Leadership Development Programme New Zealand
Most leadership development in New Zealand follows the same tired playbook: you pick a programme from a catalogue, bring in a facilitator, people attend, and then nothing sticks. At Five, we don't deliver programmes. We build performance systems that last.
Our Philosophy
Why Generic Leadership Training Fails
Off-the-shelf leadership programmes treat all organisations the same. They're designed for nobody in particular, which means they're optimised for nobody at all. They focus on generic competencies rather than the capabilities your strategy actually needs. And when they're done, they leave behind nothing—no tools, no frameworks, no capacity for your team to evolve the work themselves.
We built Five specifically to solve this problem.
Our Philosophy: Bespoke, Transferable, Strategic
Everything Is Truly Bespoke
We don't operate from a standard curriculum. Every programme we design is built from scratch for your organisation:
- Custom leadership framework tailored to your strategy, culture, and challenges
- Unique assessment and development approach that measures what matters to you
- Capability mapping that connects leadership development directly to your strategic priorities
Built to Transfer Capability
The goal of every Five programme is to transfer capability to you. By the time we step back, your team should be able to sustain the work internally. We're not here to make ourselves indispensable. We're here to make ourselves unnecessary.
How We Work: Five Phases to Sustainable Change
1. Discovery
We start by understanding your strategy, your people, your challenges, and your culture. Interviews, data analysis, stakeholder workshops. This isn't about ticking boxes—it's about building a genuine picture of where your leadership capability sits right now.
2. Design
We design the leadership framework, assessment approach, and development methodology specifically for you. This includes creating your custom 360 tool, calibration approach, and the overall programme architecture.
3. Prototype
We test the approach with a cohort of leaders. We run the assessments, facilitate the development, and gather feedback. We iterate and refine based on what we learn.
4. Rollout
Once validated, we scale the programme across your leadership population. Full delivery of assessments, facilitation, coaching, and development planning.
5. Capability Transfer
This is where we step back. We transfer custody of the frameworks, tools, and processes to your team so they can run and evolve the work themselves. It's your leadership development system.
Tools & Methodologies
Our Tools and Methodologies
Custom 360-Degree Feedback Tool
Your 360 shouldn't be locked into someone else's platform. We build a fully customisable 360-degree feedback tool specifically for your leadership framework. It's designed to be adapted as your organisation evolves. It feeds directly into development planning and is part of a broader suite of assessment and capability tools.
Capability × Strategy Map
Leadership capability isn't an end in itself—it's the foundation for strategy execution. We can map your current leadership capability directly against your strategic priorities. This produces:
- Heatmaps showing where capability gaps exist and where your strengths lie
- Calibration workshops where leadership teams align on what capability you actually need
- Insight tools that translate assessment data into development priorities
This ensures every dollar spent on leadership development goes where it will have the most strategic impact.
Assessment and Development Centres
We design bespoke assessment centres that evaluate leaders against your specific framework, and we pair assessment with targeted development—not as separate activities, but as an integrated experience.
Capability Mapping and Calibration Tools
See your leadership pipeline clearly. Understand where capability exists, where gaps are, and how to address them. Our calibration approach brings your leadership team together to build shared understanding of capability across the organisation.
Participant-Level Feedback and Development Planning
Every leader gets a bespoke development plan based on their 360 feedback, assessment results, and your strategic priorities. Development plans are personal, practical, and connected to real work.
Programmes & Audiences
Our Programmes
Leadership Development Programme
A comprehensive, bespoke approach to developing your leadership capability from emerging leaders through to executive level. Custom framework, assessment, development, and capability transfer included.
Executive Traction Labs
Intensive, facilitated sessions for executive teams. We help you tackle strategic challenges whilst developing your collective leadership capability. No lectures. Just hard work on real problems.
Capability Uplift
Targeted development for specific leadership cohorts or levels. Emerging leaders, middle management transitions, or new leadership roles—we design the right intervention for the right group at the right time.
Bespoke Learning Programmes
Sometimes leadership development needs to be embedded in a specific context: a merger integration, a cultural shift, a strategic pivot. We design learning experiences that fit the specific moment.
