Episode 18: Nicki Nicol

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 18, our guest is the CEO of the NZ Olympic Committee, Nicki Nicol

 Nicki spent almost 20 years with global giant BP where she worked around the world in a wide range of executive roles.

 She returned to New Zealand and took up the role of Chief Financial Officer at NZ Rugby, where among other achievements, she led the Respect & Responsibility Review.

 She subsequently became the Deputy CEO of NZ Rugby, until a new challenge arrived and she was appointed as the CEO of the NZ Olympic Committee two years ago – at a time when the Commonwealth Games and Winter Olympics of 2022 were both less than three months away.

 Nicki is surprisingly forthright on the state of sports in New Zealand and the opportunities that sport provides across the board, from a showcase of the country, to a learning ground for our school age children.

 She talks to Bruce about the challenges of sports funding and having to raise money from sponsorship and philanthropy in order to get a team of almost 400 people to the Games.

 She also discusses a resurgence in New Zealand’s track & field athletes and our emerging crop of top swimmers. And then there is the ongoing battle with the drugs cheats, and in a troubled world the concerns and resultant plans, regarding athlete safety.

 Finally, we even get a preview on where she thinks New Zealand might be in the medal hunt.

 Episode 18 of Leaders Getting Coffee provides another great story about a New Zealand woman who learned her trade in one of the world’s biggest companies, and who brought those skills home to add to our already remarkable sporting pedigree.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi everyone. My name is Bruce Cottrell and it's great
to welcome you back to Leaders Get in Coffee. Thanks
for joining us. Those of you who follow us closely
will know that we're up to episode eighteen and the
positive feedback continues to flow, as do the various recommendations
of potential guests for the podcast in the future, and
I have to say there's some great suggestions coming in.

(00:36):
So thank you to those of you who've thought about
the people we may want to speak to in the future.
Thanks also for your feedback, the letters, the emails, the
LinkedIn messages, etc. Which continue to come in. I must
admit that I try very hard to respond to you all,
but from time to time I don't manage to do that.
So for those I don't get to, please let me
say that I totally appreciate every bit of feedback we

(00:59):
get and and please keep it coming. Thanks also to
the team at enz me, the parent company of Newstalk
ZEDB and the New Zealand Herald, who helped me pull
these podcasts together. Of course, they also run my articles
on their channels, the latest of which you might be
interested in checking out. It appears on zb plus and
it's entitled when the TV News is the News. The

(01:20):
article discusses the recent announcement that Stuff will take over
the delivery of TV news for TV three. I think
that deal provides interesting challenges for both Warner Brothers Discovery,
the owners of TV three, and for Stuff themselves. So
please go and check out my views on zb plus
or at dubdubdub dot Bruce Cottrell dot com, Forward Slash

(01:41):
Blog and have a look and let me know what
you think. Thanks again for being with us. We'll be
back shortly with this week's guest on Leaders getting Coffee.
Welcome back to Leaders Getting Coffee. Our top of today

(02:02):
is sports, and to be specific, Olympic sport. As most
of you will know, twenty twenty four is the year
of the Paris Olympics. That most wonderful festival is now
less than one hundred days away. And if it seems
like it wasn't that long since the last one, you're right. Tokyo,
of course was in twenty twenty one rather than twenty twenty.
It was delayed a year, like so many other things,

(02:23):
because of COVID nineteen. But we're all set to go
again a bit earlier that we might have been ready
for but nevertheless we're set to go, and I understand
the New Zealand team is in good heart as well.
Our guest today is one of the people who's responsible
for our success at those games. Her name is Nicky Nickel,
and she's the Secretary General and CEO of the New
Zealand Olympic Committee, the organization responsible for selecting and leading

(02:46):
the New Zealand team to the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
She's been in the role for just two years, and
before that she had a remarkable career in both business
and sports. She's a sports mad kid. She excelled at
surf life saving and so it's no prize that she's
ended up where she has. She's a qualified chartered accountant
and for the first half of her career almost twenty years,

(03:07):
she worked in BP, that global oil giant that fosters
so many careers. I guess. She worked in New Zealand, Australia,
in the UK and across retail marketing, merchandising, sales and distribution,
and was also part of that company's global marketing executive.
After a career like that, you wouldn't predict that she'd
come home to become the CFO of New Zealand Rugby,

(03:29):
a role that led to her ultimately becoming the Deputy CEO. There,
she was responsible for that well known and highly regarded
Respect and Responsibility review that Rugby went through, and she
led the financial response to the COVID nineteen pandemic, which,
as you might recall, made major disruptions to sports around

(03:50):
the world. She wrapped up there as the Chief Transformation Officer,
where she was chosen to lead the post COVID rebuild
of the sport, and yet two years ago she moved
to her current role at the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
She took over from the long serving Karen Smith, had
been there for ten years, and took over in the
immediate aftermath of COVID at a time when sport was

(04:12):
challenged and continues to be challenged by all sorts of
underestimated and unpredictable issues, including serious questions about the future
of the Commonwealth Games. The ongoing issues presented by performance
enhancing drugs and the like continue to be a challenge
for sports, and she's probably across that better than most
New Zealanders as well. She's married to a fellow Surf

(04:34):
clubby They have a couple of daughters, one on a
rowing scholarship in the US, the other is at university
in New Zealand and is a highly competitive swimmer and
surf life saver. And so it's a great pleasure to
welcome to Leaders Getting Coffee, Nicky Nickel.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Thank you, Bruce, thank you for that lovely introduction.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
That's all right, that's no probable. So you're not a
coffee drinker? What's going on?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
No, I did hesitate when you sent me the invite
for the Leaders Gets Coffee. I thought I had to
come out and explain that, no, never drink coffee, being
around it a lot, but no, I am partial to
a diet coke every now and then too.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
You have been around it a lot, as I understand it.
You were responsible for rolling out the wild Bit Bean
cafe product and BP service stations. How can somebody who
doesn't drink coffee do that?

