Be Decisive And Wait.

Those iPod quarterly sales meetings in March 2002, June 2002, September 2002, December 2002, March 2003 and June 2003 must have been tough.

The owners of two billion iPods should be grateful that Steve Jobs didn't respond to these numbers with the 'decisiveness' that many managers mistake for good decision making.

The first job of a Leader is to create the space.

And hold it.

Hold it.

Hold.

Knowing Who You're Not.

'I recorded my first album, The Sound of White in Los Angeles when I was 20 (or was it 19?.) The producer, John Porter, said to me very nicely one day: "Your accent, it's...very strong when you sing, isn't it? Perhaps, ah, we could tone it down a little? Some people might find it a bit distracting."

I took great offence. Not only did I not tone down my accent, I went even harder with it. "Boom, that'll show them," I remember thinking. "How dare anyone think that me singing in my own accent is distracting? I'm not f..king American!"  The accent went on to become stronger out of sheer spite. "If this is going to polarise people," I thought, "I may as well not do it in halves."

- Missy Higgins.

Missy Higgins was 19 and working her first job - making her debut album. She was doing what she'd wanted to do since she was 12 - singing.

John Porter, effectively her boss, had produced his first album for The Smiths eight years before she was born and had worked with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry.

He questioned who she was - she pondered and decided to defy him. At 19. In her first job. She decided to become herself.

Not half - but fully.

The Sound of White debuted at No. 1 and sold half a million copies.

A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.

Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be. You question or you're questioned. You search for your own answers, not someone else's.

If you look around and someone is following - buying half a million of your Widgets - you're a Leader.

If not - fine. You're still on your way to where you want to be.

Stick.

Dan: 'As somebody who feels like a person who knows so little and my knowledge is so incomplete. And yet know I'm supposed to be imparting knowledge to our kids and I kind of almost tried to give up on that and I try to just focus on good decision making.

'It's one thing if you tell your kid: 'Well just do it like this'. And it's another to just walk them through it. You know that if you walk them through it the right way that they'll learn about the thought process. Because I think that thought processes are teachable. Or learnable. Good, logical thinking is a learnable thing. It's one thing if your kid says 'Well how do I do this?' Or 'Why is it like this?' And you just tell them. As opposed to kind of leading them down the path to figuring out the answer on their own. That seems to stick a little bit better.' 

Merlin: 'I find it so hard not to intervene. She's doing something - like she's learning to jump rope right now. And it's all I can do not to seize the thing out of her hand and go 'Look! Stand on it with your two feet like this, pull it up to here and if it reaches your waist that's the right length!' 'Cos she's got about half the length that she needs to do it. She keeps jammin' it into her ankle and it drives me crazy to watch. It's all I can do not to intervene. But you know - that's part of the process.'

Substitute 'employee' for 'kid'.

Preside.

From the very beginning, Obama has been a presider rather than a decider. His modus operandi is to marshal existing political forces toward a particular, prgmatic set of goals. 

- Andrew Sullivan

A good Leader Creates a Space.

She presides over that Space.

She holds it.

The measure of her power is not in what she does.

It's in what others do in that space.

It takes strength for her to hold that space against the forces that batter against it. Time. Money. Efficiency. Expediency. Fear. Ego. 

And the most powerful of them all - her self-doubt.

'Preside' comes from the Latin praesidere - to stand guard over.

Anyone who creates a space and protects the process of discernment and decision making within - is a Leader.

Flawless.

'All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill.''

- The Duke of Wellington

'It was a flawless operation. It was just that the hostages weren't there.'

- Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defence.

A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.

It takes discipline and courage to seek to execute a flawless operation instead of succumbing to the seduction of decisiveness.

That's why Leaders are brave.

Sure - you might solve a problem with instinct, intervention, positional power or luck.

Meanwhile, someone is planning their operation based upon the predictability  of your decisions.

About where the hostages will be.

Anatomy.

He tells how he trusts his gut. 

He's an entrepreneur. 

