Welcome back! And thank you for joining us on the first Cheeky Half of Season 6.

Join Paul & KG as they talk about what the sixth year may hold for the show, as well as shaking the dust from their microphones by talking about a whole lot of nuthin'!

And we also welcome back our wonderful supporters, Annandale Cellars. We don't know what wines we're going to get, but we can guarantee they're going to be amazing!

This year we want to make a concerted effort to connect with our community of listeners - we'd love to get your feedback, your thoughts on the episodes, any reflections on what you've heard and, of course, any ideas on topics that you feel are worth pursuing. Don't be shy, please reach out on our email below.

Oh, and if you'd like to take full advantage of our massive 20% discount for any six bottles or more you purchase online from Annandale Cellars, then head to acellars.com.au and use our discount code DECANTED at check-out. Totally worth it.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Five years. Five seasons. 2025 was a milestone year for us in the podcave. And we have you and our wonderful guests to thank for that.

In this final episode of 2025, KG and Paul reflect on the year that was - the many insightful, if not inspirational, conversations. The impact our guests are making both, in their local communities and across the glove. And the wines... oh, the wines!

Thank you all for your continued support. We'd love to step up our engagement with our audience in the coming year. So please, if you have it in you, drop us an email - tell us what topics you'd like us to explore, or perhaps someone you'd want us to talk to. Maybe you have a favourite wine you'd want us to try! Is there something we could improve on? Always up for that feedback. Either way, we'd love to hear from you. Don't be shy: askus@leadershipdecanted.com

Finally, we hope you have found time to celebrate the milestones and achievements for 2025. If you need some delicious, thirst quenching wines, you can use our discount code 365 days a year! Enjoy a 20% discount by using our code at checkout for any six wines or more: DECANTED

Don't wait! Visit our wonderful sponsors, Annadale Cellars, and stock up for the summer.

Sláinte friends! See you next year!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Plate It Forward
2. Pod&Hive
3. The Greater Good Diaper Project
4. Cities for Peace
5. No Silver Bullet

As always, we're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

It's easy to dismiss social barriers as inevitable - the natural friction that comes with 'being different'. But it's much harder to look directly at the systems that keep people unseen, unheard, and separate from opportunity. But what if the work of genuine leadership offered something far more radical: not the removal of barriers through policy or process alone, but the daily practice of seeing people in their wholeness, and moving with them through the discomfort of that recognition?

Shaun Christie-David offers a quiet counterpoint to the usual narratives around social enterprise. As founder of Plate It Forward and a collective of "Social Enterprise" restaurants, he has built organisations where empathy isn't a virtue-signaling slogan — it's woven into hiring, kitchen rhythms, and shared work. It's leadership as a sustained commitment to human dignity, grounded in his own family's experience of migration and the profound luck of belonging.

KG and Paul spent time in the Podcave with Shaun, listening to a story that moves from banking to Sri Lanka to restaurants that quietly challenge every assumption about who belongs in Australian workplaces. What emerges is leadership as something far more grounded than most frameworks allow — a long game that ripples forward across generations.

At the heart of Shaun's work is a disarming question: Why? Why do we assume people with criminal records are untrustworthy? Why overlook skilled migrants when organisations claim there is a talent shortage? Why reduce people to categories when what stands before us is a person with agency and capability?

Ultimately we explore that, perhaps, the real work of leadership is the willingness to build something so it can live beyond you, and the insistence that your success is only meaningful if it creates conditions for the success of others.

We are grateful to Annandale Cellars (and so is Shaun!) for once again generously providing a delicious bottle of wine to accompany this awe-inspiring conversation. On this occasion we are fortunate to taste a 2024 Catlow & Co Nebbiolo, from Beechworth, Victoria. It is a soft and rounded red with a long, delicious finish of red berries, roses and spice. A gorgeous, juicy wine or drink now, or store for a special day.

Get at least half a dozen of these (or half a dozen of any of their amazing wines) and get a 20% discount by using our code at checkout: DECANTED

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Plate It Forward
2. Colombo Social
3. Kabul Social
4. Kolkata Social
5. Kyiv Social

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

We rarely publish 'sequels' for our Cheeky Half episodes, but this one was too good to miss. The saga continues with Paul's plumbing. A complicated, but relatively routine, project has become altogether something else.

Join Paul & KG as they discuss the next chapter of a little story that includes backed-up sewerage pipes, very large native trees, and the need to protect endangered species.

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation and any suggestions on this topic for future episodes.

Oh, and if you'd like to take full advantage of our massive 20% discount for any six bottles or more you purchase online from Annandale Cellars, then head to acellars.com.au and use our discount code DECANTED at check-out. Totally worth it.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Calls for peace have become louder and more urgent across the globe over the last few years. So much so that it's difficult to know how to respond in ways that feel meaningful and relevant. After all, how can a drop in the ocean move an unrelenting tide?

