The Essence of Humility in Leadership - a Conversation with Matt Cameron of the Penrith Panthers Rugby League Club

Note to self, when in conversation with someone who epitomises humility in leadership, don’t expect them to talk about themselves in a hurry!

Meet Matt Cameron, Rugby League CEO of the Penrith Panthers, and my latest guest in conversation for the Rawthentic Leadership Podcast.

The Penrith Panthers are a professional rugby league team based in Western Sydney and they have been on an incredible journey over the past few years coming from behind to be in the Grand Final in 2020 and win the Grand Finals in 2021 and 2022.

Though we might not necessarily have done a deep dive talking about humility, you’ll quickly grasp why I wanted to have Matt as my guest for this topic by the way he talks about his education, his team, the club and its culture. If you're a fan of Rugby League and curious about gaining an insight into club culture then this podcast is most definitely for you! 

Listening again to this podcast with my leadership hat on, there is much we can learn and apply in business from the world of high performance sport.

Here are just a few of the golden nuggets gleaned from our conversation:-   

• Matt’s career before joining professional sports
• Why Matt believes that he has the best and worst job in the world
• Humility – creating the environment for others to flourish
• Humility as part of the culture of the club
• Leading with vulnerability-based trust
• Using a repeatable metaphor to continually improve
• The difference between peer-to-peer accountability and a blame culture
• The role of storytelling in onboarding new players and developing deeper ongoing relationships
• Being comfortable to be challenged and the results it can deliver
• Matt’s open-door policy – the ‘couch’ effect!
• The source of Matt’s humility – a heart-warming story about his school teachers and upbringing
• The role of mentoring in helping to develop humility as a leadership trait
• Harnessing the wisdom of our elders
• Future-proofing the business and the team; the role of pathways in succession planning
• What Matt still wants to develop in himself as a leader

It’s probably not a surprise that Matt doesn’t do social media but you can find out more about club of which he is so proud in their documentary https://www.penrithpanthers.com.au/news/2023/02/26/streaming-now-watch-all-the-way-on-9now/

Matt also speaks fondly of The Patrician Brothers from his school days. You can find out more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrician_Brothers

Rawthentic Leadership has been ranked number 4 in Australia’s top 25 Leadership Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/australian_leadership_podcasts/

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