Waikato Business News March/April 2018

14 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS March/April 2018
Waikato Chamber of Commerce William Durning, left,
puts the CEO panel through its paces; from left, Carmel
Strange, Asset Recruitment, Richard Briggs, Hamilton
City Council, Michelle Baillie, SKYCITY Hamilton and
Leonard Gardner, Foster Construction.
CEOs discuss what it takes to get to the top
Four well-respected Waikato leaders
formed a panel to describe their
experiences and to discuss the attributes
that make a good chief executive.
By GEOFF TAYLOR
The ability to influence
others, self awareness,
patience and determination
to challenge the status
quo were among skills touted
as winners for CEOs at a panel
discussion by four people who
should know.
Hamilton City Council
chief executive Richard Briggs,
SKYCITY Hamilton general
manager Michelle Baillie,
Foster Construction commer-
cial manager Leonard Gardner
and Asset Recruitment general
manager Carmel Strange took
part in a Waikato Chamber of
Commerce/HYP (Hamilton
Young Professionals) event at
SKYCITY’S Co-Op Function
Room on March 15.
Chamber of Commerce
chief executive Willliam Durning
asked the questions as the
four leaders from contrasting
backgrounds entertained and
shared insights on the following
themes:
What experiences have set you
up to be where you are now?
MICHELLE
It’s knowing what transferable
skills I had and being able to
make the most of opportunities.
The thing that has helped
me is realising that skills are
transferable. When an opportunity
comes my way I know
I need to make the most of it
and that has certainly helped
me get to where I am.
When I came to SKCYC-
ITY Hamilton they had some
great people but unfortunately
they were in the wrong roles.
I had to unpick quite a few
things and put the right peo-
ple in the right role. It was
hard moving my family from
Queenstown and then coming
into a business that wasn’t performing.
You had to take people
along on the journey with
you. Once we got through the
restructure it was about setting
up this vision for what
the business could be and then
convincing the Board to invest
money in the property and that
is what has transformed the
business.
LEONARD
The hardest experiences have
helped shape me most. When
I joined Fosters they had a
branch in Auckland which
really struggled. When I was
going buy into Fosters I said:
“I want to but my accounting
head is telling me we need to
close the Auckland branch.”
They agreed but I had to do
that job. So, I went to Auckland
and told 15 people that
they didn’t have jobs any
more. It was really hard but it’s
those experiences that actually
shape you. I’ve been bloodied
a few times in my game and it
makes you realise how important
people are in that process.
What skills does a CEO need?
MICHELLE
The ability to embrace change
and be able to adapt. That is
something that has helped me
and I think it’s going to be even
more of a factor as the world is
changing. Also, self-awareness.
It’s really important to realise
your impact on other people.
You can be in control of yourself
and your own reactions. I
think if you can master that and
you know when to relax that’s
really important.
Something I’ve learnt over
time is to admit your mistakes,
that comes down to not
micro-managing either. My
industry is very heavily regulated
and I always thought I
had to be black and white and
so professional and fair. You
can still be fair and professional
and still be a really good human
and have some grey because
grey is okay. When I moved
into general manager roles
where I had to take a step back
I think I became a much better
leader of people; I did rely on
other people and when we had
conversations I would admit
I didn’t know everything and
I would ask for help. And if I
did make a decision which was
wrong I would own it. That’s
part of becoming self-aware
and that only came when I grew
up emotionally as a leader.
CARMEL
Having a great attitude. When
you strive for something your
attitude is everything. I think
you have to be a bit of a risk
taker as well. I think you have
to push through that and there
will be times when you are
going to fall over but you have
to get up and keep going.
I say to new staff, if you need
to be managed then this isn’t
the right job for you because we
don’t have time to manage you.
We will give you all the support
you need, and we will let you
do your job. My door is always
open but we want to encourage
you to go out and grow as a person.
One of the main things we
hear in recruitment is people
leave their jobs because they
are micro- managed and not
given the opportunity.
LEONARD
Patience. With others but also
with yourself. When I reflect,
I was a little bit impatient. I
think patience is a very important
quality. That and resilience.
You have to persevere and
work through things.
Self-awareness is a massive
part; it’s a journey that happens
over time and it’s the tough
experiences in my career that
made me self-aware. Understanding
your weaknesses is
important too so you can get
alongside people with the
strengths you don’t have. And
you have to be an enabler. If
you can enable people, and if
in your organisation you can
have people around you who
are enabling others, you will
become a CEO. The ultimate
CEO is the one who enables
everyone around them to
enable others.
RICHARD
If you aspire to be a CEO
because you want to be the
top dog or the big kahuna you
won’t succeed because you
don’t have a connection with
the organisation nor its strategy.
The strongest attribute is
your mindset which should be
based on what you are trying
to achieve and what your strategy
is. You need to be focused
on achieving that strategy in
everything you do.
A key for my career as a
CEO was an understanding that
for me to succeed I needed to
know why I was doing something.
I needed to have a passion
for achieving strategic outcomes
for an organisation.
Skills, knowledge and experience
are extremely important.
But what is also important is
your state of mind and where
you are heading as an individual.
The ability to influence
is key. Your focus should be
on how you make the greatest
impact in your role and enable
other people to make the greatest
impact in their roles. One
of the biggest skills that you
can develop as a leader is your
ability to have a conversation
with your staff to enable them
to make a contribution that is
bigger than the work they do.
We want people not to just be
good at their jobs but to look
for every other opportunity to
influence the organisation’s
strategic outcomes.
Continued on page 16