Great progress since the 'useless, arrogant' days

Andy Hamilton. Photo / Richard Robinson

Useless, arrogant, conceited and selfish were how former colleagues described Andy Hamilton 15 years ago.

Not attributes normally ascribed to someone with leadership potential, but the chief executive of the Auckland-based Icehouse business incubator has come a long way since then.

On Friday night Hamilton was one of six people recognised as an emerging leader by the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

He said that performance review feedback over a decade ago was a low point, but made him realise how easy it was to get too carried away with your abilities at the expense of work colleagues.

Hamilton said he was initially embarrassed when he got the call from Sir Ron Carter, chairman of the award selection panel.

Winners are selected from nominations across a range of sectors.

Hamilton said the award had made him stop and take another hard look at his leadership style and question whether he really was performing as a good leader.

He said it was easy to "charge up the hill" by yourself, hoping people would follow, but the challenge of leadership was to prepare other people "to take the charge".

Fellow recipient John Penno, chief executive of dairy producer Synlait, endorses that view.

He said a core value of the Synlait business was what he described as "grassroots leadership".

"That is about everybody in the business leading in their area. Always thinking about better ways of doing things," said Penno.

He said leadership by definition was all about other people and making teams of people successful.

"Leadership's not about what one person does and nobody else does."

The emerging leadership awards form the centrepiece of New Zealand Leadership Week, an initiative of the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

On Friday, University of Oxford vice-chancellor John Hood was honoured with the Blake Medal, the supreme leadership award.

EMERGING LEADERS

* Andrew Hamilton, Icehouse chief executive.
* Russell Mardon, Royal New Zealand Air Force wing commander.
* Alfred Ngaro, Inspiring Communities co-ordinator.
* Rachel Paris, Bell Gully partner.
* John Penno, Synlait chief executive.
* Iva Ropati, One Tree Hill College principal.