For all of us in the resources sector, our industry has come under increasing scrutiny as to the role we play in the many issues of gravity at play globally - established political systems under pressure, Australia’s relationship with our largest trading partner, supply chain resilience, humanity’s impact on climate and biodiversity, relationship with indigenous cultures and ESG in the broad sense, and global energy transition.

Do we acknowledge these and our role in them, and what are we doing about it? All too often that scrutiny is an unbalanced assessment that centres on negative interpretations or emotive and shallow analysis, while over-looking the fundamental benefits and indeed the human necessities we bring to the world, and to addressing these issues.

For the resources sector to continue moving forward, for us to earn community trust, for us to continue to provide the foundational raw materials of society, for us to continue to enhance livelihoods and human endeavour as we have in the past, for us to continue to generate the wealth and taxes that provide for much of our societies basic human needs, will need competence and uncommon leadership. Leadership that is respectful of difference, innovative, leaders who can make the tough decisions but do so with care and empathy for those impacted, leaders who are inclusive and treat others like they are part of the team, not in charge of a team.

As a framework for sharing some of these thoughts on leadership we will use a simple model that was developed in support of a desire to build a caring-accountable culture. I believe this is the necessary basis to achieve sustained high performance. It’s called the 3 C’s – Connect, Coach and Cheer. Through a series of personal examples and experiences from 30 years in our industry we will seek to put the 3C’s into a simple, meaningful and immediately useful context.

Transitioning to a low carbon future is one of the defining challenges of our time. For our resources industry we are finally starting to see recognition of the role only mining can play in enabling that future. By some estimates that means a 4 to 6 fold increase in production and thus mining activity for some of the clean energy metals that will make that future happen. Resistance to this trend by some will continue so we are on notice.

But we can’t sit here and complain that people don’t understand us, or make jokes about people using their cell phone to book an Uber to get to the station to catch a train to get to an anti-mining protest. It is not helpful to judge others views as wrong and criticise them. Our task as the people who are this industry is to lead by example and show that we actually share common goals, that we can operate in ever-more sustainable ways, to educate and inform on the absolutely unavoidable role we will play, to gain others trust, and critically the trust of investors that we see the path and are equal to the task.

The role of leadership continues to grow in complexity while under increasing public scrutiny. As we each consider our role and our future in our great industry I put to you the 3C’s of Connect – Coach – Cheer as a simple, powerful foundation upon which to build on your own unique way.