On this episode of Authentic Leadership Gabrielle has the pleasure of speaking with Grant McBeath who is the Customer Director at Spark New Zealand.

As Customer Director at Spark New Zealand, Grant is a part of the organisation’s Leadership Squad. Grant leads the customer facing teams across the Spark Business Group and Consumer Channels and is focussed on creating an environment where teams can thrive and deliver amazing customer outcomes.

Prior to working for Spark, Grant held a number of global roles at Nokia throughout Asia, and other global roles with Chevron Texaco, Coca-Cola and Cadbury in NZ. Grant completed a BCom at Auckland University, and also completed his MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics.

Gabrielle first met Grant several years ago when she conducted a series of Storytelling workshops across Spark. Over the last six months she has been working with him and a selection of his team on Thought Leadership. What immediately struck Gabrielle about Grant was his vulnerability and authenticity when interacting with his team. Subsequently, he is greatly respected across his team.

It was then somewhat of a surprise to Gabrielle, that perfectionism is his Achilles' heel. After realising that this was having a negative impact on his leadership, he decided to lean into vulnerability.

For any leader that is still thinking that showing vulnerability is a sign of weakness or that you have to have all the answers, Gabrielle urges you to listen to this, at times quite emotional, podcast.

Grant is a living example that perfect leaders aren’t real and real leaders aren’t perfect.