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Something that my team asked me most days, actually, but no,
fantastic time, really providing a service to many customers out
on the road and actually giving them some great coffee.
So yeah, some good times then, but no, never never
partakes good stuff.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Hey, Nikki, we're ninety two days to go to Paris.
You're probably closest to it of anybody in this country.
How's the New Zealand team looking.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Oh, it's looking fantastic. So ninety two days and a
big focus and we're right in the middle of the
selection of the athlete. So that's our most important job
at the moment. And you know, we are hopeful that
we'll have about one hundred and ninety athletes a team
of around three to four hundred with all the coaches
in entourage, that we'll be doing us proud in Paris

(06:08):
in ninety two days time.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Fantastic. How do you succeed somebody that's been in the
in the role for ten years? What sort of what
goes through your mind when you walk in the door.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, there are big shoes to fill from Kieren. She's
very well regarded in the sports sector, both locally and internationally,
and you know, so that's exciting on one hand and
a bit terrifying on the other. No, she had a
really good team in play, so that also helped with
a transition and also after a period of time like that,
and in the post COVID world, we're going to do

(06:44):
a few things differently, so maybe that was also a
chance to bring some new things along as well.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Good stuff. You've been in the role for two years.
Most of us think about the Olympics once every four years.
You have to think about it every day. Is it relentless?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Not relentless, because it's the privilege during what we do.
So I think, you know, everyone here in the organization
is super proud of what we're doing to support our
athletes and represent New Zealand with pride. So so it's
it's energizing, it is. It is intense. You know, we're
already starting to lock in accommodation options for Milan Cortina,
which is the Winter Olympics in twenty twenty six, and

(07:22):
things like that, so you're always on this cycle. But
that's part of the excitement as well. And so yeah,
we've got fantastic team here and you know, everyone is
absolutely focused on what we can do to make sure
the athletes are set up for success.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Are you getting nervous yet? A little bit?

Speaker 2 (07:40):
A look, you know, last week we had the selection
for the Athletics. I was down there in the morning
and just watching, you know, some first time olympians come
on board. I mean, you're just so proud of what
they've done. I mean, every athlete has an amazing story.
So we just want to make sure we're doing everything
we can because they've been working so hard for these
dreams and goals, and we just want to make sure
we're so well set up to there.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So, as I said before, you came in after somebody
who had been there for ten years and at a
totally different time post COVID three year cycle, you know,
after the after the delay in Japan, Paris, all sorts
of challenges about the Olympics going to a city like that,
where do you start?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Well, when I came in, you know, most people look
at their ninety day plans and they sort of think
about the things I'd like to achieve. Our goal was
to deliver Birmingham. So within ninety days we were up
at you know, up in the UK with a Commonwealth Game.
So that was a pretty steep learning curve for me.
And when we finished Birmingham, actually one of the things
that was really stark was the team had delivered Tokyo,

(08:46):
delayed Tokyo, the Beijing Winter Olympics and then the Commonwealth
Games in thirteen months, and that was just never heard of.
So actually a big focus in my first year was
around well being of our people and actually giving everyone
a bit of a rest to reset to build to Paris.
So that was very deliberate in that first year. When
it's a three year cycle, yep, there's a little bit
more planning and intensity around that. But actually we lost

(09:08):
a year of commercial revenue, so there's also been a
big focus on the team to try and drive domestic sponsorships,
our philanthropy which is a big part of our revenue profile,
and obviously the support of government, so also trying to
compress that into a one year short as well.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
We will we'll talk about funding shortly. But do the
general public have any idea about what goes into an
Olympic Games preparation?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Not sure? I mean, I know we had a beautiful
segment on the in the Herald online the other day
around the frate and the team out at our wheehouse
just packing two massive containers. So you know, that's the
sort of stuff that happens here months in advance. We
have to know the equipment of the teams are going
to need. We're working across twenty odd sports for Paris,
so you know, so there's the physical stuff and then

(09:56):
these all the other I spars and all those sorts
of things will so got to be well planned in
advanced So that's some of the operational things we're looking
at accommodation options, you know, two to three years out.
And then from the athlete side, the big one that's
really important is the whole selection process, so athletes knowing
two to three years out what they need to do
to be able to meet the criteria to get them selected.

(10:18):
So it is it's a sort of you know, two
to three year program.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Pretty interesting. Some of those athletes are spread all around
the world as well, either either based in other countries
or traveling for competition. How do you communicate with them all?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, so as a member of sport organization, so we
work really closely with our national sporting organization, so swimming
New Zealand. You're very familiar with athletics New Zealand, you know,
all of the sports, and so we work with them
well in advance with their high performance teams, and we
also work closely in partnership with High Performance Sport in
New Zealand. So we have a very important set of

(10:55):
relationships across that to making sure that all three parts
that are well supported. Sort Of during the year, the
athletes are members of each of their national federations, so
we don't have a direct relationship with them. But about
eight to nine months out we start to get athletes
on the long list because they need to start preparing
around the drag free sport protocols and all those other
things as well.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yep. So when do they sort of no longer become
part of swimm in New Zealand and become part of
your team. I presume that's after selection, is it?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, we tend to have a transition just before the
athletes come to the games, because most of our athletes
will actually go to Europe given US Paris this time
and do pre training camp. Some have still got competitions,
So we work with each of the sports and so
we'll know the date that they're coming into the village
or into the accommodation with us, and that we work
on the handover with that because they are the best

(11:47):
people to keep developing the athletes. Our job is to
create the environment and those coaches will come into the
environment with their athletes, you know, all the way.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Through and can you tell me what's going to be
special about the environment in Tokyo or is that a
closely guarded secret.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well, and there's two parts. I think firstly, Paris will
do an amazing job. It's the first Olympics post COVID.
It's a city that's just got amazing ambition with French
clear and I think we'll see that. So we will
also see, you know, some of the iconic landmarks, the beach,
volleyballs under the Eiffel Tower, the opening ceremony is planned

(12:24):
to go down the Seine River, the equestrians at this sai,
you know, all these sort of pretty special things. From
the athlete's perspective, what we try and do is create
a culture of monarchy. It's where that we use it
with our team. And what we have to do is
bring athletes from twenty different sports into one team environment.
So we spend a lot of time and for Paris

(12:45):
will be led by Nigel Avery, our sheep de Mission,
and Nigel will spend a lot of time with his
leadership group. And what we try and do is make
sure that the team have a real connection, a connection
to who we are as a country. And so we
do a lot of work to integrate a lot of
the indigenous Maori culture into the team. We have our
own huka that has been gifted to us by tar

(13:06):
Derrek Ladali and so the athletes really buy into that.
And I think when other countries look across and see
some of those rituals that New Zealand does in the village,
you know it's something that's really special that no one
else could happen. So that's something we're really proud of.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Fantastic. We're with Nicky Nichol, the CEO of the New
Zealand Olympic Committee, and we'll be back in a moment
back with Nicky Nicholo of the New Zealand Olympic Committee
getting set for in Olympic Games that is just three

(13:44):
months away. Nikki, I think you grew up in Auckland.
You're an Auckland girl, Have I got that right?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yes, that's right, North Shore.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Where did you go to school?