She shows how she trusts our wisdom.  

She's a Leader.  

Amplify.

'Watch Robin Williams while Craig Ferguson is talking. He's not leaping - he's not waiting to leap and say his next funny line. You can see him always pausing a beat to see where Craig Ferguson is taking it. And that's a sign of real generosity. He's so great at throwing the next ball that's going to respond to what you just said - amplify it - then also have something that he can throw back to you that you can make twice as funny too.'

- Merlin Mann

Grand words. Big words. Vision words.

Such as: Teamwork. Collaboration. Transparency. Learning. Disruptive. Creative. Accountable.

As simple as pausing a beat in a conversation.

Listen.

Generously.

Step back to allow another to step forward.

Amplify them.

Step back.

Invite them the next step forward.

Beat.

Dying to self.

Love in the workplace.

Give.

'You have to trust people and give them space if you want to get things done.'

-  Mr Alec Coles, Chief Executive of the West Australian Museum

The first job of a Leader is to Create the Space.

Listen...

Breathing.

Screaming.

Burden.

'You're asking me to quash his conviction?'

'Yes Sir.'

'Even though he pleaded guilty?'

'Yes Sir.'

'The Law is an ass, Bernard.'

Air Commodore Smith was a 'one star' general equivalent.

He'd graduated from the RAAF Academy the year I was born.

He was an Engineer. A Fighter Pilot.

He was flying Mirage fighters at twice the speed of sound at 40,000 feet over Malaysia during the Vietnam War when I was still in nappies.

He was a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

He was the Air Officer Commanding Western Australia.

He had a wife and grown up children.

He was my boss.

I was in my mid-twenties. Three years out of Law School. Four ranks and a thousand years junior to him in work and military and life experience.

'The Defence Force Discipline Act allows you to seek a higher legal opinion if you're not comfortable with mine, Sir,' I explained to him.

'Not necessary,' he said as he signed his acceptance of my review and recommendation to quash the conviction of the cannabis smoking airman on the basis of an error of law. 'You've explained your reasons both in your written report and verbally to me today and I accept the stupidity of the Law, not you. I'm going to bring this legal loophole to the attention of the other Base Commanders at our conference at Headquarters next week. They need to know about it.'

A month later, a file 'Command Legal Matters' was marked out to me by Wing Commander Oliver, the Air Commodore's Administrative Staff Officer. I opened it and found a copy of a letter that was marked to me 'For Information'.

It was a letter from the Air Officer Commanding Training Command, a two star general equivalent and my boss's boss. It was written to all the Air Force Base Commanders in Training Command - including my boss. It referred to the recent Commanders Conference and the jurisdiction issue I had cited to recommend quashing the conviction. It was admonishing my boss for quashing the conviction based upon my legal advice.

One line stands out in my memory: 'There is no place for High Court decisions in the administration of summary hearings under the Defence Force Discipline Act on Bases. Command Legal have confirmed this. Commanders should therefore seek higher headquarters legal advice in future before quashing convictions based on jurisdictional grounds. '

The Air Commodore never mentioned the letter nor his boss's criticisms of him at his commanders conference to me, let alone my legal superiors' contradictions. I don't even think that he intended the letter to come to me - otherwise he would have spoken to me about it rather than have me find out via a marked out file. He must not have thought it important.

Air Commodore Smith backed me. He backed me over the commanding officer whose guilty verdict he quashed. He backed me in front of his boss. He backed me before his peers. He backed me when he could have gone to my legal superiors for a second opinion. He backed me even though he disagreed with the legal outcome as a matter of common sense. He backed me when my own legal superiors did not. He backed me with the same business-as-usual manner as he would return my salutes if we passed each other or crack his lawyer jokes.

Air Commodore Smith didn't need to hear a Supreme Court Judge affirm my legal reasoning at a Legal Officers conference six months later. He continued to challenge, question, and ultimately back my advice to him for the remainder of my posting as his legal adviser.

