One of my favourite thinkers is the poet David Whyte. He describes your ‘to-do’ list as the person you were yesterday.

You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.

Motivation is complex. Yes, goals are important and feedback is crucial, but my view is that a sense of progress is the most important aspect.

With each iteration and each unsuccessful effort to produce a drawing I was satisfied with, I rubbed them out, but not completely, layering up until the final picture emerged, using the mistakes of the previous effort as a guide to the next attempt.

Discussions about culture make for a fascinating and often perplexing conversation. It’s as though people are searching for the secret herbs and spices, a means of short-cutting or ‘hacking’ their way to a high-performance environment.

When looking at my work, he told me in his kind yet direct manner, that my art was too obvious. I was giving no credit to the viewer, no room for their own opinions.

There is most likely something on your mind now that you need to resolve, but it is not only the complexity and ambiguity of the issue that can overwhelm, but your growing sense of isolation.

The pursuit of a career in a professional team sport is inherently selfish.

As a CEO in the AFL, forever focused on building a high-performance culture, I spent years visiting these great clubs, looking for the ‘secret sauce’. 

Set aside three hours of non-distracted time every three months to ask three questions.

We have just witnessed one of the great AFL Grand Finals, with the West Coast Eagles beating Collingwood by less than a goal, in a match the Magpies led for all but a few minutes.

Decisions are best made at the level of organisation where there is the most expertise, knowledge and understanding. For leaders, this means ‘passing the ball’. 

The often misguided goal of seeking ‘simplicity’ most likely results in default thinking – you find the right solution for the wrong problem.

These are the mornings when you wake up knowing that regardless of what happened on the weekend, and no matter how bad the defeat, and while you may be bereft of ideas and inspiration, sleepless night and all – you still had to lead.

When I first got involved in league football, I was told that clubs are in the ‘Premiership winning business’. In fact, there are clubs which have this as their sole ‘statement of purpose’.

Allan Jeans was never a dreamer, he was way too pragmatic for that, but clearly understood that he had the capacity to make or break dreams, and that often proved a heavy burden.

My father Alan died 24 years ago this week. This is a photo of my father in the player race of the Punt Road Oval with Hall of Fame Coach Tom Hafey.