The Chase
You are judged not by what you bring to the team, but what you are prepared to give to the team.
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.
Anyone who knows their footy understands the value of the chase.
The effort to run-down an opponent often seems futile when watching from the grandstand, even more so in the tight framing of our TV screens where the chaser may not even be in the same picture as the chasee.
In fact, a run-down tackle is rare.
Yet, still they chase.
It is because the run-down tackle is not the measure.
The chase is about pressure on the ball carrier, who may not execute as well as they otherwise would. A small, almost non-discernible skill error that allows the chaser’s teammate to impact on the next contest when his opponent has to slow to receive a ball they would have marked meters in the clear. Or the ball carrier might be forced a few metres wider, slowed, allowing the chaser’s teammate to fill a space and intercept, and now defence is attack.
The chase is often the difference.
While not noticed in the grandstand, it is applauded in the coaches box and recognised in the forum that counts most, the game review meetings the next day.
In these forums, with only your coaches and teammates in attendance, you are judged not by what you bring to the team, but what you are prepared to give to the team.
Chasing is giving.
So what are you chasing?
What is your pursuit?
Leadership is a pursuit.
Pursuit of ‘what happened?’ What did I/we learn and how do I share my/our learnings? Set up your own game review meeting.
Pursuit of ‘what now?‘. What is the best of you, in this moment?
Pursuit of ‘what next?’. Where are you going with this?
It is the pursuit of belief, knowledge, hope, grace, calm, performance, humility, bravery…of what needs to change to ‘be’ these things, rather than just ‘do’ them, often unsighted and unrewarded.
Pursuit of something bigger than you.
Pursuit of purpose.
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.
Finding A Way
Putting energy into finding the right system for you to achieve whatever goal you are seeking.
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.
Finding a way.
Wonderful image of a Post-Impressionist artist Henri Matisse, bedridden, elderly and frail, still finding a way to create.
He has managed to find a system of creation, despite the many obstacles, to match his will to create.
Putting energy into finding the right system for you to achieve whatever goal you are seeking, will help you stay the path. As Dan Gregory says, “Design beats Discipline”.
Wonderful image of a Post-Impressionist artist Henri Matisse, bedridden, elderly and frail, still finding a way to create.
He has managed to find a system of creation, despite the many obstacles, to match his will to create.
Putting energy into finding the right system for you to achieve whatever goal you are seeking, will help you stay the path. As Dan Gregory says, “Design beats Discipline”.
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.
Surrender
In times like these, we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
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 times like these, we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
I spend my life talking about leadership, my lived experience. Thirty years in professional sport in the AFL. Almost 25 of those years as CEO of iconic, celebrated and ambitious sporting clubs.
Football writer Greg Baum described this world with wonderful acuity.
‘In season, a football club exists in a state of nervous tension, a 24-hours-a-day dwelling on the next match, relieved only in the two hours of playing it. It means that for all their outward robustness, they are also moody and delicate places, susceptible as a barometer to the pressures that surround them.’
In an industry where opinions are many – mostly proffered with the wisdom of hindsight, or little accountability for outcomes – you’re often reminded of the times you got it wrong. This is inevitable when faced with the ambiguity of attempting to predict an unknown an unknowable future, and a scoreboard that ultimately defines success and failure.
But these are not my reflections. In my quiet moments, I don’t think about the judgement calls, the getting it right, the getting it wrong.
My reflections are the times when I was unable to raise myself to the core expectations of leadership.
When the role required me to be brave, and I wasn’t. My timidity often known only to me. An unsettling feeling that sits just under your diaphragm. Out of reach. It won’t budge, no matter how many times I seek to justify my actions to myself, but mostly to others, as though their opinion of me matters more than my assessment of self. There were spaces I should have stepped into, conversations to be had, but I allowed the moment to slide by. That feeling in my gut is still there sometimes decades later. I feel it as I pen these words.
…to be brave.
When the title I held, and responsibilities and expectations that came with it, were best served with humility, but my delicate ego wouldn’t allow it. A need to present myself with confidence and belief, and perhaps just a touch of ruthlessness, as the person with all the answers. A hard man, often defensive and combative, but mostly overcompensating for the inner feelings of doubt and fear that I would force back inside of me, buried.
…to be humble.
When our best chance of producing the most beneficial outcome was to remain calm, modelled by the leaders themselves. People like me, who enjoyed the status of leadership, but did not honour it, unable to rise to the level of emotional clarity and lucidity the situation required. I personalised the situation when self-control was required and expected. In an environment of strong personalities and anxieties, often under pressure, anger was the default emotion redefined as competitiveness, a chorus that I often led, and by doing so guaranteed something much less than the optimal response.
…to be calm.
You cannot lead through control. As counterintuitive as it might seem, to gain influence, you must surrender control.
Three goals for leaders…
To be brave.
To be humble.
To be calm.
In moments like these, we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
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.
This Is What Leadership Looks Like
Yes, there will be hard days, but you will be better for 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.
Wouldn’t you love to play footy for this man.
Brisbane Lions Football Club Senior Coach Chris Fagan, respecting the moment and honouring his players. Giving of himself.
Brings it home with some learning. Yes, there will be hard days, but you will be better for them.
This is what leadership looks like.
Generous, insightful and decent.
I always enjoy the opportunity to talk all
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.
Playing A poor Hand Well
“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”
– Jack London
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.
“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.” – Jack London
Deck shuffled. Cards dealt.
The cards are not unfamiliar, but over the past few months the rules of the game have changed for all of us. So much so that no one seems to know them anymore. Each day, there are new rules, and in most cases, the game got harder.
We learn a lot when things get tough – a silver lining.
If nothing else, for many, an opportunity for reflection. Slow down, a longing mostly lost in the ‘busyness’ of our pre-pandemic lives.
Still, it is not easy. I’m convinced that discomfort is the prerequisite for growth, and we need more than space for meaningful reflection. It also requires an appetite for the struggle we are required to impose on ourselves.
To go deep, to go forward.
Important things can happen during periods of isolation, but it requires intentional introspection and the rigour of critical thought.
Then, every so often, you look down at your cards, and you see one, although familiar, has no place in this game.
It’s the Joker, and you wonder how it found it’s way into the pack.
On Valentines Day just a few months ago, I was dealt a Joker.
I learned I had cancer.
I use the past tense ‘had’, because that is my hope, and my growing belief having had surgery six weeks ago to remove my prostate gland and having received good news from my surgeon that the cancer was likely contained.
I had no idea I had cancer. There were no signs. I’m indebted to my GP who thought it would be a good idea to check late last year. He went ‘two knuckles deep’, felt a lump with blood tests showing an elevated PSA, with MRI and biopsy to follow over the next few months.
Then the phone call you don’t want to get.
“Cameron, I’m sorry to tell you that you have cancer.”
The surgery was a tad rugged, as are the first couple of weeks afterwards, but I am now able to focus on restoring the functionality previously the domain of my ex-prostate and doing my best not to align my self-esteem and blokey-ego to these.
I will not know for up to two years how well my body will recover, or whether I am cancer-free. I do know, however, that I am in good hands, in particular, my surgeon Prof. Mark Frydenberg, and I have the best care and love from my wife Cecily, kids, family and friends.
