Lessons from a man who found his…something
Highlights from Cameron Schwab’s closing speech at the Agile First Conference.
It was late on Friday at the Agile First Conference as Cameron Schwab took the stage as the closing speaker. The next 45 minutes was a mixture of poignant personal stories and meaningful insights, punctuated by “reach for your pen” inspirational quotes and humour.
As the former CEO of Richmond, Fremantle and Melbourne AFL clubs, he lived much of his career highs and lows in the public eye. At 24, he became the youngest CEO in AFL’s history. 25 years later, he was forced to resign from Melbourne after their staggering 148 point defeat. He went on to study fine arts in his 50s, run leadership master classes and speak about the topic in public events.
Lesson: no matter how high one climbs, there are peaks and valleys in the path ahead. The only thing that matters is how we embrace that journey. A team’s just been recognised for that fantastic work customers love and are on a high. In the next pod, the thing that team’s worked hard on for three months just got cancelled and everyone’s demoralised. Neither our successes nor our failures are a permanent condition. At our highs, we hopefully learn humility and appreciation. At our lows, we hopefully develop resilience and confidence. “Confidence is knowing you’ll be OK if none of those things happen.”
As a young boy, Cameron waited every night for his Dad Alan Schwab to come home. Those ten precious minutes with his Dad every night were the most cherished part of his day. Alan was a huge influence on his son’s life but he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Cameron titled one of his drawings “we still had a lot of talking to do” and shared this on his website: “What I think about most are the conversations we never got to have. We still had a lot of talking to do. But I also think about the conversations we could have had, but our distracted lives meant far less consequential stuff got in the road.”
Lesson: We fill our days with so much “stuff”, but how much of that truly enriches our relationships, learning or helps us live without regrets, and how much is just… noise? We work alongside our colleagues every day in seeming harmony but how well do we really know each other? What differences are we making to each other’s lives? Cameron talked about focusing our energy on what matters and “busy is the new lazy”. We can all make the time to engage in conversations that are worth having. When I think of my ex-colleagues, what I remember most about them are our personal connections, those whom I cared for and those who cared back, not what features we worked on together.
His advice on leadership was profound:
“Leadership is not what we learn today, but what we’re prepared to teach tomorrow.”
“Leadership is not what you say, but what you do.”
“We rise to the level of our systems.”
People respect authentic leaders and we can’t be authentic without being vulnerable. It’s actually easier to be vulnerable than putting on a facade because:
- It lets us be our real self;
- We cannot be in control of everything, especially those events we’re ill-equipped to deal with; and
- This is an invitation for someone to help us.
After his forced resignation from Melbourne FC, he was looking for… something. There is a section in his notebook that read:
“Finding Something:
Courage
Wisdom
Imagine
Feeling Good
Staying True”
He told the story early in his career when he plucked up the courage to ask Ron Barassi “what makes a great player great?” The legend reeled off a list of attributes before concluding that “great players are better than human nature.”
Lesson: within ourselves there is a mine of intangible qualities and traits that manifest in our behaviours. A leader can’t possess every element in our quarry but we can keep it real and be ourselves. A leader isn’t a box on the org chart, but someone who serves and lifts those around them. A leader defines and shares their vision, bringing hope and optimism to those they serve, because “people want to believe in something bigger than themselves.”
All quotations in this blog are attributed to Cameron Schwab during his speech or taken from his website to more accurately capture the essence of his story.
