Act Like a Leader

Act Like a Leader
There’s more to leadership than being a CEO. Hear a leading CEO tell you how - and why women can get better chances at leading through small changes.

Welcome to the third conversation in our Women in Business chapter – part of our ‘Join the Conversation’ series: five events that bring you important conversations led by Women in Business and heard by everyone. In partnership with Forsyth Barr, this bar-setting series is bringing hard-hitting topics into the conversational spotlight.

This conversation will highlight how there is so much more to leadership than a job title and what workplaces can do better for aspiring women. Led by a revered CEO, this conversation will set the bar on what creating equitable leadership at all levels looks like.

Why be part of this conversation?
Seeing women in leadership is still something that’s celebrated, rather than being embraced as the norm. Whether it’s biases, stereotypes or misconceptions, there are numerous reasons why women often don't receive the same second consideration for leadership roles as men.

In this conversation Rhiannon McKinnon will demonstrate how she’s using her own experience in developing ‘soft skills’ to be a better people leader, and highlight why we need more women in leadership. She’ll go into what separates leadership and management, the importance of delegation and how to do it effectively, and showcase how a culture of inviting people to contribute is one of the biggest differences a business can make.

Who’s the speaker?
Rhiannon McKinnon is the founder and CEO of Cassiobury, a consulting business advising CEOs on strategy, growth and leadership. She has developed CEO 101 (ceo101.nz) in order to support CEOs and senior executives to lead, succeed, and thrive. The courses and 1-on-1 coaching have been deliberately designed to meet leaders on their own time and terms, making it easy to develop skills for their future success.

Prior to Cassiobury, Rhiannon was CEO of Kiwi Wealth which was New Zealand's fifth largest KiwiSaver, and has spent over 20 years working in finance, initially in corporate finance, investor relations, strategy and equity research; in the later stages she has focused on developing her suite of ‘soft’ skills, leading with empathy and a desire to invite as many people to contribute as possible. She believes that your people are the biggest asset in any organisation and identifying and nurturing talent from all walks of life is an essential ingredient for long term success.

What’s in-store:

• 12:00 - 12:30pm – Networking and standing lunch

• 12:30 - 1:15pm – Rhiannon McKinnon speaks

• 1:15 - 1:30pm – Q&A

While this is a conversation from our Women in Business chapter, making progress on gender diversity in leadership can’t happen without everyone being onboard; all genders and occupations are welcome to attend.

This event is part of the Women in Business chapter from our “Join the Conversation” series - 5 events that spotlight important topics through conversation, led by the amazing women driving change within them.

Attend other events in the series:

14 August: You Can Say That - Experience the live incarnation of the popular Three Gals One Beehive podcast, where you'll hear unfiltered humour and insight on the world of politics!

4 September: Slipping through the cracks - What the sobering gender and ethnic pay gap statistics actually mean for women, and how we can all work to change it.

17 October: It's Time we Talked About - Menopause is a topic that isn’t talked about enough. Come and join the conversation on how we can give women workplaces that support this stage of life.

30 October: Making Money - Hear leading investment strategist, Zoe Wallis discuss her approach to wealth generation, and how women are changing the game in Aotearoa New Zealand’s finance industry.