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Saint Mary's Good Catholic school, Saint Mary's Northcote and then
high school with Saint Mary's College just over the bridge
in pots.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
And fantastic and we use sports man at school.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, pretty active in sports, So sort of probably middle years,
lots of netball and tennis. Loved them both, and then
sort of fell into surf life saving as we got
a little beach house up at Red Beach and I
think I was at fifteen fourteen fifteen, and then from
there also started kayaking, So you know, that was a
big part of my letter high school years.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
So did you carry on all of those sports after
school or did you Were you the typical Kiwi kid
who stopped playing sport the moment the seventh form was over.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
No, No, I charged on, So we went to school.
I went to Union in Auckland because at that stage
the kayaks centers are really only Gisbon or Auckland, so
stayed in Auckland, lived at home and yeah, I was
training pretty full on with kayaking aspirations to to go
to Barcelona Olympics. And then I got glandular fever quite
badly my last year at UNI, and so kind of

(14:59):
that put the wobbles of and every time I tried
to sort of come back didn't quite make it. So
at some point you sort of have to say, okay,
that part of that part of my career is going
to move on. So I went and watch the Olympics
in Barcelona and a combe with some good friends and
had a fantastic time.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Good stuff. I'd adored it. My daughter got glandular fever
to it knocks you around, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah? And look at the time. I whose stories that
people took two weeks off and came back. But I mean,
you know it was nine months with blood suit. Yeah,
all those things, but you know, the glasses how fall,
something else comes along. We're fortunate.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
What did you study at university?

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Just at a vanilla commis degree.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
The session thing is a vanilla commerce degree. I've got.
I've got a vanilla Commers degree too. We have to
we have to amp it up more than that.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
I'm afraid, no disrespect to the Ukland UNI, but no.
I certainly picked papers that worked very nicely for my
Philly intensive training regime at the time. So it came
through and then ended up in Charted accounting was one
of the big sex and I lasted there eighteen months

(16:06):
and got made redundant. So that was pretty good for
your first job. But as it was that the redundancy
within was six thousand dollars and that was our two
thousand pounds and it needed to go to the UK,
so off O.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Ent absolutely good for you. So I was going to
ask if you went straight to BP out of university,
but obviously you didn't. So what did you do before
BP other than eighteen months in an accounting firm in Auckland,
which sounds rather than mundane for somebody who ends up
in a lifetime of sports.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
But anyway, yeah, so so went off of my OE,
which obviously coincided with the Barcelona Olympics, and then from
there came back and New Zealan ended up at McDonald's
at the head office, so probably would be described as
a business analyst now, so using sort of some of
the commercial financial background, and then from there into BP.

(16:57):
So very broad roles once I got into BP, across
you know, sales, marketing, merchandise, business unit leaders, lots of
different things. So, you know, very fortunate and BP certainly
was great from a development perspective.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
I know a number of your colleagues or former colleagues
from those years and it's and I had recently, you know,
I had had a chat to Mike Bennett's on this
podcast a few guests ago, who also came out of
that industry. What is it about those companies? That create

(17:31):
so many successful executives.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, you know, I think some of those people I
worked that you know, I worked with and for and
certainly you know, have shaped my leadership. So you know,
very fortunate, I think as an organization, you know, they
really invested in people and and you were given lots
of experiences to learn, and so you were building a
very broad set of skills that I think really set

(17:57):
you up for more general management. And then opportunities were
created and some were quite managed to support development. And
I also stepped in at a time when they were
looking for the acceleration of women leaders and I had
a six day old baby when they rang me to say, hey,
there's a role coming up in Australia if you really
want to come across. And you know, sometimes you just

(18:18):
got to take some opportunities, and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Absolutely, I had one of those phone calls. In fact,
I think mine was two days old. Goodness, and I
got a phone call and I was in Sydney the
following day while while part of a family were or
the other part of a family at that point where
we're still in a birthing center somewhere, So a not
a guaranteed ticket to form family popularity, Nikki, I can

(18:44):
tell you that much. So so the BP story, you
gradually sort of start working your way up. You get
the opportunities around the world. What are the things that
have the experiences that are most memorable from that time.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Ah, lots of great memories. I think part of it
was just being parts of teams that were really you know,
quite a competitive industry, as you can imagine, at a
time when you know there were options around, you know,
premiumization and things like that. So someday you're actually part
of some pretty special projects. You know, we were doing

(19:21):
some pretty macro stuff looking out sort of fifty years
and what we think the you know, the fleets and
cars of the future are going to be needing because
we're investing in you know, billions of dollars in refineries
and so forth. So so some really big stuff. And
I certainly I was also there in April twenty ten
when Gotham Mexico hit, and again, you know, really challenging

(19:41):
time for many and I certainly reflect on that time.
It was a tragedy and eleven people lost their lives,
and you know that really sort of I suppose challenged,
you know, my view of the organization, which were an
organization that put people at the heart of what we do.
Where were you? Health and safety was drilled to us
from the day we started, and for this to have

(20:02):
happened was quite incongruent with the organization we knew and
so so I think also leading through that time was
you know, some of the some of the times that
I learned the most about myself and how you sort
of work your way through some of those really tough
times too.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
How did the company react was because an experience like that,
as you say, is horrific, and and so you've got
executives scattered around the globe and somebody needs to start
making decisions. You were probably not at the top of
that tree, but certainly on some of the branches not

(20:37):
too far below. What was the reaction like from a
leadership point of view?

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, so I am proud of how BP responded. So
first of all, it was around people, So they did
everything they could to support the people on the ground
and you know, out within the golf of mixcoregion. And
then so the second one was the response, So we
saw that fairly clear. Trying to obviously stop the flow
in the environmental impact. But then BP they said they

(21:04):
would fix it and they did it, and so that
was a big part of it. And so from a
global perspective, you know, cash was king, so suddenly, you know,
there were some huge risks around that. So every part
of the BP family had to lean in and work
out what leaders we had around cash. It was interesting.
They did some brand research pretty quickly, and after the US,
New Zealand was the worst impacted from a brand reputation,

(21:26):
as you can imagine given our focus on the environment
and things like that. So for US, it was actually
how do you rebuild credibility with your customers, with your partners,
and so that all took a lot longer time. And
even for US, I mean our staff as well. You know,
we were all, as you know, we just say, horrified
by what had happened, and we all had to work
our way back through it.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
And you were on the global marketing exec at that time,
were you, So you were you were part of that
team coming up with the messages and the messaging to
rebuild that reputation. That would have been pretty intense time.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, it was, you know, you had to you know,
whenever you're in those sort of crisis mode. You just
have to deal with what's in front of you. And
so that's what we did, and we supported each other
and and you know, really helped the organization get back
to you know, some of what it was. I don't
think it's ever recovered to the same heights, but you know,
those those are the consequences of Sadly, some of those