His faith in me was a huge burden. It increased my self-doubt because I had to continue to live up to his total reliance on me and I thought I could not. It made me feel more exposed, rather than protected. It made me more careful and diligent in the legal advice that I gave to him. It made me accept other decisions that he made as the Base Commander that I did not necessarily understand or agree with because I trusted him based upon the way that I had seen him go about his decision making. It connected me to him. It made me a better legal officer, lawyer and person. His trust in my judgement and legal ability and officer qualities was hard to live up to.

Which was another gift that Air Commodore Smith gave me.

He just assumed I was up to it.

Punish.

'At an early stage Abbott defined his priorities: securing the site, returning the bodies, an independent inquiry, and punishing the guilty.

Each day his sense of mission is clearer. It is the key to crisis management. Abbott said late  yesterday he had but one purpose: "to bring our people home"...'

The Australian

The unconscious priority of decision makers is often the reverse: finding and punishing the guilty, then finding the information that supports the decision to punish.

Our decision making is influenced by the need to punish more than we realise.

(We don't make decisions - we make 'judgements'.)

Vengeance. Deterrence. Retribution. Justice.

No organisation other than the state can give any of these.

None should behave as if they can. 

This subconscious need to punish is also why some won't make a decision.

'Who am I to judge?'

If we're not the decision maker, we project that assumption onto the person who is.

We won't offer information relevant to a decision.

'What if I'm wrong? I don't want to be responsible for what happens to someone else.'

We don't want to lead someone to the hangman's noose.

It's just information.

How do we avoid being distracted by our punishment bias?

The Five Steps.

Clarity of our Mission. Our Purpose.

Our Widget.

They.

'The school was closed after the teachers alerted the Principal to items in other rooms that they thought may have also been asbestos,' Mr David Axworthy, Deputy Director General Department of Education explained to the interviewer.

Interviewer: 'Why was it that teachers initiated this action and not the Education Department?'

Mr Axworthy: 'The teachers are the Education Department.'

Touché.

Theory.

'Whether you think you do or not, you do have a theory of human behaviour. The only choice is in deciding which theory you will use. And the choice is an important one. It will determine how you see people, how you treat them, your assumptions about them - including yourself. It will affect your values, your views about motivation, the quality of your interactions and your leadership.'

- Elliott Jaques

Requisite Organization: A Total System for Effective Managerial Organization

Dr Elliott Jaques was a psychoanalyst by profession. He believed that you don't change organisations by changing people, you change people by changing organisations. Or perhaps you free people to become who they are, by changing organisations.

He had a lot to say about decision making in his book Requisite Organisation. Here is a selection.

'Retrievals and calculations are often confused with decision-making, a confusion which weakens our understanding of true decision-making.'

'All human thinking, and therefore all human work, is a continual and powerful interplay between non-verbal mental processes and the knowledge which we use to direct and focus those processes.'

'The work which you experience as the effort in decision-making is the effort in giving energy and direction to the non-verbal mental processing and bringing or allowing the outcomes into verbalisable awareness, so that they an become part of your knowledge and available for conscious use in problem-solving.'

'Decision-making has to do with human uncertainty:

• It is precisely the uncertainty inherent in human work, the feeling of never being quite sure, that makes you close your eyes and agonise over decisions.
• You do not have all the words, and as you agonise you get hold of raw ideas, clothe them inwards, and dig them from the unverbalised recesses of your mind.
• If you are given tasks of complexity beyond your capability in a role with too long a time-span you become anxious and eventually confused - there is a longer run of uncertainty and more variables than you can cope with.'

'Decision-making and action call for judgement and discretion based upon non-verbal mental work. I term our ability to do this our complexity of mental processing.'

'But never forget, at the actual moment of choice, the choice or decision just gets made, as though on its own, and we become aware of what we have chosen only after we have committed ourselves to some specific particular choice.'

'Skilled knowledge helps to organise and simplify work by enabling a person to carry out parts of a problem-solving activity without having to think about them, thus freeing discretion and judgment which would  be otherwise engaged.'

