Nathan's Insights

My brother the actor!

July 18, 2015

Check out my superstar brother making his acting debut at the 40 second mark. Jealous!
Cricket History – Day / Night Test Cricket

July 18, 2015

So I’ve purchased plane ickets to the historic first day / night Test Match Australia Vs New Zealand. The match is being played in Adelaide between 27 November and 1 December. I’m going to fly into Adelaide on the first day of the match on a Friday, attend the first 2 days and fly back on the third day of the match.

This is actually my brother’s idea and I’m really looking forward to the match. I get to visit beautiful Adelaide, see the redeveloped Adelaide Oval (which looks great), see one of the most exciting cricket nations right now in New Zealand and experience a first in the format of cricket I like the most.

Managed to score cheap flights and a good deal on accomandation. Only four more months to go!

Cricket
Movie Review – Ted 2

July 18, 2015

Released: June 2015
Seen: July 2015
Cinema: Hoyts Lux (similar to Gold / Luxury Class – food service during the movie)
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried
Gene: Comedy
Rating: 6.5 / 10

Synopsis
Life has changed drastically for thunder buddies John (Mark Wahlberg), now a bachelor, and best pal Ted (Seth MacFarlane), now married to the woman (Jessica Barth) of his dreams. Problems arise when the couple decide to adopt a child, but the law declares Ted to be property and not a person. Angry and dejected, the lovably foulmouthed teddy bear must now seek legal help from a young lawyer (Amanda Seyfried) and a legendary, civil-rights attorney (Morgan Freeman) to get the justice he deserves.

Review (warning spoilers)
A Seth MacFarlane comedy is always going to be more base comedy with a lot of references to geek culture with body humour. Basically any movie he makes is a guys movie. So when my work’s Social Club offered discount tickets to Ted 2 I was in and taking my nephew Andrew who loves anthing Seth creates or voices.

The first Ted was a breakout success, low brow humour but also touching at times. Mila Kunis was a major reason the first movie work for me, she has great comedic acting chops and bought the heart of the movie at the end making it seems her relationship with John (Wahlberg) was something special. So it as a great shame Mila wasn’t back this time. It did open up a new story but I like sequels to keep the movie logic.

Ted 2 is still funny, especially in the second half, and there is a lot of call back to the original movie reversing scenes to great effect. I found Ted 2 a passable film, my nephew loved it so mabe it is aimed more at 20 year old male population.

The storyline is crazy but hey we started with a ‘live’ teddy bear so you just go with it. Amanda Seyfried as a pot smoking lawyer makes the most of her screen time, she is almost a male version of John but obviously way smarter to become a lawyer. Morgan Freeman has a small but very important part saving the day and getting Ted ‘human’ rights. The journey is definitely entertaining but some of the secondary characters from the first movie should have been dropped, lightning for these characters didn’t strike twice.

Recommendation: See this movie with 15-30 year old males and enjoy.
Movie Review – Jurassic World

July 13, 2015

Jurassic World

Released: June 2015
Seen: 12 July 2015
Cinema: Hoyts Normal Screen
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Omar Sy, B. D. Wong, and Irrfan Khan
Gene: Sci-fi / Action
Rating: 6.5 / 10

Synopsis
Located off the coast of Costa Rica, the Jurassic World luxury resort provides a habitat for an array of genetically engineered dinosaurs, including the vicious and intelligent Indominus rex. When the massive creature escapes, it sets off a chain reaction that causes the other dinos to run amok. Now, it’s up to a former military man and animal expert (Chris Pratt) to use his special skills to save two young brothers and the rest of tourists from an all-out, prehistoric assault.

Review (warning spoilers)
The first Jurassic film was released in 1993 and was an amazing experience, terrifying real dinosaurs on the loose on a yet to be opened theme park just of Costa Rica. The movie explored whether humans should play God bringing back extinct animals, this also covered common grounds like greed and over reliance on automation in our life. But really it was the T-Rex and the other dinosaurs, the wonder at first and the terror later of predators on the loose.

