Doing well, doing good, doing right.

As a leader, people do not experience our intentions; they experience our behaviours.

How you make them feel, to elevate and inspire, by not only supporting and encouraging them through the demands of their work, but also when trying to stretch and grow them when you glimpse potential and possibilities they are yet to see in themselves.

I call this the Leadership Promise.

Our next guest, ‘In the Arena’, is legendary AFL Club CEO Brian Cook, the longest-serving club CEO in the game's history, who, for thirty-five years, has delivered on the Leadership Promise.

He is a legacy-driven leader, a good ancestor, a steward of the future, the shoulders on which future generations stand, with the simple expectation of himself:

‘Doing well, doing good, doing right’.

As the inaugural CEO of the West Coast Eagles, he helped deliver their first two Premierships as the club became the financial behemoth of the competition. 

He was then recruited to a struggling Geelong Football Club, and he oversaw a dynasty that delivered three Premierships and was rarely out of contention. But his legacy went much further, an exceptional culture passed on to the next generation of leaders, and also something very tangible, the rebuilding over many stages of the stadium in Geelong, something unique in Australian sport, and setting the club up for generations.

When he announced he was hanging up his CEO boots, he was talked out of retirement to help steer the Carlton Football Club to realise its considerable potential.

Over the past few years, Carlton has embraced the ‘Stronger Together’ mantra. They are a big club with expectations to match, now with over 100,000 members and a very strong and influential corporate base, but for decades, they have failed to achieve anything close to their potential, mainly because they have failed to stay together long enough to build the strength to succeed in the modern competition.

The ‘Stronger Together’ mantra sits comfortably with Brian Cook, the culture builder.

This episode of ‘In the Arena’ is a CEO and leadership Masterclass.

As leaders, we have a choice.

It seems easy as I write these words, but it is nuanced and only tested in moments, those times when things go awry, particularly when it comes to establishing standards and expectations, and when behaviours, yours and others, do not align.

This is when the ‘Leadership Promise’ is tested, understanding that every action and word from leaders, casual or deliberate, can and will be scrutinised and interpreted, even when it largely goes unnoticed by you. Seemingly inconsequential to you but embedded in the minds of those who experienced you at that moment. The further you climb the leadership ladder, the more it is amplified.

The ‘Leadership Promise’, only tested when forced to choose your leadership style or response to a situation.

For some, the choice is holding power over someone, leveraging fear or apprehension to intimidate and force an outcome and increase their position of power, versus power in some other form, from a place of empathy, decency and generosity, to build connection and expand possibility.

You will recognise the type. They have status and perhaps some charisma, and when entering a room or meeting them, your first reaction is to feel good about them. But soon, you realise they make no effort to make you feel good about you, in fact, it is the opposite, using whatever means they have to hold power over you.

Brian Cook is a ‘power to you’ leader. Yes, he has the charisma and style, and when you spend time in his company, you feel good about him, but at no time do you sense that he is holding power over you.

His goal is to make you feel good about you.

He is deeply interested in who you are and what you could be. His goal is to see something in people and teams that they are yet to see in themselves, show them the possibilities, and then provide a pathway. It will not be an easy road he was asking you to take, this competition does not allow for ‘easy’, but he will be with you all the way, particularly when you doubt yourself.

For all the power of his status and personality, Cooky is a ‘power to’ leader who, even when there were easier options, kept the ‘Leadership Promise’.

Notebook ready….

Play on!

Cam