PICKING YOUR BATTLES

Prominent lawyer Mai Chen, who sits on the board of the BNZ and has just launched the SuperDiverse Women initiative, says it is important for CEOs to pick their battles, remembering they are the CEO of a company, not just speaking as an individual, and they are not activists. She sees thought leadership as a better way to go.

“In my own life I think hard about the role I am in, whether as adjunct professor at Auckland University, managing partner of Chen Palmer, a member of the BNZ board and am careful about who I am representing.”

Looking at it from the perspective of her new entity, SuperDiverse Women, a thoughtleading organisation which aims to broaden how diversity is viewed, Chen sees it as an initiative that is good for business, our economy and for New Zealand.

She sees a real responsibility for leaders to be thoughtful about what they are saying and a need to think about what areas their company should be leading in.

At the end of the day, leaders have to calibrate whether [the issue] is worth dying in the ditch for, she says.