Has cancer changed me?
I think so.
Almost from the moment I received the cancer call, I realised I’d spent a lot of time in my life trying to guess an unknown and unknowable future, and how my actions will likely impact on it, and mostly getting it wrong when the future refused to cooperate with my wishes, desires and efforts.
I would sometimes try to justify my actions to others, but mostly I would be unkind to myself.
Then I do it all over again.
No good comes from this. It is so self-defeating and dangerous.
My hope from this point onwards is to try do the best I can knowing that every so often I will get it right enough for it to be meaningful to the small circle that matters.
When we understand what really matters, we get to enjoy what seems to matter.
Deck shuffled. Cards dealt.
If cancer has taught me this, it has been a gift.
The other thing that happens is I cry unexpectedly, like when I am writing this.
Take care.
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.
Staying Calm
When faced with decisions in stressful and emotional times, allow yourself time to review your responses, starting with the question, “Did we stay calm?”
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.
On this day 14 years ago, the siren did not ring loud enough or long enough in Tasmania. We won, then we lost.
It is now part of the folklore of the game, named “Sirengate”.
I was CEO of the Fremantle Football Club, and we took on the AFL, and to their great credit, they listened. Following an appeal before the AFL Commission, the game result was changed for the first time in 100 years.
It was a piece of history and an important milestone for a young club finding its way in a high-stakes and unforgiving competition.
The key learning was:
Stay calm.
When faced with decisions in stressful and emotional times, allow yourself time to review your responses, starting with the question:
“Did we stay calm?”
The image above shows me not particularly calm, but I was straightened up by a wonderful piece of leadership by our conditioning coach Ben Tarbox.
The following is a terrific write up of the events of the day by Fremantle’s Content Producer Tom Fee.
On this Day- Sirengate – The Full Story
Wonderful memories.
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.
Confidence
But real confidence is knowing that you will be ok if none of this happens.
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’s not how you get knocked down, it’s how you get up” – Allan Jeans
Yes, confidence is the belief that you can achieve your goals, perform in the moment, be at your best when it counts.
But real confidence is knowing that you will be ok if none of this happens.
I have been lucky to have generous and insightful mentors, including Hall of Fame AFL coach Allan ‘Yabby’ Jeans.
I am grateful for this image as it shows me passing on his teachings.
Leadership is not what you learn today, it is what you are prepared to teach tomorrow.
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.
In The Arena
Viktor Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage (during difficult times).
Leadership provides us with the opportunity of achieving all three.
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 was in conversation with a very experienced CEO recently, now leading a high-stakes, complex and multidimensional company.
It is the type of organisation that will never meet the mostly unrealistic expectations of its customers nor satisfy the demands of their conflicted and self-interested stakeholders, more likely to point fingers and shift blame than to take responsibility.
Adding to the complexity, when things go wrong, which they surely will, the CEO can expect to wake up to news leading proclamations questioning the capability of the organisation they lead, including varying opinions on the competency of the CEO.
While I would never put running football clubs in the same category or status of this leader’s role, this was a familiar context.
As CEOs, we did not lack for advice.
During our discussion, the CEO made a comment that has stayed with me.
“You know, the only stuff that should land on my desk are the 49/51 decisions. All other issues should be dealt with before they get to me, otherwise there is something wrong in the organisation, and with my leadership. If I’m dealing with the 80/20 decisions, either I’ve become a control freak, and who wants to work for a control freak, or I have someone not prepared to make the call they are reasonably expected to make. Either way, it reflects on my leadership and it’s my problem to fix”.
As a follow up to this conversation, we began discussing, perhaps bemoaning, a leadership narrative that seems to be growing, in what we considered a most unrealistic and self-defeating way. We were talking about conversations that go something like this:
“I need clarity”, the leader says.
“Good luck then”, I would respond.
“What do you mean good luck? Surely that’s a reasonable expectation?” the leader counters.
If given the opportunity, I would respond with a diatribe something like:
“It is a reasonable expectation to find it for yourself and help create it for others as best you can. Then you must question it. Rethink it. Invite different perspectives. Learn. Test it. Experiment. Act. Learn. Admit you got it wrong. What’s not working? Change it. Teach. Get feedback. Learn. Do it again tomorrow, the next day and the day after and however long you are in the role”.
“Why? Because no one can find your clarity for you, and you can never be sure you’ve got it, and if you feel as though you do, warning bells should be sounding. It is easy to rationalise our ignorance”.
“Complexity, complicatedness and vagueness are the reasonable expectations for leaders. If you are not up for this challenge, you are not up for leadership. You will soon be dishonouring the role”.
“By becoming a leader, you have put yourself inside the arena. You are no longer the spectator, proffering opinions from the sidelines. You will take a few hits, it is part of the deal, and in time, the best part”.
“Real leaders are those who can make sense of the ambiguity, take responsibility, understanding what is expected of them in the context of this challenge”.
“I speak with certainty in this regard, because I stuffed it up often, normally some combination of ego, fear or anger”.
“Yes, leadership is hard. It has very high expectations of you, but this is what you have signed up for”.
So what did I learn?
Firstly, as James Clear of Atomic Habits fame says “We do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems’
Therefore I am going to recommend a system, familiar to those I have worked with:
Every three months, set aside three hours to answer three questions, undertaken in the Cal Newport “Deep Work”, non-distracted and fully focused way.
The three questions are:
What does the role expect of me?
What do I expect of the role?
What do I expect of myself?
The skill we are seeking to develop is one of attaining deep knowledge, building personal wisdom. The leadership role needs a lot from you, but you need a lot from it, but it must never be such, that it is exacting too high a personal price, an insight that often comes too late.
By undertaking this process, you will be developing ‘reflective competency’.
I cannot promise clarity, but you will find the confidence and belief so important for leaders. Significantly, it will also provide the means to bounce back from the inevitable setbacks, and remind you of why you committed to the role in the first place. You will be honouring the role.
Like so many, I have been heavily influenced by the Viktor Frankl book “Man’s search for meaning”.
Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for other people), and in courage (during difficult times).
In many ways, leadership provides us with the opportunity of achieving all three.
That is powerful.
Time to honour the role.
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 Lose. I Either Win Or Learn
Any sincere effort will pick you up somewhere, and leave you somewhere else.
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.
With every endeavour, any heartfelt effort, there comes a new ‘point of departure’.
Nelson Mandela said:
“I don’t lose. I either win or learn”.
Any sincere effort will pick you up somewhere, and leave you somewhere else.
As an artist, it’s the feeling that threatens to overwhelm when shaping-up to a canvas and all its expectations. The only defence from its intimidation is the brittle piece of charcoal in my hand and my monkey-mind imagination, with ambition and capability mostly miss-aligned.
I wonder about the compatibility of comfort and creativity, particularly when our inboxes fill with ways to short-cut, or ‘hack’ our way to superior outcomes with less effort.
While I’m all for efficiency when it comes to growth and learning, I cannot think of anything genuinely worthwhile that doesn’t push to a place of discomfort. But then, we also need some base level comfort as our platform for this endeavour, and from experience, this was the growth and belief that emanated from the last effort, which established a new “point of departure”.