Jurassic World is the fourth movie and the first since 2001. In many ways this is a reboot but also a sequel. There are many references to the first movie in particular as this movie is again set on the island of Costa Rica. This time they have the theme park up and running and apparently it has been safely working for close to a decade. But customers are growing bored with the attractions (not that you can tell from the park visitors in the movie who seemed to love the shows) so it’s time to create a super dinosaur based on T-Rex but with Velociraptors and other animals mixed into the DNA. So you have a super killer, with super strength, the ability to camouflage its self and even hide from heat senses. And it was made super smart. This makes for a great mix, and is hard to understand in the Jurassic Movie universe that this is set in. I mean they talk about all the people who died previously!

Chris Pratt plays the sensible dinosaur specialist, an ex-marine who has been training Velociraptors and keeps saying you need to treat this animals with extreme caution. Bryce Dallas Howard plays the executive running the park who becomes Chris Pratts love interest as she learns that the dinosaurs are creatures and not just assets and that playing God is extremely risky. In the background we have a shadow group trying to militarise these creatures, which obviously is going to work… Not!

The movie is a fun escape, and at times I was definitely drawn into the action but there wasn’t too much here unexpected. I figured out how the Indominus Rex was going to escape and which actors were going to die. There was some unexpected humour and I’m a big fan of Chris Pratt who I hope will one day be the new Indiana Jones so it hit a lot of good notes. There wasn’t the awe factor of the original however, at least not for me but maybe that’s before I’m 20 years older 😀

id recommend this movie for people who like action and Chris Pratt and a chance to have fun without questioning the logic of the movie.
Movie Review – Terminator Genisys

July 8, 2015

Released: June 2015
Seen: 5 July 2015
Cinema: Hoyts Extreme Screen
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, and Jai Courtney
Gene: Sci-fi
Rating: 7 / 10

Synopsis
When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator assassin, an unexpected turn of events creates an altered timeline. Instead of a scared waitress, Sarah is a skilled fighter and has a Terminator guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger) by her side. Faced with unlikely allies and dangerous new enemies, Reese sets out on an unexpected new mission: reset the future.

Review (warning spoilers)
The first Terminator film was released in 1984 when I was 10 years old and I didn’t get to see it until years later at home. However Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in 1991 when I was 17 and was a massive hit in Australia and was the peak of the franchise with a great story, awesome music and great efforts. Plus Arnie was at the peak of his career. I’ve seen all the other movies and the TV series (which I thought was above average) but I was hoping they would get back some of the magic.

In Terminator Genisys the franchise is definitely on the right track even if not yet at destination greatness. Given this is a time travel story it was always easy to hit the reset button, or redirection button like the Back to The Future series. The first 10 minutes starts in the future explaining the war with the machines and showing us events that would have happened before the events in the first movie. The story is then flipped on its head once we go to 1984, Sarah Connor is the one with all the knowledge and fighting skills back when she first meets Kylie Reese back in 1984. The original / bad T-800 (Arnie) gets taken out not long after arriving in 1984 by an older version of himself. The movie gives a good enough explanation for why the good T-800 is now older (he traveled back to the 1970s to save Sarah and the outside skin grows naturally old).

The movie is obviously setting up future installments, clearing the decks of previous history that locks stories and creating a new set of questions. There is a post movie credits scene that gives a strong hint there is more to come, but the majority of cinema goers had left, obviously not fans of Marvel Films that do this all the time!

The Terminator franchise has always asked questions about destiny and free choice, about our nature to attack (in this movie humans, not Skynet does the pre-emptive attack) and how much we rely on technology which is only becoming greater as time goes on. Also ultimately can a computer have a soul, go beyond it’s programming. In real life if that occurs most great thinkers like Stephen Hawking between that will be the end of the human race.

There are still some great jokes in the movie. No nudity (come on Emilia Clarke!) and surprisingly little blood for the number of people killed. The only mistake I feel the movie made is not keeping most of the focus on Sarah Connor, her character starts so strong but isn’t as key in the final confrontation that you would feel she would be.

Overall I’d recommend this movie to any fan of Terminator movies, or a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best movie outing since probably mid-1990s. Also make sure you watch at least the first Terminator movie again before watching to see the same scenes play out differently.

An enjoyable night.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke, Sarah Connor
World Trip 1998: United States of America

July 4, 2015

Highlights: Andrew’s first overseas trip, Alcatraz, Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, Knott’s Berry Farm and Vegas.

Photos

Late 1998, almost exactly 12 years after my first world trip as a 12-year-old in 1986, I set off on my second overseas trip, this time with my mother (Helen), sister (Kara), and nephew (Andrew). We flew to the USA via Auckland on 31 October and returned to Australia on 19 November 1998 for a 20-day overseas trip.

