Fragile Power

Leadership Lessons in Life, Business and Sport

George D. Norris

• Publisher: Ryan Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781876498092
• eBook ISBN:
  9781876498719
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: Business

Fragile Power provides you with the knowledge, confidence, and power to improve your leadership performance and achieve your goals in life, business, and sport.
However, 'power is fragile' and should be used sensitively, tactfully, cleverly, empathetically, and wisely to succeed.
This book, the author's fifth, is a business autobiography covering his 60-year career and delivers 40 Case Histories and Leadership Lessons learnt from his experiences with Caltex Oil, Collingwood Football Club, L'Oreal, Wurlitzer, Ford, The America's Cup, Toyota, BMW, Jetset Travel, HLB Mann Judd, Mercedes-Benz, First National Real Estate, the AFL, and many more.
Each Case History delivers five significant Leadership Lessons for your healthier, happier, wealthier, and more rewarding journey in life, business, and sport. George D. Norris is regarded as Australia's first and most experienced Corporate Coach.
He commenced his business career at Caltex Oil Australia in 1958 as a Management Cadet and 16 years later departed as Training Manager. He then started his own business in 1974 as a Performance Management and Communication Consultant and in 1995 made the magic move into Management Mentoring and Corporate Coaching.
George is well known for his many years on Melbourne Radio 1377 3MP with his daily segment 'Shots of Inspiration' and later Magic 1278, where he presented his daily segments as 'The Life Coach'.
His four other books are titled 'Winning with Wisdom', 'Strategies for Success', 'Quotes and Words of Inspiration' and 'Moments on Management'.
George has studied in Germany, America, and Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Institute of Management, and the Australian Marketing Institute where he was awarded a CPM as Certified Practising Marketer.
He has experienced the ups and downs of life, business and sport which have provided remarkable and extensive experience. As a visionary, George uses Nike's positioning statement, and Frank Sinatra's song to say, "I just did it - my way!"

PART 1

THE MANAGEMENT CADET

CASE HISTORY 1

Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd

CHAPTER 1

Joining the Club

I joined Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd as a 17-year-old management cadet in January 1958 after leaving as one of ‘The Original’ students in 1954 at the now famous Victorian Secondary School, Balwyn High School.

My first day at Caltex was one I will never forget.

I first was welcomed by the Accountant, Lloyd William Cowdell, a gentle, quiet well-mannered senior manager who made me feel at ease on my first day of work. He then ushered me into an adjoining office where I met the Assistant Accountant, a fearsome large man called Jack Cocks who would set out my role and mail room responsibilities.

Standing well over six feet in height with slicked down wavy dark hair parted in the middle and wearing his trademark brown brogue shoes, he had the ability and the reputation, I would later learn, to put fear into the heart of the most confident young person.

He welcomed me then proceeded to lay down the law, so to speak, about what I would be doing in the ‘Mail Room’ as my first role.

However, after leaving his office he called me back and said, “Shut the door and take a seat.” He then made a comment which I now realise was most insightful, but strange and in some ways threatening at the time.

He said, “George, I just want to make the point that you don’t have to like everyone you work with, you just have to get on with them and do your job.” So began my corporate career with Caltex Oil.

He had perhaps realised that as a new boy the other management cadets may give me a hard time on my first day and some initiation in joining their ‘Club’.

It was great advice, which I have since given to many people in management positions that I have coached and mentored, as it was of utmost assistance to me on that first day.

On 7 January 1958, the Mail Room was the nerve centre for incoming and outgoing correspondence and parcels. The cadets would, for example, open, sort and allocate the incoming mail into pigeonholes for the relevant departments and key executives and frank the outgoing mail through a franking machine. This would print the value of the stamp on the envelope depending on its size and weight or print a stamp label to be affixed to larger parcels, envelopes, or boxes for mailing.

On my first day, as you might imagine, I was trying to please ‘the boss’ of the management cadets, a stern but amicable, ex-military man named Leo Armitage, and was asked to frank a couple of hundred standard envelopes. They were to be franked at the rate of 3½ pence. I was shown how to set the machine for this amount, and to feed the envelope through to be stamped.

I started and got going, I now realise too fast compared with the other cadets, so the Head Management Cadet, a tall, blond, powerful, assertive guy called Brian Patton asked me a question to make me lose concentration. I looked over to where he was pointing and took in his comments and walked over to see and learn about the other feature of the mail room.

I then went back to franking the mail and soon worked up a good turn of speed, when after about 10 minutes he came over in front of the other cadets and ‘the boss’ Leo and exclaimed, “Do you know what you’ve set the value of the franking machine at George?” I replied, “3½ pence.”

“Well you haven’t, you’ve set it to 3 shillings and 3 pence.”

I was mortified as he calculated that I had franked 157 envelopes costing Caltex a lot of money and yes, on the morning of my first day!

