A story of quitting on the way to the top

Ipswich, Queensland – 1996. Ashleigh Barty is born to an indigenous dad and a mother with English descendancy. Humble beginnings served Ash well, and her attitude was old school right from the start. She opted for tennis instead of netball as a child because, in her words “netball is a girls sport”. Ash rapidly became a gun tennis player winning the Wimbledon Juniors title at age 15.

The epidemic of struggling at Bare Minimum

Moving house. The residential equivalent of getting wisdom teeth pulled out. It is costly, time consuming, inconvenient, tiring, and is full of logistical coordination. In my case I am lucky – my wife Jana is a professional organiser. Jana’s ability to get ahead of problems and sort out details is beyond my comprehension.

Making inspiration last as well as practical

Its cold. Its dark. For a sun-loving South Aussie fresh off a tropical break to Bali it has been a rude dose of reality coming back to Melbourne. The good news is that I am inspired. I’ve shared time with close friends and my wife that has filled me with ideas, clarity, positivity, and energy to get stuck in to some personal and professional projects. It has helped me to focus on the ‘to do list’ rather than the dank weather. But how long will it last?

High expenditure with little result

Last week I spent time in Bali with some of my closest friends to celebrate my 40th birthday. It was a special time that inspired me, lifted me, and provided non-stop laughter. On one of the days, I took off with two of my golf buddies within the group for a hit at Bukit Pandawa Golf & Country Club. The most stunning par-3 golf course you could imagine.

Liverpool Football Club show us anything is possible

Last week, Liverpool Football Club (LFC) won when they had no right to win. The Full Story here for those that do not follow European Soccer, or Sport in general. LFC had their best players sidelined because of injury, were playing the best team (and player) in the world, and had to score three goals without allowing Barcelona to score one. The assignment was as tough as any seen in the industry.

Uncovering effectiveness as well as emerging leadership talent

Working in a satellite city to the company’s head office or being based at a home office comes with many freedoms. You can duck and dive rush hour commutes, engineer schedules for school pickups, and get work done without interruptions. You can write articles in your gym gear too!

Natural breaks offer the opportunity to look back

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with the Southern Regional Management Team at Lowes Menswear. What a great bunch of people that inspired me with their stories of connection and care they have for their brand and respective teams.

Where does vulnerability fit into being a Rock for my team?

Growing up in an Italian household there was one guarantee every day – a hearty dinner. Food was critical in our place. No matter who was there, how many were there, or what type of day anyone had, we always knew a good dinner was going to be served up every night. It was reassuring and a privilege you only acknowledge as being special when you are all grown up. My parents worked hard to provide that experience for themselves and our family.

Taking a stand is a daily opportunity

I love utilising sport stories in my programs. It is a transparent industry with great public access with direct correlations to our own workplaces. The story lines are easy to follow and usually an intensified version of what we are going through. Cameron Schwab, the former AFL Club CEO, and founder of Design CEO speaks of business being very similar to sport. Cameron states in his blog (what business can learn from football) that professional football clubs need to plot themselves into one of two phases:

Seeing something out of place is all we need to be a leader

This week I had a confrontational conversation with a group of students regarding their end of year exhibition – the one opportunity they have to display two years of work in the hope of making a mark on industry leaders. I felt their standard of prep-work to date was well below standard. It was a robust conversation and it cut deep. A part of the conversation turned to holding each other to standard. That they were a team, and if others were to slack off, it would negatively affect them and could even halt the exhibition from going ahead.

The future of Mentoring is genderless

For some bizarre reason, most of my workplaces have been female dominated. From my time in the Natural Therapies Industry, to cosmetics, to salon, to education, I have always found myself in the company of women. Even when playing Grade Cricket in Adelaide our B-Grade wicket keeper was a female State Representative – an initiative way before it’s time.

Pro's make a difference, professionals* just act like they do...

In 2002, I got my first professional contract to play cricket in the UK. As the one and only “Overseas Pro” in the team there was expectation and local notoriety (everyone wanted to see you fail). It wasn’t a game changer financially, but it was a great vehicle to travel and experience the life of playing sport as a vocation.

Making the unrealistic manageable

The most predictable thing in business is that people, teams, and organisations are going to be stretched. It can feel like this is unique to us, but it has been happening since the Industrial Revolution (and probably for a long time before that). The narrative tends to be ‘do more with less’. Often as leaders, we are the ones charged with the responsibility of passing this message onto the workers to execute the strategy.

The building blocks of memorable managers

Figuring out what separates a good boss from a bad boss is simple. Think of the best boss you ever had and think about the worst. Picture their faces, their voices, and actions. By looking at a few underlying traits it is clear what the good do, and what the bad don't.

It’s the second week of June. I haven’t slept well again. I am dreaming about the conversations I must have, playing out scenario’s in my mind, practicing in my mind what I am going to say to my team. It’s not even dawn and I am exhausted.

The end of financial year goals are out of reach. Adjustment upon adjustment has been made, with all sorts of creative justifications and political side-steps. As one of my colleagues put it at the time, “the brand is tanking”.

Anxiety, distraction, and dysfunction thrive in The Now

Everyone gets excited about tennis when the Australian Open comes to town. The same thing happens in the English summer when Wimbledon comes around. Watching the tennis is full of memorable moments and great performances. But, one thing is guaranteed – the commentators talking about ‘tightness’ when a player is serving for the match. Being able to ‘close-out’ a point or game to win is considered one of the hardest thing to do in the professional game, especially when the stakes increase deeper into the tournament.

Recently, I was at a party where I met some smart and lovely people. At one point, I was talking with a Sales Manager (let’s call him Nick). We were talking about what he does differently compared to the guys he works with, and those in his team (this is a diplomatic way of saying that Nick was having a moan). I responded by remarking that the other’s may have been technically proficient but lacked Nick’s people skills. Nick responded by saying that none of them were ‘technically’ any good at all, as they were just ‘sales people’, and the Techy stuff was done by the Tech Dudes.

Spending over 10 years in the salon industry taught me a lot. Number one – no matter what the state of the economy, people need their hair cut (and will spend serious cash to keep up appearances). Number two – men on a building site would be shocked and stunned by what women talk about in the staff room of a salon environment (trust me, I have experienced both). Number three – high earning hairdressers all have brilliant interpersonal (soft) skills.

The way to Practical Strategising

What is your strategy? You need to have a Point of Difference. When was your last Business Review? Running a small business means that you will likely be bombarded with these types of questions inferring what you need to do to run a successful business. They are fundamentally good topics to engage with, but unhelpful questions in themselves. Conversations that start like this can cause anxiety, especially if the business owner does not know the answer, or even worse, if they know the answer but cannot articulate it very well.

How quickly is the retail landscape changing? It seems that everyone is telling us that change has never been quicker. I am not sure how true this, but the one indisputable fact is that change is upon us. This change comes in the form of international business crossing boarders both on-line, and now in our shopping strips and malls. So with this cycle of powerful retailers hitting our Aussie shores, what is the number one defence that local retails can initiate?