Andrew’s first overseas trip

One of the first highlights of the trip was that it was a surprise for Andrew, who was 7 years old. He didn’t even know he had a passport when we headed to the airport. He thought he was saying goodbye to his grandmother and me for our trip to the USA. The surprise was total as he tried to race past security. Many years later, his younger sister in the same situation cried at missing out on school and her friends, but Andrew was instead racing to board a plane 🙂

Terrified At Splash Mountain

The major event of the trip was a 5-day pass to Disneyland. It sounds wild now, but the first day was on arrival and was just a quick check-in/scope of Disneyland, so we knew where to go for the next few days. We also visited the Citadel Shopping Centre in Los Angeles, which is a stop my mum would make on every future trip to the USA from this point onwards—experiencing Disneyland through Andrew’s eyes made it extremely enjoyable.

Somehow I became the designated driver and later carrier for all the gifts and presents bought at the stores.

San Francisco was next up, with a visit to Alcatraz, the Cable Cars, and ice cream at Girhardilli House, followed by walks along Fisherman’s Wharf. My biggest memory of San Francisco, however, was our hotel being in a very rundown area of the city that my mum was recommended. I was thinking that ‘friend’ must not like her very much!

We then moved on to San Diego, with me doing a lot of the driving during this trip, to visit probably the greatest zoo in the world, the San Diego Zoo, with their all-white koalas, and later SeaWorld San Diego to get splashed by dolphins and enjoy the WaterWorld show. A quick stop back in LA for a visit to Knott’s Berry Farm was next, not as much fun as I remembered back in 1986, but Andrew loved it.

Our last visit was to Las Vegas, and this time I could gamble. We tried to gamble, since I kept losing my money. We once again stayed at Circus Circus, but by now the main attractions of the strip had moved somewhat down the road. Still, I like Las Vegas, and it would feature many more times in future USA visits.

If the 1986 trip was the start of my interest in seeing the world outside of Australia, this trip confirmed it. I was starting to earn enough money to save for an independent trip. Just over 12 months later, I was to be on my first big travel adventure. Sure, I started small by limiting myself to English-speaking places in 1999-2000, but it was over 100 days outside the country.

The travel bug had bitten, and the cure was obvious: see more of the world. I was also glad to travel with Andrew while he was so young. We would travel together again in 11 years to the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and New Zealand after he graduated from high school.

Alcatraz, Disneyland, Girhardilli House, Knott’s Berry Farm, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Diego Zoo, San Francisco, Seaworld San Diego, USA
World Trip 1986: United States of America and Mexico

July 3, 2015

Highlights: Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Tijuana, Circus Circus, Vegas, Beaches in Hawaii, Pearl Harbour Remembrance.

As a twelve-year-old, I went on my first overseas trip between 27 November and 9 December 1986 for a 13-day adventure.

This was a great adventure that got me out of primary school and made my friends very jealous 😀 My entire family travelled together: my parents (Helen and Barry), sisters (Kara and Lana), and brother (Reagan). We visited Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, Tijuana and Honolulu. This was to be our first and only overseas trip, with every family member, given that my father died in 1990. While I don’t recall everything, I do remember enough. I remember playing the arcade games in the hotel for 25 cents, losing quarter after quarter late into the night.

I loved Disneyland, but for me, Knott’s Berry Farm was the best, especially the roller coaster rides. I remember how crossing into Mexico to visit Tijuana was really easy, but getting back was much, much harder. Las Vegas was so colourful. Circus Circus was a lot of fun for a 12-year-old. My brother, who was 18, didn’t have as much fun, given he couldn’t gamble.

The last stop was in Hawaii at Honolulu. By accident, we were there for the Pearl Harbour Remembrance Day. Lots of veteran marches and USA Flags everywhere. While the beaches I remember as good, it was the extremely oversized ice creams purchased in Honolulu that have stuck with me; I mean, they were bigger than my head!!

This was one true moment together as a family. Yes, we had a few fights and temper tantrums amongst the kids, but it was just before my brother Reagan joined the workforce the next year. In many ways, it was the last true family moment, when we were all children, with the world full of amazement, our parents the word of authority, and the world a happy place full of joy. The problems of the next six years weren’t here yet. Everyone was alive, including my grandparents. Happy times.

