As I approach the last chapters in my life’s book, I find myself sitting in boardrooms, staff rooms and locker rooms, listening to future leaders, athletes, managers and talented executives — and I can’t help but reflect on the wider context of it all.

Their confidence and optimism take me straight back to my younger days.

THE CONFIDENT YOUNG MAN

Unlike them, I was possessed by the blissful naivety of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

I remember one occasion vividly. A room full of NBL directors and franchise owners — people successful in their own right, far more than I.

Yet there I was from the West, so sure I was right that I spoke with confidence and infallibility, determined to convince them of a particular perspective.

And the uncomfortable part? The results seemed to vindicate me. We were winning. The stands were full, the Red Army (a mere creation, a figment of imagination) was alive roaring, and a club that once teetered on the edge was thriving. Nothing confirms your biases quite like winning. Success, I have since learned, is the most persuasive liar in the room.

Now, with decades of hindsight, I realise how unwise I was.

I just didn’t know it then.

THE KNOWN-KNOWNS

I was playing in that bottom-left quadrant of the now infamous Rumsfeld Matrix — the known-knowns. I was true to myself, of course, but limited by the extent of what I knew. It was an honest pursuit, but oh so narrow.

The irony is not lost on me. For years I recruited to three values — honesty, humility and hard-work. I could spot the absence of each of them in a recruiting interview from across the table or the basketball court.

I was considerably slower to spot its absence in the mirror!

THE KNOWN-UNKNOWNS

As the years went by, I realised the folly of my ways and moved — with the reality of life’s heat-checks — towards a greater awareness of my ignorance. There were so many things I did not know.

These days, as I consult to teams and direct organisations, I am acutely conscious that what I believe to be true — after numerous trials and tribulations — may still be a very narrow comprehension of it all. The known-unknowns.

There is a manuscript on my desk that proves the point. The chapters I understood — communication, candour, trust, vulnerability, commitment and accountability — wrote themselves. But completing the story without the context of a higher purpose seems impossible.

That gap between awareness and understanding is precisely where I now spend my days.

My efforts are directed at learning the things I am aware of but don’t quite understand, so that I am better prepared to serve. It requires hard work, but with every step forward, momentum fuels motivation.

THE UNKNOWN-UNKNOWNS

And not just in work — in leadership and management — but of late in spiritual and mental understanding.

I’ve always held that things must make sense for me to believe. For me to have faith. If they don’t make sense, I shall not.

Creation, the Creator, the belief in God — all of these must follow logic and science, and be proven beyond doubt.

Yet on most Monday mornings, as dawn breaks, I walk the perimeter of a suburban stadium with others in prayer. The same kind of building I once measured in attendance figures, revenues, earnings and wins . The younger me would not have understood that. He measured everything.

So I ask myself: what if, as in my younger days, my over-reliance on my own cognition — my assuredness in the known-knowns — proves to be my greatest failing?

What if truth is not subjective but objective?

What if the unknown-unknowns require faith without facts, trust without full understanding?

What if even the wisest among us is limited in awareness about God — let alone me?

Just because we are unable to explain, know or understand God, does not mean he does not exist.

I hope my own desire for self-reliance, and my need for facts and understanding, does not keep me from the true joy of hope in something much higher — for restlessness is all that remains until we find it.

What separates success from failure? Not for a group or an organisation — but for the individual within one.

We have been obsessed with team performance for more than twenty years, and central to that pursuit is the contribution of the individuals who make up the team. In our work, three factors have emerged — and stood the test of time.

They are the goals you set, the people you spend your time with, and the behaviours you repeat.

Purpose, people and performance — the same three fights we have asked of the organisation, now turned inward on the person.

None is glamorous. All are within the individual’s control. And how you navigate each of them — and integrate them with your team — goes a long way to determining your performance, and your organisation’s.

OUR GOALS: PURPOSE

When we examined successful individuals, we…

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A leader I once worked for used to say: winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing.

In private, we debated that philosophy more than once. Long conversations, always pleasant, sometimes confronting. In the end, quietly, he came around. But we never spoke of it publicly.

The real question buried inside that famous phrase has nothing to do with winning at all. It has everything to do with this: what are we willing to compromise in pursuit of success? How will we behave? Will we fight the good fight?

THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT CHEATING

The main reason people cheat, lie and break the rules is brutally simple. It works. At least in the short term.

