FOSTERING personal growth and creating meaningful pathways is the leadership style former AFL player Leigh Colbert has adopted as he navigates his new role as licensee of the Mildura and Irymple McDonald’s restaurants.
These are leadership skills Mr Colbert says he developed through his 12-year AFL career with Geelong and North Melbourne, which will enable him to not only do big things with the two Macca’s stores, but also the wider community.
“You bring talent together and you bring out the best of people,” Mr Colbert said.
“My job is to help foster that as much as I can, just like you would in a footy or netball club.
“And we’re working on some really exciting plans for the restaurants in the near future … it’s going to be great.”
Mr Colbert, with wife Alex and their three children, moved to Sunraysia earlier this month to take on the job and reconnect with the region he was born in.
“It’s surreal being here … especially driving around and pointing out things to the kids I remember as a kid,” he said.
“Everyone is still transitioning with the heat though … and we’ve got a 10-year-old Labrador who doesn’t know what’s going on.
“He’s like, ‘I think I’ve just landed in the Middle East’, but luckily we’re being looked after with good airconditioning at the moment.”
Mr Colbert retired from the AFL at the end of the 2005 season with the Kangaroos and launched into a career with Tiger Airlines as a pilot.
After five years navigating family life between ground and air, Mr Colbert decided it was time for a lifestyle change.
“It’s quite ironic … even know you would think there’s no comparison between McDonald’s and flying aeroplanes, there’s shift work, working all hours of the night, checklists,” he said.
Strong family ties to the Sunraysia region was an attractive factor in making the move from Melbourne to Mildura, but Mr Colbert said an opportunity to start franchise training with McDonald’s cemented his decision to take the leap.
“The fork in the road for us was a flying life in the United Arab Emirates with Emirates, living in the Middle East. Or, we live in a damn good country which is an awesome place to bring up kids,” he said.
“From a training perspective though, I had some real funny moments … handing out food and people driving through yelling out, ‘Hey, what are you doing, how’s the footy going?’.
“Brent Harvey, an ex-teammate, sent me a message and said, ‘Is everything all right’, thinking I was on my knees taking a second job at McDonald’s.”
The move became a realistic possibility last month after a video emerged online showing former McDonald’s franchisee Robert Vigors and his partner Karen Ridge questioning their neighbour’s Aboriginality and attempting to remove an Aboriginal flag from his property.
McDonald’s jumped into action and condemned the behaviour, quickly taking over the operation of both Sunraysia restaurants.
Mr Colbert acknowledged he had stepped into a role that had been shrouded in controversy and said his focus now was to lead the two stores in a positive direction that united the community.
“I was talking on and off with Rob, who was planning on exiting,” he said.
“You know, I listen to people who are close to me and that has been embedded in me from an early age especially with football … you’ve got to treat people how they come to you. I’ll take you on face value and we’ll go from there.
“From my point of view, community is massive and doing good in this community is a massive priority to me.”
Mr Colbert will be licensee of the two stores for the next 20 years and anticipates a $2 million spend on renovating the Mildura restaurant in the near future.
Along with facilitating upgrades to the two stores, Mr Colbert said his overall goal was to support and nurture his team of employees.
“My job is to see and support the team through their whole pathway,” he said.
“A goal of mine is to see one person become a licensee in my 20 years in this system … I think that’s a great feather in the cap.”
Mr Colbert also looked forward to raising his children in the Sunraysia community and immersing himself in local sport.
“I’ve already been asked to play at Red Cliffs and Imps mentioned if I could play a few games, but I said politely to take a walk,” he said.
“Thomas my eldest boy will be in under 9s, so we’ll get involved with sport and with the local community … that’s really important to us.”
