I really like the look of the Baume & Mercier Clifton series timepiece; this elegant timepiece is well marketed seeking a somewhat more distinguished customer not following the well worn trends of sports watches.

Whilst I probably won’t be racing out to purchase a Baume & Mercier anytime soon, I am happy to admire this timepiece as an interested consumer. I particularly like the marketing approach of the stylish European gentleman who follows his own style instead of being a trend devote – well played. Unfortunately, Baume & Mercier doesn’t have the brand awareness of the major watchmaking manufacturers; yet, I have found myself drawn to the Clifton series. I did see their watches on display in Europe, less so in South East Asia and Oceania.

The Clifton is inspired by classic museum reference timepiece; I was under the impression that the Clifton series was an older style timepiece that remained on their list, but this is a relative newcomer to their collection. I first came across Baume & Mercier whilst wandering through some malls in the Philippines with entire stores dedicated to the Baume & Mercier range. Now that become acquainted with this manufacturer, I have noticed Baume & Mercier merchandising desks in major watch retailers internationally.

However, brand awareness remains an issue with sometimes up to a dozen or so stands in a crowded retail space. Sitting within the specialised watchmaker segment of the Richemont Group, Baume & Mercier are surrounded by prestige watchmakers with their collective marketing and distribution channels. This manufacturer has the exposure potential. Baume & Mercier really needs to attract classic timepiece aficionados portraying themselves as a viable alternative to the more notable and popular brands – I really hope they succeed.

I have been a big fan of Vasse Felix wines for a very long time now. Whilst my favourites are their Margaret River cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and chardonnay; the classic dry range is worth visiting. The Classic Dry White is a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc with the citrus flavours of the Semillon complementing the passionfruit of the Sauvignon Blanc. Whilst summer is over for now, I will make sure I am stocked up for Christmas.

The Classic Dry Red surprised me, I had always thought it was a blend. So when I found out it was 100% shiraz, that was not what I expected, I had always thought it was a Cab/Shiraz blend. Even more surprising was 100% French oak maturation for 12 months, this was a mix one year to five year old barriques. For a very long time I thought the Classic Dry Red was a better drink than their Cabernet Merlot, I am reconsidering my preferences now. The Cab/Merlot is a pretty decent drop, but it is a different range to the Classic Dry Red and pitched at a different price point.

We had an economic slowdown in Australia with a tight jobs market and stagnant wage growth. Whilst still employed, I was seeking to expand my career and began seeking enhanced job opportunities. In 2018 I applied for the role of Head of Learning Experience Design at Laureate Australia and never received a reply.

I have a Bachelor of Training and Development from an Australian university that wasn’t awarded by Laureate Australia. However, I did hold at the time of application twelve years experience in an educational leadership role and a Master of Business Administration from Torrens University. Whilst I fully understand that does not guarantee me a job, you would expect the university who awarded your highest qualification to at least offer a response regarding your application to an advertised job. I appreciate there may be better qualified and experienced applicants who applied, but surely your alumni would receive the courtesy of at least an acknowledgement of an unsuccessful application.

I did not even receive a reply from Laureate Australia let alone a shortlisting. It would appear that Laureate Australia does not place a premium on the qualifications they award. It certainly didn’t improve my employment prospects on this occasion. I spent a great deal of money on my Torrens University education, surely some feedback on why my application was unsuccessful would be warranted. When the qualification you received is not highly regarded from the university that granted the award that you are using to further your career. It is understandable that other potential employers will place even less emphasis and value on a Torrens University MBA than they do.

I joined the college in 2006 just as the mining boom was gathering pace, in some respects it was a difficult choice to make as the wages in the private sector are much higher. The attraction is the conditions of employment on offer and better than private sector benefits. Employment in Western Australia tends to be relatively shorter term than most developed nations, the long-term employee is a relic of a past era. So arriving in the Western Australian public sector was an eye opener for me, the team was long-term and nearing retirement.

Once these guys got in the system, they tended to stay long-term until their retirement date. This is influenced by employment practices of selecting mature and experienced workers. Although a minimum of five years post-trade experience is required; that is post four-year apprenticeship term. I came on board with a twenty year employment record including the mandated four-year apprenticeship served.

So I was very impressed with a colleague on his last day of employment, he was a fairly quiet guy who just got on with the job. He had taken long-service leave previously. This is a fully paid three month break after seven years continuous employment in the state government, one of the many benefits on offer. We expected him to retire immediately afterwards but his wife was still employed as a nurse and he just spent his days pottering around the house with a number of projects down his shed.

He was somewhat bored and actually happy to return to work until his wife retired and they could do stuff together – fair enough. So after announcing his retirement, Arthur worked diligently until his final day no slacking off and no long discussions. I came into the office for afternoon tea as I had spent the whole day supervising apprentices down the engineering workshops and just needed to sit down for a moment.

I had just taken a seat at the table when I saw Arthur get up, push his chair in and walk out of the office without a word to anybody or looking over his shoulder, he had finished his work and he was off. I was going to wander over and have a chat to him but never got the opportunity on his final day. I have not seen Arthur again and while some view Arthur’s final day as regrettable – I see this as a perfect exit, he pulled it off.

The obvious question is, why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? After all, pilot safety wasn’t really a consideration. I can’t explain why the short guy on the end is smiling either – he must just be a happy guy.

Technically, they were not a helmet per se, they were a flight cap. So after re-framing the question, why did kamikaze pilots wear flight caps? The most obvious answer has nothing to do with pilot safety, it was mostly to keep his ears warm. I guess they wanted to treat their pilots well even though they were on a one-way flight – recruiting would have been difficult otherwise.