(22:20):
terrible accidents.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, very sad. But I always, I quite often say
there are bad experiences, but there's no such thing as
bad experience, Niki. And you learn a hell of a
lot from those experiences, and you inevitably lean on them again,
and you know, as time goes on. So you moved
from a global corporate one of the biggest in the

(22:42):
world too sports.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
What drove that decision, Well, we wanted to raise our
children in New Zealand. We always fout New Zealand for
us as home and we've moved around quite a lot.
So one daughter was born in New Zealand, but we
moved to Australia soon after. Aone was born in Australia
and so so for us, we wanted to be a
kivy kids, so we wanted to be home for high school.

(23:05):
So that was driving a lot of the decision to
get back to New Zealand. We settled back into Wellington,
which is where we had our home at the time,
because we thought that was a great place for high
school and it turned out the girls had a fabulous
high school term. I then had a gap year, which
I highly recommend in your forties, which was lovely. I
have had a very I have had and do have

(23:27):
a very supportive husband and so for a lot of
times overseas he was the house husband or doing study
and other things. So it was time for him to
go back into the workforce and so I happily had
a year off. And so we're just coming to the
end of that term and started looking around in Wellington
for a job. I thought a better start looking and
and then happened to go and to meet one of
the recruiters in Wellington and that was Friday, and by

(23:50):
Monday I had a job offer. So pretty pretty exciting
time to come into an organization that is the National
Sport And for me, could you know, really bleeding my
commercial background with my love of sport.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, absolutely did do. I'm sure it wouldn't feel like
this now. But did you feel like a woman in
a man's world back.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Then, I think you certainly felt different. I always felt welcomed,
I never felt but you did feel different, and any
know that. I think that was part of the reason why,
you know, why I was welcomed into the organization was
to be part of some of that change that you
know Seeche at the time, he was really open and
honest with me before I started and the cultural review

(24:34):
was underway, and I think, you know, he probably thought,
you know, this would be a great opportunity to have
someone lead that with my experience, and so that was
really exciting as well.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
What were the big surprises moving into a sporting organization,
the ones you can tell me about anyway.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, you know, Rugby is the big business and I
think it was about two hundred million, and reve knew
when I started. I think it was north of two
sixty when I left. So so it's a big commercial business.
So there were a lot of you know, familiarity with
the commercial model and you know, driving revenue and achieving
performance and all that sort of stuff. I think what's

(25:13):
what surprised me at Rugby is the the interest in
the community game, in the professional game, you know, the
professional game is obviously the cash cow for the organization,
but the investment and the the joy that you got
by being involved with the community game was you know,
so so special. You know, there's some fantastic volunteers across

(25:35):
the system. There's some fantastic people who do so much
and you know, watching kids' faces, you know, seeing the
delight of just playing sport and all those sorts of things.
I think that's all the rewarding stuff that keeps you
cut pretty full.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, and and it's a part of the fabric of
the New Zealand way of life in a sense, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, it is. And you know, I think you know,
that's that's an absolute set to the organization. But with
that came responsibilities, and I think that was something that
you know, being inside the organization you always felt that
as well. You know, there was an obligation or responsibility
back to New Zealand for the people who had given
us that support as well.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Coming out of corporate and going into sports, what what
were the big differences from just from the point of
view of your job. You're you know, you're a you're
a CFO at this point, You've come out of marketing
related roles in big global corporate There'll be similarities, I'm sure,
but there will also be major differences.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
Yeah, the similarities, you know, were as you would expect.
I think the main difference is ready to stakeholder management.
So you're dealing with a lot of volunteers members, you know,
provincial unions who you know have so much passion for
the game, and so trying to find that balance around,
you know, solutions that can fit within a model that

(26:58):
is really challenged. You know, you end up making a
lot of compromises, and I think that was probably one
of the things within rugby, and I think still to
this day is one of the things that rugby really
struggles with is because they don't have the control you
have that vested in other parties, whether it's the Pliers Association,
the provincial unions, the super clubs that don't really have
a constitutional right, but you know they're equally important. So

(27:19):
you have so many I suppose stakeholders that trying to
balance that as just a constant juggle.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Of course, women's rugby burst onto the scene during your time.
It was always there, of course, but it really has
come into the public consciousness in the last six or
seven years. What were the decisions around that? Sorry, were
the decisions around that challenging for the organization?

Speaker 2 (27:46):
No, I don't think challenging at all. I think what
you have is you could see the demand and I
think the success of the Black Friends sevens and then
the Black Ferns and obviously the World Cup last year, yes,
which it was just you know, outstanding, but there was
just a lot of Green Shirts at the community level

(28:07):
as well, so it was trying to balance the both
of those. It's also when you haven't got enough scale,
you actually it's really difficult to you know, se we'll
just put in a professional comp but actually you've got
to have enough teams to play, and you've got to
have enough decks, and you've got to have you know,
there's lots of layers and certainly through my time Cap
Sexton supporting her clear Beard, who picked up the mental

(28:28):
for the woman's rugby stategy. I mean, these two ladies,
you know, deserve a Bokay. They just did a huge
amount of work to keep raising both the profile but
also the opportunities for women and you know it will
continue to flourish. I think the challenges is just how
you prioritize, you know, a finite pool and if you
want to put more into a woman's games, then you're
gonna have to pull down something else. And so that's

(28:48):
that's always a challenge within rugby.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Do you have one big positive lasting memory from your
time at ew Zealand Rugby?