'The important thing is not to confuse the skilled knowledge with the work.

• Skilled knowledge you do not have to think about: work is the part you have to attend to, think about, and make decisions about.
• When you are skilled at touch-typing you no longer have to think about which keys you are seeking - that is automatic: but you do have to think about whatever it is that you are using the typewriter to record.'

'The art of the good society and of the good organisation is to ensure opportunity for the use of their full potential by all of its people.'

'My whole orientation is towards the performance of individuals in carrying out purposeful goal-directed activities.'

'What we all really yearn for is to have work at a level consistent with our current potential and for progression in line with our maturation, and the chance to get the necessary education and training. That is the true democratic dream.'

'What is more, subordinates yearn for someone above them to sit down with them and discuss their careers and opportunities: and this includes not only those with growth in potential ahead of them but also those who know that they have matured to full potential and seek assurance of continued opportunity to work at that level.'

'You have no idea of the positive galvanising effect upon your people of having their intuitive awareness of their own true potential confirmed by understanding managers-once-removed who have been charged with this duty. Indifference is annulled and a flow of creative energy is released.'

'Manifest Organisation: the organisation structure as it is represented on the official organisation chart: at best a very rough approximation to what is actually going on, if you can even make sense of it.

Assumed Organisation: the structure as different people assume it really works; likely to have as many variations as you have people, and produces confusion.

Extant Organisation: the system as it actually functions, as demonstrated by systemic study. It will always be an approximate picture. It requires that you dig in and find who is actually being held acceptable for what, and what authority they are in fact able to exercise in relation to whom and toward what.'

'If you want each and very one of your managers - at all levels and in any and every function - to be able to be held accountable for deciding what outputs each of their immediate subordinates is producing...then you must ensure not only that they have the following minimum authority but also that they have been taught that they have it and have been instructed in how to use it:

• Veto any new appointment
• Decide types of work assignment
• Decide effectiveness appraisal
• Decide removal from role.'

'To ask a manager about specific tasks which she/he assigns to a subordinate comes as an unfamiliar experience for most - and the managers find replying equally strange and awkward until they get used to it.'

'There is a very important point to be noted here, which will save a lot of susbsquent confusion if taken into account.

• Work (and its complexity and difficulty) is not the traversing of known paths.
• The work is to choose pathways or construct new ones, and to adapt them as you encounter unanticipated difficulties in traversing them.
• Obeying known rules and regulations is not work: it does not constitute a problem: deciding how best to obey under particular circumstances may do so, for rules and regulations set boundaries (prescribed limits) within which your choice of pathways is constrained.'

Debate.

The boss is busy. He's important. He's got so many important things to worry about. Meetings to attend. Emails to write. Reports to read. It's unreasonable to expect him to have time to spend consulting with you. Anyway, his matters are lofty and serious. He doesn't have to explain himself to you. You wouldn't understand anyway because it's very complicated. He knows what he's doing because he's the boss. It's serious work being a boss. Don't waste his time and just get your work done so he can do his. The boss is busy.

In mid-1942 Prime Minister Winston Churchill rose to address the House of Commons. The Second World War was in its third year and the British Army was in full retreat in North Africa. The German Afrika Corps was forty miles from Alexandria and eighty from Cairo. Prime Minister Churchill was debating a vote of no confidence in his leadership. He was being accused of allowing the Axis forces of Germany and Japan to conquer and enslave the remaining free world.

Churchill did not use fighting a World War as an excuse for not preparing for and engaging in open debate on his decision making. On the contrary, 'What a remarkable example it has been of the unbridled freedom of our Parliamentary institutions in time of war,' he said.

The boss can't be expected to know everything that's going on. How can he be responsible for something that was done two or three levels below him?