Not always. Not forever. But often enough, and for long enough, that the incentive rewards the behaviour. The cheater gets ahead. The rule-follower watches on, confused and sometimes resentful. We comfort ourselves that wrongdoers eventually get caught, that karma corrects, that guilt catches up with people in the end. Sometimes it does. But of…

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THE STAIRWELL

It’s 2am.

I’m sitting in the stairwell of a five-star hotel with a young basketball player who’s had a breakout season — from the wilderness to transformational success. He’s in the conversation for league MVP. And most importantly, a Championship in his first year.

We’re smoking cigars — the only place in the hotel where you can - without triggering fire alarms. We’re drinking a nice whiskey.

Inside, the rest of the team is still celebrating with fans, friends and families.

He turns to me and says, “Is this it, Nick?”

I’m silent. I’ve been here before, more than once. Almost always it’s with players and coaches who have never won championships before.

Yet I wasn’t ready for this question.

“Yes,” I respond. “This is it.”

“It feels empty. All that sacrifice, all the hype… the build-up,” he sighs. “It’s so lonely right now.”

THE HOSPITAL

This wasn’t the first time I’d been this close to the sadness of success.

Just days earlier, I was sitting by the hospital bed o…

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TL;DR: For most of my life I chased the things society told me to — wealth, health, family, legacy — convinced they were the summit worth reaching. But sitting here on Holy Thursday heading into my 56th Easter, I can't shake a troubling thought: I've been climbing the wrong mountain. Looking at Christ's death on Calvary — a man who died broke, friendless, despised, and physically drained — I'm forced to reckon with the fact that by every conventional measure, his life was a failure. Yet it's considered the greatest act of love ever given. Maybe success isn't about what I accumulate, but what I give away. Maybe the mountain I should be climbing isn't Everest — it's Calvary.

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For quite some time now we’ve been conditioned to believe what success is.

For many it’s family and friends. For most it’s wealth and affluence. Almost all wish for a healthy life or a long one.

For some it’s fame and for others approval and reputation. A few yearn for power. A lot more lately w…

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There is a moment every seasoned manager, GM or coach knows. You watch someone warm up and think — that’s not the same person. And you’re right. The player you evaluated six months ago has changed. They often do.

This is the central challenge …

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IN BRIEF: Most team communication fails not because of what is said, but because the type of communication is wrong. This article proposes a four-mode framework to fix that:

• FYI (For Your Information) — “Just so you know.” Share only what’s needed, in the right format, at the right time. No response required. Requires honesty.

• FYF (For Your Feedback) — “I need your input.” Actively seek perspectives to close blind spots before committing. Requires humility.

• FYC (For Your Consent) — “I need your sign-off.” Clarifies who owns a decision and is accountable for its outcome. Requires accountability.

• FYA (For Your Action) — “Do this.” Converts decisions into execution with clear goals and feedback loops. Requires hard work.

It gives teams a shared language, ties communication to character, and scales across any team size — reducing noise, speeding up decisions, and turning capability into coordinated action.

Most communication failures in high-performing teams aren’t about …

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Christmas 2016 was one like no other.

Whilst the rest of the nation was busy with the usual family commitments, holiday merrymaking, or the momentous religious significance, we at the Perth Wildcats were facing the very likely prospect of not making the finals for the first time in the club’s record-breaking history.

We’d cut a shooting guard, replaced him with another who after just two games wanted to be released, brought back the former who then failed a drug test! Key players were injured, and we were sliding to the bottom of the ladder.

Pressure was mounting on coaches and management to turn things around.

So, instead of the traditional festivities, the coaching staff ran depth charts and made phone calls worldwide.

Our recruiting model was simple: the coaches picked the talent, and I had veto rights on character.

Whilst they were watching tapes of the player’s competency, I was screening for tell-tale signs on character.

What were their behaviours on a made play? Did they acknowledge t…

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Prayer Breakfasts at Warwick Stadium

☰ Monday 24 November – Paul Morrison – singer/song-writer, ex-Chaplain Eagles, SonshineFM

☰ Monday 13 October – Lea Cockram – Chaplain

☰ Monday 25 Aug 25 – Dave & Teige Morrell – Coach and Player – Husband and Wife (NBL1 & WNBL)

☰ Monday 28 Jul 25 – Danny Mills – GM – Perth Wildcats

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Quarterly Leadership Breakfast Series in Perth – Fraser’s Restaurant – Kings Park

☰ Wed 15 Sep 2025 – Kevin Bailey

☰ Thursday, 4th December 2025 – Mike Needham

Mike Needham is a senior global executive at one of the world’s largest technology corporations and a devoted Catholic based in Perth, Western Australia. Drawing from his extensive experience in technology and unwavering Christian values, Mike will share personal insights on navigating the ethical, spiritual, and societal challenges posed by artificial intelligence.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,
Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith,
Home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.