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, I have lots, I think For me, you know,
I'll reflect on, you know, the Black Food's Final last year,
and then and then another you know, one of my
best days was that the RiPP of Rugby tournament, watching
you know, the eleven year olds come to Wellington and
play and just have a great time and meet some
all blacks and Black Food heroes and things like that.
So you know that's what you know, you get some

(29:20):
of those unique moments. So so that's probably you know,
some of the highlights. It's just those things. You know,
we're making memories and you know that's what we do
in sports, and that's the stuff that you're really proud of.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Fantastic we're with Nicky Nickel of the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
We'll be back in a few moments. Back with Nicky Nickel,
Let's look at the Kiwi team for the Olympic Games
this year. What are the big talking points? What should

(29:53):
kiwis be excited about.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Oh, look, there's just tons to be excited about. From
the the sixth of July right through until the eleventh
of August. I think we've got sport, absolute sport, smaller
s board coming up. So look, we're still selecting the team,
so not the final team announced, but you know, certainly
we expect a really busy a few weeks. Week one

(30:17):
we've got rugby, we have rowing, we'll have swimming, some
of our biggest sports. And then in the second week
we've got athletics, cycling, canoeing, so sports that we've done
particularly well, but throwing, the equestrian, golf, we've got our
first woman's wrestler coming. There's just lots of really cool stuff.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
So we're usually pretty good. I always say we're good
on the water, but we while I was chair of
some in New Zealand ID we went very good in
the water. We had Lauren Boyle and not many others.
But that's changing. But we've got rowing and sailing and
canoe racing, all of which I guess we can continue
to have pretty good expectations. We don't have a val Adams,

(30:56):
but we've got some other athletes coming through, and we
do find we have some competitive swimmers. What are the
other sports we should be looking out for?

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, So I think the other sports
to look out for are climbing. First time we've had
climbers at the Olympics. So again, you know, really exciting
for Julian and Sarah Taylor Ford and the wrestling and
men's hockey will also be there, you know. So there's
lots lots of thanks a questrian at besides, so again

(31:26):
that will be very special. We've got a very experienced
equestrian team, so yeah, lots to look forward to.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Is it my imagination or are we gradually clawing our
way back onto the international stage in middle distance running
track running? Just every now and then I see a
result and I go, oh, I didn't know that was there?
Am I right?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Are pretty exciting And we just named the athletics team
last week and what was very special was Arch Jelly
was there one hundred and one. He read out the
team and I mean he was almost as rock star
status as the athletes. He was calling out the photos
afterwards with Arch and things like that with all the
athletes was just really special and we were reflecting on

(32:11):
that middle distance. So obviously we've got Jordy Beamish, we'll
have Sam Tenor, but you know Zoey Hobbs is sprinting well.
So you know, the team, the athletics team that we
named is probably the most competitive. It's or what the
ever being Hamish Kurr is the indoor world champion, You've
got Jack O'Gill and Tom Wolt in the shot put.
It just goes on Eliza. So yeah, there's you know

(32:32):
that there is some amazing debt in athletics now at
you know, that really competitive level, which is just testament
to all of the coaches in high performance system across
athletics New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Well, I always so good at throwing things. We've had
We've had Valerie Adams, we've got Tom Walsh and jacko.
We seem to be good at throwing things, don't we
in this country? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:52):
No, it's good that we used to be sitting down,
so now it's sort of maybe we're throwing things sitting
down on horses and boats and things like that.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
So yeah, that's right. Well, sitting down going backwards is
even worse right, So if you look at the Olympics
more broadly from a global perspective, obviously COVID, you know,
made the last Olympiad very very difficult. Has the Olympic
movement recovered and bounced back? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Definitely? From an interest perspective, we know that, you know,
ticket sales broadcast is really strong, and again it's a
short runway, as you said at the start, only three years.
What we're also seeing is the Olympics are trying to
make sure they're keeping ready relevant. So we're seeing things
like the introduction of urban sports, so I think climbing, skateboarding,
breakdancing for the first time. So some of those sports

(33:40):
are also coming into the program to make it more
interesting and relevant for a younger market. And I think,
you know, some of those are going really well. Some
of them, you know, you might try once or twice
and then you know, change things out. But we also
are seeing an evolution of the Olympic. What they're trying
to do and making the games more sustainable both economically
and from an environment mental and climate change perspective, is

(34:03):
reusing old facilities or reusing existing facilities and other locations.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
So this time.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Actually we have quite a dispersed team the sailing in Marseilles,
where again you know, the new yachting New Zealand team
will be well set up, but they will be almost
in an area by themselves. The surfers are actually in Tahiti,
so that's different. And then we also will have other
sports dispersed, so football will be all around Paris and

(34:29):
things like that. So it is changing and some of
what we're trying to do is make sure that the
team still feel connected even though they might be remote.
So that's a big focus for us.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, and a big challenge. I imagine. It's an interesting
point about about making those venues or making the most
of the venues that are that are created. And I
remember going to Athens. I think I went to Athens
about seven or eight months after the Olympics, and a
number of the venues, including the Validrome where Sarah Sarah Olmer,

(34:59):
one of Old Metal, was in decay. You know, there
were weeds growing up through the floorboards on the velodrome
and you couldn't help but think there must be a
better way. And I guess it's getting to a point
where it's unaffordable for cities to host these things unless
we find a better.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Way, right absolutely, and you're seeing that with Commonworth Games
as well. I mean, even if we look forward to
Los Angeles and twenty eight, that is all privately funded.
It's all in private venues, which is just you know,
like that's that's again, you know, another departure from the
traditional models that we've had. So you're seeing quite a
lot of the evolution quite quickly. Los Angeles is twenty
eight and then Brisbane is twenty thirty two. So that's

(35:38):
great for KIWIS because we've got both sides of the
Pacific covered. But you know, there are things that are
different and so we've just got to be really adaptable
as an organization and working with our sports and High
Performance Sport in New Zealand to make sure that we're
really adapting to the changes.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I'm guessing that Brisbane's got a lot of the facilities
already in place too, does it.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
They do. They also had as part of the aspiration
was an opportunity to refresh some of those facilities, so
you know, there is still some current debate about which
ones will be done and win, but you know they've
got a pretty strong blueprint and they really did name
that quite early in the cycle. But it gives them
time to do some of that capital infrastructure. But that's
not for the games. That is because as Queensland, they

(36:19):
want to have an asset that they will have as
legacy for their communities.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Sure you touched on the Commonwealth Games and there's been
a bit of a scramble around whether anybody can host
the twenty twenty six games. Is that are those games
still a chance of progressing?

