What Others Have to Say About Mike
These are the experiences others have had of Mike's leadership and his impact on individual and organisational development and performance.
Chair of Z Energy Limited (2019-2022)
Mike’s commitment to continuously developing and refining his craft as a leader in order to deliver extraordinary outcomes is exemplary.
His openness to the insights that come from understanding different views and his willingness and ability to change the way he leads to create an environment in which people can perform at their best is rare.
This is coupled with a strong focus on strategy and results that sees Mike always working towards the steps ahead whilst maintaining an ability to quickly reorientate his leadership to changing circumstances and driving strong engagement across the organisation to build resilience and open up opportunities.
Inati Consulting
Taumata Advisory was born out of Mike’s commitment to supporting leaders and organisations to be extraordinary. Over 12 years, I have experienced Mike’s unrelenting drive to develop himself and others in ways that directly impact individual and collective results.
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Mike has a unique ability to listen to what is shaping people's thinking and behaviour. Combined with his extensive and broad-ranging business experience, he has mastered the art of revealing the ‘real issues’ and designing innovative, elegant solutions that leave people at the source of their own extraordinary performance.
I am excited for the current and future clients of Taumata and the extraordinary futures they will make real with Mike and the Taumata team in their corner.
I have a Richard Attenborough perspective on Mike’s leadership because I sat next to him in the Wellington office for nearly eight years and can attest to what he does rather than says. What is unique about Mike’s leadership is that his time, thought, intentionality and energy is focused on leading himself rather than others.
As Head of Legal at Z, I have called Mike on a Friday night with a potentially serious legal issue that needed immediate attention. From experience at other corporates, I expect to spend the weekend in board briefings, CEO updates, communications briefings, together with launching an investigation on how it happened, who is responsible, etc. Instead, Mike is quiet for a while and then says “I can hear you are worried. Therefore, I am not worried. Do what you need to do and if you need me, give me a call”.
I came off the call ready to lead the issue myself instead of looking to others for instructions. I felt Mike’s confidence and understood I was empowered to make whatever calls I needed to with no internal distractions and none of the fear and dread associated with finding someone/something to blame. That is Mike’s unique leadership.
Mike has the rare combination of experience as a publicly listed CEO, matched with global experience and a deep ambition for Aotearoa and the leaders within it.
He is incredibly accessible and challenges himself and others through thoughtful and insightful coaching. It has been a privilege to work alongside Mike - he is a humble and inspiring leader who is as comfortable exploring issues at a systems level as he is exploring the dynamics of human behaviours.
His knowledge of his craft is extensive, but don’t expect him to tell you the answers. Instead, look forward to partnering with him to create a future that would not be possible without you fulfilling your leadership potential.
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