CONCLUSION

In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired; in pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dropped.

— Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

I love the above quote because it highlights the importance of stopping just as much as starting. We spend our professional careers and, in fact, our lives acquiring new skills that we need to practise and take onboard. If it seems like an endless journey of learning new knowledge, that's because it is. What this quote from Lao Tzu highlights, however, is it is just as critical to stop doing things. This applies to our professional lives and our personal lives. If you decide to start doing sit-ups to get rid of that muffin top but continue to eat muffins, nothing is likely to change.

I hope this book has provided some knowledge and tips that you can apply to your leadership, and given you some insights that will result in you doing something differently. The change you make may be as simple as not using PowerPoint at your next presentation or sharing a personal story during your presentation. It may involve taking a stand for something at work or saying ‘no’ to something. Regardless how big or small the change is, I encourage you to make the change.

A final word

Can you indulge me one more time and allow me to share a final experience from my time at Harvard?

While at Harvard, one of the concepts we explored was the ‘frontier of competence’ and how you have to push yourself through this frontier for personal growth to occur. It would be fair to say that I discovered my frontier of competence several times in the classrooms of Harvard. It's that edge you're taken to when you realise you still have so much to learn and you have to take the leap to keep learning. It's that moment when you go from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. It's a scary and humbling place to be but I think we owe it to ourselves to keep finding our frontier of competence and pushing through it.

In your various roles — as leader, teacher, coach and perhaps parent — you must work with the people you care for to safely take them to their frontier of competence and, when the time is right, help them push through it.

The confronting aspect of the frontier of competence is that the cycle never ends. I have always likened professional development in leadership to painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge — it is such a massive task that, as soon as you finish it, you have to start again. So, in reality, you never finish.

Three days after I had finished the Harvard program and was still processing what I learned, I took my very first walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. As I crossed, I saw a sole worker painting the bridge with a hand roller. Considering the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, that is a lot of steel cable to paint with a hand roller.

Again, the professional and personal development cycle is never-ending — just at the point when you think you are almost done, it will be time to start again … just like painting the Brooklyn Bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

So I encourage you to make a start, one cable at a time. Dig deep to find out what you really believe in, what your true north is, what your chimes are and what your purpose is. Have the confidence to bring your whole self to your leadership. Have the courage to show emotion and vulnerability at work. Keep it real and say it as it is. Get out there and engage and inspire a whole generation of people eager to make a difference.

Be real and ignite yourself, and ignite the people you lead.

Stay connected

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