Hard Yards in Leadership

To book an exclusive spot in our High Performance Leadership summit head here: https://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au/registration1660014924140

This week we have possibly our smartest guest on the podcast. Tamara Davis is a Sydney born and bred Astrophysicist and someone I have personally known since childhood.

She has skyrocketed through the fields of academia and has experienced leadership in a way many of us may not have been through before.

Managing teams of authors, balancing egos and ensuring people get the support to develop and achieve in the academic space takes skill and Tamara has that in spades.

In this episode Tamara shares:

• How she was a shy kid who followed he path of academics
• The many hard yards of gaining her qualifications and building status and recognition
• How she first developed leadership skills through sport
• How she worked on an extraordinary research piece that had her coordinate no less that 156 authors
• The sort of things that can cause conflict in a team of academics
• How she ensures that no one is left feeling left out

Key Quotes

“Everyone is gonna have their different strengths and weaknesses. As a leader your job is to figure out what those are and play to everybody’s strengths.”

“A lot of leadership is just telling people where and when to show up and making a decision so that things happen.”

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

https://www.curiousleaderscircle.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year I am joining some incredible coaches and guest speakers in hosting a 3 day High Performance Leadership Summit from March 8th to 10th.
We'll be empowering elite leaders through an immersive 3-day transformational journey, our mission is to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to High Performance leadership. In an exclusive and intimate setting, we unlock unparalleled insights from military precision, cutting-edge psychology, high-performance sports, and dynamic business leadership.

You can find out more here: https://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au/registration1660014924140 

To give you insights into what to expect, over the next few weeks I'll be giving you some bonus mini chats with some of the coaches and pairing them with a replay of an old interview I have done with them.

This weeks episode is with Ali Flynn

If you haven't caught her episode yet, after studying and working as a psychologist, the shift to motherhood left Ali with uncertainty around her future career. A suggestion from a friend prompted her to try her hand at personal training but before things could get too far disaster struck when she had a stroke and was hospitalised with a long road to recovery.

But that didn’t stop her and she went on to launch and run 3 businesses with a team of 23 all while battling health disasters in her family and her own growing serious health complications.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To book an exclusive spot in our High Performance Leadership summit head here: https://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au/registration1660014924140

For this weeks we are taking a look at the hard yards and lessons that come from competing in the highest levels of Olympic sport. While this episode doesn’t focus on leadership challenges, the hard yards and lessons will be ones that can help many of you in your careers.

Sami Kennedy-Sim is a 3 time Australian Winter Olympic representative, Australian flag bearer and World Cup silver medal winner.

Since childhood she worked her way towards achieving at the very highest levels of world sports and she encountered many challenges along the way.

In this episode Sami shares:

• How she started her journey to the Olympics
• The first time she and her family had to look at the overseas aspect of the career
• The balancing act her family walked between her parents being parents but also having to take a step back and not dictate everything
• The hard yards in being a fish out of water as an Australian snow sports person
• The cost difference for doing snow sport in Australia versus overseas
• The advice her school advisor gave her that changed how she did things
• How she went through the process of escalating her training and dedication to world level
• What a weeks’ training looked like back then
• The differences between sacrifice and making a choice
• What it was like making the decision to step away
• How her work ethic and connection in sport provided her with the opportunity for a job outside of sport as she retired
• How she changed her purpose with her changed career
• The various other roles that exist because of athletes and that athletes need those people

Key Quotes

“I questioned what I was doing all the time. And that was as a youth athlete, let alone when I was doing it as a job.”

“You don’t have that tenacity instantly, it's developed over time.”

“You are a direct reflection of the 5 closest people that you spend the most time with.”

If you want to find out more about Sami

You can find out about Sami’s coaching and other businesses here: https://www.samikennedysim.com/

Or you can follow her on Instagram: @samikennedysim

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

 https://www.curiousleaderscircle.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year I am joining some incredible coaches and guest speakers in hosting a 3 day High Performance Leadership Summit from March 8th to 10th.
We'll be empowering elite leaders through an immersive 3-day transformational journey, our mission is to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to High Performance leadership. In an exclusive and intimate setting, we unlock unparalleled insights from military precision, cutting-edge psychology, high-performance sports, and dynamic business leadership.