No effort, no discomfort, and there is no growth, and our’ point of departure’ never changes. We stagnate.
Does effort guarantee success?
Of course not…”I don’t lose. I either win or learn”, said Mandella.
I like to mix novels into my reading routine. I am often surprised by the learning opportunity fiction provides, often complex and layered, and most likely outside of the intent of the writer.
I recently read the Trent Dalton’s debut novel ‘Boy Swallows Universe’, and loved it. Great ‘coming of age’ yarn, complex and vivid characters, and Australian suburban nostalgia, kind of Paul Kelly meets the Godfather.
One of the key relationships is the child Eli’s friendship with a family friend named Arthur “Slim” Halliday, a convicted murderer and prison escapee known as The Houdini of Boggo Road. As it turns out, “Slim” is an actual person, and the writer did have a childhood relationship (he was his babysitter!) with the Houdini of Boggo Road, so named because he escaped Boggo Road Prison in Queensland on two occasions.
In the book, Slim is explaining to Eli what is required to break out of jail, his “four factors to a clean escape”. They are:
Timing
Planning
Luck
Belief
These could well be the four factors required for any successful endeavour, but the process I have explained plays heavily into the final ingredient:
Belief
In this regard, I use a model I call ‘Something to BE’ as it relates to building capability.
The first of the ‘be’s’ is because…our current state. No judgement, “I/we are here because…”.
With the focus on goals and ambition, the next be for most people is beyond.
I am convinced we cannot go from because to beyond, without the most important be, belief.
The goal is to find belief, and this means going through a process known as “productive struggle”, sometimes described as the learners sweet-spot, or hard-fun, the place we discover how to apply grit, grind and think our way through, to build on our learning in the classic sigmoid curve, and find our “new point of departure”.
Once established, our new belief could well mean our beyond needs redefining. The bar can be reset, perhaps even higher than we imagined, buoyed by our recent growth.
As someone who has spent a lifetime attempting to predict the ‘beyond’ for young footballers, and having made many errors, I know the difference ‘belief’ makes. Lack of belief has reduced the most gifted and talented while amplifying the gritty and thoughtful battler, who manages to find a way.
So belief needs a plan, the second of Slim’s Four elements. I sense that the other two components, timing and luck, are far more likely to follow, as the cliche goes:
“The harder I work, the luckier I get”.
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.
We Still Had A Lot Of Talking To Do
About a dozen or so years after my grandfather died, I lost my father Alan. It was sudden and shocking. Dad is the most significant influence in my life. A quarter of a century later, I am four years older than Dad was when he died, and I still go to ring him. What I think about most are the conversations we never got to have. We still had a lot of talking to do.
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 stand in front of Francis Bacon’s “Study for the human body” in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). I love art and creativity and have spent a lot of time at the NGV since I was a teenager.
It is not the first time I have spent time with this artwork. This time, however, I have found reason to relate to it out of a greater appreciation for the artist, after studying his art as part of my Fine Art studies at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
It was my love of art that led me back to university in my fifties when my time in the AFL came to a close.
Painted in 1949, I have long understood the artwork’s place in time. My parents were born in the early 1940s, during the Second World War. The war was the backdrop to their childhood and remained a ubiquitous yet unspoken part of their growing years.
My grandfather Edgar Taplin served in the air force, the RAAF. He wasn’t a flyer, but a courier who rode a motorbike, delivering messages between the lines. We only know his function because there are photos that survive him. He was my mother Annette’s father, who migrated from the UK to Australia in his twenties a couple of decades earlier.
His grandchildren called him Puppy. He and I were close. I liked it when people said we were similar, commenting on our looks and mannerisms. He would laugh freely at my kid jokes.
I was fascinated by his RAAF cap, which I found one day when digging through some old stuff in a spare room at his home. While he would reluctantly place it on my young head when I badgered him, he refused to put it on his own. He never marched on ANZAC day.
I was in my teens when I was gifted Puppy’s RAAF cap after
My memories are of a caring, purposeful, smiling yet taciturn man, who encouraged me to draw, often with the thick oily tradie pencils from his outdoor workshop. He taught me how to draw horses. I still draw horses.
Francis Bacon’s painting evokes memories of my grandfather.
It also reminds e of the conversations we never got to have.
Looking at Bacon’s painting, I imagine myself as a grandchild again. I am a little boy and have quietly opened the door to his suburban bathroom. I do so out of curiosity, hoping I will get an initiation into the unseen world of men and their intriguing and somehow mysterious ways.
I had been in this bathroom before, with and without my grandfather’s knowledge. He would sometimes lather my child face with his old horse-hair shaving brush, and ‘shave’ me with his safety razor, empty of its razorblade.
But the painting elicits more than a visual response. My grandfather is showering, and the steam from the shower seems to carry a heady mix of man smells, Brylcream, Old Spice and calamine lotion as I peer into the dark and humid space. I can make out my grandfather’s thick white body through the mist. Though unaware of my presence, he appears to be moving away from me, and the rest of his home and life as the shower curtains threaten to engulf him. He moves towards an indiscernible and somehow menacing place.
This isn’t the man I think I know. He is a stranger, altered by his despair, loss of will, in crisis, quietly suffering in his imposed claustrophobia.
While remaining unseen, I have invaded his silence. I close the door. I am fearful. I cannot relate to this damaged man, nor rescue him from his lonesomeness. I doubt that anyone can.
I am left wondering, who was the real Edgar Taplin, Puppy, my grandfather? I cannot resolve the anguish I witnessed with the man who would bring me close and kiss the crown of my youthful head.
This painting tells me more about Edgar Taplin than any experiences we shared, or photos of him in uniform, and even the symbolism of the prized RAAF cap in my home.
I am now a man, and for all its sense of calamity, I find solace and comfort in this artwork.
I like the quote, “An unknown meaning for an unknown person”, and I can only guess the artist’s inspiration and intention. The conversation he sought to start. But I find deep personal meaning in Bacon’s work, perhaps on behalf of my late grandfather, or now as a mid-life man.
I relate to this loneliness and isolation.
I can only guess what my grandfather experienced after he returned from the war, the distance between the private and shared personas. The damage such that not only was he alienated from people who cared for him, but also from himself.
I still miss my grandfather. I think about him when I draw.
Perhaps this is the reason why I am attracted to the ‘veteran’. Growing up around football clubs, there was ready access to generous elders, mainly men. Many were elegant storytellers, raconteurs who enjoyed an audience, even when it was just one wide-eyed young fella who loved the game and knew enough about the yarn spinner to treat this time with respect, and some reverence.
Every so often, as I listened to the elder, the conversation would slow, and eyes would fill with tears. I was never sure how to press forward, the ambiguity of the emotion, but loss, in its many forms, seemed to be at its heart.
In telling his story, there is grief, perhaps just a nostalgic yearning for ‘glory’ days now long past, but more likely something deeper, lost purpose, friendship, or opportunities and ambitions forever unfulfilled.
