Nik Shute

What does being a Bloomer mean to you?

I have been lucky to work in environments that have been both thriving and barely surviving in terms of work culture, productivity and profit. I strongly believe and have seen more evidence to support the fact that 'treat them mean keep them keen' no longer works in terms of inspiring loyalty, effectiveness and as a result profit. I believe that with running your business, department and teams with dignity and empathy WILL equal profit, and hey might just be the right thing to do for our fellow humans as well. I want Bloom to help organisations to achieve this!!!

Where is home for you?

I am a born and raised country/small town girl from the Naki and spent my childhood hanging on the farm or the beach. In my teens I was lucky enough to leave my maunga/beach land to go to Coonabarabran in Western New South Wales for 4 months and later on Switzerland for a year and saw life outside my small town.

As a result of my international travel it made me appreciate my Māori heritage, which is Ngāi Tahu and my middle name Ellen is a nod back to one of my ancestors buried at Moeraki.

When I came back from my international life I moved to Welly to study Education and Psychology at Victoria University and Marketing Communications and International Business through Massey University and lived the hostel life then the student flatting.

These days, home is in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt and I love suburb life, and Stokes Valley reminds me of my other Taranaki home of Waitara where I spent my high school years.

Who are you at home?

A mum of Archie (8), Buster (6) and Ivy (5) and wife to Brock (mortgage broker, property developer) with 2 Ziggy the Border Collie and Ana the Miniature Schnauzer, Paki the Siberian Forest Cat, Steven Hawking the African Grey parrot and our cute bunnies Flopsy, Sniff and Panda.

I volunteer at my kids Primary School with their whanau reading programme and leadership coaching their Tu Rangatira roopu (which is 12-18 student leaders in their last year at primary school).

I am an aspirational yogi (aspirational meaning that I love the yoga but never find time to do it) and love camping (well in the caravan which we still consider camping) regularly over summer and going on mini adventures with the kids as much as I can.

Who are you when you are on fire?

Some of my most favourite moments have been when we are in a genuinely collaborative meeting/workshop where everyone is comfortable throwing in ideas and questioning others and as a result of that I have my mind changed and/or a third option was created that never would have existed if we hadn't put our minds together. Stephen Covey actually has called this Synergy and is one of his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I think that is being on fire (in a good way).

You will know I feel on fire because you will see me animated with my body and my voice. I can be a bit of a people toucher as well, but luckily I am a great people read so usually pick up pretty quickly if that is not your thing.

Most of all if at the end of the day I go to bed knowing that I have made progress towards making a difference in anyone's life, that was me on fire.

What does an off day look like for you?

I dabble with depression and a panic disorder and life is chaotic as I like to juggle lots of balls in the air at once and sometimes those balls fall down.

My off days are when I have a tight feeling in my chest, no shower (always manage to brush my teeth though), looking at the huge washing pile and dishes, jumping down FaceBook rabbit holes and maybe dropping an F bomb in front of my kids.

What are your best self care tips?

On struggle street type days I write myself a to do list with mostly things I know I will do regardless e.g. have breakfast, shower, pick up kids from school, prep for dinner, etc. Nothing that crossing out a few things each day and feeling like you achieved some of what you set out to do!

I don't know if it's my product management background or that I was a bit of a study geek at school/uni but when I come across an issue big or small I quite often mind map how I should approach said issue, I was losing a friend to cancer and I mind-mapped how I am going to approach that for my own mental health and it actually helped a bit.

Nik's background

For 16 years I worked in the financial services/banking industry in product management roles that included people leadership, senior leadership, change management, internal and external communications, process improvement, business analysis, marketing and compliance and regulation.

Most recently I moved into more people and culture focused roles that included leadership coaching, people leadership,  learning and development, change management, internal communications and people processes and policies.

I have over the years tried to find time for volunteering to give back to our communities and have volunteered with Women’s Refuge, tutoring English to refugees, kindergartens and most recently reading support and leadership coaching at our local Primary School.

I have also been Career Coaching and Mentoring for the last 4 years.

In addition to my two degrees I have gained accreditation in the Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (which is by the same people who created the Love Languages), Mindfulness Meditation and the Mental Health First Aid certificate with CoLiberate.

You can check out more on my personal LinkedIn page.