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Well, we are bitterly disappointed in our neighbors pulling the
pin in Melbourne or Victoria and you know that wasn't
wasn't good form.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
But can we say that about Ossie's on this podcast.
We probably can no.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Specifically about specifically about the Victorian government and the decision
of the Comwealth Games. But you know, I'll go back
to Birmingham and Boomingham. You know, one of the first
games open after COVID, and it was an absolute success
on many fronts, both economically, from an athlete's perspective, the
competitiveness of the fields and things like that was really strong.
So you know, on the back of that, we were
really positive and really excited about the future what we

(37:15):
will have for twenty twenty six is we do know
that some interests Scotland has, Glasgow has formerly said that
they have put in an expression and prepared to host
the Games, and there's a couple of others that the
commerth Games Federation will assess. But what they're going to
do is actually everyone who's shown some interest in hosting
their games the same. We've got to reset the model.
And I think we've seen this in every sector, in

(37:36):
every industry. You know, it doesn't matter what it is.
The world has changed post COVID, and again you know,
sport is not immune. And so what I expect we
will see has happened is, you know, a very deliberate
number of sports the Commonwealth Games has hed Swimming and
athletics are the only two that are compulsory. And you
will see countries or cities putting their hands up where
they have the facilities as well. So that's not huge

(37:56):
capital investment. And so those are some of the things
that I think we'll see change. I'm pretty well, I'm
very confident that we will have a Commerce Games in
twenty six. I think for our athletes it's something that
you know, we still value highly absolutely one hundred years
nearly one hundred years on and so that's you know,
that's something really important for us and we'll continue to
support them.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Well, let's hope it comes together. You touched on funding before.
I guess to an extent or to a small part,
the NZC is government funded. Have I got that right?

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, we get about ten to fifteen percent funding from government.
It's a little bit higher at the moment because it's
the post COVID and very appreciative, but about eighty percent
of our revenue comes from commercial or philanthropic sources, so
different to some of our member sports who high performance
sport really support the athlete and the builder. We have
to or we have a model where we go and

(38:50):
sell both to the domestic sponsors through the international sponsors
through the IOC, and then we have some fabulous downers
who really support the Olympic team that many of them
have been involved with the New Zealand Olympics for quite
some time. And so there's some huge generosity of some
people who are very special to us, you know, some
really passionate keymis who just want to see New Zealanders

(39:11):
excel and create these opportunities for these athletes.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
New Zealand boxes above its weight on a whole lot
of fronts, and one of those fronts is the generosity
of some of our people. I've seen it firsthand with
our bike for Blokes charity rides. The people that come
out of the woodwork. They don't want their name attached,
but they're happy to support, support us and support you.
And I certainly saw it with my involvement in swimming.

(39:36):
We do have some terrific people out there and we
should be very grateful for them. What about sponsorship, that's
probably pretty tough at the moment as well. What sort
of percentage of your fundraising target has to come from sponsorship?

Speaker 2 (39:50):
So domestic sponsorship is about twenty five percent of our revenue.
So we're about sixteen million dollars over a quad, so
fifteen million on average a year. We have a so
so it's the number that's important to us. It's material
and so we work really closely. We have a sales
team here and we have a sports agency that we
work with to try and generate that revenue. We have

(40:13):
a very high success rate once we get a sponsor
on board around renewals. But you're right, it's a really
tough market at the moment, just trying to sort of
close the gap between now and Paris on you know
a few more things that we'd.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Like to do.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
But you know that's I think that's the world over
and you know that's why we're here.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
So even though Paris is less than one hundred days away,
you haven't got all the money you need yet, Is
that right? You want to make a little plug to
whoever's listening.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Absolutely, so, no, we haven't quite closed the gap. And
certainly for any businesses out there, any people out there
that want to support and be part of, you know,
supporting New Zealand to really inspire pride when they go
on the world stage, please let us know. You can
get my details from Bruce, but you can google n

(40:57):
ZOC and just give us a call. Any of the
team will be welcome to head to the conversations.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
There's the plug, folks, those of your leadership roles out
there that have got a little bit left over in
your sponsorship budget, we're better to put it at the
moment than the New Zealand Olympic team preparations. So give
us a whistle at leaders getting coffee info it, leaders
getting Coffee dot Com and we'll put you in touch
with Nikki. We're going to take a short break and
come back and continue to talk about the Olympic Games.

(41:34):
We're back with Nicky, nikel Niki. The world is quite
unsettled at the moment. We've got tensions in the Middle East,
We've got Ukraine, we've got major border challenges in Europe
and the US. In fact, it feels like New Zealand's
a pretty good place to live at the moment. But
I imagine you have to prepare your team for that.
So what sort of things do our athletes and coaches

(41:56):
and managers and so on, what sort of things do
they go through to prepare for turning up at at
Olympic Games when the world's a little bit on edge?

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Absolutely, you know, our focus is to make sure that
every athlete and the wider entourage that come with our
athletes get to the games and home safely, and so
that's a huge focus for our team. We have security
liaison offices from the police embedded in our team. We
have relationships with the police in the UK and we
work very closely with the Department of Prime Minisur and

(42:27):
Cabinet and all the preparation up too, so we're following
all the safe travel advice and so our job is
to make sure we're communicating that, probably not to the athletes.
We do it through the coaches and management of the
teams because you know they'll be coordinating the teams as
they get towards Paris, and then certainly on the ground
in Paris, you know, there are very strict protocols accredited
access to certain zones and things like that, so that's

(42:49):
what we'll be monitoring. We know that the French police
have put forty five thousand constabulary into the region and
they also have the military support as well, so there
is a huge focus no fly zones as you can imagine,
So it is a big focus, and you know, we
certainly won't be taking any chances. We'll work very closely

(43:10):
though with the Ambassador's office and conscert of support up
there as well. If anything does happen, and that's you know,
we've got very practiced routines around that.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Well, let's hope, as you say, we bring all of
our athletes and supporters home safely. You mentioned before, skateboarding, surfing, climbing, breakdancing.
We don't know a lot about those sports. Do we
have good athletes and you know, highly competitive people in
any of those areas.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, we do. At the moment, surfing and climbing, of
the two that we've announced and getting ready to go
to the games. Skateboarding, we've got an athlete who is
trying to qualify as we speak, so we're waiting to
hear from that and no one from breaking this time
from us.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Okay, well that's we watch out. We'll watch out for that.
Because new sports in the Olympics, I never really know
what to expect. The one thing we can probably expect, sadly,
is some headlines around drugs and sport. While while the
Olympic program is going on, it seems to keep moving.