I couldn’t believe I had made the mistake and was devastated. However, when we had our tea break one of the other cadets, Wayne Tyler who I became close friends with later, told me that when Brian had got my attention earlier he had arranged for the other cadet to alter the franking value on the machine so I wouldn’t know, as my initiation to the company and the ‘Corporate Club’ on my first day.

It was a hard lesson to learn, yet it taught me two things, one to check everything consistently and two, people can be threatened by others who are more enthusiastic than they are and as a result they will often try to bring them down to their level of mediocrity.

This lesson on day one of my working life was to be reinforced and displayed may times in my experiences in life, business and sport.

Leadership Lessons:

1. Believe in yourself.

2. Be resilient and brave.

3. Stay focused on the process.

4. Don’t make assumptions, check the details.

5. Be careful not to threaten peers.

CHAPTER 2

Coping with Adversity

My first day at Caltex was therefore a day when I learnt about coping with adversity and inspired me to create the saying I have used many times since, “Out of adversity comes advantage, it’s just that at the time of the adversity we don’t yet see the advantage.”

My career as a management cadet, who never went to university and commenced in business straight from high school flourished, and the lessons I learnt on that first day, of pride, passion, enthusiasm and focusing on a process, enabled me to rapidly progress through many roles and departments.

I must have been earmarked by management as I became the youngest management cadet in Accounts Receivable, Cashiers, Sales Reporting, and Credit Control. I was then promoted to Area Credit Manager responsible for all retail accounts in Victoria and Tasmania at the age of 24.

However, it was at this tender age and in this position that the Assistant Credit Manager told me arrogantly at lunch one day in front of my peers, that my problem was, “I had no ambition!”

By then I had given up playing cricket for Balwyn Sub-District where I had taken 6 wickets for 33 runs one Saturday only to be given two more ‘overs’ for the rest of the season because my captain was also a leg spin bowler.

This was another case of someone being threatened by enthusiasm, pride, process, talent and passion.

Balwyn Sub-District Cricket Team

Author in back row second from right.

Disenchanted, I left and joined Kew Sub-District Cricket Club which was a blessing as it was closer to my home in North Kew. I became an opening bat and leg spin bowler, but soon found that the same culture was embedded in cricket no matter what team you played with.

If you were a threat to a senior player or captain with similar skills and talent, you didn’t prosper because they had the power of influence and they could quickly put out your flame of passion.

It still happens today in cricket around the world as senior players seem to hold the power and their places for too long in most teams and have the power to influence and stop opportunity for the young and talented because they are threatened by them.

Again, disenchanted, I changed my sport, and this was to be the best decision I ever made for my self-development and wellbeing.

While playing and practising at Kew Cricket Club I would often watch the athletes of the Kew Harriers Athletic Club train and compete in various athletic events. At Balwyn High School I had a keen interest in running, and became the senior champion in 100, 220 and 440 yards.

So, one momentous day I put my cricket bat away in the cupboard, bought a new pair of running spikes, joined Kew Harriers, and never looked back.

I found that in athletics you control your own destiny, as in golf, and your talent, enthusiasm, endurance, commitment, discipline, dedication, technique, passion, process, and pride enable you to perform with excellence, if you want to attain that level.

I had shown speed from an early age at school sports, and I soon started to show progress and promise as the leading club sprinter and went on to become the club champion over 100, 220, 300 and 440 yards.

After a couple of years of consistent performance, I was elected captain of the club and started to impart the coaching knowledge I had gained from being coached by one of the starters at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, Stewart Embling, who was also a sprint coach.

During this period, I recruited a number of champion athletes to the club, the best being the Australian 100-yard sprint champion and record holder, Byron Williams. Byron was a shy, retiring, gentle guy who was totally dedicated to his sport and who also was quite a deep thinker, strategist, and philosopher.

Byron was a member of the powerful Box Hill Athletic Club but would train with his cousin Peter Denny at the Kew Harriers Club at the Victoria Park oval on most evenings.

I soon became close friends with Byron, who has become a loyal, lifelong friend and one day when training with him he suggested I try out for the 880 yards as he thought I had the speed and endurance to compete well over this distance.

It wasn’t long before I influenced him to join the Kew Harriers Club. I then became the 440 and 880 yard champion and left the 100 and 220 yards to him.

Byron, I and two other sprinters, Ray Brunton and Bruce Falconer from Old Scotch, soon became a dedicated group of four and we trained throughout the winter with 10 to 12 mile training runs twice a week after work, training on the track two nights a week and working out at the gym on the fifth night.

It was a seriously daunting training schedule, yet we improved our times significantly for our respective events and formed a great bond of friendship and support for one another that lasted many years.

