Author: MartinWhatPod

This month, I sat down with Cameron Schwab for a deep and intimate conversation about the true essence of leadership – and how we can all be better leaders in the various roles we play in our lives.

Few people know the peaks and pitfalls of leadership like Cameron. CEO of the Richmond Football Club at just 24 ears of age, he rode the rollercoaster of high performance sport as the second longest serving CEO in the modern game. In that time, he collected a host of valuable lessons he now leverages as a leadership coach and strategist, and has detailed in his book More to the Game.

Moving beyond the usual vernacular around leadership, we discuss what lies at the heart of good leadership, the role adversity and complexity play in defining a leader, the leadership principles Cameron himself uses to guide his life, and so much more. This is a conversation where you’ll want to have a pen and paper close by to capture the countless ideas Cameron shares.

Please enjoy this ripping conversation with the very wise leadership coach and strategist, Cameron Schwab.

My guest on this episode is Many Kapur. Manu holds the Professorship for Learning Sciences and Higher Education and directs The Future Learning Initiative at ETH Zurich. Manu conceptualized and developed the theory of Productive Failure. How, rather than avoiding failure, we can purposefully design for it to facilitate better learning.

In this conversation, Manu explains the importance of our environment for learning, why we need tasks to be challenging enough to stretch us but not so difficult that we become overwhelmed, as well as the profound impact productive failure has on our ability to grow and learn.

We also discuss the correlation between learning goals and persistence in problem-solving tasks, and uncovering valuable insights that can help us navigate our own personal and professional challenges.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Manu Kapur as he unlocks the secrets of productive failure, and how it can propel us towards a better, more fulfilling life.

How can confronting the end of your life teach you how to live a good life? According to author, educator, and speaker Jehan Casinader, quite a lot. Calling on his personal experience battling severe mental distress, Jehan joined me to talk about the connection between the narrative that runs through our life and the level of health and happiness we experience.

Jehan is best known as a journalist and storyteller in the fast paved world of prime time TV in New Zealand. He was won a number of coveted media awards, including Broadcast Reporter of the year in 2020, and has written a brilliant book called This Is Not How It Ends covering his four year battle with depression and how the power of storytelling helped him survive.

In this conversation, he shares why the stories we tell ourselves matter, and how interrogating their origins can help us better understand how we work, lead and live. We discuss ways we can mask our insecurities, the value of struggle, how silently struggling can lead to sickness, and the benefits of rewriting our story so we become the author of our own experience.

Please enjoy the insightful and inspiring wisdom that flows consistently throughout this conversation with Jehan Casinader.

You are in for a real treat this month as I talk to acclaimed author, mentor, and genuine nice guy, Digby Scott. In this episode, Digby shares his insights about why we need to lead with more purpose and wisdom. Digby is the author of the book Change Makers and works with individuals and teams who want a more considered approach to how they engage and navigate, complexity, challenge, and change.

This conversation with Digby was a real pleasure. We covered some wide ranging ground, including why we need to slow down, and ask better questions to gain better insights. Digby also shares the importance of cultivating courage, how systems can support personal and organisational growth, and so much more.

This conversation will move your mental furniture around why we need more depth and wisdom in modern leadership. Time to listen and learn from the funny, insightful, and very wise, Digby Scott.

There is a lot of theory around how to build high performing cultures and teams. But one woman who genuinely knows the practical side of high performance is Lisa Alexander. Head Coach of the Australian Netball Team from 2011 – 2020, Lisa coached 102 Tests, winning 82 of them, leaving that role with an impressive 81% winning record.

In addition to her on field success, Lisa was coach of the year in 2014, has been awarded the Australian Sports Medal, and received a Member of the Order of Australia Award in 2021. Which goes to show, her contribution to people and performance in the Australian sports landscape has been significant.

In this episode we discuss how Lisa builds a high performance team and what systems and routines she uses to manage the demands of a Head Coaching role. Lisa also shares how she manages setback and struggle and overcomes player’s resistance and reluctance to change.

Get your pen and paper ready as we listen, and learn, from High Performance Educator & Coach, Lisa Alexander.

Mark Hawwa is the Australian entrepreneur who Founded the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride. A global event where once a year, men and women raise funds, dress dapper, and ride their motorcycle for a meaningful cause.

Since the first ride in 2012, the global event now hosts 893 rides in 107 countries and has helped raise close to $45 Million US dollars to help raise awareness for prostate cancer research and men’s health. In this conversation Mark shares the lessons he’s learned as a successful entrepreneur, how he formed such a formidable community around the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride, and how he manages the setbacks and struggle that inevitably come with running a global event.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with entrepreneur and Founder of the Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride, Mark Hawwa.

Have you ever walked into a business meeting and felt uneasy because you have forgotten someone’s name? Or gone to the supermarket to pick a few things only to get back home and realise you forgot two items?

My next guest rarely has that experience because Nelson Dellis is a memory machine. A leading memory expert, author and consultant, Nelson spends his days traveling the world as a consultant and competitive memory athlete. He is a 5 x American memory champion and holds the current records for:

+ memorizing 235 names in 15 minutes
+ 9 decks of cards in 30 minutes; and
+ memorizing 339 consecutive digits in 5 minutes.

In this conversation Nelson shares he was born with an average memory. But it was the death of his grandmother from Alzheimer’s that inspired him to start training his memory so he could keep his mind strong throughout his lifespan. In this episode we talk why that investment should matter to all of us, how memory relates to identity, some tips, and tricks to improve memory, and why improving our memory can serve us better in our life and work.

I really enjoyed this conversation and learned a lot, thanks to Nelson’s down to earth personality and practical advice. I hope you enjoy this conversation with competitive memory athlete and expert, Nelson Dellis.

Kirk Docker is one of Australia’s finest interviewers and storytellers.

The co-creator and Director of the ABC program You Can’t Ask That, Kirk offers viewers a small window into the untold stories of people who live with a label like Transgender, Bogan, or Killer.

Kirk came on the show to discuss why we need to maintain our curiosity and be open to diverse people, opinions, and preferences. We discuss why we should challenge our own world view and beliefs, how we can create better dialogue through difference, the basic human desire we all share, as well as his insights and learnings from seven seasons of the show.

Kirk is a brilliant human that offers sage advice, along with the occasional swearword, through this episode. Please, enjoy this educational and entertaining conversation with the insightful, Kirk Docker.

Culture is one of those things that, when we get right, can become a real catalyst for attracting talent, building engagement, and creating a great place for people to turn up and do meaningful work. But of course, when we get it wrong, all hell can break loose.

So, this month, I sat down with Michael Henderson to talk about how leaders can crack the culture code. Michael is a brilliant bloke, but more importantly for this conversation, an international expert when it comes to culturing. He has written eight books and is perfect for leaders who prefer a considered perspective on how you create cultures that serve people and performance.

In this episode Michael shares why culture is so critical and why they need to evolve and adapt. He also shares some common mistakes he sees leaders make and offers incredible insights on how you can build and maintain your culture. time to listen, and learn a thing or two, from corporate anthropologist, Michael Henderson.

What are you like at handling pressure? Staying calm in those moments when you feel most worried, anxious, even angry? If you could benefit from more calmness and composure when things get a little chaotic, you are going to enjoy this conversation with performance psychologist, Jonah Oliver.