Shaun, you have always talked about your passion for seeing people get better at things.  Tell us about some of the forms that has taken in your career. For many years it centred around two of my passions – sailing and cars. I get a lot of pleasure watching people get to grips with how to harness that invisible power that is the wind, in some cases that was with kids in Optimists and at the other end of the spectrum I got to work with a keelboat crew over a couple of years as they trained and prepped for National regattas. It was in that latter example where you could say I first cut my ..read more

As we transition into Ngahuru/Autumn, we find ourselves amidst a time of change and adaptation. As nature sheds its her colours in preparation for the colder months ahead, we are prompted to reflect on our own transitions. Ngahuru symbolises the season of harvest and serves as a reminder of the cyclical nature of existence. It encourages us to embrace change through these transitional months. This season invites us on a journey of introspection and adaptation. It urges us to acknowledge the inevitability of change and empowers us to find strength in the face of uncertainty, making space for ne ..read more

Strategic Influencing – How to engage to make progress on things that matter Belinda Bryant has spent many years teaching people ‘influencing skills’. Consequently she has given more thought than most to the contexts where the ‘rubber hits the road’ in influencing terms. So often we head to meetings ready to tell people what we know that they need to know – and then at some point during or after the meeting realise that our objective shouldn’t have been simply to impart information. Rather we needed to: · Get someone in particular to give enough priority to whatever we were talking about to d ..read more

Mental wellbeing. It’s important to all of us. In today’s world, we face many things that can induce anxiety, stress and sometimes drag us down. What strategies do you rely on to build your own resilience? One approach that I know helps a lot of people keep an even keel is… coaching. People like to connect with someone who takes the time to get to know them, meets regularly with them, and is there exclusively for them. They appreciate someone that is independent, who helps them work through their challenges without inserting advice or opinions. No judgement. No agenda. A ‘sounding board’ that ..read more

Author: Phil Hartwick First Published: 2022 IF YOU MANAGE PEOPLE You will invariably encounter one of your team members under-performing or behaving not as you would have expected or liked. Whenever this happens, we might take a number of different approaches ranging from confronting them directly through to ignoring it and hope things get better. Most of us as managers would prefer that the person ‘self-correct’ to remove the need for us to have to have an uncomfortable conversation that might affect our relationship or make things worse. But we know that the vast number of people come to wo ..read more

A failing employment relationship in a team, is a situation most leaders dread. It can cause huge harm for all involved – often over quite a long period. But as I discovered in my recent conversation with Rachel Burt (employment barrister, Kanuka Chambers) getting a lawyer with a restorative focus involved early in the process can help to achieve outcomes that are better for everyone. In particular, Rachel Shared several case studies which demonstrated some approaches to addressing employment issues that helped lead to a more constructive outcome – and some that didn’t Explained ho ..read more

A webinar about Leading Your Team in a Rapidly Changing World, hosted by Saskia Knibbler ..read more

Reremoana, can you tell us what you thought as you went through our recruitment process and came to the decision this is something you’d like to do? Job descriptions can often be loaded with buzz words and jargon that distort the reality of a role but I was really impressed with how easy it was to see myself in this space. I was excited by the opportunity to step in to something new, the values that underpin Updraft align with me and I can clearly visualise where my contribution will make a difference. It wasn’t a hard call – to be honest, I knew after my first coffee meeting that I’d be comi ..read more

Author: Phil Hartwick First Published: 2021 I know, I know; running meetings is such boring stuff… not sexy at all. But…. I have on numerous occasions taught facilitation skills and there was always real interest in tricks and techniques for handling [difficult] people. Firstly, I’d like us to think in terms of ‘difficult behaviours’, not ‘difficult people’. I realise that some people are more challenging than others, but what we need to be able to do is ‘manage’ some of their more trying behaviours, not them as people. After all, people hate being ‘managed’ and if they feel you are doing t ..read more

Disagreeing well is an important skills in today’s working environments, where roles are moving from task-based to capability focused; team members are asked for their subject matter expertise and often required to mentor others, and top-down, ‘leader knows best’ structures are giving way to manaakitanga, agile practices, and shared knowledge and expertise. Disagreement is valuable because it raises issues that might otherwise have been overlooked. It is also an essential ingredient for innovation, as well as team members’ willingness to take accountability for results. Disagreeing well happe ..read more