
Emmett Gracie
Director
Emmett has spent almost twenty years working with a diverse range of global organisations. He has lived and worked in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. He has partnered particularly closely across financial services, energy and retail, often with a strong focus on implementing large scale talent and potential solutions that build capability and evolve leadership culture. Emmett believes in helping organisations through two lens. Firstly, how can we help organisations empower their people at the systemic level; making small, conscious adjustments to the patterns that underpin the processes and behaviours that can unlock powerful cultural and talent outcomes. Secondly, how can we work with individuals and leadership teams to empower them in each of their unique talent journeys and challenging contexts.
Emmett prides himself on coaching and developing people as an intellectual pragmatist: he believes deep insight based on real understanding empower leaders, but that this needs to be accessible, have a point and a purpose, and be able to be turned into a plan. He believes that if you help a leader, you help a team and an organization as well. In his time at YSC Emmett has been dedicated to evolving how we work with people, team and organization. This led him to lead the redesign of the YSC approach to leadership potential, as well as evolving a range of YSC’s innovative tools, models and systems to help strengthen the power of our work.
A passionate cinephile and keen sports fan, Emmett loves to travel and has a knack for sniffing out the best coffee no matter where he is.
Emmett holds an Associate Fellowship with the British Psychological Society and a Masters in Industrial/Organisational Psychology from Victoria University of Wellington. He completed a law degree at the same time, before beginning his professional life with five years as a psychologist and officer with the NZ Defence Force (Army). He is a qualified coach with the Academy of Executive Coaching, as well as an accredited trainer for psychometrics including the Hogan Leadership suite and Myers Briggs, and a trained user of many more.
“Our team loves the work we’ve been able to do with Emmett. When I came back to see him everyone said embrace the conversation and use it to focus the impact you want to have as a leader. He’s made it aspirational and helped us have fun with it. Emmett is able to be very direct and challenging with us but without judgement, and it helps us clarify things we have known for a long time but haven’t articulated. We’re now having discussions about how we lead as a team and how we want to be seen in the business in a much more tangible way than ever before.”
Regional CPO,
Top 20 Global Insurer
“Working with Emmett really helped focus our minds on what we really mean by ‘high potential’. He is really passionate about the power of the right frameworks to create a common language and make the talent conversation feel more accessible. This is helping us clarify what good looks like and to pinpoint why our past efforts haven’t been focused on the right things to really shift the dial in the culture.”
Global Talent Director,
FTSE 250 Fintech