You can find out more here: https://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au/registration1660014924140 

To give you insights into what to expect, over the next few weeks I'll be giving you some bonus mini chats with some of the coaches and pairing them with a replay of an old interview I have done with them.

This weeks episode is with Clifford Morgan.

If you haven't caught his episode yet, he is an endorsed organisational psychologist and leadership expert with over fifteen years of service with the Royal Australian Air Force. His years of service leading and coaching people – both in uniform and out – bring a wealth of experience that provides a unique perspective to assist his clients.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this week’s episode we are joined by JC or Juan Carlos Aragon. He is a long term 30+ year veteran of the global optical industry.

He has been my colleague and my boss in the past and he is truly one of the most experienced and wise leaders that I have had the pleasure to work with.

He is a proven successful global business and people leader with over 39 years of multi-functional experience in establishing, managing and profitably-growing successful businesses in Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe, within medical device companies.
Currently he is CEO of Visioneering Technologies (ASX: VTI), a growing vision care company within the myopia management and prebyopia segments of the market.

In this episode Juan shares:

• His early career and the first time he became a leader
• Having to let people go during the GFC
• Dealing with missing budgets and budget cut backs
• How he handles himself and his team when the target can’t be handled
• Handling the team when the product becomes unsaleable
• What he did when he has to work with bosses and colleagues he didn’t respect

Key Quotes

“Once you lose that respect it's very difficult to work with someone as a boss or a colleague.”

“If you pay your sales commissions on a quarterly basis, but management is compensated on an annual basis there is a bit of a disconnect there.”

“If you're miserable at work then you're not going to do a good job.”

If you want to find out more about Juan

You can connect with Juan on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-carlos-arag%C3%B3n-90961a4/ 

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

https://www.curiousleaderscircle.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trigger warning: terminal cancer and depression

We’ve discussed how hard it can be to lead when battling personal illness on this podcast before. But how do you handle things when you have a terminal illness?

That is a question that Dane O’Connor has absolutely answered.

Dane is a Senior Business manager for the Department of Regional NSW and he is also a member liaison Officer for the Cancer Council NSW.

On top of that he lives with a terminal brain cancer and is currently living well beyond the odds that were given to him at his diagnosis.

In this episode Dane shares:

• His first leadership experience as a kid
• How he discovered natural leadership skills in rugby
• The first ‘pot hole’ experience was when he felt a lump
• The mental health battles that came with the cancer and how it affected his work
• How after the diagnosis he wasn’t leading how he should have been because he wasn’t present.
• The new career stuff he took on after his first cancer journey
• The big career move he made when his cancer returned
• Leaderships skills he applies as a parent
• The battles with depression he had in amongst all the cancer
• The moment he told his work colleagues about the cancer
• How this journey has changed his approach to work

Key Quotes

“If you make a mistake use that as a learning tool, don't think of the mistake as bad you.”

“I have an hour lunch every day and I go for a walk. People say to me, we’re too busy. It’s bullshit, you’re not too busy.”

“There’s always going to have to be a break point with everything.”

Find out more about Dane

You can connect with Dane via linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dane-o-connor-a53b25131

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode’s guest is a leader who radiates approachability and kindness, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t faced his fair share of hard yards.

Jonathon (Jono) Peatfield is CEO of Life Ed NSW/ACT. He manages a team of 80 people delivering health and wellbeing programs to around 280,000 children right across NSW and the ACT, with support from the infamous mascot Healthy Harold. 

After graduating in Commerce/Psychology from Australian National University, Jono went on a varied and very unique career pathway that saw him move from being in sales leadership and national account management with national hardware business, Otter Group to Head of Partnerships at Batyr, a social enterprise that focuses on preventative education in the area of young people’s mental health.

Recently, Jono has been working with the Thrive by Five movement to promote equitable, affordable and accessible access to early learning so that every child can thrive.

In this episode Jono shares:

• The first time he found himself in a leadership position
• What happened the first time he had to lead people and they had been there longer and didn’t want to be led.
• The 3 important leadership role models he had early on
• The surprising result after he had to call someone out for stealing
• Why he struggled even more when he had to make someone redundant and they took it personally
• His advice for young people who see that leadership roles have to be the next step in their career
• The hard, messy time he had letting someone go whose value didn’t align and why he think he didn’t handle it the best way he could have
• Why it’s important to remember that people can be nervous talking to you just because of your title and how that can create a power dynamic

Key Quotes

“We've created a bunch of roles to fit people’s ability to lead in a certain area, not necessarily lead people.”

