Extraordinary leaders, extraordinary cultures

Need to improve the leadership skills of you and your middle – senior team? Want to retain and attract high performing staff and build a better culture?

My name is Sue Pickering and I’m here to help. I work with middle managers, senior managers, growers and farmers who are under pressure – to become better leaders of themselves, their people and their business.

I run leadership workshops and offer one-to-one coaching. I can help you and your business build a better culture and create high performing cohesive teams within your company. 

And, I do this because I know it makes a difference.  

An opportunity to reflect:

  • Are you able to retain valued staff?
  • If your managers have been promoted on the basis of their technical expertise, are their teams productive and do their staff love working for them?
  • Are your managers thriving despite having to work in a constantly changing and high pressured environment?

What I’ve noticed:

  • businesses usually promote competent technical experts into manager roles – where they become mediocre. They have potential and want to do a good job; they’ve just never been taught how to lead.
  • traditional leadership styles still predominate but are not cutting it anymore with changing workplace and workforce needs.

My suite of progressive and practical learning opportunities will shift you and your great achievers into transformational, human-centred leaders.

As a result, you’ll be better able to improve your productivity, retain your key staff, attract high performing individuals, and your business will become known as an Employer of Choice.

Oh…… And we have fun and get inspired at the same time.

Services

Leadership Development

I lift and fast track your talented emerging land current leaders, unstick the stuck and build resilience for today’s volatile and uncertain business environment.  Leaders and their teams learn new mindsets, new ways to approach leadership and new tools especially around leading themselves and others. Three streams:

  • One-One Leadership Coaching and Mentoring
  • Leadership Masterclasses, Workshops and Programmes
  • Conference Speaking

Team and Culture Change

Working with the big picture – team or organisational culture: Customised to make the big game change with your company or team – better performance across the company alongside a healthier culture. This work naturally sits alongside leadership development. Three offers:

  • Discover Your “WHY”: Your Purpose, Vision and Values 
  • Smart, Cohesive and Healthy Teams 
  • Embed a Performance Achievement System

Some organisations I love working with

Federated Farmers logo
Enza Zaden

Testimonials

Aaron Wright

The leadership programme led by Sue was an extremely valuable course filled with exciting fresh perspective and inspiration towards effective leadership. The intentional strategic approach was perfect for our action – oriented sector and equipped me with tools that applied to both our short and long-term focus. I really found this helpful in planning out the process and journey ahead in taking our company, and myself as a leader, from good to great. Something like this is a must for anyone who wants to make a difference out there’’.

– Aaron Wright, General Manager, Prospera, Eastpack. 8 July 2021

Terry Copeland

Sue has a real connection to people, especially in the farming and growing sectors which allows them to thrive through subtle and gentle guidance. She has facilitated our leadership course for the past couple of years which has added significant value to our organisational goals of developing people but also enriching the experience for our participants.

– Terry Copeland, CEO, Federated Farmers of New Zealand. 21 Dec 2021

Alan Davidson

Sue’s leadership coaching programme is fantastic for unlocking potential in middle managers. Recently Sue has worked with two of my team and the change in their leadership has been transformational. I now have two leaders that really understand the importance of leading yourself and see the power of empowering others.

– Alan Davidson, Site Manager, Eastpack, December 2022

Herman Van Gulik

Sue creates high impact change for  teams and leaders in a compassionate, solid  and customised way for primary industry. Sues training has greatly increased my teams collaboration and my personal leadership impact for long term customer focus and profit. Herman Van Gulik, Sales Manager,  Enza Zaden New Zealand 22 December 2021

– Herman Van Gulik, Sales Manager,  Enza Zaden New Zealand. 22 December 2021

Barry O'Neil

Sue has shown foresight and helped build our programmes from small beginnings to national initiatives, which add value at several levels: individual, organisational and industry. Not only does she work with the big picture, Sue gets down into operations and delivers real results in ‘soft skill’ areas that are traditionally hard to make progress on. Sue is practical and understands business requirements. Sue is also passionate and enjoys connecting with the people of our horticulture industry.

– Barry O’Neil, HortNZ President. 15 July 2021

Geoff Thorpe

Sue did an outstanding job of facilitating our Vision and Values – helping our team dig deep, stir up the collective “spirit” of Riversun, float off that which didn’t serve us well and then distil the very essence of who we are, why we turn up every day and how we “roll” as a team/whanau. The real test in the values space is “are they genuine, are they widely upheld and do they inspire us to be the best we can be?” Thanks to Sue’s ability to get people from a wide range of backgrounds engaged, to get them to feel safe, respected and valued, I am delighted to say I believe we pass the values test on all three counts. Such is the connection Sue has developed with many of our key managers that they are regularly reaching out to her to provide them with individual and team coaching/ mentoring

Geoff Thorpe, Managing Director, Riversun, May 2023