About a dozen or so years after my grandfather died, I lost my father Alan. It was sudden and shocking. Dad is the most significant influence in my life. A quarter of a century later, I am four years older than Dad was when he died, and I still go to ring him.
What I think about most are the conversations we never got to have. We still had a lot of talking to do.
But I also think about the conversations we could have had, but our distracted lives meant far less consequential stuff got in the road.
Conversations never-had is the narrative for this drawing I’ve titled “Ice-cream veteran”. As a kid, I remember the old soldiers dressed in their best suits, even on the hottest Melbourne days, mainly to visit their local RSL. This old soldier, after a day with his old mates, finds solace in the timeless pleasure of an ice-cream in a cone.
It is a reflection on the conversations I wished I’d had with my grandparents, but also my father, who would now be elderly.
As I was working on the drawing, I paused and asked myself “What conversations should I be having now?”
I have now made two commitments. Firstly, start a conversation. Seek out the veteran, seek out the youngster, and I’m at an age where I have wonderful access to both. Then, my second commitment, embrace unlearning by asking myself:
“Am I prepared and expecting to have my mind changed?”
An unknown meaning for an unknown person.
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.
Who are You Practising At Being?
But we do not rise to the level of our ambition, we fall to the level of our capability, and leadership insight is critical. We will not achieve this understanding by “working harder”, it is achieved by “thinking harder”.
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 heard an interview with legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls, that went something like:
“With all you have accomplished in your coaching career, what is left that you still want to accomplish?” he is asked.
“I’d like to go out and have a good practice today,” Belichick replied.
“That would be at the top of the list right now.”
As a leader, Belichick understands that it’s not enough to be all he can be, it is about coaching and supporting others to be all they can be. The next practice session represents this opportunity. There is nothing more important, no higher priority.
What does “good practice today” look like for you?
You will have expectations in relation to work rate, yours and the team. The attitude people bring each day, consistent and genuine effort, facing into challenging situations and circumstances, bouncing back from setbacks, testing personal limits and each other, finding something, individually and collectively.
Effort helps power culture, establishing which members of the team are ‘up for it’, building trust when the group is tested.
But in high-performance organisations, consistent effort is the expectation, merely a ticket to the game, nothing more. Organisations, teams and individuals are unlikely to find their competitive advantage with only a “work-harder” mindset in their kitbag. It needs to go deeper. Much deeper.
We’ve all experienced what I describe as a ‘try harder’ leader. They stand in front of the room exhorting greater effort as the means of achieving better outcomes. Yes, there will be occasions when this is required, teams need straightening-up from time-to-time. We’ve all been moved by a full-hearted speech from a respected leader, complete with a few home-truths when standards have slipped. Used with humility, discernment and insight, it has power. When it becomes the ‘go-to’ approach, it says more about the leader’s ego and judgement than the people in the room.
A group that relies on this kind of stimulus has not established the ethos required for continued improvement, and therefore improvements will not be sustained. They need more from their leaders.
The work-harder to get-better mindset is too narrow, a trap, lacking dimension and perspicacity. In most workplaces working harder really means working longer. We’ve been conditioned to think making progress in this world means working longer hours, and in doing so, ingraining habits and routines, rarely questioned and often celebrated, despite growing evidence of its negative impact on health, relationships, and by extension, reduced work performance.
Standards are much more than effort. In elite sport, for all but a few, the competition sets the standard. For Belichick, and the likes of Damien Hardwick and Alastair Clarkson in the AFL, the leaders in their field, seek to create new standards knowing that today’s elite will be tomorrow’s normal.
Given the structure of competition in team sport, standard setting is relatively obvious. Not so for non-sporting organisations. It is the responsibility of leaders to set the standard, performance expectations now and into the future, achieved by aligning goals and aspirations with two key levers, talent and systems.
But we do not rise to the level of our ambition, we fall to the level of our capability, and leadership insight is critical. We will not achieve this understanding by “working harder”, it is achieved by “thinking harder”.
Setting standards is also an opportunity for leaders to model behaviours and expectations. It starts by never setting a standard you cannot live every day, match words and actions, and walk your talk.
For Bill Belichick, “good practice today” does not mean keeping the team out on the practice field longer, a likely indicator of a poorly planned or executed session, or perhaps an angry and out-of-control coach. It will require a carefully crafted session, tailored to the needs of the team, their current situation and capability. Belichick achieves this by ‘thinking harder’, finding time and space in his overwhelming, unforgiving and distracted role to think deeply, designing the next session, at all times building on the collective acumen and input of his coaching team, and likely, the athletes themselves.
He has learnt to “think-harder”, face into the ambiguity and uncertainty of his role.
In the ebb and flow of life, it is more about the ebb than the flow, where learning and insight happens.
The test for all of us, as the year ramps up, is to form new work habits and routines that cut though the busy and push against the ingrained “work-harder” psyche, to embed a “think-harder” mindset.
In response, I offer a simple and powerful system for leaders.
Diarise one-hour every week for a “think-harder” meeting with yourself, preferably at the same day and time. If you’re absolutely required to do something else, and it will happen, do not delete the meeting from your calendar, shift it to the next clear space, be it later in the day, or the next day.
Think like Belichick. He would never lead a practice session without the planning, despite the thousands of sessions he has taken, the planning being more important than the session.
Your “think-harder” meeting will soon become the most important hour of your week.
In the “think-harder” meeting, ask yourself two questions. The context can be as micro (eg activities) or macro (eg strategy) as your current challenge requires:
Is it important?
Is it working?
I recommend this simple 2x2 matrix, from which you will draw an action list. The most obvious conclusion will be the need to reduce the amount of effort and resource allocated to work that is not important, and redeploy to work that is important, clarifying what needs to changed or leveraged.
Back to Bill Belichick’s expectation of ambition, I’d ask:
“Who are you practising at being?”
You will not find the answer in your inbox.
You will not find it by refusing to leave the office.
You will not find it on social media.
You will find it is by forming a new and powerful habit, the “think-harder” meeting with yourself, building a practice of reflection, ensuring that you become the leader you seek to be, and what your team needs.
Go out and make your next practice a good one.
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.
Design Beats Discipline
Discipline, like goals, is overrated. It is likely to help in the short term, but is unlikely to be a long-term solution. Motivation wanes for many reasons, human nature takes over, and momentum is lost.
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 my experience, those who win and lose in any form of competition mostly have the same goals, but the systems of achieving the desired outcomes vary, often significantly.
As James Clear of Atomic Habits fame would say:
“Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.”
Similarly, many think they can discipline their way to success.
Discipline, like goals, is overrated. It is likely to help in the short term, but is unlikely to be a long-term solution. Motivation wanes for many reasons, human nature takes over, and momentum is lost.
As Dan Gregory would say, “Design beats discipline”.
Like Dan, I have found that individuals who are lauded for being highly disciplined, do not rely on a strong will, but instead, have designed a personal system of operation to support their desired outcome.
When I listen to leaders, most can articulate their personal and organisational ambitions with conviction and acuity, and understand the need for discipline in the pursuit of their goals. When pressed, however they do not have the same coherence in relation to ‘systems of operation’ to achieve their objectives.
