I often lament the inability of many managers to provide leadership; instead reverting back to the old style command and control management perspective. An arrogance exists where managers believe in their infallibility; believing workers are there to serve them. The virtues of servant leadership are countless; a manager is a cost to the business, their job is to ensure the people actually producing income within the business are working as efficiently as possible removing inefficient practices and roadblocks.

The moment I hear “This person works for me” I immediately know I am dealing with a narcissistic old style manager. The only time somebody works for you is when you own the company, anything other than a business owner is a wage/salary earner – it’s that simple. A collaborative approach works best with professional people, the manager needs to bring a coaching mindset to develop their team, they don’t, they just like to control the people below them.

It’s September and it’s time for me to step up the training regime, it’s letting light earlier at 6 am when I get up and not dark anymore on my return home from work at 6 pm.

My level of fitness is a disgrace, after starting my part time undergraduate degree in 2012 and completing it in mid 2014, my spare time has been busy – too busy to train properly. Then I restarted extra units in late 2014 to get back into the study regime before undertaking my part time MBA from 2015 to mid 2017. There will be no more, that’s it, I’m done and now it is time to enjoy life again. Once I had a fairly robust social life, apart from a faded memory, it is time to rebuild the fun portion of my life.

But my personal fitness, muscle tone and overall wellbeing has been depleted savagely and it is time to respond. No more required readings, discussion forums, assignment deadlines and personal stress. It is spring now, I am outside doing the things I love from scuba diving, yacht racing, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, running and of course free weights to build up my core strength. It is spring and time for a new beginning; no more time spent indoors cramming for an exam or all weekend spent writing up an assignment. I’m really looking forward to this.

So what makes a terrible manager? They begin by failing to provide team members guidance, there are no objectives set, no implementation plan, no reporting of progress and a complete breakdown of culture.

As a manager, they are supposed to conduct performance reviews at least annually but manage to avoid them. The reason poor managers hate performance reviews is that they wouldn’t really be able to identify team strengths or weaknesses and they are worried the team will quickly work out their lack of skill and knowledge.

Poor managers use stand-over tactics on team members, they like to harp on previous team failures or when deadlines were not met. When a mistake is made, poor managers are quick to assign blame on individual team members. Poor managers don’t update the team deliberately keeping information from team members and would rather defer than actually make a decision.

Poor managers waste time playing office politics to manipulate their next promotion instead of actually leading the work group. They tolerate poor work output by the members of their golden circle allowing chronic under-performers go unchecked. Poor managers hire C players who won’t outshine them; in my experience, they are very lassiz fare in their actions instead of being a micro-manager.

Whenever possible, poor managers take credit for the work of others presenting it as their own. Poor managers always use the term I and never we. They constantly put down team members in front of others and never give credit when due. There is constant turnover in their team, they have terrible human resource track records with a failure of team members going on to be successful managers themselves.

I have spent the last couple of seasons working up the bow of the yacht after our previous foredeck crew were constantly costing us races. After winning the start and being first to the windward mark only to end up last after a poor spinnaker raise undoes all of the good windward work. It needed to change and it needed to change really fast – it couldn’t keep going on like this.

Counting down the start is imperative for aggressive positioning in the fleet, a poor start means you spend the rest of the race trying to catch up instead of consolidating your position. I see getting a clear start as the key role of the foredeck crew; they have an unrivaled view of the start line and the other yachts as you maneuver for position in the pre-start period.

This is not only from the time the five minute gun sounds but the pre-start positioning and maneuvering but after the start the foredeck crew spend most of their time sitting on the side providing ballast. However, a knowledge of sailing and tactics ensures you get heard and providing input to the race, getting the start right is important – this sets up the whole race.

You can be sitting at a table outside at a cafe or restaurant in South East Asia with no smoking signs at all the tables and you can bet someone will grab a seat alongside you and light up. Once upon a time in Australia that would happen too until the government changed smoking laws; this was, without doubt the best legislation even enacted. The arrogant minority could no longer do as they pleased at the detriment of everyone else.

Their lame arguments that this would destroy the entertainment industry were without foundation. No longer would we come home from a hotel or nightclub with our clothes drenched in smoke. We felt better because we no longer engaged in passive smoking and we weren’t poisoning our lungs with second-hand exhaled smoke. The stench of stale ashtrays that once dulled our sense of smell were gone and the cigarette butts littering the footpaths, walkways and common areas have greatly declined. While arrogant smokers walk down the street puffing on a cigarette still throwing their butts on the ground littering the natural environment, I take a certain comfort in knowing their days are numbered.

I used to watch Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on television. As a frequent restaurant patron, I longed to see the inner workings of a kitchen that included restaurant service and how the integration occurred.

