Trina Jones was one of the earliest guests on The Courage to Lead Interview Series, appearing in Episode 8. Years later, that conversation remains one of the most popular episodes of the series. A lot has happened since then.
Today, Trina Jones is the first NSW Rental Commissioner, responsible for helping regulate Australia’s largest rental market — approximately two million renters living across around one million rental homes. When she commenced the role, it was new. There was no established template. And, as Trina explains during our conversation:
“The title doesn’t give you influence. The title doesn’t actually guarantee you success.”
That may be one of the most important leadership lessons in this interview. A position can give someone authority. Influence still has to be earned.
Listening Before Leading
One of the first things Trina Jones did was listen. Not simply through formal submissions or traditional government consultation. Her approach was to go to the people most affected. Communities were provided with transport. Food was available. Childcare barriers were considered. Community leaders were involved. Information was made accessible.
The questions were deliberately simple. What is renting like now? What should renting look like? What would make it better? The consultation ultimately generated more than 16,000 survey responses and hundreds of submissions. It is an approach Trina continues to describe through a longstanding community-development principle:
“Nothing about us without us.”
For leaders in any sector, there is a lesson here. Before designing the answer, understand the people experiencing the problem.
Trina Jones: Building a Team Around Purpose
Perhaps the most powerful part of this interview is what happened next. From an operation that began with Trina Jones and approximately half of another full-time position, the rental function eventually developed into a branch of around 145 people.
Trina became deeply involved in building the leadership capability required to make that work. She participated in interviews involving more than 80 members of the team. Why? Because capability mattered — but so did something else.
Care.
Trina puts it simply: “To work in our team, you have to care.” A technically outstanding person who doesn’t care about the purpose, the community or the people affected by the work is unlikely to be the best person for this team. That philosophy is now reinforced throughout its leadership. Leaders select people who care. Those people want to work beside others who care.
As Trina describes it, the result produces “compound returns.”
Creating Other Leaders
Trina Jones philosophy also aligns strongly with a recurring theme throughout The Courage to Lead Interview Series: The true measure of a leader is how many other leaders they create. Her team invests heavily in development, but development does not simply mean sending people on courses.
People are given opportunities to act in more senior roles. They lead projects. They train colleagues. Managers develop the capability to become directors. Coordinators develop the capability to become managers. Every fortnight, the branch runs its Rental Academy, bringing experts into the organisation to expose people to the broader environment in which they work.
Trina’s commitment to those willing to grow is considerable: “I will move a mountain for you. I will do anything to support you in your role.” The expectation, however, is that people want to learn, contribute and work towards the team’s purpose. That is leadership development embedded into everyday work.
Trina Jones and the Gardener
Years ago, I heard Trina Jones use an analogy that stayed with me. A leader should be like a gardener sitting behind the garden, nurturing everything growing in front of them. During this interview, she returned to it. “You’re the gardener, but they’re the flowers.” That may be one of the simplest descriptions of empowering leadership I have heard.
The leader is not meant to be the most visible flower in the garden. Their job is to create the conditions in which everyone else can grow. Trina says she has become almost “obsessed” with creating those conditions. It means providing clarity, opportunity, support, learning and an environment where others can perform. That is what building a formidable team actually looks like.
A Recipe for Change
Trina Jones is now applying the same thinking to change management. Whether an organisation is changing a single operating procedure or changing legislation affecting millions of people, employees still experience change as change. Her emerging philosophy is therefore to make the process predictable.
People should understand: They will be told a change is coming. They will have an opportunity to contribute. They will understand what has been decided. They will receive the necessary training. And they will help implement the change.
The size of the change may vary. The process should remain recognisable. That predictability gives people a greater sense of control and, critically, gives them ownership. And change that people own has a far greater chance of lasting.
Courage When People Say It Cannot Be Done
Every guest on The Courage to Lead is asked what advice they would give someone following a similar leadership path. Trina Jones needed only one theme. “Don’t believe people when they tell you it can’t be done.”
She has repeatedly heard: “We don’t do it like that.” “We can’t do it like that.” “We’ve never done it like that.”
Her response? “Okay, well this time we are.”
And her final advice is something every emerging and established leader should remember: “If you’ve got that fire in your belly and you can see that vision for what’s possible, I just say run at it. Run at it.” Leadership isn’t the title. It isn’t having every answer. It is creating the environment where people can care, contribute, learn, lead and ultimately make something better than it was before.
That is exactly what Trina Jones has done.