How lucky was I to have such an experience? I guess it started my love affair with seeing the world, which has taken me to every continent on the planet and 52 countries and counting. I was blessed at this time in my life, and I am currently blessed. The pain I went through between these moments makes these blessed experiences even greater. Thank you, Mum and Dad, for your sacrifices.

Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Mexico, Pearl Habour, USA
World Trip 1999-2000: USA Highlights

June 28, 2015
Back in late 1999 I set out on my first independent world trip with my best friend Jon who I met in High School. The trip was broken down into three parts

1) New Zealand: 11 November 1999 to 26 November 1999;
2) USA: 26 November 1999 to 27 January 2000 (this post); and
3) The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland: 27 January 2000 to 4 March 2000 (to be published).

This was a 115 day world trip mostly staying in hostels. At the time I wrote a paper journal which I have now turned into an electronic copy. The entries are the same as the hard copy except I have added a “Highlights” section at the start.

USA Leg Highlights
This is an amazing and complex country with a mix of liberal and conservative people. I quickly realised how great the differences there are in these United States from attitudes, to taxes, to wealth, and even to religion. I experienced the peaks of a great empire with magnificent architecture in New York City to the wealth differences in the beggars in Memphis.

The Grand Canyon lived up to it’s name and I expect I’ll remember those amazing textures and colours in the landscape until I die. Niagara Falls is stunning, especially from the Canadian side.

While New York City is the best place I’ve ever visited the smaller towns of Savannah and Deadwood had a great friendly feel and charm to them. Visiting the seat of power that is the USA White House and the Capitol Building brings to life the stories about the Civil War and the Cold War.

The USA is also the country of theme parks, I enjoyed them all, Universal Studios (LA), Disney World (Orlando) and Six Flags Magic Mountain (LA). I got to watch an American Football match in Nashville and a basketball match in Boston. Throw in the performance art that is professional wrestling (WCW Starcade – Washington) and I got to experience the cheering and passionate fans.

The music experience can’t be underrate either, Jazz in New Orleans was incredible. The history of Graceland is worth visiting and Memphis blue’s music. Comedy clubs are very happening places.

In the end I think I’ll remember most was being in New York City for the millennium celebrations. Watching the taping of the David Letterman Tonight Show New Year’s Eve special added to the experience. I’m not a fan of big cities but I’ve fallen in love with NYC. Maybe it was the Christmas feel, the happy people ice-skating at Rockefeller Centre or the classic and classy feel of the New York Public Library or the experience that is going to see a movie in NYC or maybe the Statue of Liberty. Whatever it is I’m sold.

