The Executive Club: Getting a handle on leadership changes

Colleen Rigby says there's a need to build leadership capability in the region particularly for growing businesses whose managers may not have the right abilities for an expanded role.

The University of Waikato's postgraduate programmes are meeting a need to build higher levels of leadership in organisations across the Bay of Plenty, says Colleen Rigby, director of the Master of Business Administration and Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies.

"A lot of managers have evolved into their role perhaps through running small businesses and, as the business has grown, they don't necessarily always have the leadership capability to manage bigger teams," she said.

"Higher-level strategy and building from 20 employees into bigger businesses is often a stretch. I think there's a need to build leadership capability in the region."

Dr Rigby said the two-year Tauranga MBA programme, which is taught at weekend sessions in the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's Bongard Centre in the central business district, also attracted business people wanting to build their generalist management skills. More than 20 people from a range of backgrounds, including young entrepreneurs and small business owners as well as public sector and local government managers are going through each year of the programme in Tauranga.

"Many of them have come from areas of specialisation and want a more general understanding of business. The programme positions them to take on a more general management role. It gives them a lot of innovative ideas and commits them a lot more to what is happening globally."

Born and brought up in South Africa, Dr Rigby completed a PhD in psychology and lectured in social, organisational and developmental psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal for five years. After a two-year stint as a researcher in organisational behaviour with banking group ABSA, she became group human resources development manager for Tastic Tiger Brands, part of the Barlow Rand Group.

Her first involvement with New Zealand came when she was South Africa-based regional director of organisational effectiveness, for Ernst & Young, consulting to various banks and large private and public sector organisations. Her projects included advising the Wellington City Council and the Public Trust.

In 1994, she and her partner and their three children relocated to New Zealand, settling initially in Palmerston North. "Re-establishing who you were and finding my feet in Palmerston North was an interesting process," she said.

Dr Rigby became a teaching fellow at Massey University Graduate School of Business and spent the next five years there before moving north in 1998 to the Waikato where she set up her own company, PsychoDynamix, to provide individual, organisational and career consulting. Her clients have included the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries, ANZ, Carter Holt Wood & Panels, ACC and educational institutions.

In 2000, she began her 15-year engagement with the University of Waikato, becoming a senior fellow of the Waikato Management School. During this period, she was engaged in an extensive range of work building skills to enable individuals, groups and organisations to be effective when dealing with conflict, stress, change, mood issues, dysfunctional leadership and organisation culture issues. She also delivered corporate programmes to companies, including Telecom, Blueprint, Fonterra, Hamilton City Council and AgResearch.

In 2008, she set up a second company, Life Transitionz , which she ran for five years, providing employee assistance programmes and individual and career counselling to clients that have included Westpac, Lakes District Health Board and the Ministry of Social Development.

However, last year, she accepted an offer to become the full-time director of the MBA programme, which also includes supervising the postgraduate diploma of management studies.

Tina Jennen, who was recently appointed chief executive of Plus Group, the group of agri-tech companies based at the Newnham Park Innovation Centre, who completed the MBA programme, described Dr Rigby as a change-maker.

"She knows how to create opportunities and results," said Ms Jennen. "Her professional skills and commercial experience enhance the practical relevance and connectivity of the Waikato MBA in Tauranga and beyond."

Dr Rigby said realising the importance of developing networks was an invaluable part of the programme. "I think 50 per cent of the learning comes from the lectures and the programme. But the rest is what they learn from other people and about what's happening in other businesses across the region."

Keen cyclist and kayaker

Colleen Rigby and her husband, Robert, are based in the Coromandel and she travels to Hamilton and Tauranga to work on the MBA programme.

She is a keen sea kayaker and regularly cycles the Hauraki cycleway. "I'd like to think I'm active, but sometimes I'm not," she said.

The couple have twin sons - one working for Adobe in Sydney, the other designing smart gate systems for Vancouver Airport - and a daughter who works for the Brain Wave Trust in Auckland.

Colleen Rigby

Role: Director of MBA, the University of Waikato

Born: Johannesburg, South Africa

First job: Psychology lecturer

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by Morten Hansen