I treat people fairly. I can't be dictatorial. We have multicultural dressing rooms and what's really important is that you have a way of working that brings the best out of everyone.
I played in Spain, and we also had a very good dressing room, and I won a lot of things. So I think that in my experience of being in dressing rooms, it's so important to have a really good group.
Working on 'Austin and Ally' has been an absolute dream! We literally have fun every single day! Whether it's scaring each other or singing together or just hanging out in each other's dressing rooms, the cast and I are super close! I feel really lucky to be with everyone on our set!
I think every leader has an obligation - the absolute obligation - to treat everyone fairly. But they also have the obligation to treat everyone differently. Because people aren't all the same, and the last thing you ever want to do, in my opinion, is let the best in your organization be treated like the worst in your organization. It does nothing for your future.
Dressing rooms can be vicious places, in the best possible way, from a slagging point of view.
A habit for all of us to develop would be to look for something to appreciate in everyone we meet. We can all be generous with appreciation. Everyone is grateful for it. It improves every human relationship, it brings new courage to people facing difficulties, and it brings out the best in everyone. So, give appreciation generously whenever you can. You will never regret it.
What's really important is the people, first of all. I like working with people who are kind, above all else. I don't really want to work with someone who will manipulate me. The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.
Psychology is as important as substance. If you treat people with respect, they will go out of their way to accommodate you. If you treat them in a patronizing way, they will go out of their way to make your life difficult.
I'm very conscious about the way I treat people because I was never really taught to treat people in a respectful or kind way. I never really saw that role model, so for me, that made me just want to be the opposite of what I had and treat people the opposite of the way I saw other people treat other people.
I think it's important for everyone to understand that if you have a background and culture... to really use that as motivation to fuel the fire. It brings meaning to what you do. It's not just sports - whether it's in the classroom, in the office or whatever it may be - it just brings passion and excitement out when there's meaning behind it.
What is important is to treat everyone like an individual and learning not to generalize autism. With autism, people make assumptions, but it's very broad, and everyone's so different. You have to treat each person as an individual.
Teaching is a huge part of what I do. I love to think about what I do out loud, and the best way to do this is to teach. I usually learn a lot from the students in my workshops, because we work to build the classes around a collaborative environment where everyone is working towards the same goal of learning how to observe and see the subject well, because everyone brings different approaches and experiences with them, the other students and myself learn new methods that we can add into what we do.
It is a little bit strange from when you share a dressing room with someone, you play with them and then all of a sudden they are your manager but you used to have conversations with them that stay in dressing rooms and now you can't really have those conversations!
I love pitting people against each other. My whole life is based on that. It brings out the best in people and the worst in people. If the worst comes out, you don't want them working for you.
In my books, there are a lot of people stuck in rooms. Or, conversely, out in the wide open. It seems that, in a funny way, when people are cooped up in rooms they are freer than when they are wandering about in the world.
Wimbledon is not the tournament I love. I don't like how they treat the players. There are small things that don't cost them anything and they make such a big deal out of it. If they treat us this way, well, we have to treat them the same. We want to be respected, the way we respect Wimbledon, even if it is not the best Grand Slam on earth.
I've seen material competitiveness destroy relationships in dressing rooms. People end up worrying about what someone else is earning and whether they're missing out.