'The question of whether Tobruk could be held or not is difficult and disputable. It is one of those questions which are more easy to decide after the event than before it...But those who are responsible for carrying on the war have no such easy options open. They have to decide beforehand. The decision to hold Tobruk and the dispositions made for that purpose were taken by General Auchinleck, but I should like to say that we, the War Cabinet and our professional advisers, thoroughly agreed with General Auchinleck beforehand, and, although in tactical matters the Commander-in-Chief in any war theatre is supreme and his decision is final, we consider that, if he was wrong, we were wrong too, and I am very ready on behalf of His Majesty's Government to take my full share of responsibility.'

Why can't someone just make a decision? Everything takes so long. There is so much bureaucracy. Ask anyone what needs to be done and they will tell you. The boss is useless. 

'Complaint has been made that the newspapers have been full of information of a very rosy character. Several Hon. Members have referred to that in the Debate, and that the Government have declared themselves less fully informed than newspapers...The war correspondents have nothing to do except to collect information, write their despatches and get them through the censor. On the other hand, the generals who are conducting the battle have other preoccupations. They have to fight the enemy.'

The boss wants to be briefed. He wants to have everything run past him. He wants to approve every decision. He wants papers. He wants meetings. He wants pre-meeting meetings. He wants updates. He wants to step in if necessary.

'Although we have always asked that they should keep us informed as much as possible, our policy has been not to worry them but to leave them alone to do their job. Now and then I send messages of encouragement and sometimes a query or a suggestion, but it is absolutely impossible to fight battles from Westminster or Whitehall. The less one interferes the better, and certainly I do not want generals in close battle, and these desert battles are close, prolonged and often peculiarly indeterminate, to burden themselves by writing full stories on matters upon which, in the nature of things, the home Government is not called upon to give any decision...Therefore, the Government are more accurately, but less speedily, less fully and less colourfully informed than the newspapers.'

The boss likes people who work late. Who show how much they care by the number of furrows in their brow.

'Some people assume too readily that, because a Government keeps cool and has steady nerves under reverses, its members do not feel the public misfortunes as keenly as do independent critics. On the contrary, I doubt whether anyone feels greater sorrow or pain than those who are responsible for the general conduct of our affairs.'

The boss wants to know why the plan went wrong.

 'Sir, I do not know what actually happened in the fighting of that day. I am only concerned to give the facts to the House, and it is for the House to decide whether these facts result from the faulty central direction of the war, for which of course I take responsibility, or whether they resulted from the terrible hazards and unforeseeable accidents of battle.'

The boss wants to scrutinise every decision. He won't approve anything until he's absolutely certain that it is perfect.

'How do you make a tank? People design it, they argue about it, they plan it and make it, and then you take the tank and test and re-test it. When you have got it absolutely settled you go into production, and only then do you go into production. But we have never been able to indulge in the luxury of that precise and leisurely process. We have had to take it straight off the drawing board and go into full production, and take the chance of the many errors which the construction will show coming out after hundreds and thousands of them have been made.'

The boss has a serious job. He's a serious man making very, very serious and important decisions. Don't mock the boss. He deserves our respect.

'This tank, the A.22, was ordered off the drawing board, and large numbers went into production very quickly. As might be expected, it had many defects and teething troubles, and when these became apparent the tank was appropriately re-christened the "Churchill."'

The boss doesn't like mistakes. He wants the job done right the first time. If not, he'll lay the blame where it belongs. He can't be held responsible for what others do.

'I cannot pretend to form a judgment upon what has happened in this battle. I like commanders on land and sea and in the air to feel that between them and all forms of public criticism the Government stand like a strong bulkhead. They ought to have a fair chance, and more than one chance. Men may make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Men may have bad luck, and their luck may change. But anyhow you will not get generals to run risks unless they feel they have behind them a strong Government. They will not run risks unless they feel that they need not look over their shoulders or worry about what is happening at home, unless they feel they can concentrate their gaze upon the enemy.'

It's a serious business being a boss. It's no laughing matter. He's engaged in important things.

'I have stuck hard to my blood, toil, tears and sweat, to which I have added muddle and mismanagement...'

The boss acts on instinct. He makes decisions and expects his authority to be carried out. No questions. If something goes wrong, let's spin ourselves out of it. Don't admit anything.

