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Blue Mercury - Leadership

Connect with Blue Mercury Leadership. We are building a social movement to inspire awesome people!

We focus all decisions around our clients, and what is right for them –
concentrating on our three core values -
individual growth, team cohesiveness and organisational prosperity

26/07/2026

There is no such thing as bad weather... Just bad clothing.

Which feels annoyingly true in both life and leadership.

Because sometimes the conditions are just… the conditions.

It is raining, the wind is up, the plan has changed, the pressure is on.
People are tired, the season is busy.
.. And while we cannot always change the weather, we can pay attention to what we are equipped with.

Do we have the right layers?
The right expectations?
The right amount of capacity for what we are walking into?

I think sometimes we call things 'bad conditions' when actually we have just not prepared properly for the conditions we are in.

Or we have prepared for the conditions we wished we were in.... Big difference.

So maybe the question is not always: How do we make the weather better?

Maybe sometimes it is: What do we need to wear, carry, adjust, communicate or put in place so we can handle the weather we have?

23/07/2026

One of the strange things about the work I do is that I get a lot of connection.

I get to spend time with brilliant people, get to have great conversations.
I get to watch little lightbulb moments happen in real time.

But I do not always get to see what happens next...

The thing that happens after the workshop, after the workbook, after the conversation, after everyone goes back into the real world and does the much harder work of applying it.

So when I do get to see it, it is pretty bloody special!!!!

This project from Anna Kate Goodall was one of those moments.

She took a concept we had explored, made sense of it in her own context, and then properly ran with it.

Not as a copy and paste exercise.
Not as a 'this is what Kayleigh said' exercise.

But as a thoughtful, practical, embedded piece of work that clearly had her own thinking, leadership and context wrapped all around it.

That is the bit I do not always get to see.

And it is a very good bit! So I wanted to celebrate it.

21/07/2026

I was recently BCCed into an email sent to another facilitator, asking them to quote for the same piece of work.

Not copied in. I was secretly attached....

My immediate reaction was: 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥?

What was I meant to do with that?

Reply all and reveal I was there? Stay silent while someone else unknowingly responded?

When pushed, the explanation was efficiency.

The person claimed they could get quotes from lots of people with one email. Less admin. Everyone covered.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦?

It got me thinking about the difference between speed and efficiency, and what we risk losing as we bring more AI into the way we work.

Sometimes the conversation is not slowing the work down.

Sometimes the conversation is the work.

Read the blog below:

𝙐𝙨𝙚 𝘼𝙄 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣
https://www.bluemercury.co.nz/post/use-ai-to-save-time-then-spend-that-time-being-human

19/07/2026

Here is a little 'how the sausage gets made' moment.

At the start of each virtual session, I take a screenshot of everyone.

Then, as we move through the session, I slowly work my way through it with different colours, tracking who has contributed, who has been in added to a group or a breakout.

Because in a virtual room, it is very easy for people to disappear.

And unless you are intentional about inclusion, it can become very easy to assume that “everyone had a chance” when actually, only some people did.

For me, this is part of the craft of facilitation. Paying attention to the humans in the room and making sure everyone has a way in.

Sometimes the magic is not magic....

Sometimes it is a screenshot, a colour code, and a stubborn little commitment to not letting people slip through the cracks!!!

16/07/2026

I've just wrapped up the most recent cohort of LeadSAR, Land Search and Rescue’s Future Leader programme, I’m also saying goodbye to two incredible mentors - Emma Milburn and Paul McFall.

They deserve a proper moment.

Over the last two years, they have been such a pivotal part of shaping this programme into the awesome place it is now.

They have brought wisdom, honesty, challenge, humour, care, lived experience and a huge amount of mahi to the mentor space.

The photo is of them speaking to the participants at the end of the programme, alongside the other mentors. For me, it captures so much of what they have contributed: generosity, connection and a genuine commitment to supporting future leaders across LandSAR.

I have really valued the input, effort and energy they have put into LeadSAR over the last two years.

The programme is better because of them.

A huge thank you to two wonderful humans who have helped build something pretty special.

14/07/2026

The other week I had a choice.