I was doing some reading and pilots during World War II would take off with their canopies open, I guess allowing a reasonably easy escape should they crash during take off. In the early days of World War II, they may have been following the traditions of more conventional pilots. Especially during the later stages of the war, kamikaze pilots were sent on one way flights when Japanese command knew all was lost.

I am astounded to actually witness a lack of leadership in the workplace; after reading text after text on the mechanics of leadership; all that it has served to do is enlighten me on the absolute lack of leadership displayed in my former workplace.

However, this leadership vacuum in my former workplace has been somewhat to my advantage, I am able to fill the void to provide direction, purpose and motivation. Then never learned that a vacuum has to be filled by something – a bit of an oversight. Likewise, I have also been able to fuel what would be considered by some as uprisings from the workforce when needed as the team leader does not act in the best interests of the team. The old adage of keeping friends close and enemies closer is not applied here.

Leadership is a little more than hanging apparent inspiring posters up on the walls with pictures of eagles soaring on thermal currents or mountaineers standing on the edge overlooking the cliff face and canyon. Leadership is fulfilling a vision, providing focus, motivation, empowering team members and providing support; at times, leadership requires powers of persuasion and negotiation. If you are not doing this, then this isn’t leadership.

I have been unfortunate enough to work in a number of workplaces that exhibit the characteristics of toxic work environments. This is due to the fact that I worked on a contract basis so saw plenty of varied workplaces. Fortunately, due to the contract style of work, I never had to stay there long but it was great to observe.

I believe organisational values is the key to creating healthy work environments; likewise, poor values at an organisational level becomes more apparent at an operational level. So how does a toxic workplace occur? Management practices go a long way towards the work environment and this includes personal agendas and empire building. On-going personal conflicts tend to spill over into most workplace relationships with the stress enveloping all in the workplace.

The chaos principal applies in toxic work environments where apparent randomness related to chaotic and complex patterns exist with feedback loops and repetitive factors occur. Whilst this is a mathematical function, for those of us that aren’t as competent at such an analytical level, we are still able to identify trends.

We have poor attendance in our workplace and this causes more stress, people have to pick up the work of those who are absent causing more resentment and conflict. As a starting point, we have poor management practices that act as the genesis of all the causes of workplace conflict driven by personal agendas and empire building. Solve the management instigated stress and workplace culture improves remarkably quickly.

Even in autumn, I could not believe the crowds that descended upon Bruges, we struggled to move freely, we bumped into people and we could hardly move at times in the city centre. The train from Brussels took about an hour and ten minutes, I love this European train network.

You can’t complain when you are adding to the mass of numbers, I just wasn’t expecting what I considered to be summer crowds in autumn. As we stepped on the train at Brussels Nord we were guaranteed a seat, we knew the return trip would off no such luxuries as our return trip on the same train just a couple of days before offered no such luxuries.

I could hardly believe Bruges was so crowded for a weekday that wasn’t summer holidays or any other holiday for that matter. I can understand the locals getting peeved at the the congestion in their city. I am not sure what winter holds for locals, there may be some respite from the onslaught of tourists. They might even be employed in the hospitality industry and benefit from tourists.

When the Kellogg School of Management infographic flashed across my computer, this promotes thinking. Well at least for me, in what it takes to achieve organisational success, after moving back into a high performing team environment – I comprehend the team effort and how we grow as a team. Now I have moved back into a low performing environment and the differences could not be more different.

Firstly I need to ask, what is this company Northern Trust? What do they do and are they a leader in their market segment as hailing from the southern hemisphere, I had never heard of them. Northern Trust is a US financial services company providing wealth management, asset management and asset servicing that opened for business in 1889. It is reported Northern Trust is Headquartered in Chicago and has offices worldwide.

This investment banking and wealth management has $120 billion in banking assets, $6 trillion in funds under custody and $887 funds under management – this is a big show. So now I need to undertake some more research, who exactly do they advise? Some searching informed me they had offices in both Sydney and Melbourne – much to my embarrassment. Northern Trust is a seriously large business employing over 14,000 people so it would be fair to suggest Rick Waddell would have a pretty strong grasp on the situation.

I do not believe in this rock star/demi-god CEO notion where the CEO is the absolute leader, what is interesting is the promotion of self-functioning teams making decisions driving the organisation forward through active participation and authority to act. As a financial business, the ability to not only attract knowledgeable and motivated staff is a must, they require the ability to manage clients accounts in the best interests of the people who pay their salaries.

I have been fortunate enough to spend some time with a little dog named Toby. My own dog died just short of her 16th birthday. I always maintained I didn’t want another dog as she was irreplaceable.

I was happy to befriend Toby, I have kind of adopted him as my pseudo dog as I really like his zest for life. Toby was a sick little dog when I first came across him, he had distemper, was bleeding from the nose and we didn’t think he was going to make it. Even when he recovered, he had no energy, was very withdrawn and timid. It didn’t help that at nearly six feet I towered over him so I was imposing. My attitude to dogs is to ignore them and when they feel comfortable around you, they come to you.

I was in his territory one night and walked downstairs to use the toilet. He had wandered over to see me when I walked out of the door and kicked him in the dark, he raced off for cover and safety yelping and wouldn’t trust me again for ages. Time has passed and we are best friends now, he has forgiven my size 12 feet and my obvious lack of coordination. He now has energy and races around. He is not the ugliest dog in the world but could be a candidate, his legs are too short, his tail is too long and rubs along the ground.

He has an underbite, has two teeth sticking upwards, his left eye is milky and his tail is too long when you take into account his short legs. His tail actually drags on the ground, you could say Toby is a genuinely ugly dog yet he is my favourite. He is lucky to still be alive and every day he lives it is a better day when he is around.