It is for this reason, after many years in the game, I stopped thinking of AFL football as ‘team vs team’, but ‘system vs system’. Whenever and whoever we played, the goal was clear, both clubs were trying to win, but the thing that separated the winner from the loser was not the ambition, but which group had established the best system, mainly the result of continuous small improvements, supported by a well-executed game plan on the day itself.
It is fundamental that we match ambition with capability. With this in mind, there are two questions that sit at the heart of the designCEO leadership system of operation, which I first came across in Chris Tipler’s excellent strategy book Corpus RIOS a few years ago:
1. What does winning look like? – Ambition
2. What do we need to be good at? – Capability
Too high ambition, too low capability means over promising, a trust killer.
Ambition is just words, while capability is real. Efforts to fast-track capability are fraught, despite good intention and effort. This is because capability grows organically, building on its own learning, mostly failures, missteps supported by a process of reflection and realignment.
So how do we inform this process and create a ’system of operation’?
This is the system we teach at designCEO.
Start by thinking about the activities currently undertaken and list them out. Make the context clear. The focus can be the organisation, the team you operate in, or personally as it relates to your role. Then put each activity on a separate sticky note.
These are your “Current Activities”.
Now make a list of the activities you could (or perhaps) should be doing to grow, develop, or improve as it relates to performance, current and future. Again, put each activity on a separate sticky note.
These are your possible “Future Activities”.
In relation to each of your Current Activities, the next step is to ask yourself two questions:
Is it important?
Is it working?
We do this by mapping them out on a simple 2 x 2 matrix as per the framework below.
Next to the matrix, add the Future Activities sticky notes, with a to-do tick box next to it.
Good strategy is largely about making the best use of scarce resources. With this in mind, it is likely that you will have sticky notes in the left-hand quadrants, denoting the activity as not important. This is a waste of resource that might be deployed into more important Current Activities, or to make space for Future Activities.
Therefore, I suggest the focus of the process should be removing/reducing activities from this column before making any choices as to how this resource be best utilised in relation to important Current Activities (change or leverage) or consideration of Future Activities (activate).
There will always be trade-offs, competing interests and tension when it comes to allocating resources, but the reluctance to stop or re-align unimportant activities is often avoided because of the inherent conflict is likely to emerge, which only amplifies this tension.
Leadership requires and expects you to confront this tension and ambiguity, but again having the goal or discipline will not be enough. It is too hard and easily distracted.
You need a system.
This is not a one-off process. It is a ‘system of operation’, repeated regularly, forming a personal leadership habit to ensure that you have a basis of making informed decisions as a leader, confident that you can back it up, aligned to the ever evolving goals and ambitions, personally and organisationally.
Remember, to make change happen, you are in charge.
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.
Turning Knowledge into Wisdom
To be a teacher, you must be a learner, the mindset to embrace the discomfort and ambiguity of taking yourself beyond the limits of your understanding, but with the view “It is not what I learn today, it is what I will teach tomorrow that is important”.
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 like to quote “an unknown meaning for an unknown person”, particularly as it relates to leadership. I would like to attribute someone of far more credence, but I have a vague and weird feeling I made it up.
Leadership is many things, but in my mind, teaching sits at its heart. If you are not prepared to embrace teaching as a leader, you are dishonouring the role. It will impact on your performance and those you lead.
Until recently, we rewarded leaders for having the right answers and making sure those they lead have the same answers. This one-dimensional view will not cut it anymore. The complexity, ambiguity and shifting nature of business means that it is not possible to have all the answers, if not now, but certainly in ever shortening time horizons.
The leader’s role is now a delicate and somewhat fraught balance between imparting knowledge and helping others to find their own understanding.
There is nothing particularly new in this, but in my experience there is a gap between aspiration and practice even for those who acknowledge the importance of coaching in terms of their leadership.
There is a prevailing reason for this. It is hard to be coached, and soon, the mentor gives up. Progress can be slow, and feels ‘soft’, lacking authority, particularly for those accustomed to a directive style of leadership.
This is leadership’s falsest economy, a distorted and false sense of progress, with leaders in ‘tell’ mode, when coaching is about asking better questions to create insight.
When I start my workshops with leaders, I ask the participants to bring one thing only, a learner mindset, allowing themselves to be “easy to coach” for the day, explaining that the hardest part about learning is the unlearning required to absorb new information.
I regret not fully understanding the importance of teaching for too long, even in an elite sporting environment and all its emphasis on coaching (teaching) to elicit improved performance.
I was too ‘busy’ trying to win.
It was a time of personal reckoning. It seems crazy, but I had much higher expectations of others in relation to unlocking potential, being the football coaches and their playing charges, than I had of myself in relation to the off-field team.
I soon realised that to be a teacher, you must be a learner, the mindset to embrace the discomfort and ambiguity of taking yourself beyond the limits of your understanding, but with the view “It is not what I learn today, it is what I will teach tomorrow that is important”.
This attitude means that your ‘new’ learning is now aligned to your existing understanding (or changed view).
You have now turned knowledge into wisdom.
Responsibility and generosity then kick in, and you pass on your layered understanding to someone else, take them to the edge, help them find their own form of meaning.
And the process continues, the ripples of the roundel have started, and who knows where it finishes, passed from person to person, hence “an unknown meaning for an unknown person”.
The arts are a great example of this. People find meaning in paintings, music, prose, dance etc that may or may not have been the intention of the artist, and that doesn’t matter…they have started the discussion.
My drawing above, titled “There is always a race” has been interpreted in many ways, most different to my motivation for drawing it. I am comfortable with this, as art, if nothing else, is about the discussion it creates.
I’ve had people speak to me about a conversation we once had when I was their CEO, from which they made deliberate and significant changes to their lives, and I only have vague recollections of our discussion.
I have just finished Neale Daniher’s book “When all is said and done”. I have known Neale for 25 years, and still I learned so much from this offering. I have a Moleskin full of notes to ponder and curate.
The book started as a letter to his grandkids. It is the conversation he will never get to have. He has Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and there is no cure.
Neale is many great things, but in his heart, he is a teacher. A coach, and he has gifted this book to the world.
It includes the letter to his grandkids:
“I didn’t write this book to tell you what to believe – I am not that smart – but I wanted you to at least have the chance to know my story and understand what it was that I believed”.
This is truly an unknown meaning for an unknown person.
We have been blessed.
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.
Did We Stay Calm
TMany of my personal learnings in relation to resilience come from my lived experience as a CEO of AFL clubs. This was a test I failed often, tough lessons learned when dealing with the ups and downs, often with an inappropriate allocation of emotional resources.
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.
Siya Kolisi became the first black South African captain to lift the William Webb Ellis Trophy when the Springboks beat England 32-12 to win the 2019 Rugby World Cup last weekend.
A famous and historic win, and his country celebrates.
His post-game interview in the immediate aftermath was equally inspiring.
Just minutes after the game he says “A team like this, we come from different backgrounds and different races but came together with one goal and wanted to achieve it. I really hope we have done that for South Africa, to show that we can pull together.”
“We can achieve anything if we can work together as one.”
