Great leadership is not about having all the answers. It’s about shaping change with clarity, empathy, and care. Someone who has had the privilege of observing this is Angela Cameron, Founder and Managing Director of LEAD Executive Search I Impact Leadership and Consult Recruitment, Best Places to Work™ partner, and 2025 BPTW™ Awards judge. 

With more than twenty years experience in recruitment and leadership, Angela has witnessed firsthand how the right person in the right role can transform a business. Her career has been driven by a single conviction: that great leadership, culture, and care for people are inseparable.

Leadership for the next era

Angela believes that the future of leadership will demand even more humanity and adaptability. “We’ll see a stronger demand for leaders who can navigate uncertainty with a steady hand,” she explains. The leaders of tomorrow will need to make confident decisions without always having the full picture, remain deeply aligned with impact, and manage systems and people in ways that are sustainable, inclusive, and adaptive. 

For Angela, effective leadership is defined by self-awareness, consistency, and purpose. The best leaders balance confidence with humility, create psychological safety, and energise their teams by showing up with intention. This, she says, is the essence of impact leadership: commercial outcomes and people-first progress achieved together. 

Culture as the engine of thriving workplaces

What makes a workplace the ‘best’? For Angela, it starts with intentionality. “Workplaces need to be transparent and focused on creating positive impact from the inside out,” she says. Clear purpose, caring leadership, and a willingness to listen and evolve are non-negotiables. 

At the heart of a Best Places to Work™ culture lies belonging, purpose, and psychological safety. People want to feel that they belong, that their work matters, and that their growth is supported. Leaders can enable this by responding openly to feedback, including people in decisions, and holding space for diverse perspectives. “Purpose comes when people can clearly see the ‘why’ behind what they do and how it connects to the bigger picture.”

Listening, learning, and adapting
Angela emphasises that measuring culture requires both formal and informal approaches. Engagement surveys play a vital role in capturing employee voice and providing the data leaders need to make informed decisions. But the real strength comes when surveys are combined with ongoing listening, learning and observation; whether through conversations, participation in training, retention trends, or simply gauging the energy in the room.

“The best leaders don’t just collect data, they act on it,” she says. “Surveys give clarity and insights, but it’s how you respond, adapt, and close the loop with your people that truly shifts culture.”

Continuous learning and development are also essential. As highlighted in Consult Recruitment’s  recent What the Buck? 2025 Market Snapshot & Salary survey, training and development are among the top engagement drivers and retention strategies for New Zealand businesses. “The future belongs to organisations that invest in growing their people, not just in hard skills, but in leadership, collaboration, and adaptability.”

Recruitment as the front door to culture
If leadership shapes culture, then the right recruitment is where culture begins. Angela sees recruitment as far more than filling roles - it’s a strategic function that shapes capability, succession, and trust.

“Your recruitment process is the front door to your culture,” she says. “If the experience is disjointed or impersonal, candidates feel it. But when hiring is intentional, values-aligned, and respectful, it builds trust before day one.”

The best talent isn’t just asking what the job is, they’re asking what impact they can have, what kind of leader they’ll work with, and what the organisation stands for. To attract and retain diverse talent, businesses must live their values consistently and build inclusive systems that welcome different perspectives. 

Too often, organisations can make the mistake of hiring too quickly and overlook alignment, or under-communicate with candidates post-offer. Angela reminds us that talent engagement should be a relationship that continues well beyond day one. 

The power of authentic leadership
If Angela could give one piece of advice to leaders today, it is to be authentic. “The biggest shift I see separating successful leaders from those struggling isn’t strategy or financial results - it’s authenticity. Teams don’t need leaders who know all the answers, they need leaders with vision, clarity, and care. Leaders who are resilient enough to admit when the path changes and strong enough to bring their people with them”. 

“Authenticity without strategic vision, however, is just likeable incompetence,” she notes. “True leadership is both real, directional and intentional”.

Why this work matters
Angela's passion is simple: creating workplaces where people thrive. With one-third of our lives spent at work, the ripple effects of great workplaces are profound. “When people feel supported, engaged, and that someone cares about their development, they will do their best work. That’s a win-win for both the employer and the employee.”

It’s also why she said yes to judging the Best Places to Work™ Awards: to help shine a light on the organisations across New Zealand that are leading the way. “Great workplaces attract great people, which helps all of us. Supporting BPTW™ is one way to lift the bar and inspire others.”

LEAD Executive Search | Impact Leadership connects transformative and impactful leaders with opportunities across New Zealand and beyond. With a belief that the best leaders are rarely on the market, LEAD builds deep talent networks to support succession planning, business growth, and organisational change. Your next transformative leader may not be looking. We are.

Consult Recruitment is an award winning specialist recruitment partner, connecting top talent with great businesses across Accounting & Finance, IT & Digital, and Enterprise Transformation. A proud certified B-Corp, and recognised in Deloitte Fast-50 and Masters of Growth awards. But more than that, Consult Recruitment is proud to play a role in helping Kiwi businesses grow by finding the right people to take them forward.

If you’re ready to strengthen your workplace from the inside out, a great place to begin is by listening to your people. Check out our Employee Engagement Survey options, which provide the insights you need to understand your culture, measure what matters, and identify the levers that unlock performance and belonging. It’s the foundation for building a workplace where both people and business thrive.

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