'Nearly all my work has been done in writing, and a complete record exists of all the directions I have given, the inquiries I have made and the telegrams I have drafted. I shall be perfectly content to be judged by them.'

Prejudice.

'In order to put prejudice aside it is first necessary to acknowledge it.'

- Her Honour Judge Braddock SC

The Fourth Step in the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.

Each step in the Good Decision Making process is a forcing function. It compels us to pay attention to information that we might otherwise skip over or overlook or assume.

A good boss has her finger on the pulse. She knows her people. She knows her Widget. She knows the imperfections in each. It is impossible for her to not have an opinion. She could get away like most with making decisions on instinct.

The good boss also knows her own imperfections. The better she gets at decision making, the more conscious she becomes of her fallibility. [A great way to tell a good boss from a boss.]

In her Fourth Step, the good boss pays attention to her thoughts. She may even invite others to listen to her speak them. Has she pre-judged her decision?

[A good boss is a teacher. The Five Steps make visible her thinking for the benefit of others.]

As with the First Step, the Fourth Step allows the decision maker to acknowledge the imperfections that make her human. Her biases that may not serve her Widget.

In doing so, she invites those around her to do likewise. To be themselves.

The flaws that allow her to become who she is - free others to do the same.

The steps to a good decision elevate us - and those around us - beyond the decision. It quickly disappears in the distance as we continue our journey to become who we are.

Inquiry.

'Whether it’s in political parties, juries, or boardrooms, groups of humans tend to make better decisions, and to be better at solving problems, when composed of individuals who see the world differently from each other.

- The New Statesman 

Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be. 

Inquiry is a brave act. Risky. It declares 'I Don't Know'.

What boss will admit that? What other things might she not know? Why is she being paid the big bucks if she doesn't know?

Might she not know things that she needs to know for me to know things? I've got a job to do. Where does her not-knowing - leave me?

Not knowing.

Inquiry is a brave act. It levels the power scales. The boss and I are equally ignorant. We learn the new thing together. 

The good boss gathers people around her in her inquiry and invites them to tell her she's wrong and encourages me to watch. Brave. [The good boss is a teacher.]

Inquiry implies the boss isn't certain of her footing. She's unsure of the world and needs to know more. She's off balance. Vulnerable to a push from above or below.

Inquiry invites new information that may erase the old. It may call into question everything we assumed. It may even demand that the boss says: 'I was wrong.' Oh dear.

Inquiry is counter to the decisive, busy, brain-in-the-next-meeting, heroic boss.

Thus most bosses don't inquire. [Good bosses are rare.] They pretend to know. They make decisions using instinct. Or delegation (up or down). Or they do nothing and let entropy decide for them. We let them get away with it because he's the boss and we just want a decision - any decision - so that we can plug it into our Widget and have an alibi if the Widget doesn't work and go home and moan about the boss and our life.

A good boss inquires because she is curious. Because she is impatient in her advance towards her Widget which she knows lies beyond the Knowing.

A good boss doesn't decide with power. Or by keeping her workers ignorant. Or by pretending. Or mothering us by protecting us from the scary world of not-knowing.

A good boss knows that I Don't Know might be the three most powerful words in the dictionary.

Or not.

[Let's speak them and see what happens.]

CC.

If your email is about me and I'm not copied in - why not?

If your meeting is about me and I'm not invited - why not? 

If the new employee will work with me and I'm not consulted - why not? 

If your decision is about me and I'm not heard - why not? 

Look at each reason. Now search for any of the following capitalised nouns in your values, codes, policies, mission, speeches, website, LinkedIn page:

Transparent. Committed. Team. Collaborate. Engage. Learn. Accountable. People. Loyal. Inclusive. Serve. Innovative. Creative. Trust. Courage. Excellence.

Integrity.  

Leader. 

God.

Amend either deed or noun as appropriate. 

Or delete 'Integrity'. 

Or sack me. [I obviously can't be trusted.]

Or quit. [You can't trust yourself.]