In that moment, Siya could be excused some personal indulgence, yet remains humble and fully present. While he appreciates his place in history, he understands the importance of the win for his country.
It is a victory bigger than himself and his team. They are the example their country can follow. As he speaks, he is not only leading his team, the world is watching, and he decides to lead his country.
He builds this narrative in the knowledge that he can well and truly back it up.
As TD Jakes said “Your words will tell others what you think. Your actions will tell them what you believe.”
His performance on the field have told us what he believes, he is now telling us what he thinks.
This is what resilient leadership looks like.
I have spent a lot of time studying and learning about resilience.
Conversations about resilience naturally focus on how we cope with adversity, but it is also our capacity to deal with our successes.
It is our clarity and rationality in the face of amplified situations, be it dealing with crisis or celebrating victory.
Dan Abrahams in his wonderful “The Sport Psych Podcast” interviews writer Ben Lyttleton about his terrific book ‘Edge: What Business Can Learn from Football’ and quotes Tim Harkness Head of Sports Science and Psychology at Chelsea FC, who defines resilience as:
“Accurately assessing threats and opportunities and allocating emotional resources accordingly”.
Sport is very good at reflecting on experiences both positive and negative, the wins and the losses, with the intention of gaining as much knowledge, insight and understanding from a learning perspective to assist the next time we are in similar circumstances, in most cases, the next game we play.
It builds habits and systems to achieve this. The game ‘post-mortem’ is an integral part of the process of growing, and we are always seeking ways to make it more effective so as to fast track learning.
Sport understands that resilience is learnable, and while some already have the implicit skills, for most they are learned. In some cases, the capacity to develop skills of resilience will be the difference between success and failure in many endeavours, individually and collectively.
One of the reasons Siya is so humble in this moment is that he has trained for it. His team’s success would come as no surprise to him, and he has a very deep well of personal and team experiences to prepare him for this moment.
A lot of the work I do with leaders at designCEO focuses on resilience, building the skills personally and organisationally to “allocate emotional resources accordingly” in both victory and defeat.
Many of my personal learnings in relation to resilience come from my lived experience as a CEO of AFL clubs. This was a test I failed often, tough lessons learned when dealing with the ups and downs, often with an inappropriate allocation of emotional resources. Fortunately, I also had the opportunity of working with leaders and mentors who had built the requisite resilience to thrive in an often unforgiving environment.
I well remember former Adelaide Football Club Senior Coach (coincidently now High-Performance Manager of England Rugby), whom I worked with at the Melbourne Football Club, starting meetings when reviewing our responses during difficult and ambiguous situations by asking:
“Did we stay calm?”
He understood that unless we “allocated the appropriate emotional resources”, we had little chance of achieving anything close to an optimal outcome.
Neil Craig, former AFL Coach and High-Performance Manager of England Rugby.
The question required us to reflect on our own responses and their likely impact on others in the decision-making group.
After completion of the analysis, we then ask:
“What have learned, and what would we do differently next time?”
They are simple questions but powerful. Remember, “it is the hard days that define us”, the times when we’re are most tested will provide the greatest insights, and the opportunities to learn resilience.
Siya Kolisi, you set a suburb example.
Well played.
A quote, a book and some inspiration…
Podcast…
Dr Jen Frahm and I discuss the topic of resilience in her Podcast “Conversations of Change”. The feedback has been terrific.
Dr Jen’s comments were:
“I don’t often listen to my own podcasts multiple times. This one I have. The alignment with change and performance is a nuance not often discussed openly, and I think one that offers significant value. Cameron also offers a slightly different lens on resilience from the sporting world which is worth considering too.”
Book (& Quote) of the week…
“A wise man said, ‘Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.’I understand the wisdom of this – right now, I don’t have much ‘forwards’ left.”
-Neale Daniher
I have quoted Neale Daniher many times in my writing and speaking, and he has now written a book. I worked with Neale as CEO and Senior Coach at the Melbourne Football Club.
He sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he’ll never get to know. And then he kept on writing … In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease – an incurable condition. He had a choice. He could spend his remaining time focused on himself, or he could seize the opportunity to make a better future for others.
His book is “When all is said and done”
I loved it, and ended up with pages of notes and learnings.
You will too.
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.
Body, Mind & Craft
For those who have studied high performance, there is no golden thread, but there are common characteristics.
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 was listening to high-performance psychologist Dr Michael Gervais’ wonderful podcast “Finding Mastery” recently when I heard him say that we only get to train three things:
Mind
Body
Craft
It immediately resonated.
Perhaps cricket’s most difficult craft is leg spin bowling. Anyone who has played cricket will have at least given it a go. All but a few persevere beyond those first few clumsy attempts to do what the laws of physics tell us shouldn’t be possible. For those who persist, and land the ball somewhere in the batter’s vicinity, then have to endure their offering being belted all over the park, presenting no more a threat than a gentle underarm.
By this stage, most have given up, their leg spin bowling only seen at the end of a friendly net session or the family BBQ with a half-taped tennis ball.
I wonder just how many young leg spinners were on the cusp of mastery, but do not keep at it. Leg spin bowling is a wonderful example of craft (technical competency), with a fair bit of body (physical capabilities), but mostly mind (emotional faculty).
For those who have studied high-performance, there is no golden thread, but there are common characteristics. The high performers have found a way to master a craft, the capability to operate on the edge of their technical, physical and emotional limits every time they ply their trade. That is what high performance ultimately requires, the capacity to deal with the uncertainty that will accompany every ball they bowl.
Fortunately for the game itself, enough people struggle on, able to recover from the many setbacks. Having watched the ball being bashed over the boundary, they walk back to their bowling mark, bring themselves back to the present, make a correction or two, and prepare to bowl the next ball to the same person who has just treated their last offering with disdain.
Those who survive this and have mastered their craft, bring a rich joy to the game.
One such person is 19-year-old New Zealander Amelia Kerr, who this week took three wickets in an over on debut in the Big Bash League. If you read up on Amelia, you will hear her teammates and coaches say:
Learner – “like a sponge”
Calm – “cool-headed in any situation”
Effort – “practices hard, makes sacrifices”
Competitive – “wants to be the best”
Fun – “always singing and dancing”
Perhaps they are the five characteristics for anyone seeking to master a craft, particularly one so sure to test you as leg spin bowling surely will.
Sounds also like she would be a wonderful teammate, and a joy to coach.
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.
Do Your Job
Hall of Fame AFL coach Allan Jeans would say “You can’t put in what God left out”.
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.
With the AFL Grand Final played, and the Richmond Football Club’s twelfth Premiership cup now touring the country, we can also pack away the cliche and metaphor that accompanies the big game, for a few months at least.
Those same cliches and metaphors find their way inside football clubs. Anyone involved in sport at any level would be familiar with clubrooms full of signs, exhorting greater effort, or articulating the team’s values, behaviours and expectations.
As the AFL season ends, the NFL season starts.
The New England Patriots are the most successful team in the NFL and USA sport. They have established a dynasty of success in a competition designed expressly to stop this happening.
The Patriots have won 74 games in the past five seasons. The next ‘winningest’ team are the Pittsburgh Steelers with 56 wins. The Patriots have lapped the second most winning team.
