Anthony Gregorio, the former CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi in Australia, is a big believer in leaders who are authentic and have empathy.
"First and foremost you're dealing with human beings and human beings have thoughts and feelings," he says.
"You dismiss those, then you're never going to break through to them."
He says to not try to be someone else.
"And just be open and honest, even when you've got things that are not always easy to say.
"Sometimes you have to say things that to staff that you don't want to say sometimes you have to have challenging conversations.
"But if you treat those conversations respectfully, and with openness and humility, then you're largely going to get a very positive result even when sometimes you have to say something that's, that does not great to someone or to staff about a situation.
"And I think those are the things that keep you in good stead as leader."
He's been enjoying improving his golf game and taking much needed down time to spend with family and friends since departing Saatchi and Saatchi early this year.
However, he took time to do a podcast with ex-colleague and friend Justin Stafford:
"I think being naturally empathetic as a human being has also been something that 've taken into my leadership style," he says.
"And I think that that's been a big part of the reason why I've been successful.
"I grew up in a very humble background. I'm the son of an economic migrant. My dad came to Australia with nothing and built a life in this country.
"And he always, with limited education, taught me some of the basic rules of life .. be nice to people and treat them well, and treat them the way you'd like to be treated.
"Through my working life, I've combined that with learning from some excellent leaders.
"You can always improve on anything. Even if you are an average golfer, you play golf more, you'll get better at it.
"I think leadership is the same thing ... you have to work on it.
"And I've been lucky enough that most of my development, from a leadership point of view, has been watching good leaders over my career and learning mostly what to do and sometimes what not to do."
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