James Duder is the CEO of Sales at Energylight and a Leadership Development Programme and Leaders Exchange alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 23 November 2022, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
What do you do at Energylight?
Basically, I look after the sales and marketing for our business across the whole of New Zealand. I have a team in Auckland and here in Christchurch, where I’m based. The role takes on a lot of responsibility, for the number of people and the size of the business that we operate. With my family commitments as well, it's a busy old time!
How did you get to Energylight?
Aside from packing fruit in a veggie shop as a first job, I started in retail sales. I progressed in sales roles mostly throughout my career, and I had a field marketing role when I was working in the UK.
That was my first role where I managed a team of people… I’ve always aspired to have people on a team and being able to lead them and grow them.
I took a lot of the lessons from my previous managers – the way that they managed me and the things that I really liked that they did, and I tried to apply those as best as I could.
I learned a lot along the way, and so, on my return back to New Zealand, I fell into this role. I fell into lighting! A lot of people seem to fall into this industry and they never leave. I started in sales, and then started to take on the role of sales management, then marketing and leading the business.
How did you first hear about The Icehouse?
The directors and owners of Energylight both went on the Owner Manager Programme, and they came out of that saying, ‘Okay, this has got great value to add to our business’.
They proposed The Icehouse to me and my colleague, who's our general manager, and so we both went on the Leadership Development Programme at the same time. So that's how we came into The Icehouse family, and that originally came actually through our bank at the BNZ.
Since then, we've had a number of different people in our organisation go through it. For our team leaders, to some of our people in our sales team, who have shown leadership, we've said, ‘Well, let's try and accelerate that’.
It really helps with being able to speak a common language, and be galvanised in where you're going and how you're going to get there. It's been a great programme.
I had no idea how it was going to run or be formatted. And the funny thing is, that right from the get-go, they prepare you and get you fizzing straight off the bat. It’s pretty awesome.
Have there been any changes that you've implemented into the business? Or maybe even personally since joining the programme?
I recall that when you finish the programme, you've got to write down a number of things that you're going to change. It's interesting, because when you write something down, you make a bit of a commitment in your brain.
I did put it in the proverbial bottom drawer, and then let it sit there. About a year later, I was going through that drawer, as you do, and I pulled it out and actually went through the list.
I realised that even without referring to it every week, we’d managed to complete a lot of these things that I set out to do, just by “doing”. [LDP] definitely instils change in you.
And Leaders Exchange?
It was a nice refresher. It was good to get that kind of injection again, on all of those topics, and get some inspiration into your leadership – again, I focus back on people, and the way that you look after the team, because it's such a big topic of the programme.
What’s been a challenge in your own personal leadership journey?
Probably the biggest challenge, is people. It's not easy, you don't always get it right, and you're going to make mistakes along the way. It’s also the most rewarding when you do get it right. If you can inspire people, and if you can motivate them to go and do something – when you see them achieve, that's super motivating. It gives you a huge amount of satisfaction.