I have read that the Patriots have only one sign in their clubrooms. It reads:
“Do your job.”
The mantra of ‘do your job’ is simple yet holds immense power. By definition, it requires team members to “know their role, play their role”, bringing into focus the importance of role-players, those grounded individuals who in developing their ‘game’, focus their efforts on becoming a better teammate.
They understand their shortcomings but have the insight and humility to build a game almost in response to, and despite their weaknesses.
We saw a wonderful example of this on Grand Final day.
Marlion Pickett has sat through draft after draft as hundreds of names were called, but never his.
Then, at 27, he is drafted by the famous Richmond Football Club in the first Mid-Season Draft for decades. Many pundits considered this draft a waste of time, but it has proven anything but.
It is difficult to ‘rate’ stories, but this one is on the podium.
Marlion has four kids, spent time in jail in his teens, and only played his first VFL game for Richmond last month.
He made his debut in a Grand Final, the first time this has happened since 1952. He polled votes in the Norm Smith Medal for Best on Ground and now has a Premiership medallion.
The Richmond Football Club recognises its Premiership players with Life Membership, and regardless of what happens from this time onwards, he is part of the folklore of the game and of a great football club, which he will always be able to call home.
Yes, well done Marlion, and the leaders of a club prepared to challenge dogma and are now enjoying the rewards.
But more than anything, on Grand Final day, he ‘did his job’
Thinking more about the notion of ‘do your job’, from both an organisation and individual perspective, I landed on three aspects that allow a person to ‘do their job’, and modelled it:
Functional Capability, not just the individual’s overall competence, the focus is the specific skills and talent required to do their current job well.
By extension, it requires leaders to clearly understand role expectations and explain (most likely coached and taught) the skills required. In sporting terms, this is known as recruiting from the inside out. Knowing what’s ‘inside’ the person, aligned to understanding what’s ‘inside’ the organisation to be sure you know what you are looking for.
Attitude, those individuals who can leverage the best of their abilities through their capacity to build trusted relationships and the consistency of their effort.
It is a combination of the person’s Emotional Intelligence (EQ) with their mettle, having developed the habits and behaviours to build personal resilience in the face of the inevitable challenges ambitious individuals and organisations encounter.
Aptitude, which can be defined in a number of ways, but most fundamentally it is the desire and capacity to learn.
There is a certain determination and honesty implicit in this, a form of integrity and humility, as it requires the individual to focus on their personal development as it relates to their role within the organisation. They are energised by learning, the prospect of growing, of being better.
High aptitude also allows the person to evolve as the organisation faces its ambiguity and the likelihood that it will need to change in the uncertain world that most businesses are required to confront.
The Patriots have a wonderful example of this. Champion quarterback Tom Brady, who at 42 years of age, and with six championship rings and nine Super Bowl appearances, the most out of any player in history, allows himself to be coached like a college free agent striving for a place on the roster. A leader modelling behaviour.
I understand that not everyone will be in a position where they have the requisite expertise and experience to meet the “do your job” expectations, but what is important is that they’re “on-track” to achieve the standard in an agreed time frame.
This is an important conversation, too seldom had, leaving people doubting both their understanding of role expectations and their capacity to meet them.
Hall of Fame AFL coach Allan Jeans would say “You can’t put in what God left out”. So be realistic about your capacity to change people. This is not an excuse for not creating a high-performance culture and mindset if that’s what your challenge requires, but recognise that it must start with the recruitment and development of highly motivated and capable people.
My sense is that the “do your job” has many applications away from the sporting club.
It is a cliche well worth embracing.
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 Is A Club In Any Case
It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at the hallowed stretch of turf beneath him, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.
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 Saturday, two clubs will do battle in the AFL Grand Final. One of those clubs, Richmond, is the reason I love the game. I fell in love with the Tigers before I fell in love with the game.
It is therefore no surprise that this quote from the remarkable Sir Bobby Robson, a legend of the world game, is a favourite.
It reads:
“What is a club in any case?
“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.
It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.
It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at the hallowed stretch of turf beneath him, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”
In our game, it is a parent holding a child’s hand, as our sport is becoming a game for everyone.
All of us can relate to that child. The day you fell in love with something and not being able to do a thing about it. It stays with you, and then as an adult, you get to watch your kids do likewise. From dinosaurs and superheroes, to rockstars and sport, and a new set of heroes.
But how does this apply to your world and your organisation?
What if we were to change the Bobby Robson quote just a little, exchanging the word ‘club’ for the ‘name of your organisation’.
ie. “What is (name of your organisation) in any case?
This conversation goes to the heart of your organisation’s purpose.
It is not a ‘faster, higher, stronger’ conversation that most people associate with elite sport as per the Leunig cartoon below. It is a ‘slower, deeper, wiser’ discussion, so often avoided or lost in our sense of overwhelm…the busy.
In my experience, there is no competitive advantage in your Inbox, but that prospect exists if you can build a habit of reflection into the rhythm of your life, and that of your organisation.
The ‘deep work’ starts with two simple questions:
Who we are?
Why we do it?
From this process of reflection you are trying to find meaning, connection and belonging, three core components of purpose, and with that that a deep sense of belief, something that sport is inherently good at, but ultimately as leaders, a higher-purpose goal to aim for, remembering:
“People want to believe in something bigger than themselves.”
Enjoy the footy.
Go Tiges.
Perhaps they are the five characteristics for anyone seeking to master a craft, particularly one so sure to test you as leg spin bowling surely will.
Sounds also like she would be a wonderful teammate, and a joy to coach.
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.
Doing The Right thing, Even When It’s Hard
In my experience, teams gain their resolve from their shared experiences, the most important being the tough times when individuals falter and team ethos is tested.
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 best leaders have successfully created environments that enable their teams and organisations to access the full range of their capabilities.
High performance happens in the moment, and we celebrate it. But the important stuff takes place away from the spotlight.
These are the conversations between teammates. Those seeking to influence team performance, set the standard by asking:
“Will the person do the right thing by the team, even when it’s hard?”.
In the most successful teams, the members of the team ultimately determine its composition. They do not tolerate behaviours that have the potential to undermine team performance, regardless of the profile (and capability) of their teammate.
In my experience, teams gain their resolve from their shared experiences, the most important being the tough times when individuals falter and team ethos is tested.
This Australian team has gone through so much together. They have been broken and rebuilt. While no one would recommend the path they have taken, and they will forever pay a price, the team somehow seems stronger for the experience.
They had a lot of talking to do.
As the group has come together, they have also won back the faith of the lovers of Australian cricket.
So much kudos must go to the captain, Tim Paine. He also shows the benefit of his hardships. He faced into his sporting mortality a few years ago when an injury cut him down just when he seemed ready to make his mark.
In 2010 he had five operations on a finger, including having bone taken from his wrist and hip and grafted to help the break knit. He has a plate and eight pins holding the finger together, not ideal for a wicketkeeper/batsman.
“It just wouldn’t get better, then when it did, I would start to train again and it would break again,” Paine said last year.
“The fact that the break across the top [of the finger] was quite big, and because I was holding the bat, the bottom had sort of shattered a little bit.”