John Henry Newman
Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Beatified by Pope Benedict XVI
September 19, 2010
by

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Contents

☰ Guardian Angel Prayer

☰ Morning Offering

☰ St Michael Prayer

☰ The Angelus

☰ The Magnificat

☰ Benedictus

☰ Humility Prayer

☰ The Memorare

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As we wrap up another year, we wanted to share with you five key learnings from working with leaders in various walks of life.

REFLECTION TIME

• Leaders report having little time to think. Overwhelmed by urgency, always being ON, and the need to respond to endless communication channels leaves little time for reflection. Social media distractions, fleeting attention spans and multi-tasking have made considered leadership difficult.

THE SOLUTION

• Spend at least 15 minutes at the start AND the end of each day to think – away from all distractions. Pen and paper.

MORNING

• • Revisit your and your team/organisation’s Purpose – its response to an ever-changing world.
  • Consider if you have the right people in the right positions on the boat. Who is redundant? What’s the opportunity cost of keeping them? Who do you now need to solve today and tomorrow’s needs?
  • Are they rowing in sync? Are they headed in the right direction?

EVENING

• What did we accomplish? What should we accomplish?

• What were the failures…

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When Jesus emerged from the Jordan River, a divine voice declared: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” These words capture something fundamental about the need for paternal affirmation and its immense importance in a child’s sense of self-worth, purpose and commitment to mission, even courage.

Modern psychology confirms what this ancient narrative suggests: a father’s words of love and pride hold extraordinary power to shape a child’s entire life trajectory. When fathers consistently express love and pride, they’re participating in one of the most profound acts of human development.

THE SCIENCE OF PATERNAL AFFIRMATION

Research demonstrates that fathers play a unique and irreplaceable role in child development. Active father involvement significantly reduces psychological problems and depression rates, particularly in young women. When fathers are emotionally present and affirming, children develop stronger self-esteem, better emotional regulation, and more resilient psyc…

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As an outsider to sports management, it took me a while to understand winning and losing games during a season.

Regardless of our performance, the outcome of the game dictated our response—reflect and learn from losses or rejoice and celebrate wins.

The problem, of course, is that winning and losing, certainly in a finite ecosystem such as a league or game environment, is a poor indicator because it is comparative.

In other words, it doesn’t matter how badly you play; if you were better than the opposition, even marginally, you won. Sometimes that margin could be a point, a free throw, a bad referee decision, or just plain luck.

This mindset can be limiting – narrowing ones focus to transactional tactics rather than aspirational, purpose-driven cultures. But more on that later…

All the coaches I worked with usually paid particular attention to the game tape after a loss. The version we received post-game by our video coach was always edited to remove breaks, timeouts, and audio.

It was fasc…

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Not everyone is on the team for the same reason.

A manager's genuine understanding of each team member's key drivers can greatly improve individual and team performance.

In most good teams, there is clarity of mission, good-charactered people committed to playing to their strengths, and accountability on expected efforts and results.

However, the primary motivators for joining and contributing to a team can vary.

In our work, it's usually one of three things: Purpose, People, or Performance. And while they all matter, different individuals place differing values on each.

PURPOSE

"We have one problem," the CEO said cautiously. We can't afford to compete on salary with the rest of the healthcare industry. After all, we are a non-profit in the alcohol and drug sector. The work is hard, the clients challenging, and regrettably, the pay isn't great."

"We don't see that as a problem," my colleague responded calmly.

The CEO looked back, surprised. "What do you mean? We've had trouble finding staff for so long because of affordability?"

"Perhaps we could try a different approach," she suggested. "Why don't we talk more about your purpose, mission and the lives you change and less about salary."

And so started a long-term relationship lasting many years, recruiting staff for this wonderful organisation with a retention rate far higher than the industry average.

Interestingly, most employers we speak to concern themselves with remuneration or Reward. While this is a significant factor (especially at sustenance levels), our research, based on over 3,000 surveys, indicates that other factors, such as recognition, voice, choice, and learning, are also important.