Mandar Apte is proof that an individual, with no initial political, financial or cultural stock, can actually move the needle for real and lasting peace. And whilst the aspiration is global, the work unfolds in our local communities - having started by bridging the divide between "two sides of the gun".

KG and Paul were joined by Mandar - engineer, documentary filmmaker and global advocate for peace. They listened to his incredible story and couldn't help but marvel at his passion for bringing people together. And what begins as a reflection on personal growth soon widens into a conversation about how inner transformation can ripple outwards into organisations, communities, and even nations.

Mandar’s own story is one of profound change, describing how mindfulness and self-awareness became the catalysts not just for his own resilience, but for building trust and empathy in others. His concept of “mental hygiene” reframes leadership as a discipline of the inner life - essential for shaping workplaces and societies that can hold complexity and conflict with grace.

And through his film From India with Love and work bringing victims and perpetrators of violence together, Mandar shows how community-led transformation can become a foundation for global peacebuilding.

Annandale Cellars has once again generously provided a delicious bottle of wine to accompany this inspiring conversation. On this occasion we are fortunate to taste a 2023 Casa d'Ambra Ischia Bianco - a quirky Italian white from the unexpected Island of Ischia, just off the coast of Naples. A perfect warm weather wine, with a wonderful balance between fruit and gentle acidity, and a little bit of saltiness on the finish for something to remember!

Get at least half a dozen of these (or half a dozen of any of their amazing wines) and get a 20% discount by using our code at checkout: DECANTED

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Cities4Peace
2. From India with Love
3. The Art of Living
4. Be the Change - Training Module

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

Something went wrong with Paul's plumbing. Those in his house, that is. Needless to say, it was a little unpleasant. However, not being one to let a learning opportunity pass him by, there were a couple of things that left him thinking.

Join Paul & KG as they discuss a little story that includes dark, stormy nights, backed-up sewerage pipes, and what happens when you don't spend enough time understanding a problem or an issue before dismissing it as irrelevant.

[Shout out to Naomi for 'inspiring' this conversation!]

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation and any suggestions on this topic for future episodes.

Oh, and if you'd like to take full advantage of our massive 20% discount for any six bottles or more you purchase online from Annandale Cellars, then head to acellars.com.au and use our discount code DECANTED at check-out. Totally worth it.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

What makes this conversation so inspiring is the notion that, when we are working with individual leaders to strengthen their leadership practice, we are also supporting their teams, their families and their communities. We are not just supporting the individual but the entire system in which they are located.

Sarah Cornally is a passionate leadership practitioner, and Partner at Acumen Global Partners. She is adamant 'systemic thinking' is the essential lens for anyone navigating the deep complexity of modern organisations. Sarah, KG and Paul dive straight into why understanding systems - rather than just individuals or silos - unlocks hidden dynamics, exposes entrenched patterns, and creates genuine possibilities for lasting change.

And the 'magic sauce'? In the end, to be able to productively navigate the many contradictory demands of any complex system, success rests on the quality of relationships, and not just structures or policies. It's the quality of our connections that determines whether transformation fails or flourishes, and why what lies “under the table” must be brought to light for the whole system to grow and progress.

And, as always, Annandale Cellars has generously provided an incredible bottle of wine to accompany this free-flowing conversation. On this occasion we crack open a bottle of 2023 Yohan Lardy Poppy Gamay. It is a gorgeous, light red wine, with lots of fruit and an easy drinking style.

Get at least half a dozen of these (or half a dozen of any of their amazing wines) and get a 20% discount by using our code at checkout: DECANTED

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Acumen Partners
2. Dude Dancing on the Hill
3. Same Dude, shorter version
4. The Mandelbrot Set

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

Our very first live podcast recording with Steve Hearsum (Episode 5.07) is the gift that keeps giving!

Join Paul & KG as they open the space to questions from our audience for our highly engaging guest. The questions are considered, and the ongoing conversation is insightful, offering an unexpected invitation to deeper reflection and vulnerability.

And let us repeat, for your drinking pleasure, the delectable wines provided by our friends at Annandale Cellars on this occasion.

• 2022 Spinifex Bête Noir Shiraz.
• 2024 Catlow & Company Nebbiolo
• 2024 Wanderer Yarra Valley Macclesfield Chardonnay

Use our discount code when you get to check out and, for six bottles or more, you'll get a huge 20% off the total price of your order. What's the discount code, you ask? That's easy! It's 'DECANTED' (without the quote marks).

Sláinte friends!

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation and any suggestions on this topic for future episodes.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Some useful resources from this episode:

1. Episode 5.07, Leadership & the Myth of the Silver Bullet (Spotify)
2. No Silver Bullet
3. Magnetic Nonsense (Paul Sweeney)
4. Edge and Stretch
5. New River Leadership

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!