Peak - Departure

Back across the country again

My 4 years at the Peak were full of great jobs and people, and it was where I really started my ongoing journey with shutdown planning (which I’ve covered at some length elsewhere).  It was also where I realised the power of personally earned authority – where people will do what you ask not because you have formal authority, but because they trust you and your judgement.  And that in doing this, they will personally “buy in” to the work and do the best job they can. 

Much of this I’ve already discussed.  The final standout leadership story from The Peak is about how I ended up leaving. 

We’d been on holiday in Broken Hill, seeing Jeanine’s family (her father had passed the year before, so there were very few direct family left) and also spending time with some old friends from Paraburdoo, Greg & Denise (Greg was also from Broken Hill).  Greg was at that time Maintenance Manager for Dampier Salt, at Lake Macleod, living in Carnarvon. 

Having a few beers one afternoon, Greg asked If I’d be interested in coming to work at Macleod, as Engineering Superintendent.  The role had become vacant, and Greg knew I was a likely prospect. 

“Nah, not really, mate,” We’d visited them in Carnarvon, and Greg had taken me for a tour of Macleod.  Salt operations, to the uninitiated, do not generally make a good first impression.  Salt’s hard on the infrastructure and equipment, and the place looked like it was falling down around them.  Plus, I was having too much fun at the Peak. 

Jeanine, who wasn’t having so much fun, with me spending a LOT of time at work, was more interested and, as I found out later, gathered some more details behind the scenes. 

The day I got back from holiday, we discovered cracks in the teeth of the main Winder gearbox, and I was off again on one of those 8-day, 18 hour day disaster recovery missions.  Another success, SuperTones to the rescue, I can do no wrong. 

On my first day off after that, Jeanine said, “You know that job Greg asked you about, at Lake Macleod?  Do you think you could do that type of work?” 

“Yes, no problem – right up my alley.  Don’t know anything about salt, but they’ve got a tonne of work needing to be done – the place looked like crap.  Why?” 

“Good – he’ll give you a call tomorrow to talk about it.” 

Jeanine, with both positional and personally earned authority, had signalled a very strong “not negotiable” situation.  That might not be the job I was going to, but we were leaving, and I was going to be home more. 

I applied for some others, and had a choice ultimately, but Carnarvon & Macleod was where we went, for the next chapter. 

Marriages are many things, but they are definitely a collaborative effort.  It wasn’t my best performance, having to have the “Yellow Card” pulled out – but it did change my behaviour.