Increasingly, however, Legacy or Purpose has become a key driver in attracting and keeping people. All things being equal, people, especially in advanced economies, want their work to be meaningful.

This explains why, in Australia, 36% or 9.5 million people performed formal volunteer work in 2023 (up from 26% the previous year). For some of us, a compelling purpose is enough to work even for free [Volunteering Australia – Key Volunteering Statistics – March 2024].

They want to be on teams whose mission aligns with their values. They want the organisation's mission to be well-articulated and inspirational. And they want to know how their team and, importantly, their unique work contribute to the broader objectives and outcomes.

Managers who succeed in personalising the team or organisation's mission witness higher levels of performance and retention.

Gallup's research suggests that even a 10% improvement in employee connection to purpose results in a 4.4% increase in profitability and an 8.1% decrease in staff turnover.

To achieve this, managers must have regular conversations with their team members on how their unique contribution is linked to the organisation or team's purpose.

PEOPLE vs PERFORMANCE - Longley or Jordan

Some people are on the team to win, while others are there for the team. These are not exclusive motivations—they are predominant drivers for differing individuals.

Knowing the difference is critical to get the most out of them.

When success, performance, results, or winning are the primary motivations, individuals can occasionally leave their teammates behind or, more commonly, not be the most congenial. Conversely, sentimental people value interpersonal relationships more than outcomes or objectives.

The former want to win at all costs, whilst the latter are more concerned with camaraderie and team culture.

A great example is the well-publicised championship run of the Chicago Bulls under Michael Jordan. Following the Netflix documentary, Australia's ABC interviewed Michael Jordan, Luc Longley and Steven Kerr (now head coach of the NBA's Golden State Warriors) regarding their time together.

Longley's perspective of Jordan was a one-eyed, success-focused, results-based team-mate that could not be disagreed with - 'carnivorous'!

Jordan agreed. "My mentality was to win at all costs and to pull, push, yank, whatever, to get everybody on the same page...I think it was needed in some respects, and our success illustrates that."

"I don't think Luc had the mentality of what it took to win. You want to see that frustration; you want to see a little bit of anger. You want to dominate, you know, and there's times where I had to push him on that," he said.

Longley's motivation was quite the opposite. He was what people call a 'team player' willing to sacrifice individual glory for the team - putting his teammates over everything else, even performance and success.

“I cared about my teammates more than I cared about winning. Winning became how to reward them, so that’s part of what drove me to be good.”

Longley's contribution was not limited to the basketball court. He was famous for his home barbecues, which built social bonds among the team, something unheard of in the NBA. In an environment where players were traded like commodities between teams, he built life-long relationships with Kerr, Pippen, and even Rodman and Jordan.

As now NBA head-coach Steve Kerr summarised, "He became one of the people who connected everyone because he shared relationships with everybody.

While there are no statistics or scoreboards to measure the contribution of 'team players', their impact is critical.

As Jordan now puts it, “I loved him as a team-mate. If you asked me to do it all over again there’s no way I would leave Luc Longley off my team. No way possible. Because he mattered, he had an impact on me. He made me better as a player, you know, as a person.”

A winning team requires all three types of people: the ones who keep focussing on the why—purpose-driven; the ones who focus on the what—performance-driven; and, more and more importantly, the ones who focus on the how and the who—people-driven.

It takes a good manager, coach or leader to know what drives each individual to ensure they satisfy their needs and mobilise their motivations for the team's success.

There is no greater tragedy than doing well that should not be done at all.

Yet, we fall into habits that are unfruitful at best or dangerous at worst - in business and life.

Taking stock every 90 days enables us to evaluate, eliminate, and make room for what must be done to accomplish our objectives.

This allows us to constantly refocus our time, energies, and resources.

Strategic Abandonment is best achieved by considering three key dimensions: Purpose, People and Performance.

PURPOSE

1. If we were not doing what we are doing right now, what should or would we be doing?

2. Is what we are doing maximising our comparative competencies to create value in the current environment?

3. What is the opportunity cost of our current pursuits? In other words, what pursuits should we abandon for more productive or profitable ones?

PEOPLE

4. Who would we not have on the team if we started again today? How could we appropriately exit them?

5. Who on the team is taking up a spot best served by someone else?

6. Is anyone negatively affecting our culture or not living our values despite their results?

PERFORMANCE

7. What parts of our operations have become blithe, lazy, and inefficient?

8. What are the disruptions, noise and silly rules that need to be abandoned?

9. What are the bottlenecks that are holding people back from performing?

Atrophy

We are all susceptible to atrophy.

