Governance & Leadership
The Human Face of Leadership
Part 1: Soft Science meets Reality
Identifying the soft science of humanistic traits that enable people to trust and follow a leader, whilst at the same time capturing the bottom line effect these traits have on a company.
The ‘Return on Character’ that can be demonstrated impacts a company’s Return on Assets.
The Biology of Legacy
Building and embedding legacy within the organisation, and externally. The programme will include a live case study to enable members to participate in a legacy building exercise that will impact an entity.
Part 1: Embedding Legacy “After you’ve gone…”
Defining the legacy you want to leave with the company.
3 key areas where it needs to be embedded in order to survive.
Legacy Workshop
A member workshop that discussed how to balance:
Passion instead of Purpose
Innovation instead of Transformation
Metrics based on outcomes instead of behaviour
And looked at the right proportions of:
Focus on competitors or emerging industries
The Past: Doing the right things for the past – not the future
Execution and completion rather than building capability
Perception
Drs Mark Eltom and György Pirok combined a little science, a little analysis and a little wine – to show how easily we can be influenced by our perceptions.
Managerial Evolution
We tracked the evolution of management theories and practices and members brought with them some of their own managers in order that they could relate to some of the management methods currently in practice within each of their companies.
The session included key Manages from the member companies and we broke into groups to give the managers the opportunity to seek advice of the business leaders in a session that enabled business leaders to mentor the managers, and for the managers to obtain the practical experience of seasoned business leaders.
Mindfulness Meet the Juggernaut
Evolving leadership practices consider the soft skills, but business sometimes takes over and like a juggernaut crushes best leader’s intentions. This programme discussed how leadership skills have evolved from dictatorial and autocratic through to involvement and engagement of key people in the business – and when a leader has to step forward and be the leader.
Who are you?
How is your leadership style reflected in your organisation and your market outreach? Members undertook a planning exercise – competitively - that demonstrated leadership and engagement levels.
Key Business Impacts
Members discussed key impacts relating to: Economic, Political and the likely Trends for growth and development. It included emerging markets by sector and nation and overall global impacts likely to affect businesses
Staying off the Rocks
Following on from ‘Ant Chasers … ’ our speaker, a competitive yachtsman, provides real life examples of how the ‘leader’ cannot, under any circumstances, leave the helm and get dragged down into the engine room.
Good to Great and Great by Choice
An Analysis of the strategies that emerged from the research of Jim Collins and his team.
Turnaround
The Leadership business model is the same. Profit or not for Profit. Iva Ropati – Penrose High → One Tree Hill High School Scott Simpson – Make-a-Wish
Ant Chases and Elephant Hunters
A leader focusses on creating the vision and strategy that will take the company forward into the future.
Leadership is a craft – not a gift. It has to be continually honed and developed.
Robin Sharma: “Ask not for less problems but for increased knowledge to deal with the problems.”
How the Mighty Fall
An analysis of Jim Collins’ latest publication supported by a business entrepreneur who has done it – the right and the wrong
The Diplomat and the Ethicist: What’s more important than reputation?
Part 1: Cause and Outcome as the tension between self interest and the interests of others
Comparing Diogenes view of the demands of commerce that make transparency unrealistic with Antipater’s view that clear principles from which every action must descend.
Balancing this with Panaetius’ view of our roles and duties that are common to us as human beings, unique to our calling, assigned by our social station and that arise from the decisions we have made.
The Human Face of Leadership
Part 2: Saboteurs
What issues detract from the key values you express in your business, and in your personal leadership style. How can you anticipate or build resource around yourself to assist at such times.
The Biology of Legacy
Part 2: Enduring Legacy
“Whose coming last in the rat race …”
Externally how your legacy impacts branding, customers …. Monetary systems, welfare, community, and social change.
Reputation
Finance& Governance in preparation for post COVID-19:
Debtor and creditor management, the impact on the company’s reputation as we manage who gets paid – and who pays us.
Methods to counter disavowal of responsibility from debtors.
The validity and management of Force Majeure.
Leadership Petit Fours
Small bites as reminders of big and previously visited topics:
Leadership – ROC: Return on Character (Harvard & KRW International).
Decision Making – Thinking Fast & Slow (Daniel Kahneman).
Purpose rather than Objective – There’s more in the tank when people are working to their Purpose, rather than your Objective.
Measurements – You get what you measure. The problem is sometimes you ‘only’ get what you measure.
Growth Governance
Heather Robertson, Knowledge Syndicate – Growth methods that reduce Cost of Sale and improve the bottom line.
David Woods, International Governance and Risk Management Consultant – Governance relating to investor contributions.
Dr Mark Eltom of Callaghan Innovation and Jason Yang, Deloittes – Grant and Funding opportunities.