It was not unusual on our long runs to return bleeding and sore with blood on our shorts from the chafing of the skin between our legs. However, we couldn’t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Author Details
• Foreword
• Prologue A Look Back in Time
• Table of Contents
• Part 1 The Management Cadet
• Case History 1 Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 Joining the Club
• Chapter 2 Coping with Adversity
• Chapter 3 The Challenge of Change
• Chapter 4 A Career in the Country
• Chapter 5 War in the City
• Chapter 6 The End of an Era
• Chapter 7 A Clash of Cultures
• Part 2 The Intrepid Entrepreneur
• Case History 1 George D Norris & Associates Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 A Leap of Faith
• Case History 2 Collingwood AFL Football Club
• Chapter 1 Mission Imperative
• Case History 3 L’Oreal of Paris
• Chapter 1 The Golden Frog
• Case History 4 Wurlitzer
• Chapter 1 The Musical Mouseketeer
• Case History 5 Renault (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 The French Connection
• Case History 6 Ansett Airlines of Australia
• Chapter 1 Back to the Future
• Case History 7 Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 A Strategy for Success
• Chapter 2 Bali Bound
• Chapter 3 First Time Flyers
• Chapter 4 Negotiating a Nightmare
• Chapter 5 Beauty and the Banquet
• Chapter 6 A Birthday Surprise
• Chapter 7 Attitude and Aptitude at Altitude
• Chapter 8 Teamwork in Action
• Chapter 9 Sleepless in Jakarta
• Chapter 10 A Calming Influence
• Chapter 11 He ain’t Heavy
• Chapter 12 Home on AutoPilot
• Case History 8 Tooth Hotels Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 The Horse’s Mouth
• Case History 9 Indian Tourism Board
• Chapter 1 Incredible India
• Chapter 2 Forbidden Fruit
• Case History 10 Operation 84, America’s Cup Conferences
• Chapter 1 Sailing into the Future
• Chapter 2 A Light Bulb Moment
• Chapter 3 Needle in a Haystack
• Chapter 4 Catching a Marlin
• Chapter 5 Syncing with the Skipper
• Case History 11 Australian Motor Industries Ltd: TOYOTA
• Chapter 1 Trust comes by Foot
• Chapter 2 The Cook from Essex
• Chapter 3 A Path to Perfection
• Chapter 4 A Golden World
• Chapter 5 Rabbits in the Hat
• Chapter 6 Trust leaves by Horse Power
• Chapter 7 Hitting the Canvas
• Case History 12 Australian Vintage Travel
• Chapter 1 Bouncing back Up
• Chapter 2 A Vintage Year
• Chapter 3 A Vintage Betrayal
• Case History 13 The Australian Bicentennial
• Chapter 1 Living a Dream
• Case History 14 In Touch and In Line
• Chapter 1 Foundations for a Future
• Case History 15 Calder Park Thunderdome
• Chapter 1 Learning from a Legend
• Chapter 2 Skating on Thin Ice
• Chapter 3 Realising Reality
• Case History 16 Norris Management Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 The Phoenix Rises
• Case History 17 Jetset Travel
• Chapter 1 One Night in Bangkok
• Chapter 2 Success Through Service
• Case History 18 Anthony Tesselaar Plants
• Chapter 1 Smelling the Roses
• Case History 19 Herb Herbert Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 The Growing of Herbie
• Case History 20 General Motors Holden
• Chapter 1 Renewing Relationships
• Case History 21 Telecom Mobilenet
• Chapter 1 Searching for Excellence
• Case History 20 The PGA of Australia
• Chapter 1 The Business of Golf
• Part 3 The Corporate Coach
• Case History 1 Grey Advertising Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 Insights in a Bubble
• Chapter 2 Many Shades of Grey
• Case History 2 BMW Australia Ltd
• Chapter 1 The Beauty in the Beast
• Chapter 2 Breathless in Bavaria
• Chapter 3 The Benefits from the Brand
• Case History 3 Radio 3MP 1377
• Chapter 1 A Shot of Inspiration
• Case History 4 Melbourne and Hawthorn AFL clubs
• Chapter 1 Coaching the Coaches
• Case History 5 Radio Magic 1278
• Chapter 1 The Life Coach
• Case History 6 National Foods Ltd
• Chapter 1 Food for Thought
• Case History 7 Royal Sydney Golf Club
• Chapter 1 The Cellar Dweller
• Case History 8 Kelvin Boyd Advisory Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 A Watching Brief
• Case History 9 Greystone Wines
• Chapter 1 A Strategic Solution
• Case History 10 Cookers Bulk Oil System Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 Cooking with Canola
• Case History 11 Victoria University
• Chapter 1 Worshipping Wisdom
• Case History 12 AFL Coaches Association
• Chapter 1 Meeting the Master
• Case History 13 Mercedes Benz Dealers
• Chapter 1 The Silver Stars
• Case History 14 HLB Mann Judd Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 Taming the Tiger
• Case History 15 Renault (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Chapter 1 Renewing the Connection
• Case History 16 Logic Information Systems
• Chapter 1 Flying High on Golf
• Case History 17 m3property
• Chapter 1 The Vision Equation
• Case History 18 First National Real Estate
• Chapter 1 Putting Culture First
• EPILOGUE The People’s Pandemic