However, as Peter Drucker noted, “In turbulent times, the enterprise has to be kept lean and muscular, capable of taking strain but capable also of moving fast and availing itself of opportunity.”

And these, indeed, are turbulent times.

In our experience, typical constraints to accomplishing this include tradition (we’ve always done it this way), routine and inertia (avoiding conflict and change), and familiarity (being too close to the problem or the people).

In such instances, there are few better approaches than having an external consultant facilitate the process. This ensures thoroughness, avoids conflicts of interest, and eliminates bias.

Personal Lives

Even in our personal lives, spending half-a-day every quarter, going through our possessions and splitting them up into three groups:

• The first - items that we still use and need to keep;

• The second - things that we no longer use and need to trash;

• And third - stuff that we’re unsure of - which we put in storage...if we don't use it over the ensuing three months - dispose.

If we purchase something new, it must accompany the disposal of something redundant.

Abandoning bad Habits

We need to constantly focus our time, energies, and resources on what is important. Otherwise, distractions creep in and dilute our abilities.

We start by asking a very simple but powerful question: With the information we have today if we weren't already doing this, would we engage in such an activity?

What habits have I formed that are unhelpful or damaging?

What relationships have we fallen into that are not in our best interests?

Opportunity Cost

Only if we stop doing certain things and free up our resources can we effectively chase new opportunities.

Sometimes, of course, it’s about doing ‘less of’ or ‘more of’ certain things—reducing the investment of resources and people on certain projects or, conversely, increasing time and effort on others.

Now is as good a time as ever to run a ruler across everything in the organisation, be it purpose, people, product or service, process, department, capital investments, or even suppliers and customers.

Financial Planning

Financially, we suggest including A Divestment budget and an Opportunities Budget in our planning.

The former puts every activity on trial, asking questions such as: Is this really necessary? Does the cost justify the results? Is there a better, more cost-effective, efficient way to achieve the same outcome?

The latter considers opportunities in the environment and the financial cost or investment required to deploy the organisation’s comparative competence in pursuit of them.

The rule here, as Drucker put it, is to “feed opportunities and starve problems”.

SSML - Stop/Start/More/Less

A useful tool is the Stop/Start/More/Less framework from a personal and professional perspective…

What should we Stop doing, Start doing, do More of, do Less of?

When we use this tool, we uncover tremendous insights, not only from board members and managers but from those on the front line - whether they are working on the factory floor, engaging with customers, knowledge workers, players on the court, support staff, or even suppliers and partners.

After more than two decades of working with professional sporting teams, high-net-worth individuals, and C-suite executives, sleep health consistently ranks among the few indicators with proven performance results.

There are others, but none with as much science to reinforce what we have experienced.

Back in 2011, Stanford University's Cheri Mah's Sleep study on basketball athletes prompted us at the Perth Wildcats and Perth Lynx to partner with UWA's Dr Ian C Dunican, championed by our own head of Physical Performance, Josh Cavanagh, to conduct our own research into sleep and its effects on performance in 2015 (https://lnkd.in/gd3JhYyy).

Mah's study proved that just two extra hours of sleep has significant improvements such as:

- Players ran faster 282-foot sprints (16.2 seconds versus 15.5 seconds) than they had at baseline;

- Free throw percentages increased by 9 per cent;

- 3-point field goal percentage increased by 9.2 per cent; and

- Fatigue levels decreased following sleep extension,…

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When recruiting,if you can’t compete onPurpose or Culture you will have to compete on Price...

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The greatest test of any leader is at home – how they lead their own life—and, above all, their family.
For who we are in private will eventually be manifested in public.

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For every significant weakness in an individual there will be an equally significant strength.
It is a leader’s responsibility to find and maximise it on the team…

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When it comes to culture, it’s the first straw the breaks the camel’s back.

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You are replaceable at work but irreplaceable at home

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The Miracle of Teams
As individuals, we are limited by our greatest Weakness…
But in a team, we are limited only by our greatest Strengths

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When you silence the noise, the signal appears. That’s true in sport and leadership.

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06SEP24 - Time

Of all the resources available to us, time is one that we spend without knowing how much we have left.

I don’t know if I have one or a…

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