It’s Not What I Did, It’s What We Did
From the sporting eld to the boardroom, Jones has always encouraged a culture of collaboration, communication and respect. “My view on leadership goes back to my sporting days,” he said. “I was always captain of the teams I was in for whatever reason, but I always thought the captain was just the one that runs out rst and tosses the coin – if every part of the team isn’t doing their role, playing a role, it’s not going to work. “I’m happy to toss the coin and run out rst but I’m going to require everyone to play their bit and one thing they’ll never hear me say is that I did this – I abhor that word.
“I got asked to do a leadership talk with a group before Christmas and some of the key themes for me are it’s not what I did, it’s what we did. And I’ll never say I’ve done this or someone works for me, they work with me. It’s all about the people.”
Delivering leadership presentations as a CEO is a far cry from his rst job as a fettler on the railways at BHP. But Jones maintains the lessons and values he learnt then, along with those put into practice on the footy eld, helped shape him into the business leader he is today.