(44:17):
I'm never quite sure whether the pharmacists or the sports
are leading the battle. What's your perspective on the battle
against drugs and sport at the moment.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
I think it's something we have to make sure that
we keep vigilant and we cannot stop because you know,
integrity of sport and integrity of competition is absolutely paramount.
We have a fantastic relationship with Drug Free Sport in
New Zealand. Who are the agency who monitor and do
all the testing of our athletes here and over the
last year they will be actively monitoring all our long

(44:48):
list of athletes to make sure that we've got some
really robust processes in place. And so drug resport you
then to do an excellent job around education and preparation,
and we have high integrity. So as a sport internationally,
we are very well regarded for how we conduct ourselves
from an integrity perspective, and that certainly is you know,
drugs and sport is a part of that. I think

(45:09):
we know that WADA are doing a great job in
identifying issues where they are and every time wanted, if
something happens, that tells you the system is working. And
so you know, we have trust in that system and
we put our athletes out there to do the best
that they can and you know, we're working on the
assumption that it is a clean field.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, well that's all we can do, isn't it. I
always wondered where drugs and sport would lead and it
seems to have led to a concept being called the
Enhanced Games. And I don't even know if you want
to comment on this or not, but there's obviously some
big money behind it. There's some cash prizes. I'm old

(45:49):
enough to remember Ben Johnson with his yellow eyes in
Seoul in nineteen eighty eight. And I do worry about
the enhanced games becoming a bit of a freak show.
But I know that eyeballs on television sets will be
attracted to freak shows, and so the enhanced games to
be hon to scares the hell out of me. What's

(46:11):
the sports view of them?

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Oh, we have no tolerance for it. So and at
the end of the day, for me, it sounds more
like a reality TV show and we've seen some obscure
things happen in there, and then that's probably where I've
put this one as well.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
The Australian swimmer James Magnuson, I read an article where
he was managing to be deuced to the gills quote
unquote on race day. There must be I'm sure a
whole lot of the stuff is illegal. But what's a
greater worry is the dangers to athletes, isn't it? Oh?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Just the well being of athletes. I mean it's just horrendous.
You know, if people are considering this, and you know
you have coaches and people in power influence you know
doing this to athletes, so you know from a safeguarding perspective,
from a wellbeing perspective, it's wrong on many fronts.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Yeah, I think it's wrong on every front that I
can think of. So let's not support the enhanced games.
At the other end of the scale, I've always felt
that school sport has been a critical part of the
reason that we've traditionally boxed above our weight in this country.
And we've now got our schools facing their own crises.
We've got absenteeism off the chart. I know we've got

(47:21):
less participation in many schools in school sport, and yet
I still believe deep down that the role of sport
and the development of kids is an absolutely critical part
of their makeup and their growth and their ability to
work with people. Is that sort of breakdown we're having

(47:42):
all those challenges we're having in the education system at
the moment, Are we seeing any signs that it's affecting
the number of kids in sport or the capacity of
those kids to participate.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
I'm probbing I'm as close to absenteeism equaling reduction in
community participation. But what I do know is, and send
me from my time at Rugby in particular. You know,
sport was a big motivator for children to come to school.
I think, you know, it's always been something that you know,
particularly in primary school and youth, that it's been a

(48:15):
really you know, motivating factor. I know that we've seen
some of when we send our ambassadors, our Olympians out
to school to talk about the Olympic values, we've seen
spikes in attendance and so you know, we know, if
we can motivate kids and show them something that you
know inspires them, we can you know, we can get
the kids there. So you know, maybe there's something in that.

(48:36):
If we can make our program more scalable, we might
have more kids participating because I think, you know, the
opportunities for children when they have a stronger education. I'm
big proponent of.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Yeah. Likewise, and I know it's not your department. It's
probably more something for Sport New Zealand. I'll have to
go and raid their executive team and drag them into
a conversation on that. You've been able to make a
career out of sports administration. What are the highlights of
a career choice like that?

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Oh, there's lots, yeah, you know, part of it is
the people you meet and you work with people who
are really passionate and so you know, the corporate will
people were passionate about what they did. But when you
get into the sports world, you know, we're going to
a new level and I think that's great. You know,
they really believe in the copper of the organization. They
believe in what we're doing for New Zealand. And you know,

(49:25):
I certainly you know, particularly now in high performance sport,
I think you know, this end of sport really represents
the best of New Zealand. And when you think about
it from a you know, kiwis punching above our ways.
As you said, you know that week effect that goes
into that. You know, the results that we get internationally
are disproportionate to the size and scale of our country
and the resources that we have available. So you know,

(49:46):
for me, that's driving innovation, the technology, you know, the
gold Mine Project, the work that the high performance sport
in New Zealand do with all the sports around, the
technology that's going into racing suits, cycling suits, you know,
equipment on bikes and things like that, it's just phenomenal.
You know, there are some absolutely remarkable people in New Zealand,

(50:06):
who are you know, the best and brightest helping us
to do really well. And I think also our sport,
we when we turn up on the international stage, it's
you know, it's how we represent multi culture, how we
show the multicultural nation, you know, nature of our New Zealand.
And yeah, so I think you know, there's lots of
positives around, you know, what we can do as a
society and showing you know, the best of whom New

(50:28):
Zealand is.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
What are the challenges of a career choice in sport?
Passion passionate? I'm guessing it's twenty four to seven too,
is it?

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Oh, definitely not so much here definitely in rugby is
twenty four seven. This is a little bit more measured.
But what you know, in ninety two days time, it
will be twenty four seven because you know, you've got
a bit more time to plan and we're not reacting
all the time because for us, you know, our big
day US is coming up in ninety two days. Stay

(51:02):
Rugby was twenty four seven in it, you know, it
was very intense from that perspective, and I think the
well being of people start to become really important and
so you know, trying to build a culture of respect
around you know, respecting people's opinions, but also respecting people
to have some time to recharge and focus on what
they need to do, you know from a home front
as well, was really important.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Interesting. So if you see young sports administrators coming into
the sport today, people were stars in their eyes and
thinking that they're going to go on and be the
next big thing. What are the desirable skills you need
to look for?

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Resilience. Look, you know, the CEOs that we have across
our national sporting organizations are remarkable people, and you know
they're tough, but the highs are high and so I
think that's what keeps them in there. And I have
huge respect for my peers across the network. I think. Yeah,
it's tough because you know, particularly the commercial environment is

(52:00):
really difficult. You know, security of funding and things like
that is you know difficult because you've got people, your
limited resources. You are in your country of five millions
of the commercial capacity to be able to support everything
is really difficult, particularly post COVID. But you know, I
think the rewards you get for you know, seeing competitions
or tournaments or athletes participating, you know, right through from

(52:21):
use right through is just you know, I think there's
people people really use that to fill their cup and
I think that's you know, that's what's special about sport.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I your comments about some of our CEOs, and I'll
give a little bit of a plug for the guy
that I was fortunate enough to appoint to Swimming New Zealand,
Steve John's, who another old surf life saver by the way,
but who's done a terrific job at Swimming New Zealand.
Where with Nicky Nickel, chief Executive of the New Zealand
Olympic Committee. And we'll be back in a moment that

