Last month we had the absolute pleasure of celebrating the success of three young leaders, who graduated from a bespoke Icehouse leadership programme, made possible by a collaboration with Pathways to the Future Trust.

Patrick Sipley from Autex Industries, Connor Greyling from Project 360, and Aaron Leece from Etel Transformers were all nominated by their managers for the three available places on the programme, facilitated by Icehouse specialist and business coach Kim Hill.

Nominations were open to any local Rosebank business that had identified young leaders in their organisations whom they felt could benefit from Icehouse training. Nominees needed to be new to management and supervisory roles, and under 35 years of age. A large number of applications were received with the successful candidates starting the programme in September.

Participants kicked off the programme via online one-on-one sessions with Kim Hill, giving them an opportunity to share where they were at with their roles – the challenges and the opportunities.

They went on to complete intensive fortnightly group sessions, giving them a strong feel for different leadership styles, learning new skills, frameworks, and tools to become more effective leaders and communicators in their roles.

Working together in the small group meant they could share ideas about how they could better lead in their individual businesses, dealing with stressful situations and developing heightened clarity and strong focus.

Speaking after the last session, Facilitator Kim Hill said she was extremely proud and impressed with the three graduates.

“The way the guys have embraced every single session and the continuous improvement and the commitment they have made has been really, very impressive. In our sessions, every fortnight, we have talked about how to apply the learning, executing it, using it and the scenarios – the highs and lows. The way they have taken the useful learning and applied it in the business, executing and using their skills has been courageous.  The courage and the vulnerability around the table they have shown to go out of their comfort zone, to identify the areas that they needed to work on, was just gold – they are most definitely emerging leaders.

They have their lists of what they need to do and I’m sure they will stick to them – I’ll be popping up now and then to make sure they are!”

Patrick Sipley from Autex Industries who leads a team of 15 staff, took the opportunity to acknowledge the time Kim had spent with all of them and his appreciation for what they were taking away from the Leadership Programme.

“It’s one of the first courses that I have done that I can say I have definitely learned from it, and I will use what I have learned moving forward. “

Autex Manager Maree Pinkerton said the Programme had given Patrick confidence and growth, “it’s been fantastic for him – the short two-hour sessions provided fundamentals that applied to him and his role – he is actually using it because it is relevant, and he could relate to it. He could gel with Kim – which really helped.