The show followed a defined format every episode, Ramsay would come in, order a meal, he would then trash the decor and service. The meal was always terrible at which point Ramsay would then have enough and storm into the kitchen and confront the chef. This would understandably create tension between members, a fight would ensure, colourful language would enter the vocabulary and the storm out would then occur – then the process of rescue would begin.

The revamp involves a menu overhaul, decor refit and then the long awaited relaunch. The reopening would involve Ramsay proving coaching; this however is not a positive process with Ramsay hurling abuse at selected staff members that includes an onscreen meltdown with Ramsay belittling, bullying and enacting management practices that were becoming outdated in the 1990s.

This was the actual reason why I actually watched the show, I have an interest in contemporary management practices and I like to compare my actual processes against industry benchmarks. There is no way I would ever talk to or treat an employee like he does, now he is running an exact same hotel show on the same tired format – amazing.

I have plenty of Jackson Browne songs I like – I reckon The Pretender would have to top that list, it’s a pretty long list too. The lyrics tell a story and I believe Jackson Browne is a master storyteller, he maintains high ethical values in an industry and age beset by materialism in the never ending chase for album sales, downloads, merchandising and endorsement deals.

The song centres on the disillusionment of working Americans, their plight to make ends meet along with their hopes and aspirations for the future. Despite the catchy tune, I really love the lyrics, Browne is creating a narrative for the working classes of which I am one, albeit not American, but the value of the lyrics is that many of us can relate to this song.

So many holiday options exist in South East Asia with Thailand heading up most tourist itineraries, a little further south and Malaysia is also very popular. Heading south again and Indonesia is highly popular, this is especially so with Australian and Singaporean inbound tourists due to its close proximity and favourable exchange rates. My preferred travel destination is the Philippines as this country is less developed in terms of tourist infrastructure and also favorably priced.

White Beach on the Philippines’ premier holiday destination and whilst more developed than other locations within the country, the lack of big business development makes this destination infinitely attractive. The Philippines is renowned for romantic sunsets, none more so than White Beach – these sunsets are world class. Furthermore, the locals have managed their environmental issues so much more productively than rival destinations such as Bali’s Kuta Beach. I am more than happy to promote Boracay as a holiday destination, the Germans have known about Boracay for some time now, the Koreans and Chinese are also highly supportive of this destination. As for me, even living on the west coast of Australia, I am enjoying Boracay sunsets.

It takes a certain degree of courage to invest in yourself, there is usually a large financial and time effort required – self-doubt inevitably follows. Will this investment in time and effort pay off? Post graduate education can take up to four years part-time, that is a sizable time investment – it changes your life. Searching for jobs after the course is completed is just as challenging though.

Your social life is non-existent; your friends are going out and you are invited. Naturally you decline as you have a chapter of a reference book to read and digest or a paper to write. After a while, the offers stop coming and you can follow their exploits through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr when you take a break from research or writing up assignments. Although, don’t spend too long following their social status posts as you are likely to lose focus and become distracted.

Will you get that promotion? Will you pick up a higher paying job at another company? Will your qualification even be recognised? Is what you learnt relevant? Will you be able to execute your new skills? I don’t know as I am not there yet but I am fortunate enough to be employed throughout and I won’t have a huge debt at the end as I pay the individual units off as I go. Whilst a top-tier international institution like Insead has links to industry, an MBA in a second or third tier business school isn’t likely to yield the same results.

Then there is the employment cycle, the West Australian job market peaked in 2012/13. From 2014 we were in steep decline, with 2015 showing no improvement and 2016 not much better. With 2017 still depressed with more jobs being shed and 2018 looking poor, the short-term to medium outlook doesn’t look great. As I will be finishing my qualification in mid 2017; despite the decision to invest in myself – I am not filled with confidence.

Has the Liberal Party in Australia become too conservative? I am a liberal in the true sense of the political ideology; I believe in free enterprise, free trade, freedom of choice and personal freedom. A true liberal believes in the virtues and tenants of freedom; as such, I support the liberal psychology.

But now I have to question the conservative psychology, the more right-wing thinkers in the party tend to take a view that may be contrary to my own personal views. Former Prime Minister John Howard stated that conservatives are always welcome in the Liberal Party; that may be true but they can’t let their ideology stray too far right of centre – too far left or right of centre style politics usually ensures a lengthy stint in the political wilderness. So where to from here?

I am seeing the Liberal Party beginning to implode under the Turnbull leadership, a return to an Abbott Prime Ministership isn’t the answer so an alternative leader is probably required now. I am really not sure what their policies are, at least under Abbott, you were left under no illusions of their policies – stop the boats, stop the waste and reduce the debt. The sad part is, the Bill Shorten led Labor Party offers no alternative and unless Malcolm Turnbull gets his act together very soon, we could be headed back to the disasters of the Rudd and Gillard governments.