Spend time with very old friends, the kind I’ve had for the best part of 15 years.

Or go to something with a group where, if I’m honest, I’ve been feeling more and more like an imposter.

So I chose the old friends.

And instead of overthinking whether I belonged, whether I was interesting enough, good enough, useful enough, or whatever other nonsense my brain likes to throw at me…

I choose the old friends and played a game of how many mandarins can you balance on your face?

Deeply sophisticated I know...

There is something incredibly grounding about being with people who have known you through multiple versions of yourself.

The old jobs. The bad hairstyles. The big dreams. The 'remember when?' stories that are still funny almost 15 years later.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your confidence is not to push yourself into another room where you feel like you need to prove yourself.

Sometimes it is to go where you are already known.

Where you can be ridiculous.

Where you can laugh until your face hurts.

Where the only question you need to answer is whether four mandarins is impressive, or whether you can get to five.

Belonging is underrated, so is silliness.

12/07/2026

Would that be something you'd listen to??

5 mins.
Once a week.
One little story - it might be in the final version, it might be just something for the podcast community.

A little glimpse behind the curtain, as the book gets crafted.

So you can be my co-creators and tell me what you like!

09/07/2026

A huge congratulations to the latest UBT Leadership Fundamentals graduates. This programme is not just a 'turn up and tick the box' kind of experience.

There is work.

There is reflection.

There are conversations that ask people to think about who they are as leaders, how they show up for others, and what it really means to lead well in their own context.

Getting to the end of this programme is something to be genuinely proud of.

Not because it means the learning is finished, but because it means these leaders have made the time and space to invest in themselves, their teams and the organisations they are part of.

Soooo..... congratulations to everyone who completed the Leadership Fundamentals programme!!!!

You should be really proud of the work you have put in, the reflection you have done, and the leadership conversations you are now better equipped to keep having!!!

08/07/2026

Big smile. Looks like everything is peachy.

But this photo was taken in the middle of 9 team sessions in 10 days.

So yes, I was smiling. But I was also tired, overstimulated, almost certainly dehydrated, and running on Koru Club coffee.

Think about this like teams - sometimes, from the outside, a team can look like everything is fine.

People are smiling. The work is getting done. No one is loudly complaining and the wheels are still turning.

But that does not always mean the team is thriving.
Sometimes fine is just tired with a smile on.
Sometimes fine is people holding it together.

And sometimes fine is the absence of visible conflict, not the presence of trust, clarity, energy or connection.

And that is why I think we need to stop waiting until teams are obviously broken before we pay attention to them.

Because what something looks like on the outside is not always what is happening on the inside.

I’ve written more about this here if your are interested: https://www.bluemercury.co.nz/post/broken-team

30/06/2026

I have been talking about the 'volume switch' in CliftonStrengths for about six years.... Six years.

That is a decent amount of time to be enthusiastically committed to a metaphor, if you know me, you know I love a metaphor.

The idea is that our strengths are not good or bad. They are not helpful or unhelpful by themselves. They are just patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that show up in us naturally.

But sometimes they are too quiet.

And sometimes they are absolutely blaring through the speakers while everyone else in the room is quietly wondering who gave this guy the access to the sound desk.

Then last week, someone said to me: “It’s a dial, Kayleigh. Not a switch.”

Which was irritating. But only because they were right.

Obviously, I am still going to call it a volume switch because I have six years of branding, muscle memory and stubbornness invested in this now.

But, if you are more of a dial person, kudos to you for being technically, annoyingly, beautifully correct and smarter than me.

So, in honour of someone successfully worming their way into my brain and making me rethink a metaphor I was perfectly happy with, I’ve shared a resource I use called **Balancing the Volume**.

It helps you think about:

* Where your strengths might be in underdrive
* Where they are working well
* Where they might be in overdrive and getting in your way, or quietly frustrating everyone around you

You can find the resource here: [https://www.bluemercury.co.nz/post/balance-the-volume]

Use the switch. Use the dial. Use whatever metaphor keeps you curious enough to notice how your strengths are showing up.

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Queenstown
9300

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.bluemercury.co.nz/

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