Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou thinks Australians don't like leaders who are too outspoken. The former football player says leadership requires self-belief, and the ability to make strong decisions and stick by them.
Postecoglou reckons it's hard for Australians to deal with outgoing leaders which in turn stops some from becoming leaders, or others achieving their best when they are in the top position.
Bulldogs CEO Raelene Castle is the only woman leader in the NRL. She says leadership is about finding consensus, and is not into unilateral decision-making.
Former Northern Territory chief minister Clare Martin broke 27 years of Country Liberal Party reign when she was elected in 2001. She believes political leaders will always make unpopular decisions and sometimes will need to find a compromise between what the experts tell you, and what your advisers suggest.
Chris Evans is a former Labor minister who resigned in 2013. He says he was quite consultative as a leader and not a micro-manager, but was interrogative and always insisted on testing advice he received.
Peter Leahy retired from the Army in 2008 after a 37 year career as a soldier. He concluded his career with the rank of Lieutenant General after a six year appointment as the Chief of Army and was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2007. Leahy says a leader needs to consult with their team and be friendly but not too familiar.
What do you think makes a great leader? What style of leadership do you think is most effective? Leave your comments below.
Be humble
CHRIS EVANS: "There was nothing like flying home from Canberra and being told it's your turn to clean the toilets. … I think if you're single in federal politics it can be quite tough you don't get that grounding, everyone treats you like you're really important and you might just start to believe it."
Don’t be humble
CLARE MARTIN: "We want leaders who do show us some vision for the future and I don't know whether that quite works with being humble."
Encourage tall poppies
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "Sometimes we miss out maybe on great leadership because we want to bring people down a peg or two just to make sure that, you know, they don't get ahead of us."
Be prepared to sack your friend
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "He was a much better player than me, he was, as I said, one of my closest friends, we went from being team mates to me being coach and him a player, and I had to sit across the desk from him over a cup of coffee and tell him that it was end."
Be close but not too close
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "If you get too close to people, it's human nature. You may like someone, you may not like somebody else, that can sometimes cloud your judgment, particularly when you make those tough decisions. So I think that distance needs to be there."
Never say "I don't know"
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "I can't say I don't know during a game. During the heat of battle you know, you can't turn to your superior and say what do we do here and say I don't know? …sometimes you'll get it wrong. But inaction is the worst thing you can do as a leader and I think saying 'I don't know' is a bit of inaction, particularly in that moment."
It’s OK to say "I don’t know"
PETER LEAHY: "So I think you've got to be able to say 'I don't know' but it's got to be followed up really quickly with but I'll find out and then we'll do something it."
Own up to your mistakes
CLARE MARTIN: "You can make mistakes and I think the things in politics is you've got to own up when you make mistakes."
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "Even a bad decision is recoverable if you're making it for the right reasons but you need to be very decisive."
It’s not about you, it's about the team
PETER LEAHY: "I'm the temporary steward of a national institution and so I'll do what I can and my aim was to leave it a better place than when I started ... I see that a lot of people who are purporting to be leaders at the moment are more interested in themselves than they are for the leadership of taking people somewhere ... and they seem to think well, this is about me and my own personal credibility and how I stand."
Take charge
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "I learned the lesson when I was still a player was that you want the coach to be the one who makes the decision and take responsibility for them. I think there was often times when I was a player where, particularly during times of crisis, you know, everyone liked a collaborative approach and asked the players their opinion and I remember thinking to myself, well you're the coach, you make the decision."
Know when it’s time to go
PETER LEAHY: "Too many people these days think being a politician is more about having a job than it is about wanting to do something broadly for the community, of having that broader aspect of thinking where should Australia be in the next ten or fifteen years?"
CHRIS EVANS: "Normally it's about, you know, how long have you done the job? Do you still have the enthusiasm? Are you still the right person and is it time to give somebody else a go? As I say, this thing about thinking you're indispensable is the biggest trap."
On being too accessible
CHRIS EVANS: "I'm not against access but the British Prime Minister, Canadian Prime Minister, American President don't do nearly the amount of appearances and aren't nearly as accessible as Australians are, and Howard used it very effectively but I think it's also had an impact where people expect your leader to be able to go out, answer everything about everything on talk back radio. Quite frankly no one knows the answer to everything and I think it encourages people to be short term, to make stuff up as they go, to pretend they've got answers that, you know, you can't say in Australian politics 'I don't know'. That's not allowed."
On leadership
ANGE POSTECOGLOU: "Leadership is about accountability. At the end of the day what I found out during my journey as a coach is that when the team loses and questions are being asked, it's the coach that's sitting in front of the microphone, that's me, I'm accountable for that."
CHRIS EVANS: "I wasn't one of those who went into politics because I wanted to be Prime Minister. It's like most careers, you sort of get opportunities, you take them, you end up where you end up. I know some people have burning ambition, they work out at 12 what they want to be, I wasn't one of those."
Be born with it
RAELENE CASTLE: "I always felt very comfortable getting appointed into those leadership roles. So it was never something that I shied away from."
This week a panel of leaders from different fields sits down with Insight host Jenny Brockie to discuss the topic of leadership. Tune into Insight on Tuesday 8.30pm on SBS ONE.