Agile for Leadership
Dr György Pirok turned the ‘Agile Manifesto’ into a guide for leadership.
Other members shared their own personal experiences and leadership advice.
Vision or Propganda
Where’s the line – when do our goals and ‘dreams’ morph into propaganda. Examples
of business and world leaders.
Group ‘how not to’ discussion
Directors
Responsibilities
and
Governance
Four members discussed their learnings from training and development, partly through Institute of Directors and other organisations.
How this has benefited them, what has been most applicable, and Jugdis Parbhu from BDO shared an update on the legal changes around Directorships.
Management Deconstructed
Using the Ship of Theseu - Breaking down the key elements – how they have survived – how they have applied – what needs to rebuilt or discarded
Great in Action
Members share their experience in implementing the various strategies from both Good to Great and Great by choice.
The True History of the Future
The Great Intellectual Fraud – taming uncertainty
Challenging our planning and predictability
Measuring what Counts
94% of business leaders believe it is the intangibles that contribute most to their business.
Only 5% know how to do measure them.
Looking at how to measure the intangibles that contribute to your bottom line
NZ Companies Under the Radar
NZ has great companies that go unnoticed. This is an analysis of some of the unnoticed who contribute to NZ’s wealth and well-being.
The Diplomat and the Ethicist: What’s more important than reputation?
Part 2: Truth
Visiting Richelieu’s view of Truth as a construction of facts studded with malleable points in order to draw to a predetermined conclusion, and Nassim Taleb’s view of narrative fantasy as the tendency to assemble unrelated events of the past that lead to a sense of cohesion and certainty that isn't real.
Concluding that Truth is not absolute, its basis is not only in facts, but in trust.
The Human Face of Leadership
Part 3: Succession – What will be your Legacy
How do you nurture, and thus ensure the succession, of a values based leadership style to those who are coming up through the business.
Success
Trust not in success…but in Reality We fail when Action and Intelligence become undisciplined & unsynchronised
Enduring Theories
A discussion around the theories that have become practices and are embedded in what we do and how we make decisions … and the theories and practices that either didn’t work, or that have become redundant by reason of evolution, or lack of applicability.
Divided Populations
The focus was to create discussion about internal working practices: Prioritisation, delivery vs the drift to working from home; Team cooperation vs co-dependents; Focussed outcomes delivery vs cultural dynamics.
We answered important questions such as: What is the true value of Russia’s cooperating policies; What is the impact of the U.S’s defector programme; What do we regenerate through Correlation and Cause; Why do Mice have tails?
Directors Responsibilities
How do these extend into practice. What are the issues that are creating precedents under the Act.
How to Make Decisions with Very Little Information
We can’t always wait for all the information to be collected and analysed. Sometimes it is necessary to make decisions based on very little, or reliable information. How can you test what you do know and act decisively.
Mark Cathie who established a FOREX trading platform for a large international finance group, and who still trades on a part time basis, set up a live trading room giving members an opportunity illustrate how a decision making platform can be built from very little information, then tested, before making a grand decision.
"Know Thyself"
We can’t visit the Delphi Oracle, but have brought two NZ Oracles into our venue to help leaders know themselves, and look at the leadership styles, values and practices. In this session academia and practical combined to provide a programme that gave leaders practical awareness and skills endorsed by clinical and academic research. Drs Helen Cooper-Thomas, Head of Dept, Psychology, Auckland University and Dr Paul Wood, Psychology MA (Hons) Management and Leadership coach.
Special Event: Search and Rescue
Members undertook a half day programme training and facilitating exercise programmes with Search and Rescue.
Who are you?
How is your leadership style reflected in your organisation and your market outreach? Members undertook a planning exercise – competitively - that demonstrated leadership and engagement levels.
How to Build a Business Model When you Have Nothing to Sell
Tired of the discussions about reducing COS and increasing ROI – how do the charities do it? They two hare significant revenue requirements … but no ‘product’ to offer in exchange. Our thanks to the leaders of: Heart Foundation, ADRA and Ronald McDonald House for sharing their business modelling and growth strategies
A Life in Management
Stewart Maclaren – GM of one of the Freightways companies, Online Security. One of our founding members retires and shares his managerial experiences – warts and all. Sharing what he learned – what can we prevent.
Economic Recovery - Real of Theoretical
Six companies from different sectors debated and shared their views on whether the optimism in the market was real – or the rhetoric of those endeavouring to convince themselves
Looking Through The Glass
Social responsibility in a business model. A high profile not-for-profit organised, with the assistance of Auckland Universities Ice House, share how they became the first in the world to develop a business model for social entrepreneurism.
Our advice to the United Nations
We discussed and debated three specific approaches we could take if we were to form our own United Nations:
1. Financial
2. Humanistic
3. Populistic