.

You simply cannot be a great organisation without great role players.

I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all things culture and high-performance, and the development of leaders to achieve it.

Here are a few of ways to start the ball rolling:

• I like to share the ‘bruises’ of my lived leadership experiences as a 25 year CEO in the AFL with leaders as part of our Learning Leadership event for senior leaders. We have run this event for the past few years, and the feedback has been excellent. We have now transitioned the event online. There is no cost as we recognise that time allocated to learning is perhaps our most precious resource, and therefore we have also provided a number of dates from which to choose, please use this link.
  

• Sign up for the “More to the Game” weekly email, and receive a copy of my “What business can learn from football” White Paper. The emails are short leadership reflections, no more than a couple of minutes to read and we will always treat our communication with respect. Please use this link.
  

• Download my book “More to the Game”. In this publication, I have combined my writings and drawings with the beautiful imagery of Michael Willson, the premier AFL photographer. It is free to download (no sign-ups) at “More to the Game – What leaders can learn from football” 
  

You can also contact me at cameron@designCEO.com.au and let me know how you think we can work together.

Stay Connected

Please subscribe to our “In the Arena” email.

From time to time to time we will email you with some leadership insights, as well as links to cool stuff that we’ve come across.

We will treat your information with respect and not take this privilege for granted.