Who This Is For
Emerging Leaders
Early-career leaders stepping up into formal leadership roles. We build strong foundations and connect emerging talent to your strategy early.
Senior Leaders
Leaders with 5+ years in role. Development that goes deeper—strategy execution, organisational influence, culture shaping.
Executive Teams
CEOs, CFOs, and executive teams that need to work together more effectively. We facilitate real conversations on real challenges.
Boards
Governance capability development and strategic leadership alignment at board level.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a leadership development programme take?
This depends entirely on your scope. A smaller Capability Uplift programme might run 4–6 months. A full enterprise Leadership Development Programme typically runs 9–12 months to allow for proper Discovery, Design, Prototype, Rollout, and Capability Transfer phases.
Do you use existing leadership frameworks, or do you build everything from scratch?
Both. We often adapt established frameworks—like the NZ Government's Leadership Success Profile—as a starting point. But we always contextualise and customise them to your organisation's specific strategy and culture. Nothing goes to your team unless it's genuinely relevant to your world.
What makes your 360 tool different from commercial platforms?
It's not locked into someone else's system. We build it for you, with your questions, your scale, your framework. You can edit it, update it, and evolve it as your organisation changes.
Can you work with our existing HR or learning team?
Absolutely. In fact, the best outcomes happen when we work closely with your internal team. Capability transfer is easier when your HR and learning functions are embedded in the process from the start.
How much does a leadership development programme cost?
It varies significantly based on scope, cohort size, and complexity. An initial conversation costs nothing. Once we understand your needs, we'll give you a transparent proposal. There are no hidden costs or surprise licensing fees.
Ready to Build a Leadership Development System That Lasts?
Leadership development doesn't have to be generic. At Five, we build bespoke performance systems that your team owns and sustains. Let's start with a conversation.
Get in Touch →Our Team
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Bottom line is this. If you can see something, and other people can’t (or won’t) see it, then it’s always the right thing to call it out. Politely. With care. With love. With respect. The intention of giving feedback must always be that you care about the other person; That you care about better outcomes for you, them, the organisation, and everyone around them.
Nick Mackeson-SmithEmployers - get ready for your future employees
Education today is changing. It’s different to what many of us grew up with, and may feel unfamiliar or “loose” to those of us who had a more formal and structured education. These days, knowledge can be accessed instantly and doesn’t necessarily need to be committed to memory for ever. The skills our children will need to be successful in this world are demonstrably different to the ones we developed at school. The rate of change has increased significantly, and our approach to education has had to make some pretty big leaps to stay relevant.
Nick Mackeson-SmithUnbelievable new joiner experiences
In my whole career of joining and saying goodbye and then joining organisations again, I’ve only experienced an unbelievable new joiner experience once. I also met my wife in the process, so it obviously sticks in my memory! The great thing is, this sort of experience isn’t actually that hard to replicate. The bad thing is, organisations and hiring managers often get in the way of making it a reality for their new people.It’s actually a lot easier than people think.
Nick Mackeson-SmithOne on one conversations that spark joy
One on ones don’t need to be a chore. I often hear from leaders that they struggle to get themselves motivated to have the repetitive weekly or monthly 1:1 conversation with their teams… and worse still, it feels like they are compelled to have them. I’ve been asked by leaders for templates for great 1:1s… and been shown templates for conversation flows that provide a rigid structure and boundaries for the conversation.
Nick Mackeson-SmithFuture skills for New Zealand
Nick took time out at the ATEED Future Ready Summit 2019 to share his thoughts on what skills every Aucklander (and beyond) should be looking to develop now to prepare themselves for the future.
Nick Mackeson-SmithA new kind of leadership
For years, I've been pre-occupied with a very simple question: what makes a great leader?I've observed many leaders, but great ones have been harder to find, and they seem to be becoming more scarce in the workplace. What's caused this leadership drain?
Nick Mackeson-SmithTake empowerment back
The critique of empowerment has become deafening, and it’s frustrating.