Paine said overcoming the mental anguish was just as difficult as recovering from the physical damage.
“You only have to look at my numbers in those few years when I came back,” Paine said last year.
“I was battling mentally.
“I was out there thinking I was going to get hit and if I did get hit, that I would never play again.
“It certainly rattled me a lot.
“The first step was actually going to speak to someone about that and be honest about it, that I was really battling.”
Leadership found him when he wasn’t looking. He now has his own chapter of cricket folklore, a narrative and a legacy that he deeply understands and respects.
People often ask what business can learn from sport. More than anything else, it is the capacity to individually and collectively learn from mistakes, to reflect, and to make these learnings the platform for creating a better version of itself.
There is no reason business cannot adopt this mindset, and it starts with the leaders.
How do we go about this?
In all the confusion that accompanies disappointment, I recommend that the leader reflect on the following questions:
1. “Do I believe in my people?”
2. “Do they believe in me?”
Neither of these are possible without asking…
3. “Do I believe in me?”.
By extension, you will need to ask “What makes me believable?”, and also what do I need to see in my people for me to believe in them, to trust, both their character and their capability?
Australian cricket is fortunate that Tim Paine could answer yes to all three questions, but the answers would not have come easily.
That’s what high performance looks like.
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.
The Long Goodbye
‘‘I spent my whole life gripping a baseball, and in the end I found out that all along it was the other way around.’’ – Jim Bouton
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 hardest time in a man’s life is when he faces death. The hardest time in a footballer’s life is when he faces retirement.’’
Allan Jeans, AFL Hall of Fame coach
Rarely do they give it up. It is a decision made for them. For the ’lucky’ ones, the body will choose. More often it will be the judgment of their club. Either way, be it doctor or coach, someone will need to tell them their time is up.
From that moment, the footballer is expected to let go, but how can he? Former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton said:
‘‘I spent my whole life gripping a baseball, and in the end I found out that all along it was the other way around.’’
This is the footballer’s Faustian pact, trading the glories of his first-life for the appreciation that can only be understood in his second life.
For the recently retired or delisted, this reality is waking up with them every morning. Stories about the current model of footballer and their effort to ready themselves for the approaching season. Just a few weeks ago, it was a brotherhood for which he belonged. Now life seems loose and vague.
Often there is little real compassion for the ex-athlete and that is simply unfair. For all of the idolisation, there is also envy and resentment, those who enjoy the revenge the sport is exacting on the ex-footballer as they struggle to find a life beyond the game. This can leave them vulnerably alone and too proud to admit it.
Being a footballer isn’t just something to do, it is something to be. They love it and they are good at it, most likely significantly better than anything else in their life. They’ve devoted everything since childhood to getting better at it. Then it stops, and they are expected to make peace before they’ve unstrapped their ankles.
For many ex-footballers, the transition from first life to second life will require a purging of emotions, hopefully in a broadly healthy form, yet often on their own.
Their first emotion is likely to be one of denial, and as much as most will not admit it, there is also anger. The sense of injustice that their body and/or club has betrayed them. There may also be some bargaining, seeking one last moment, to run out one more time. Then sadness that it is indeed over, and then their reality.
There will be regrets. Yes, the goal missed and money unsaved, but also be the selfish responses and unformed relationships, realising too late the opportunities lost in the sensory whirl of the game.
Now for the ’real’ world as it is described and defined for them. But the footballer’s world is not the same. They’ve always been made to feel as though they’re different. As a teenager they were given a special diet and weights program and expected to follow to the last kilojoule whilst their mates were eating twisties and surfing. People around them sacrificed their goals for his. They were given a scholarship to a private school, but missed exams and the school dance.
At so many levels, the footballer receives the most extraordinary education and learning, underestimated outside of the sport, much of which can be taken into the next life. The daily discipline and the will to compete. The selflessness required to play their role in a team environment, to lead and bounce back from setbacks, failure and disappointment. In a game of errors, learn to make as few as possible whilst having the confidence to take risks.
In AFL clubs, footballers soon work it out. Grow up fast and age slowly. But age they must. The game they love will eventually wear them out. It will be done with them, before they’re done with it.
There is always a lot of talk about the culture of elite sporting teams and clubs, often from people who have never lived it. Contradictions abound. For all of its collegiality, it shakes itself back to its true form when futures are decided at the selection and trade tables. You are valued whilst you produce what is required of you, or unless someone quicker, bigger and more skilful, or younger, cheaper and less riskier is available and then you are replaced. It is a game of constant tradeoffs.
Players know this and they talk about it amongst each other. It is part of their daily existence. A week after seeing off a tearful teammate, they are shaking hands with the next generation, sizing them up, hoping they can help them win but also wondering whether they will take their place.
Post career, footballers are required to pick up the remnants of many things, including relationships. Friends and family they’d moved away from in their teens. Partners who have dealt with their moods and the selfishness the game demands.
Initially there may be support from those who surrounded them during their time in the game. Care but without the eagerness, and perhaps the urgency their situation requires. This support will fade unless mutuality remains in the relationship, which is rare. It moves onto the current breed and the hope it represents.
I’ve heard people talking about ex-athletes in terms of loss of identity, the need to align it to something other than their sport. But it is far more complex. Many former players cringe at the identity they forged whilst in the game. The things they did to fit in, hide weaknesses and vulnerabilities for fear of being judged in a career limiting way and to survive at combustible moments. They know this identity outlives their time in the game even though it didn’t represent the man then, and certainly not the man now.
But there is light, and perhaps meaning, which they can only understand in their retirement. They are reminded of this often. Part of them will always be on the sporting field, something for which they can be forever proud. But it is not a standard from which their life should be measured, or how they define themselves.
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.
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We Are Better For Having lost
For me, the most interesting people seem to have the bumpiest pasts. I prefer to connect with someone who has experienced the struggles, battles and casualties of life’s journey. There is beauty, wisdom, and truth to be found in the scars
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.
You often hear leaders talk about the ‘imposter syndrome’.
This ‘condition’ has been deeply analysed. My take is relatively straightforward.
Simply, leadership is hard.
This is particularly the case when trying to match often elevated expectations with capability, an always scarce resource.
You will also fail often.
But let us remember, failure is our greatest teacher.
Just a few days ago, I heard USA basketball coach Gregg Popovich, when facing the media having been beaten by the Australian Boomers in an historic loss/win (depending on where you sit), say:
“We are a better team than the start of the game because of the knowledge we have gained.”
A wonderful example.
I also like this quote from Steve Maraboli:
“For me, the most interesting people seem to have the bumpiest pasts. I prefer to connect with someone who has experienced the struggles, battles and casualties of life’s journey. There is beauty, wisdom, and truth to be found in the scars”.
Perhaps the quote appeals to me as someone who was sacked as CEO on a couple of occasions. I have no doubt it was these setbacks, personally challenging and heartbreaking at the time, that created the path to the work I now do.
Whenever I was in doubt, I referred to theses ‘truisms’:
Leadership is Hard
Change is Different
Communication is Important
People are Human
The Future is Tomorrow
They wont let you down.
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.