As co-founder of software company Vend and an influential and experienced coach and consultant to business leaders globally, Mel Rowsell is a familiar name to the Kiwi business community. At The Icehouse, we are thrilled that Mel is co-director for our Leadership Development Programme (LDP).
With more than 20 years’ experience in leadership roles, Mel readily admits to having hit the speed bumps and fallen into the growth traps, as well as navigating a successful exit. She has truly ‘been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.’
Her time at Vend honed a high-level interest – and expertise – in leadership development practices and among her specialist interests are people strategies, building resilience, high-performing teams, values and culture and self-mastery.
Mel also has experience in neuroscience, mindfulness, and development, but it is the sphere of human connection that she concentrates the majority of her time and pioneering efforts currently.
‘It is vital to plug into what makes people human - to nurture individuals through self-mastery, teams through human connection, and organisations through a human-centric performance culture,’ says Mel.
Getting there faster
Her work centres on coaching ambitious founders and leaders across the country to help them get to where they want to go faster, to push the boundaries, to innovate, and to empower individuals and entire organisations to get the most out of themselves.
‘To do this well requires collaboration, excellent teamwork, and everyone turning up as their best selves. It is vital to hire smart people and then let them get on with their work. It is no longer enough to focus solely on people's smarts. It is vital to plug into what makes people human – to nurture individuals through self-mastery, teams through human connection, and organisations through the environment or culture.’
In an age of ever-growing dependency on technological solutions, Mel explains how important it is to remind ourselves that the most effective type of contact is directly with other people. So, what do leaders need right now?
‘I will always answer this by saying the human connection! No matter how good you are at strategy, finances, operations, planning and so on, if you are in any way reliant on other people getting things done, then for my money the human connection trumps all else. After all, we are all humans working with other humans trying to change the world in our small way!’
The road to LDP co-director
As an advisor to The Icehouse for several years, Mel’s journey to LDP co-director was very smooth. ‘I have been facilitating OnPoint Conversations for LDP for some time after becoming known to The Icehouse as part of a values refresh I did for them a few years back.
‘I have always enjoyed the energy of the participants and could tell that Jo [Clayton], was doing a great job co-directing the programme. So, when I got the call asking if I wanted to join Jo, the answer was easy.’
Mel made her “debut” at LDP46 in early 2022 – ‘deeply authentic and genuinely caring, she believes kindness and a generosity of spirit play a critical part in business success, particularly when making the hard calls and having difficult conversations.’
As for Mel’s early highlights on LDP... ‘Working with Jo (who is amazing) and helping to spread joy and possibility amongst the participants that come through. I will be encouraging people to see this as a personal journey as well as a professional one and lean into the learning accordingly.’
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