“It’s really hard to prove values misalignment.”

“We’re progressively working out that there’s many forms of leadership.”

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We often compare leading a workplace to coaching a sports team because there are so many similarities to be drawn. So many in fact that for this episode we are picking the brain of a truly great Australian sports coach for his leadership wisdom.

John Buchanan is renowned for his remarkable success as an international sports coach for the Australian men’s cricket team

Now, he utilises his extensive experience to transform deep-seated understandings of top-tier sports performance into triumphant strategies and actions within the corporate sphere.

In this episode John shares:

• His story from childhood to coach
• The first steps he took to becoming a coach
• How he handled imposter syndrome
• How he got help by being vulnerable
• Why trying to instigate change too quickly caused him to lose his job
• The way he handled coming in to coach the Australian team
• What happened when his negative report on the team was leaked to a team manager
• How things got a lot better after he got his own support around him
• What happened when he was close to players who had to be dropped or required discipline
• The 3 questions he had to ask himself to make sure he wanted to keep doing the job

Key Quotes

“Leadership isn’t easy, you’re not there to be popular with everybody.”

“You've got to find ways your experiments are given the best chance of success or if they miss then do they miss because it’s the wrong thing or do they miss because you presented it the wrong way?”

If you want to find out more about John

You can follow John on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmbuchanan/?originalSubdomain=au

Or find out more about his business coaching and guest speaking: https://www.buchanancoaching.com

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People management can be one of the hardest challenges for leaders and that is no different for this episode’s guest Steve Johnston. In fact he even admits it himself in this episode. Repeatedly.

And that’s saying a lot, because if Steve can find this a challenge, the rest of us surely will as well.

Steve has an extensive career and is a seasoned and experienced non-executive director and CEO.

He’s worked in retail, trade, and wholesale, in hardware, automotive, toys, sporting goods, outdoor, consumer durables markets and optometry. The last of those was as the CEO of Provision for over 10 years.

In this episode Steve shares:

• The first leadership lessons he learnt as a football club captain
• How he learnt how to be responsible for people by first managing himself.
• The horrible experience of working in an org that’s “why” was just about making money for the individual
• His journey at Provision where he came in as CEO when everyone thought the industry was about to end
• The experience of being a new CEO and having almost half his leadership team leave
• The importance of bringing in a team who believes in your vision
• How his hardest challenge was leading people

Key Quotes

“If you don’t understand those individuals (working for you), you've got zero chance of bringing them on the journey with you.”

“We haven’t got two people around that team who see the world the same way.”

“There were too many people on that team who were not prepared to make ANY changes to their approach to people”

If you want to find out more about Steve

You can follow Steve on linkedin: linkedin.com/in/steven-johnston-aaicd

Or support Connecting2Australia here: https://connecting2australia.org/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trigger warning: suicide

Our guest for the episode is my incredibly dear friend Jess Lawton

She has over 17 years of experience in human resources and organisational development, is passionate about working with people and teams and her goal is to challenge status quo and use her experience in change management, strategy, business design and development to hone in on organisational leaders and teams.

She is a certified gallup strength coach, life and NLP coach and has recently supplemented her psychology and sociology degrees with further education and has added in strategic psychotherapy, clinical hypnotherapy and counselling to her toolbox.

In this episode Jessica shares:

• Jess discusses her first real experience as a leader in a workplace and how she didn’t feel overly prepared
• What happened with how she had to handle people when she changed industries from hospitality to corporate
• How her first leadership challenge was having to let go an admin worker unsuited for their role and she felt she had failed
• The way she was affected when a struggling employee who she had been trying to support ended up losing their life to suicide
• the resources and strategies you can use if someone in your team is struggling with their mental health
• The reason she stepped back from a leadership position and the process she went through to reach that point

Key Quotes

“I’m a very empathetic person which doesn’t always serve me well.”

“One of the best managers I always had, one of the first questions she always asked new staff was, how do you like to receive feedback?”

“Always try and speak to them (struggling employee) about accessing a family member because that support is what they need more than the support from you.”