World Trip 1999-2000 Facebook Photos

Daily Highlights
1. Day 16 – Auckland to Honolulu: Nine Hour flight with 2 am arrival to the USA
2. Day 17 – Honolulu: USS Arizona Memorial, State Capitol, Holiday Parade
3. Day 18 – Honolulu: Polynesian Cultural Centre
4. Day 19 – Honolulu: Relaxing
5. Day 20 – Honolulu to Los Angeles to Dallas: Long day traveling
6. Day 21 – Dallas: Friendly locals
7. Day 22 – Dallas to San Antonio: JFK Sixth Floor Museum
8. Day 23 – San Antonio: Garden River
9. Day 24 – San Antonio to New Orleans: The Alamo, Garden River at night
10. Day 25 – New Orleans: Street Car / Tram ride, French Quarter, Classic Jazz
11. Day 26 – New Orleans: Louisiana State Museum, Jazz
12. Day 27 – New Orleans: Voodoo and New Orleans Crypts
13. Day 28 – Memphis: Experiencing Economic Depression first hand
14. Day 29 – Memphis to Nashville: Elvis Presley – Graceland
15. Day 30 –Nashville: NFL match Tennessee Titans v Oakland Raiders, Country and Western Music
16. Day 31 –Nashville: Purchasing warmer clothes
17. Day 32 –Nashville to Savannah: Riverside Walk
18. Day 33 – Savannah: Savannah History Museum
19. Day 34 – Savannah to Orlando: Running into friends
20. Day 35 – Orlando: Disney MGM Theme Park, Beer inspired Uno Matches
21. Day 36 Orlando: Disney Epcot
22. Day 37 Orlando: Shuttle launch postponed L
23. Day 38 Orlando: Buzz Lightyear (Magic Kingdom)
24. Day 39 – Orlando to Washington: 19 hour plus bus ride commences
25. Day 40 – Washington: WCW Starcade
26. Day 41 – Washington: Visiting FBI, USA Capitol Building
27. Day 42 – Washington to New York: The White House, Arriving in New York City
28. Day 43 – New York: Downtown Manhattan, incredibly cold winter day
29. Day 44 – New York: Statue of Liberty, Ice-Skating at Rockefeller Centre
30. Day 45 – New York: New York City Library
31. Day 46 – New York: Traditional American Christmas Dinner
32. Day 47 – New York: A night of Improv Comedy
33. Day 48 – New York: UN Security Council, ‘Chicago’ (the musical)
34. Day 49 – New York: Greenwich Village
35. Day 50 – New York: New York Library, tickets to the ‘David Letterman‘ show
36. Day 51 – New York: New Year’s Eve ‘Late Show with David Letterman, Native American Indian Museum
37. Day 52 – New York: New Year’s Eve 1999 in Times Square!!
38. Day 53 – New York: New York Cinema, ‘Stand Up New York’ comedy
39. Day 54 – New York to Boston: Leaving New York City (sob)
40. Day 55 – Boston: Boston Freedom Trail, Boston Common, State House, Granary Burial Ground, USS Constitution, NBA Game (Boston Celtics v Cleveland Cavaliers)
41. Day 56 – Boston to Buffalo: Cambridge University, Harvard Museum of Natural History
42. Day 57 – Buffalo: Free falling snow!!
43. Day 58 – Buffalo & Niagara Falls (Canada): Niagara Falls
44. Day 59 – Chicago: Jazz and Blues music
45. Day 60 – Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, ‘Second City’ comedy club
46. Day 61 – Chicago to Deadwood: The cheap 26^th birthday present
47. Day 62 – Deadwood: Wild West Gambling!
48. Day 63 – Deadwood: Visiting graves of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill
49. Day 64 – Deadwood and Mt Rushmore: Mt Rushmore, Custer Park
50. Day 65 – Santa Fe: Barely surviving a 23 hour bus journey
51. Day 66 – Santa Fe: Palace of the Governors
52. Day 67 – Flagstaff: Nothing today
53. Day 68 – Flagstaff: The amazing Grand Canyon
54. Day 69 – Las Vegas: Losing money quickly Vegas style
55. Day 70 – Las Vegas: Paris Casino, ‘Viv Las Vegas’ show, The Star Trek Experience
56. Day 71 – Las Vegas to Los Angeles: Winning a deck of cards
57. Day 72 – Los Angeles: Mann’s Chinese Theatre
58. Day 73 – Los Angeles: Universal Studios, live taping of ‘Suddenly Susan’
59. Day 74 – Los Angeles: Six Flags Magic Mountain
60. Day 75 – San Francisco: Nothing today
61. Day 76 – San Francisco: Girhardilli House, Fishermans Wharf, Cable Cars
62. Day 77 – San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge, Girhardelli House Ice cream
63. Day 78 – Los Angeles: Venice Beach
64. Day 79 – Los Angeles to London: Leaving USA
USA
A Big Month – Motivating People and Experiencing Australia

June 26, 2015

My job occasionally requires me to visit diverse parts of Australia. Working for the Commonwealth of Australia and having a national role means I need to meet people and provide services and advise.

Since I returned to work in mid-May from my 2015 World Trip (India & Japan) in a period of 35 days and across 12 flights I visited all points of the country, Hobart, Adelaide, Townsville (at first for me), Brisbane, Canberra and Perth from my home base in Melbourne. The only capital I missed was Sydney (I visited there just before my world trip), and in Melbourne I was on the road a lot visiting key clients. I’m not sure if my team know I’ve really returned from holidays 🙂 I’d also hate to know my carbon footprint.

These trips reminded me of how big our continent and country really is. It took 4 hours to fly to Perth from Melbourne and Melbourne to Townsville took even longer with a change of plane in Brisbane. This allowed me to experience the differences between Australians and the similarities. I always felt safe, people where always friendly, and big cities always have a strip club in the CBD sometimes near a Church!

