The Responsibility of Leadership
We choose our podcast guests with thoughtful consideration, looking for a certain kind of leader. As we are all too aware, anyone can lead - at some level, everyone does. The question is, do we lead in life-giving ways or life-diminishing ways?
In our fourth podcast episode, we are excited to introduce you to one of the founding Directors of Total Green Recycling, Michael Coghill.
Total Green Recycling are the biggest e-waste recycler in Western Australia.
Michael and James Coghill (Founding Directors, Total Green Recycling)
I first met Michael when working in a previous role that, on one occasion, landed me at Waste & Recycling conference. I never even knew these existed!!
Michael and I connected while sharing the service elevator, both loaded up with our collateral and promotional accoutrements. Michael’s entrepreneurial spirit was palpable, his enthusiasm for not only his own service but especially for others in the recycling space (including the organisation I was representing) made a lasting impression that has stayed with me 4 years on.
Michael has the innovative energy of Darryl Kerrigan from the Australian cult movie The Castle. He’s an ideas man… but with a key difference.
As you will hear in this coaching-like conversation, Michael brings a depth of thought to bear on not merely his many ideas but also where they sit in relation to the wider societal and environmental systems we are all part of.
Michael dreams large, he thinks generationally, and he takes action.
Own What Is Yours To Own
Michael white-water rafting at Victoria Falls.
In this winding conversation, Michael invites us into a moving and life-shaping story about a trip he took to Victoria Falls in Africa and of how one particular plastic water bottle, arbitrarily tossed out of the bus window, would plant the early seeds of Michael matching soul with role.
This ordinary water-bottle-moment brought a weighty revelation:
I felt a responsibility to do something important.
Responsibility is significant to Michael - it is a theme that returns over again in the conversation. You will hear it in his energy for the influence of Jocko Willink with his concept of extreme ownership and it emerges in Michael’s description of his own leadership maturity journey.
The shifts he is presently experiencing in leadership development have in many ways been sparked by becoming a father. It’s clear that this the light-hearted innovator is carefully working through the weightiness of owning what is his to own. It begins with a renewed focus on values and who Michael wants to be in the world - in relation to his family, his colleagues and the world in which he lives.
At a vocational level, Michael wants to intentionally support others to grow, setting them up for success and ensuring that the entrepreneurship that first enlisted them and put them to work is paired with a commitment to developing the structures that keep them engaged and see them flourishing.
James and Michael Coghill (Founding Directors, Total Green Recycling)
A Lived-Out Gratitude
Finally, as I listen to Michael speak, he comes across as one who moves through life with a deep sense of gratitude. It’s not necessarily a spoken-gratitude, but more of a thankfulness expressed through his living and being.
You will hear it in Michael’s recognition of life’s brevity and, if you are like me, you will notice it sitting at the core of his next big dream - the creation of a stewardship centre for sustainable communities.
As this podcast conversation closed, I couldn’t help but quietly say, thank God for people like Michael Coghill; people who dream large, who look generationally and who think for the benefit of others (like me) who might never have imagined the possibilities nor the consequences of inaction.