(52:58):
with Nicky Nicoll ninety two days out from the Olympics,
or that's when we're recording it. You might be listening
to this a couple of days after that, so it
will be even less time. But Nicki is the chief
Executive of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and on the
verge of her first Olympics in that role. Nicki, your
leadership experiences across BP Rugby now the Olympics. What's sort

(53:23):
of the most important thing you feel you've learned about
leadership along that journey.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
I've got a quote that one of my bosses used
to use a lot, which is a desk is a
dangerous place to view the world, John maclart. And so
I think for me as a leader is always making
sure that you're spending time at the coal face, whatever
the coal face is for your organization. So for us,
for me now it's out with our members, with our athletes,

(53:51):
and you know, really listening for you know, trying to
pick up on what's really important from them because at
the end of day, you know, whoever your customer is
is absolutely critical. So I think that's one. I also
when there's delicate stuff, pick up the phone, don't send
an email. So those are the sorts of things there.
But I think you know, listening to people and having
empathy gets you a long way down the road.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
It does absolutely And to your earlier point, I say
all the time accessibility and visibility. People need to see
who's leading them and they need to be able to
wander up to them and have a conversation. Did you
have any mentors along the way and in terms of
learning about leadership, I suspect BP was full of them,
was it.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
I definitely had a few and it was interesting when
I moved into this role because that was my first
chief executive role and the amount of people who reached
out and just said, look, if you need anything, please
ring And I just thought that was just so special
to know that people cared, you know, they weren't seeking anything.
And you know, there's certainly a number of those people
that I have rung since I've come into this role

(54:53):
and just you know, sounded ideas off from them. So No,
I definitely had a number of mentors and also a
number of supporters. So you know, you need people to
do both in your career, and you know, I send
me fortunate to have some wonderful people doing both in me.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
You need to be able to pick up the phone
and talk to people sometimes otherwise you go crazy. I think, personally,
what's your best leadership skill?

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Probably have to ask my team, as I will always
like to do for those sorts of things. But no,
I think people would say I'm very relatable, very accessible,
and you have high empathy and be some of the
things I think I hope they say.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
I think they probably would say that having known you
a little bit over the years. And what do you
look for in the people you're recruiting.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
I choose the attitude in teaching the skills. So yeah,
I'm always one who's people really on board. You can
see it in their eyes, you can sort of hear
it in their language, and you know the way that
they react. So I'm a big fan of pratitude and teaching.
And again that was because I was also very fortunate
at BP. Wasn't a marketing person, but suddenly I was

(56:02):
a chief marketing officer, and that's because people backed you.
You know, if you've got the right attitude, I think
you can get a long way down the track.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah. Absolutely, I totally agree with you. All leaders have good,
good days and bad days. I suspect your one of
your worst days would have been the Gulf of Mexico
back in twenty ten. Your best day will hopefully occur
in about ninety days time. Would you like to give

(56:31):
us a tip about where you think New Zealand might
win a gold medal? Are you allowed to make projections?

Speaker 2 (56:37):
We don't make predictions because really our job is to
support the athletes. But you know a personal one will
be Lisa Carrington. You know she would be a book
Eth odds on favorite. So I won't go further than that,
but I think that will be a special day at
the canoe of course.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Spoken like a former canoe racer.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Well, what's really exciting is you know the women's program,
they've qualified the most of athletes and so you know,
I was part of a group of women paddling around
Lake Pepooky for many, many nights and mornings hoping that
we would get a woman to the Olympics. And now
you look at the program where it's got to. So
I just a credit to all those involved, and yeah,
I just love seeing you know, what they've achieved, and
you know they won't stop.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Well to Lisa Carrington and the whole team, we wish
you and your team all the very best. I only
have one more question for you, and you know what
that is. And you might give me a sports answer,
you might give me something totally totally different. But if
you could be the Prime Minister for a day, Nicky Nichol,
what would you do.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
I'd love to see more investments for it, But I
think if I was Prime Minister for the day, you know,
you almost need to be center because there's a lot
of things that you know, a lot of wishes that
people need at the moment. But honestly, if I could
double down in one area for me, it would be
around house. That is our most vulnerable part of our society,
and so I think for me, if we can do

(58:04):
as much as we can in that space, then I
think that would be a fantastic way for us to
keep our country safe.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
And then sprinkle the change that you've got left over
into the Olympic.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Coffers into sport. That'd be great.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Love it well, Nicky nicol thanks for joining us on
leaders getting Coffee. I love talking sports, so we could
carry on all day because I get the impression that
you love talking sport too, but we better stick to time.
And after all, you've got an Olympic team to get organized.
You've actually provided insight into a leadership career with a difference,

(58:36):
and you're the first sporting leader we've had on Leaders
Getting Coffee, and so it's been a real pleasure talking
to you. Thank you for sharing your lessons from that
career with us, and good luck for that we event
that starts in ninety two days time.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Thanks Bruce, it's been the absolute pleasure catching up again.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Finally, folks, leadership tip of the week, many of you
who enjoy sport will remit Clive Woodward, the former rugby
coach who took the England team to a World Cup
in two thousand and three with that infamous extra time
drop goal. He also had a leadership role in the
British Olympic team that did so well in their home
games in twenty twelve, and as part of that team

(59:18):
he had all sorts of wonderful, wonderful sayings and incluting
the one better never stops, which has been used countless
times ever since. But there was something else he said
that I wrote down at the time, and I've always
kept close at the fingertips, and it goes like this.
Our success has not been a continual series of victories.
We've had a number of devastating setbacks. How those are
handled as the making of a great team. Winning does

(59:40):
not happen in straight lines. Winning does not happen in
straight lines. Ain't that the truth? And Folcus, in case
you're trying to work it out while the marketplace is
tough at the moment, I can tell your business never
happens in straight lines either. So good luck to all
of you out there who've got your battles at the moment.
That's about it for another couple of weeks. Thanks again
for joining us on leaders Getting Coffee number eighteen with

(01:00:03):
Nicky Nickel. If you have any feedback, please get in
touch with me at info at leaders Gettincoffee dot com.
If you want to donate some money to the New
Zealand Olympic Effort, you heard the pitch, you can get
in touch with me and I will make sure I
pass that message on. And if you're not supporting the
New Zealand Olympic Effort, remember that our favorite charity is
Bike for Blokes dot co dot Nz. And we will

(01:00:25):
be seeing you soon again with another New Zealander with
another great leadership story to share. Until then, have a
great couple of weeks and we'll catch you next time.