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Good advice recently learnt

  • 1.  Good advice recently learnt

    Posted 08-10-2013 08:16
    Evening All,

    One of the new aspects of my new role was to last week attend the Local Government NSW (LGNSW) conference up in Sydney.

    The conference included discussion with (and talks from) state ministers such as the Minister for Local Government, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, The Leader of the Opposition (the Premier had to pull out at the last minute due to a State Funeral).

    A large portion of the conference was basically like a huge Council meeting of all Councils across NSW, which I must admit was an eye opening experience for me coming from a Council made up of independent representatives.

    In my opinion, the most valuable part of the conference was listening to Gail Kelly (the CEO of Westpac) do a talk on leadership and what she thinks is important.

    One analogy she presented really resonated with me and I think it is worth sharing with everyone.

    The analogy was that a business is like a bus that is being steered by the passengers on the bus. Sometimes there are people that you need to eject from the bus and it is very important to get the right people on the bus to make sure it is steered in the right direction.

    Gail was speaking from a leadership perspective, stating it is important for leaders to have the right people on the bus.

    To take it a step further I think it is important for everyone (particularly us as young engineers) to reflect and make sure we are sitting on the right bus with the right people around us that are going to take us in a direction we want to go.

    If not, maybe it's time to get off the bus you're on and on to a new one (or even better on a spaceship that can take you to bigger and better places)!!!

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    Anthony McMahon
    General Manager
    Boorowa Council
    BOOROWA NSW

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