101. JODI RADMORE

What happens when everything you have learned about leadership over four decades is tested — not once, but twice? Detective Superintendent Jodie Radmore is Commander of Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command in Sydney. Her command was at the centre of the response to both the Bondi Junction mass casualty incident and the later Bondi Beach mass casualty incident. Following Episode 99 with Ambulance Commander Brett Simpson and our milestone Episode 100 with Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce, Jodie completes an extraordinary three-episode exploration of leadership, service, courage and care. But this conversation is not about heroics. It is about people. Jodie takes us back through almost 40 years of policing — general duties, criminal investigation, child protection, police negotiation, organised crime, major-event management and senior command — and shows how leadership capability is built long before the crisis arrives. Her philosophy is remarkably simple: Trust your people. Be authentic and honest. Be kind. Jodie explains how relationships established with Westfield, councils, emergency services, community organisations and local leaders before either incident became invaluable when disaster struck. She describes standing officers down when they needed rest, creating dedicated welfare teams, using mental-health clinicians, reconnecting first responders, personally walking officers back through the Bondi Junction scene and supporting her people through the coronial process. When tragedy struck again, the command had learned. They adapted. They supported one another. And, in Jodie's words: “We are stronger together.” This is an exceptional conversation about what leadership looks like when the operational response ends and the responsibility to care for people begins.