I’ve studied both leadership and management so what I have learned about leadership and management has been part of my formal education. I can’t say I hang my certificate on the wall but I do admit to framing it and giving it to my mother as a token of appreciation for all she has done for me.

I really learnt leadership from thirteen years employment in the state government; that supplemented my textbooks and course work. What I really learnt about leadership from this particular state government department is how badly leadership failure can affect an organisation. Now I am back employed in private enterprise in a role that my former colleagues would be unable to do. The manager of my division is a mechanical engineer who holds an MBA specialising in leadership and also project management – a handy knowledge base for an engineer.

The superintendent whilst not degree qualified has worked on numerous mining operations on a number of continents. Ten years as a technical adviser at Caterpillar in the United States really fills out a resume – not hard to see why he is a superintendent. I may talk the superintendent into undertaking a Graduate Certificate in Management, with his actual experience he would breeze through the program as long as accounting, economics and finance were not part of the program.

Dealing with guys of this calibre allow you some freedom; sure, they expect a lot but they also want you to succeed and will do whatever it takes to make it happen. As we are expats, our role is to provide leadership to the national workforce, we are basically hands-off and advisors. I was basically taught at state government level how not to go about leadership; in private enterprise, they do the exact opposite to government employees. Naturally, the government talks a lot about leadership without show any interest in actually providing it.

In their defense, they have absolutely no idea of how to lead so you can’t blame them for getting it so miserably wrong. Whilst they regurgitate the term constantly, they haven’t the slightest clue about leadership as I have dealt with so many career bureaucrats who have little knowledge of private enterprise and are totally out of their depth but are totally unaware. Our role is to provide structure and accountability, our behaviour has to be role model and we must maintain the highest standards. This is where the textbook leadership models come into play, we can now utilise proven leadership models underpinning core values.

I am enjoying the challenge of being part of a professional team where we are all working towards the same goal; there is no sniping, white-anting or undermining. This is teamwork at its and we are all attempting to perform in a difficult environment and not take credit for anyone’s work; this working environment is so different from the government.