Reading Time: 3 minutes Tips for a Baby Medic from a Medic Who Didn’t Always Get it Right “Tips and tricks for young players”, or in this case “young medics”. Even if you are not a medic, I hope you can still add these words to your mental toolbox to help you throughout your career. Tip 1: You are enough. Nothing more, nothing less, you are enough. You don’t need to be the best at everything, and you won’t be, but you can be the best version of yourself. The only things you can control is to try your hardest every day, be kind to others, build your support network, always be open to learning n ..read more

Reading Time: 8 minutes Written by Jordyn Gray (she/her), Founder of The Athena Project, Veteran, Survivor, Advocate and Speaker Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence Do you remember where you were on the 15th of March 2021? You might be thinking, what an oddly specific date and why does it matter? What about if I asked, do you remember why the 15th of March 2021 was a significant day for all Australian women? I know I do, and I remember vividly where I was. I was sitting at a desk on RAAF Base Amberley, answering emails, attending meetings and drafting briefs but I was wholly distracted. My min ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Simon Sinek’s TED talks have reached over 100 million people. His first and most famous talk from 2009 was “How great leaders inspire action” (17:48). This introduced the idea of the golden circle to encourage organisations and people to start with their WHY rather than WHAT they do or even HOW they do it, and communicate from the inside out (WHY, HOW, WHAT). A WHY expresses a cause or a core belief. Start With Why asserts that great leaders inspire action with why; effective salespeople sell with why; master teachers motivate with why. A strong work ethic and ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Pink’s assertion that “there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does” challenges the classic “carrots and sticks” model of extrinsic motivation, instead of favouring intrinsic motivation for the tasks typical today’s workforce. Part 1 unpacks why a reward and punishment, or “carrots and sticks,” approach to motivation often doesn’t achieve the expected result. While effective where tasks are simple and repeatable, extrinsic motivation tends to produce worse results where the task involves uncertainty or requires analysis or creativity. Of note, ex ..read more

Reading Time: 5 minutes The Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASIGS) is looking back into its history and reflecting on its present environment and future challenges, especially with its centenary year in 2025 (Certa Cito 100). Part of leadership through change needs to involve looking at the past. For RASIGS, its organisational history is part of a broader SIGINT and increasingly also Cyber capability and community. Revealing Secrets is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding SIGINT history and navigating future challenges.  Signals personnel understand the strategic im ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Fifth Discipline is my all-time favourite book on leadership for change and development.  The author Peter Senge is a master of systems thinking and organisational learning. The fifth discipline that he explores in this book is the commitment and capacity for an organisation to learn at every level. He is a champion of decentralizing the role of leadership to foster the contribution of all.  The Learning Organisation is one that is committed to developing all of its people as learners to share vision, adapt to increasingly complex challenges and strive to ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Dysfunctional team behaviours can derail our mission objectives and make the workplace miserable. When Commanders and subordinates lock horns over decisions, when colleagues are on different wavelengths, when teams fail to develop trust and sweep conflict under the carpet, when leaders refuse to be accountable, it can make for a traumatic experience for all involved. Commanders need a wide-ranging set of command, leadership, management and training skills, but if alongside all the other skills they develop, they lack healthy team-building, their unit will not be reachin ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes This book has two great strengths – firstly its inspiring stories. Beginning with Captain Will Swenson’s heroic actions in Afghanistan showing heroic courage alongside empathy for his troops (told also by Simon Sinek), she offers stories that inspire and surprise. From politicians Jacinda Arden and Volodomy Zelensky, to business, academy and military leaders, to informal leaders in the community during COVID-19, Ferguson illustrates how leadership is for all of us. It is expressed by speaking encouraging words to a colleague or being transparent about seeking ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Defence Strategic Review urges a rapidly evolved integrated Force that harnesses affects across domains including Cyber (p.54). It recommends “cyber and information capabilities must be scaled up and optimised” which must include focusing on “building and sustaining a trained Defence cyber workforce.” (p.64) Challenges of training, however, include recruiting and retaining the right staff, equipping them to keep pace with the exponential changes in technological capability, and helping them develop appropriate ethical frameworks for their work. This author ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes RAAF has had a remarkable history and chaplaincy has grown and developed alongside and in support. Sky Pilot narrates the development of chaplaincy organisationally and tells stories of RAAF chaplains on whose shoulders and reputation chaplains of today serve. RAAF grew to be the fourth largest Air Force at one time in WWII (numbering 164,000+ as well as 18,000+ in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). In parallel, chaplaincy grew from 6 at the beginning of the war to 250 at any one time. There was a total of 370 chaplains over the war including 2 Rabbis and ..read more