Begin again.

“The starting point is to try and see how resourceful and capable this person can be. Connecting them to themselves. To what's already in them.”

“What change do you seek to make?”

I came to coaching, having been coached, and the coach was Scott Barrow, my guest on Episode 10 of ‘In the Arena’.

This is a different conversation. We explore together. It is an open and sometimes challenging discussion, one that I am glad we had, as I always do, and I hope you enjoy it.

I now reflect that I have been coached most of my life in something less than a formal coaching relationship by people who, with care, courage and cajoling, saw something in me, a form of possibility, that I had yet to see in or for myself.

It has to be done with insight and integrity, giving power to you, rather than holding it over you.

I have also experienced the latter. Those who seek to hold power over, and when things go wrong, as they often will, it gives them someone to blame. As a leader, I wasn’t immune to this behaviour, some combination of fear and ego, which brought out the worst in me.

I cannot be certain why I sought out Scott Barrow as my coach.

I just liked talking to him, and where the conversations took us. I’d also seen how he’d impacted others and changed the trajectories of some stubborn souls by connecting them to themselves, and without really knowing how much I needed it at the time, he did the same for me.

On reflection, I was one of those stubborn souls, allowing the momentum of life to define the ‘what next?’ rather than confronting the need to pause, slow it all down, and go deep in order to go forward.

I needed something other than a sounding board. I need a ‘truth teller’, and Scott stepped into this space with wisdom and bravery.

We can only be pushed to the level of trust we have with a person, and trust will always precede progress. I trusted Scott.

Scott Barrow taught me many things, but the most important was how to ‘begin again’.

At the time, I was CEO of Fremantle Football Club.

It was a great job. Yes, it was hard and often gruelling, but it was mostly going well. Whenever asked which CEO role I enjoyed most, I will say the eight years I spent at Fremantle. There was a sense of discovery in a new city that we loved, the deep Fremantle football heritage that hadn’t yet articulated itself in its AFL club but would soon do so, and also a feeling of connectedness inside the club. Good people working together, playing their role, with joy, and achieving a whole series of firsts.

I was in Perth recently and felt a deep sense of nostalgia. I miss it all these years later.

Scott Barrow helped me see that leadership (and life) is not a ‘got to’ thing but a ‘get to’ thing.

By embracing this mindset, we are ‘making room for who we might be’. I thank Pippa Grange and her book ‘Fear Less’ for this powerful idea.

Once we have made room for who we might be, we can then make space for others to do likewise.

We ‘get to’ craft ourselves and make our own art, not as an outcome-based pursuit, but by following our own imperfect path, and in doing so, make things better.

We then ‘get to’ play a role in the lives of others and help them to make themselves better.

There is never one ‘right’ answer and no perfect outcome. It will always feel uncertain, which is, most likely, the most important skill we learn.

We get to ‘begin again’.

We all need someone like Scott Barrow in our lives.

Notebook ready….

Play on!

Cam