The Leadership Star: A Practical Guide to Building Engagement
Your team is capable of more than they’re currently delivering. Most leaders sense this — but don’t have a clear way to act on it.
The Leadership Star gives you a five-point framework for building genuine engagement: practical, memorable, and grounded in what actually works across thousands of people in commercial, government and not-for-profit organisations. Written by former Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer, this is real-world leadership guidance from someone who has led at scale.
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Brian Shows Readers How To
Care about individuals as human beings, rather than as a means to an end
Provide context to people to help them understand why what they do matters
Give clarity by telling people what outcomes and behaviours are expected of them
Clear the barriers that stand in the way of people doing a great job
Celebrate individual contributions and success
Based on the latest management and psychological research on team motivation, and packed with practical examples and reflections you can apply immediately, this book is perfect for new managers and experienced executives alike.
If you manage people, or aspire to be a more effective leader, this book belongs on your desk.
What’s Inside
Part I: The Leadership Star
Care: Show you care about people as individual human beings, and that you care about outcomes.
Context: Give people meaning by helping them to understand the purpose of the organisation and why what they do matters.
Clarity: Tell people what’s expected of them in terms of their role, outcomes and behaviours – what good looks like, and what great looks like.
Clear the Way: Help knock down the barriers that hold people back.
Celebrate: Recognise individual contributions and success, creating a powerful feedback loop for performance and engagement.
Part II: Growing as a Leader
You: Highly engaging leaders are authentic. They know who they are, and what they stand for. Demonstrate a self-awareness and a genuine commitment to improvement that your people can respect.
Communicate: Effective and continuous communications are critical in demonstrating each of the five points in the Leadership Star. Your goal needs to be to get people talking and engaging with you and each other, so that the highly engaged culture you’re after takes on a life of its own.
Engagement in Times of Crisis: In crisis, the Leadership Star provides a useful reference for helping you lead people in ways that keep them motivated and engaged.
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The Five C’s of the Leadership Star — In Depth
1. Care
Care means showing genuine interest in each team member as an individual human being — not just as a resource delivering outcomes. It involves learning what matters to them personally, acknowledging their contributions, and demonstrating through your actions (not just words) that their wellbeing matters to you as their leader. Research consistently shows that people perform better when they feel their leader genuinely cares about them. Practical care can be as simple as a regular one-on-one where you ask about life outside work, or remembering a personal milestone and following up.
2. Context
Context means helping people understand why their work matters — connecting their daily tasks to the larger purpose of the organisation. Without context, even high-performers can feel their work is meaningless, leading to disengagement. As a leader, your role is to be a translator: turning corporate strategy into language that resonates with the specific people on your team, and helping each person see a direct line between what they do each day and the impact the organisation is trying to have in the world.
3. Clarity
Clarity means telling people exactly what is expected of them — what good looks like, what great looks like, and what the boundaries are. Ambiguity is one of the most common causes of disengagement: people cannot commit fully to a goal they don’t clearly understand. Clarity covers role expectations, performance standards, and behavioural norms. The best leaders revisit clarity regularly, because expectations shift as organisations evolve, and what was clear six months ago may no longer be.
4. Clear the Way
Clearing the way means actively removing the obstacles that prevent your people from doing great work. These might be bureaucratic processes, unclear decision rights, inadequate tools, interdepartmental conflicts, or simply too many competing priorities. When a leader clears the way, they signal to their team that they are genuinely invested in making success possible — not just setting targets and leaving people to figure it out. This point transforms leadership from direction-setting into active enablement.
5. Celebrate
Celebrating means recognising individual contributions and success — not just big wins, but the everyday effort and progress that can go unacknowledged. Recognition creates a powerful feedback loop: people repeat behaviours that are noticed and valued. Effective celebration is specific (naming the behaviour, not just the outcome), timely (close to the event), and authentic. It does not require financial reward — a genuine, specific acknowledgment from a leader is often more motivating than a bonus.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is The Leadership Star for?
The Leadership Star is written for anyone who manages people — from first-time team leaders to experienced CEOs. The framework applies equally in commercial, government, and not-for-profit organisations. If you have direct reports, or if you aspire to lead teams more effectively, this book was written for you.
How is The Leadership Star different from other leadership books?
Most leadership books are written by researchers, consultants, or coaches. The Leadership Star was written by someone who has managed thousands of people across three continents as a practising executive — including as CEO of Westpac, one of Australia’s largest banks. The framework is deliberately simple and memorable: five points, each starting with “C,” that you can hold in your head when you close the back cover. It is designed to answer the question “what do I actually do on Monday morning?” rather than to provide theory.
What are the five points of the Leadership Star framework?
The five points are: Care (show genuine interest in people as individuals), Context (help people understand why their work matters), Clarity (tell people clearly what is expected of them), Clear the Way (remove obstacles so people can do great work), and Celebrate (recognise contributions and success). Together, these five behaviours create the conditions for high team engagement and performance.
Is The Leadership Star available as an audiobook?
Yes. The Leadership Star is available as an audiobook on Audible and Apple Books Audio, narrated by the author Brian Hartzer.
Can I order The Leadership Star in bulk for my organisation?
Yes, bulk corporate orders are available. Please email Suellen@frothycapital.com for bulk order enquiries.