If you want to find out more about Jessica

Jess mentioned an important  mental health first aid course that every manager should do if they get the chance. You can find it here:  https://mhfa.com.au/

If you want to look into Jess’ services you can check out her website: https://www.mindemporium.com.au/

Or find her on socials,

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themindemporium/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088916512713

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every leadership role has it’s own hard yards or challenges and in this episode we’ll be delving into what exactly it’s like to found and run a non for profit organisation in a country like Uganda.

In this episode I’ll be speaking with Annabelle Chauncy OAM.

While Annabelle grew in up in rural New South Wales and completed a Bachelor of Arts/Law at Sydney University. Her passion lies in developing and implementing strategy, governance, business development, fundraising and speaking to promote the work of the Foundation School For Life.

She has won far more awards than we can fit here but amongst them is the Medal of the Order of Australia, the Paul Harris Fellow and the Women of the Future Award.

In this episode Annabelle shares:

• The moment she was stuck in Kenya during an uprising
• How this experience inspired he to create the charity 
• The hurdles of building schools by using local construction who would strike and wanted to be paid daily but wouldn’t be reliable
• The moment they realised they had to understand the local community and go slow and be empathetic and listen if they wanted to succeed with the local community
• How having a good team allowed them to move forward faster 
• The time a local politician demanded a bribe to allow them to go ahead and how they handled it
• Overcoming the imposter syndrome that comes with raising a big NGO without any mentorship
• The problems that occurred when she brought in technically skilled people who were not culturally aligned
• Why she initially had difficulty being a leader and a mum

Key Quotes

“You think it’s gonna be a straight line to success. Its bumpy its up and down, it’s wild.”

“Never did I find myself in deeper imposter syndrome moments than when I was surrounded by the wrong people.”

If you want to find out more about Annabelle and School For Life:

Head to their website here: https://www.schoolforlife.org.au/

Their social media.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/school-for-life-foundation/?originalSubdomain=au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schoolforlifefoundation

Also, I have attached the link to the fabulous mental health first aid course that every manager should do if they get the chance. https://mhfa.com.au/ 

You can also follow Annabelle on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabellechauncy?originalSubdomain=au

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For some time I’ve been grappling with other sorts of leaders who would add different experiences for us to learn from. I’ve wanted to hear from some younger leaders and their hard yards, so that’s what we will be doing in this episode with our guest Elly Wright.

Her story is pretty straight forward, she was in the travel industry, she got her first break into management right as the covid restrictions started to hit.

Her story of how she dealt with that and overcame multiple other challenges is fantastic listening and has a stack of lessons in it!

In this episode Elly shares:

- The recruitment challenge with 75% of team resigning within three months
- How it took 18 more months to find and hire the right people
- The concept of being a partner in business is important
- How leading through the pandemic was difficult
- Constantly changing news about borders opening and closing
- The challenge of keeping the team motivated through endless uncertainty of covid
- Being the only leader present in Melbourne and how it was exciting but challenging and lonely
- Handling confidential situations and missing having someone to share advice with
- Why vulnerability and authenticity are important for true engagement with the team
- How Elly had trouble figuring out what motivates a particular person for 18 months

Key Quotes

“Being the only leader in a small team in a different time zone is exciting but lonely.”

"During Covid my role as a leader shifted from driving the business to almost a counsellor for team members."

If you want to find out more about Elly

You can find Elly on instagram: @ellywright

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is David Neal. David is a leader, strategist, founder, project and change manager, as well as a practical consultant for clients such as the ADA NSW, University of Sydney, Australian Defence Force, Prescare, RSL Queensland, MedReleaf, and KPMG. ​He is one of the authors of ‘Growing Good Leaders’ which focuses on developing high performing teams and running projects. He travels throughout Australia and overseas helping others to simplify the complex. His time serving in the military has provided him with vast experience in leadership, complex problem solving, project and risk management. He has chosen mate ship, family and helping good people as his path.

In this episode David shares:

• How he first learnt about leadership through sport
• His journey through the military
• The styles of leadership he learnt from working in the military
• The disastrous results of putting off removing someone who wasn’t developing properly before deploying into the field
• How his ego cause a development problem for his team after he left

Key Quotes

"Things won't fix unless you fix them."

“Very rarely is there a right or wrong option, there is just a myriad of shit options.”

“Positivity for positivity’s sake is its own virus.”