Observed.

'For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts.'

- Bruce Schneier

The Leader begins by creating the Space. She invites others into the Space to become who they are. She assumes that they will make mistakes. Get things wrong. Fail.

The Leader doesn't respond with regulation. The opposite. She ultimately Retreats - leaving us to do our work. To make more mistakes. To continue becoming. 

Her faith in us mostly doesn't end well in the measure of the world. We fear freedom. Getting it wrong. We don't know what to do. No-one has taught us. We want to be told. We want someone to blame for our choices. For our unhappiness.

We feel threatened when observed. [I'm not trusted.'] We feel threatened when unobserved. ['I don't get any feedback or gratitude.'] 

Eventually the Leader is replaced by a manager. He tells us what to do. He checks and corrects. We chafe and share our grievances with each other during our designated breaks and are secretly grateful that we are no longer responsible for our unhappiness.

Constantly fearful. 

Longing for Leadership. 

Clarity.

The Officer Commanding summoned me to his office.

'Explain your legal advice on the Base Swimming Pool matter, please.'

'Defence Instructions allow commanders to authorise civilian use of Defence land or assets only for Defence purposes, Sir. For you to have the power to authorise local non-RAAF families and children to use the Base pool, you have to demonstrate how Defence will benefit from having those civilians coming onto the Base. That's a lot of potential liability on the Commonwealth running around, Sir. There has to be some payoff for Defence to justify inviting that risk.'

The Air Commodore pushed a document across his desk towards me. 'Here are my four reasons for existence as Officer Commanding,' he said.

I picked up the piece of paper. It was the OC - my Boss's -  Letter of Appointment as Air Officer Commanding Western Australia from his Boss -  the Air Officer Commanding Training Command.

'Read dot point four,' the OC said.

'To develop and maintain positive relationships with the local civilian community,' I read out loud.

'Would you agree that me allowing the locals to use the Base swimming pool would be consistent with the execution of that aim, Legal Officer?' the Air Commodore asked.

Widget clarity is the foundation for good decision making.

A good and patient boss who has the confidence to show his working out is a priceless gift for life.

Going.

'No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.'

- Maya Angelou

Good decision making does not lead you from error.

It does not lead you from conflict.

It does not lead you to the Answer.

It leads you to where you want to be.

It leads you to who you are.

If you turn around and someone is following your steps -

- through error and conflict and with no Answer in sight - 

That's Leadership.

Slack.

'One thing I said I could help him with was Leadership. Because I was thrust into that with West Coast. 

'And I'll be honest as I have said to him privately...probably not publicly as much as I am about to now...but I probably let him down a few times giving him...probably cutting him too much slack to go home and do all those sorts of things.

'So I don't think I actually helped him. I thought I was doing the right thing by him keeping him happy so he would continue to play football which is...ultimately...I was trying to help the Club.

'But from a Leadership...from a pure Leadership point of view...would I have done that in [his home town of] Melbourne? Well...I would not have had to have done that in Melbourne...to give him a training session off here and there so he could stay back with family and friends back in Melbourne.

'But I thought to keep him happy...to keep him playing happy...I thought that was the most important thing from an early point...

'I went to him and said 'I've probably let you down'.'

- Guy McKenna, Coach of the Gold Coast Suns AFL Team, speaking about Gary Ablett.

The first job of a Leader is to create the Space. Allow people to stretch and become who they are. Whack them if they breach it. Not as discipline or punishment. Not as an exercise in power. Not to diminish the person. To invite them to become as she knows they are.

Evidence that Guy McKenna is a Leader. His humility. His honesty. His measure of himself by his service to others. He doesn't wait to be criticised - to be complained about - for him to proactively admit - 'I failed you. Sorry.'

A month after this interview, Guy McKenna was criticised for allowing Gary Ablett too much freedom leading up to a big game.

The day after the article was published Gary Ablett led in possessions as he captained the Gold Coast Suns to a 40 point win - its first ever - over his former club Geelong.