Nick Mackeson-SmithLeadership development for our time
Great leaders are everything, and can be the difference between a performing organisation, and a high performance organisation. They can inspire people to be at their best, even when the outlook is challenging. They can create magical relationships which are based on deep trust and respect, and unlock significant amounts of discretionary effort in the workforce. They can be a force for positive cultural change, and can turn around long-standing issues in double-quick time. In short, they are awesome, and every organisation should do whatever they can to attract/develop/retain them. Trouble is, lots of organisations fall short in developing their leaders. There is another way…..
Nick Mackeson-SmithGetting agile right
There are so many aspects to agile, and it’s really important to understand what they are all about and why each of them are necessary. Some are structural, or procedural - things like having a very disciplined cadence of times when teams come together, or having really well defined set of objectives and expected results within a defined period of time. The structure allows teams to build upon their work in a repeatable and incremental way, and means that massive programmes of work can be broken down into much smaller and more manageable chunks.
Business strategy: Hunker down or pivot?
Businesses everywhere are facing new headwinds and constraints - conflict in Ukraine and geopolitics elsewhere are having enormous impacts on financial markets, consumer confidence, and supply chains.
In times like this, it's easy to be fearful and hunker down to protect yourself from the coming storm... but is that the best thing you could do? What if there was a smarter move to make - one that would see you ride the wave instead of duck and cover?
Nick Mackeson-SmithThe critical connection between organisational culture and strategic success.
The success of an organisation is heavily reliant on the alignment between its culture and strategy. While strategy defines an organisation's long-term direction, culture determines how things get done within the organisation. A misalignment between culture and strategy can have severe consequences, both financially and reputationally. Despite this link, many organisations fail to develop a deep understanding of what their culture is, could be, or needs to be in order to drive their strategic ambitions. It’s time to dig deeper.
Nick Mackeson-SmithReimagining outplacement.
Outplacement support has been around for as long as I can remember. Organisations soften the blow of a redundancy or restructure by offering the departing employee some help in finding the next role; CV writing, LinkedIn profile updating, reviewing key achievements. The list goes on. Now, it’s different. Consider the organisations who are cutting hundreds - or thousands - of jobs. A little bit of CV prep and interview practice isn’t going to cut it for those people leaving… there simply aren’t thousands of jobs available for people to move on to. Something else is needed.
Nick Mackeson-SmithDoing it all: Addressing 2023’s C-suite wishlist with WalkMe
As we move into 2023, the C-suite's wishlist is becoming increasingly clear. Companies want to do it all - improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, and drive innovation. And it's no secret that the key to achieving these goals is digital transformation.
Digital transformation is about more than just technology - it's about changing the way a business operates and interacts with customers. And the cornerstone of a successful digital transformation is a robust digital adoption platform.
A digital adoption platform, such as WalkMe, can help businesses streamline processes, provide users with instant support, and eliminate the need for extensive training. This leads to increased productivity, improved user experience, and enhanced customer satisfaction - all of which are essential in today's fast-paced, digital world.
But implementing a digital adoption platform is not a one-size-fits-all solution. That's why it's important to choose the right partner to help with the implementation. FiveNZ has the experience and knowledge to ensure a successful implementation, allowing companies to achieve their digital transformation goals and stay ahead of the curve.
Nick Mackeson-SmithThe dangers of a communications vacuum in times of change.
Don't let a lack of communication lead to disaster during times of organisational change. Learn about the dangers of a communications vacuum and how to prevent it in our latest blog post. Our team at Five NZ provides practical tips and insights to help you navigate the challenges of change management and keep your employees engaged and informed. Read more now on the Five NZ Blog
Nick Mackeson-SmithDigital transformation. The time is now.
Digital transformation is becoming increasingly critical for companies in New Zealand to remain competitive in their respective industries. As competition grows and customer expectations evolve, organisations must keep up with the latest technological advancements to ensure that they can deliver a consistent digital experience. Digital transformation initiatives can be complex and challenging, with potential obstacles such as employee resistance, lack of expertise, and cost overruns - that's where a comprehensive and effective digital adoption platform like WalkMe can help. Here, we explore the importance of digital transformation for organisations, the benefits of a digital adoption platform like WalkMe, and the role that Five NZ, New Zealand's first and only certified delivery partner for WalkMe, can support organisations in achieving their digital transformation goals.