If you want to find out more about David

Find out about David’s coaching with The Eighth Mile Consulting here: https://eighthmile.com.au/author/david-neal/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this podcast we are trying to learn lessons from leaders with different backgrounds. From corporate to military and beyond.

This episode’s guest is Dina Coppel who started as a high flying lawyer who decided to follow her passion and took a hard left turn and became an entrepreneur and a founder.

As life progressed she became a parent and a partner and found herself living in different parts of the world and ended up founding a community to help others.

In this episode Dina shares:

• What made her realise she was working in her first leadership role
• How she struggled communicating to employees in retail after transitioning from a corporate role
• The hurdles of trusting employees when one senior staff member stole from her
• What made her realise she needed to pivot and move to other employment
• The lessons she learnt on leadership when she took a step back from leadership herself
• Her transition to coaching and why she did it

Key Quotes

“Telling doesn’t work, asking works.”

"I realised that they're not walking their talk and that’s what’s holding them back.”

“If you keep trying, there'll be a path, the thing that will not get you moving is if you don't try anything.”

If you want to find out more about Dina Coppel

You can follow Dina on linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dinacoppel

For her other business you can find it through the websites:

https://1000coffees.net/

https://www.elev8advisory.net/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this episode we are joined by Ali Flynn who has a truly remarkable story.

After studying and working as a psychologist, the shift to motherhood left Ali with uncertainty around her future career. A suggestion from a friend prompted her to try her hand at personal training but before things could get too far disaster struck when she had a stroke and was hospitalised with a long road to recovery.

But that didn’t stop her and she went on to launch and run 3 businesses with a team of 23 all while battling health disasters in her family and her own growing serious health complications.

Today she is the founder of Altitude fitness Armidale and the co founder of Tri-altitude Performance.

In this episode Ali shares:

• She shares the journey that took her into starting a business when she had never considered doing so
• What happened when she had a stroke when she was just starting her business
• Her advice for how to manage your work load when you’re sick or have a major health complication
• What happened when her daughter developed a kidney disease and she developed a major debilitating health condition when she had 23 team members and 3 businesses
• Her advice for how to set ups a business so that it can survive such a set back
• Why vulnerability is important and how she figured out how to utilise it

Key Quotes

"What's really hard today is going to be a lesson tomorrow."

“Systems are really good to fall back on, but the systems are only as good as the person who is working it.”

“When I got sick I was able to talk to me team about, I don’t know what is happening, I don’t know what the future holds.”

If you want to find out more about Ali Flynn

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

For her other business you can find it through the websites:

www.altitudefitnessarmidale.com.au

Or you can follow them on Instagram:

@Altitudefitnessarmidale

@trialtitudeperformance

You can also follow her on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliflynn/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this episode we are joined by Mike Williamson, a person with a fascinating career.

He started in management consulting in London, he moved to the education sector where he rose to become a senior leader in the schooling system. 
then he morphed his career to the not for profit sector where he went on to hold senior leadership roles in organisations such as Bicycle network Victoria, The Brotherhood of St Laurence and The Smith Family.

In this episode Mike shares:

• How his first mistake in a leader was going confrontational when he should have been checking in on his team member
• what happened when he inherited a team that had been scared shy by a micromanaging scary manager
• How he handled the scared inherited team
• The time he had a period of overwhelm and his bandwidth was really low
• The importance of coaching your staff and how to introduce a coaching culture in the workplace
• The challenges he encountered with his team during covid and how it led to a greater focus on wellbeing

Key Quotes

“Fundamentally if you’re leading a team you have to get results, but you also have to let those people develop. You have to do both of those things.”

“I had a period of overwhelm and my bandwidth was really low. And that not only effects your work situation but also your life.”

If you want to find out more about Mike Williamson

You can follow Mike on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewilliamson1610/  

And you can find out about his coaching and more here: https://www.levelsixcoaching.com/ 

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website: 

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this episode we are joined by Clifford Morgan, an endorsed organisational psychologist and leadership expert with over fifteen years of service with the Royal Australian Air Force. His years of service leading and coaching people – both in uniform and out – bring a wealth of experience that provides a unique perspective to assist his clients.

As a coach Clifford has worked with CEOs, military commanders, government executives and business and community leaders across a wide variety of industries. 

