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About 30 Winter Mornings
30 Winter Mornings is a short daily podcast for people who deliver complex live events.
Each episode is a ten-minute morning reflection that offers perspective, reassurance, and calm during the most demanding phase of delivery. Drawing on decades of experience in large-scale events, the podcast focuses not on the event itself, but on the people behind it, the professionals who carry responsibility, make decisions under pressure, and keep showing up.
This is not a training programme or a motivational series.
It’s a daily check-in.
A moment of company before the day begins.
Good morning. I'm Christiaan Page, and welcome to 30 Winter Mornings. This is a short daily podcast for professionals delivering complex live events. And over the next 30 mornings, we'll be counting down to the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Games. Each morning, we take a few minutes to slow things down, to find perspective, reassurance, and calm during the most demanding phase of the delivery.
Christiaan PAGE:This isn't training. It's not motivational. It's a daily check-in, a moment of company before your day begins. Eight mornings to go. And as delivery nears the finish, the leadership role shifts again.
Christiaan PAGE:We're talking a lot about this in these last steps. You're not setting direction. This isn't what you're doing in this phase. You're no longer driving pace. As we've said, we're setting the pace, but not driving it.
Christiaan PAGE:It's already set. But you are still needed. And at this stage, the most valuable thing a leader can offer is availability. It's not about control. It's not about constant input.
Christiaan PAGE:It's just presence. And I think about that not just from a executive leadership, senior, middle, management, team leadership perspective, and even our personal perspective, our personal leadership. We just need to turn up for ourselves and be present. And there's a great lesson here from long distance sailing. Experienced skippers don't hover over every minor adjustment.
Christiaan PAGE:They stay close enough to respond as and when needed and far enough away not to disturb the cruise rhythm. And I think this is really pertinent to what we're where the phase we're in today. And certainly in complex delivery, availability works very much the same way. Your people need to know you're reachable, but not necessarily watching and hovering and judging, just being there. So when leaders disappear completely, what happens is it creates uncertainty.
Christiaan PAGE:However, when they hover, the confidence shrinks. So somewhere in the middle there, there's a balance, and it is subtle, but it's very powerful. So before the day pulls your attention outward from all the things you've gotta do, let's pause for a quick check-in. So first of all, how are people reaching you today? Is it clear when and how they can get support if needed?
Christiaan PAGE:Do they know how to to contact you just privately even? Is it clear how and when they can get you? And do they know when you're on-site? Do they know when you're there? Because, again, clarity reduces anxiety.
Christiaan PAGE:So if they know, if it's written up on the board and everyone knows that you're present, they can have a really clear way in them understanding how to reach you. Second, where can you remain present without being intrusive, getting back to the hovering and judging and looking over people's shoulders? So maybe it's just a check-in without commentary. Maybe it's nothing to do with the task at hand. Maybe it's just a, hey.
Christiaan PAGE:How are you doing? Not, hey. How are you doing? Do you wanna stack it this way? Or can you put the can you put the boxes over there?
Christiaan PAGE:Or, you know, maybe just to check-in. People know what they're doing. They do their their job. And maybe it's just a walk through without instruction or picking up on all the points that we all know have to be done. Maybe it's just to be present on that walk through.
Christiaan PAGE:When you do that walk through from the start of this from the front gate to the the Operations Room where you're operating from, Perhaps that walk through doesn't need to be instructional and picking up on all the things that need to be done because everyone knows pretty much. Sometimes our presence is just enough. Alright. Third, what signal would tell you intervention is genuinely needed? And this is about, you know, separating what is noise, separating what are the nerves because, you know, people can get nervous and anxious and and fatigued, but really paying attention, to something that's real.
Christiaan PAGE:So really paying attention to where you need to intervene, and where it's really needed as opposed to reacting to all the other things that are going on. So in this final stretch, good leadership feels calm. Stay available. And wherever you are, stay safe, stay healthy, and bye for now. 30 Winter Mornings is a legacy group project produced and presented by myself, Christiaan Page.
Christiaan PAGE:This podcast is recorded on the shores of Lac Leman , also known as Lake Geneva, in Lausanne, the Olympic capital, in the Canton Of Vaud, Switzerland.