Waikato Business News November/December 2022

18 WAIKATO BUSINESS AWARDS
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
Emerging leader Jo Mickleson’s
focus is people
You sometimes wonder
about the accuracy of
a person’s LinkedIn
profile. Jo Mickleson’s description
beneath her name captures
who she is perfectly. She calls
herself a business enabler, leadership
coach, process designer,
lifelong learner, and human
being fanatic. It is that last term
that is perhaps most fitting and
is abundantly evident when you
talk to her.
Named Emerging Leader of
the Year at the Waikato Chamber
of Commerce Business
Awards, Jo lights up when she
talks about her role, her team at
Aware Group, and her plans for
the future.
Jo started off as an HR
advisor and sales coordinator
at Aware Group – a globally
recognised leader in emerging
technologies. It provides a range
of innovative solutions and services
that focus on artificial
intelligence, big data and Internet
of Things.
With plans to travel around
Europe riding a motorcycle
alongside her partner, Jo initially
took on a short, fixedterm
contract as an HR advisor
and sales coordinator.
She impressed Aware Group
throughout this time and they
asked her to stay on.
“Being a relatively new company
then, I helped get systems
in place. And with my background
in HR I brought that to
the table, helping strengthen
processes, put strategy in place
around people and culture.”
Jo stuck around for a bit longer
before heading to Europe
where she continued to work
remotely. When she got back,
she moved into a full-time role
implementing what she’d put in
place while she was overseas.
Now director of strategy and
growth, Jo’s laser focused on
Aware Group’s people.
“Your people are your biggest
assets and given Aware Group
is relatively young and small,
developing a strong layer of
leaders coming up from within
is really important. I love that
we’ve put a structure in place
to build both soft and technical
skills in our existing leaders who
can then welcome the next generation
of people to the business
and build them up.”
Jo’s philosophy – and one
shared by others at Aware Group
– is that the role of a leader isn’t
necessarily that of someone in a
senior leadership team. Rather,
anyone can be a leader.
“I’ve always said leadership
isn’t a role, it’s a behaviour.”
Jo has helped foster a
healthy culture at Aware Group
where people are enabled to try
new things, push boundaries,
and shine.
“We’re very much about
stepping back and letting people
do what they’re good at. I’ve had
the opportunity to try a bunch
of things from a leadership and
culture perspective. There have
been lessons along the way, and
those have brought a lot to the
business.”
And being given the space
to try new things means people
learn new skills.
“I think of a skill set as a
quiver of arrows. Some we might
add are blunt, some might be
super sharp, but it’s about adding
arrows to that quiver that we
can draw on and sharpen later
as we practice them. That’s the
kind of vision that I share with
our team when we’re working to
upskill them.”
And it was the wider Aware
Group team who contributed to
Jo’s nomination for the Emerging
Leader of the Year award.
“My colleague Jeffrey Brown
wrote the nomination and when
he got to the last question,
which was ‘what would people
say about Jo’s leadership?’ he
decided to let others speak for
themselves. So he went out and
got quotes from about 12 staff
about the impact I’ve had and
how they see me as a leader.”
Jo was ecstatic to win the
award but says reading what her
colleagues said about her was
the icing on the cake.
“They talked about me being
inspiring, building trust in our
team, motivating, being honest,
being candid and challenging
people… that I congratulate
them on their success but that I
also challenge them to continue
as well.”
And Jo takes her own advice
on the latter. Not one to sit on
her laurels, she has her sights
set on what future success looks
like.
“Ultimately my key goal is
having an impact on people.
Let’s not dance around the bush
– we all go to work to get paid.
But by creating a stable, successful
business you provide job
security for people which flows
on to their family, their community,
and the economy.”
Looking back at Jo’s LinkedIn
description as a lifelong
learner, and that’s evident when
she talks about the lessons she
took from the judging process
and the support network she has
in place.
“The interview with the
judges was great and it was great
to meet and learn from people
who brought a different perspective.
They challenged me
to be more direct and also to try
asking well-placed questions.
Those can be more impactful
than sharing your opinion. That
goes against my being as I’m an
extrovert and can talk all day but
I’m trying to catch myself on that
and asking questions instead of
proffering my opinion.”
And it’s enjoying different
perspectives that sees Jo
working with friend and mentor
Steve McNae, as well as a
psychologist, both of whom Jo
credits with helping her grow as
a leader.
No doubt Jo will continue to
flourish in parallel with Aware
Group. With teams in Hamilton,
Wellington, Singapore and Seattle,
the company specialises in
leveraging emerging technology
to solve problems and unlock
valuable data in an ethical and
sustainable way.
“Emerging technology is
such a vague thing, but ultimately
we help people harness
data to get good outcomes and
insights.”
Indeed, Jo Mickleson’s
LinkedIn profile offers great
insight into who she as a person
– and as a leader.
Old school butchery
techniques gets a win
Award-winning business
The Chopping
Block has developed
a sausage that could claim to
be a world first. Who would
think of grabbing a tasty pork
sausage and adding seaweed?
Well, according to business
owner Matt Colvin, it’s a winner
on a grand scale.
The win
confirms that
the hard work
we do is
paying off
“A local bloke who farms
the seaweed and sends it all
over the world, came in one
day and suggested we put some
in a run of pork sausages,” said
Matt. “We’re always up for a
challenge so we added the seaweed
and the sausages are now
our best seller.
“We all know a good sausage
sells, but this one is a
star.”
The Chopping Block, a
family-run business based in
Coromandel, put its name in
the hat for the recent Waikato
Chamber of Commerce Business
Awards.
They were entered in the
Micro Business category sponsored
by Sleepyhead.
“The whole team is thankful
we put our name forward
as we are always striving to
offer the best products for the
community.
“The win confirms that the
hard work we do is paying off,”
said Matt.
“It has put a spring in our
step.” The butchery itself was
built in the late 1930s as a
butcher shop. So it has been
running as a butchery since
then.
“I bought it two years ago,
employed my brother Stephen,
and we haven’t looked back,”
said Matt. “We turned the
whole place up-side down and
got straight to business.
“Ours is a small family-run
butchery with a goal
of providing our community
with a wide variety of the finest
quality gluten free meat
in an affordable and innovative
way, using old school
butchery techniques.”
The Chopping Block also
offers homekill and wild game
processing. With a paddockto-plate
approach and a sharp
eye for quality, Matt and his
team pride themselves on
putting 110 percent into the
business.
Contact the winning
butchery at: thechoppingblockltd@gmail.com
Phone: 07 866 8838