In this episode Cliff shares:

• His definition of leadership and how it shows up outside of work places
• The pros and cons of military style leadership
• How he made leadership mistakes by initially coming in too hard on the people in his team
• Why a coaching skillset is a great tool for leaders
• How the wrong communication style once lost him his entire team of volunteers in 1 month
• His advice for problem solving and developing yourself

Key Quotes

“Once you lock onto a problem then you lock out other solutions.”

“The more you know about a person, the more levers you have to pull when it comes to motivating and influencing them.”

If you want to find out more about Clifford Morgan

You can order a copy of his book The Coaching Leader here: https://cliffordmorgan.com.au/products/the-coaching-leader

And you can find out about his coaching and more here: https://cliffordmorgan.com.au/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode’s guest is founder and director of DHaRCO, Mandy Davis.

Davis is a downhill rider and racer who calls Sydney’s Northern Beaches home. Like many founders she created the brand after finding there wasn’t something that suited her needs. When she couldn’t find any clothing that suited what she was after in terms of comfort and style she founded DHaRCO, but well before that she has had a career in corporate, experience leaving that behind and plenty of hard yards along the way.

In this episode Mandy shares:

• How school prepared her for leadership
• The challenge she encountered when she was given a leadership position over an experienced person who was already in the team
• What happened when two people in her team started a relationship when the company didn’t approve
• How she left corporate but her hours ended up being longer than she expected
• the challenges DHaRCO encountered in the post covid slump

Key Quotes

"Sometimes, skills you can learn, but passion or drive you innately have."

“The main thing for me is you just have to take it as it comes.”

“Be flexible and be open to sort of seeing what it is we need to od to continue to sustain ourselves.”

More About Mandy Davis

You can follow Mandy on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandy-davis-18b7b33/  

You can also find out more about DHaRCO via their website: https://dharco.com/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s episode we are joined by someone I had heard so many connections rave about before I ever met him.

Neil Luo is one of those rare people who is such a wonderful leader that he has built a massive following.

In his early days he was a consultant with Boston Consulting Group, and since then has worked with Expedia, hotels.com and seek and moved to Airwallex during their hyper growth period.

More recently he has become COO of Amber electric.

In this episode Neil shares:

• How his first experience as a leader was just being thrown in the deep end
• Why not being critical enough caused problems for him as a leader
• The times you should hire a generalist and the times you should hire a specialist
• What happened when he hired staff who were misaligned with the company culture
• His advice for finding mentors
• The important choice he made when he had to manage a team but doubted himself

Key Quotes

“I probably wasn’t critical enough.”

“As a new manager you always try to delay the decision. As you’re more experience you’re just like, let’s just nip it in the bud.”

“You just need to do it, bunch of goals, bunch of resources bunch of restraints, figure out how to solve it and over time you’ll get better at it.”

“Vulnerability is important. If you’re not vulnerable, people can see it.”

More About Neil

You can follow Neil via linkedin: linkedin.com/in/neil-luo

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode’s guest is Ron Gottlieb, the owner of Ricky Richards (Sales) Pty Ltd. Originally founded by Ron’s late brother Norman and then joining him shortly thereafter, the company has specialised in the development and distribution of commercial and industrial textiles for the last 40 years. Since its inception, Ricky has grown to become the industry leading distributor and supplier of choice in the markets that they service. Their unparalleled standards for doing the right thing, quality stock holdings, and the company’s philosophy of making work enjoyable has driven Ricky to success.

In this episode Ron shares:

• The history behind how he and his brother started their business themselves
• Why he thinks you should never question a decision after you’ve made it
• The reason he thinks you need to let managers make decisions that might fail
• How he handled the death of his brother who was also the co-founder of the business
• The one thing he did during covid that he believes helped him survive
• How he learnt that sometimes being loyal to a few employees could endanger the rest
• His regret about when he got a mentor
• Why integrity is important for a leader

Key Quotes

"I never really learnt a lesson unless it cost me money in business."

“Don’t question yourself. You made the decision, you made it for the right reason… By right you should do everything in your power to make that decision go the way you’re expecting it to go.”

“I don’t believe there is any dumb ideas. There are ideas that fly and ideas that don’t necessarily fly.”

More About Ron Gottlieb

You can follow Ron on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-gottlieb-058b8a37/

You can also follow his company and use their services via their website: https://www.rickyrichards.com.au/   

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

http://engage4performance.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.