Great leadership skills - Staging Connections

We watched the excellent Undercover Boss program last night on Channel 10, featuring one of our great clients, Staging Connections and their CEO, Tony Chamberlain.
http://ten.com.au/undercoverbossaustralia-tony-chamberlain.htm
Some of the employees that we have trained at Management Consultancy International were in the program and acquitted themselves really well. They came across as very professional and committed to their company.
What was so interesting about the program is that Tony as the CEO displayed amazing characteristics of leadership! What made him stand out?
1. He showed unbelievable empathy towards staff. He was prepared to LISTEN and give them a chance to explain where they were coming from and what was on their mind. With listening skills at an all-time low, this was a great example of how by simply listening and indicating understanding, huge obstacles were removed.
2. Tony was not afraid to tell his personal story and spoke about what he has been through in his own life and in his career. In terms of building trust, this level of openness is remarkable and sets the tone in the company for teams to be built on these strong foundations.
3. Tony took action as soon as he saw breaches to OHS policies and procedures. By placing safety so high on his priority list, an attitude of caring begins from the top and this sets standards at a high level. People then tend to live up to these high standards.
4. He also took action - by moving in to execution mode, Tony showed that leaders don't always have to be involved in strategising. There comes a time when action takes precedence over planning. Not every challenge in the organisation is going to be fixed immediately - but by taking action to remedy some small areas, the staff engagement levels are bound to be higher.
5. Tony also showed commitment to social responsibility and by joining and supporting the CEO Sleepout, he set himself as a role model for others who care about major community issues.
6. Tony also speaks about how he "seeks the truth". As we have repeated so many times in our MCI leadership programs, it is vitally important that we base decisions on data - real facts - and not on our sometimes incorrect perceptions and assumptions. It is sometimes so tempting to climb the ladder of inference and use as a starting point, incorrect assumptions that we have taken as fact but have been diluted through our own lens.
Way to go Staging Connections!