It's easy to dismiss social barriers as inevitable - the natural friction that comes with 'being different'. Harder still is looking 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?

Sean Christie-David offers a quiet counterpoint to the usual narratives around social enterprise. As founder of Plat 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 Sean, 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 Sean'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!!