The main purpose of these trips was to motivate our front line staff to imbrace a new work strategy that requires cultural change to achieve. It requires people to get out of their comfort zone, work hard and expect more conflict and disagreements in their dealings as they apply the law and more appropriate sanctions / outcomes for breaches.

This requires trust not just the frontline staff but me to trust them, and really a leader needs to start with trusting his or her people first. I’ve been building to this new approach for a number of years working on the premise people want to know they aren’t just doing busy work, that their role matters. I’m fortunate that I can demonstrate I’m not a senior leader blow in, here to destory a workplace and leave with no responsibility. I can point to ideas from their colleagues we have implemented and how full credit was given.

I can show how I was doing the same job they are currently doing, I know the frustrations and the difficulties, that I stay to the end and I’m far more interested on implementation and results than just talk and ideas. Almost universally the staff were enthusiastic and engaged, I received innovative ideas that I had never considered. It reminded me that what stops most people achieving in big organisations is bureaucracy and lack of leadership empowerment.

Now I need to take a short mental break, build relationships with my people in Melbourne, recover from these trips (they tire you out quickly in particular the public speaking events I also deliver as a secondary task) and turn these words into actions and celebrate and support those how deliver value.

Oh and I need to visit more of Australia on holidays. I still need to explore more of Western Australia. Broome and an overland trip to Darwin is still on my wish list.
Too busy to care is no excuse

June 21, 2015

A recent New York Times about incivility at the workplace got me thinking about the way I operate in the workplace. Am I too busy to acknowledge my team, or am I setting a bad example?

The article had the following insight:

Bosses produce demoralized employees through a string of actions: walking away from a conversation because they lose interest; answering calls in the middle of meetings without leaving the room; openly mocking people by pointing out their flaws or personality quirks in front of others; reminding their subordinates of their “role” in the organization and “title”; taking credit for wins, but pointing the finger at others when problems arise.

As a senior to middle manager in a large 20,000 plus employee organisation I need to question my actions and their consequences. Last year during a mandatory eight day leadership program, spread across six months, I was encouraged to learn from positive examples. While I have a few positive role models, Stuart Forsyth was a great boss and leader in my eyes, I feel I learnt way more from negative examples.

I recall being yelled at and belittled in public for a mistake I didn’t cause with the result this manager apologised the next day (in private) in a quiet voice, a very diminished in my mind. I remember the manager trying to sabotage my promotion to another area a few weeks after I was ranked the most productive employee in her area, I was too valuable to lose apparently, my dedication and extra effort stopped that very day their was no balance to our relationship. I regularly see managers not supporting their best staff get a promotion because they are too value. I’ve seen exceptional staff become poor performers as they became too value to go offline and get development opportinuties. I’ve witnessed a senior manager blame their staff for minor issues after taking all the credit for the major successes the manager did little to achieve.

This has a health impact on staff. One of my previous roles was in Human Resources as a Rehabilitation Case Manager. I have no doubt I meet functional psychopaths. In particular the Director who wouldn’t separate the woman from the manager she accused of sexual assault (later proved) as he was a friend of the boss. Or the lack of any empathy for the staff member who tried to commit suicide by setting themselves on fire and the Director wanted this individual back in the same public work situation despite being seriously disfigured “he either leaves in a box or resigns” was the actual comment that made me leave my role, I couldn’t support someone who was comfortable with a death to set an example. They wanted to be seen as tough on workers, to get the others to work harder.

So I promised myself never to be like the worst people I endured and experienced. But do I get the mix right surely I don’t bully my staff? However some days I barely say hello to just a couple of my team members, ignoring the rest, as I get caught up on a media enquiry or dealing with a key client or association. I ask for trust all the time from my people but do I inspire or deserve it?

I’m currently on a tour of the country motivating front line staff, over 300 employees, but am I spending more time with them instead of my 16 direct reports. Add in roadshow visits to key clients and a recent Leadership Conference and I’m starting to think I’m ‘too busy’ to support my people.

Your actions, not words, shows your true character and priorities. As a leader the pact with my staff I believe should be I’ll provide the vision/plan for the area, back their work decisions (within reason), support their career / life objectives (again within reason) and support their wellbeing and in return they will deliver team objectives and support me.

No one should ever suffer health wise due to work. Being too busy to notice or even worst cause it is no excuse. We concentrate so much on numbers but are we missing the human connection which without you are doomed to long term failure.

Health, work