The communication tools we recommend and teach are more than just words on a page. We use them here at Tactician too!

Have you ever watched someone try to sell you something and wondered if they’ve actually ever used the thing they’re trying to sell?

Yeah, we have too.

That’s why we do more than just show and tell. We use the same communication tools we teach and recommend to clients. We find it helps us understand how we all work together so we can better support you.

We believe in building relationships with our clients and the importance of professional intimacy. We want to know and understand you, and we want you to know and understand us.

So please allow us to re-introduce you to Team Tactician. There’s been some changes so it’s the perfect time to let you know who we are and then have a peek at the communication tools tactician have developed and use every day.

Rod and Emma – Tactician founders

If you’ve been part of the Tactician family for a while, you know Rod has long been the face of the business. In fact, Tactician was Rod, while Emma took care of the behind the scenes running of the business, including co-creating all of our signature programs. Sadly, that’s no longer true after Rod was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2020 and (very) reluctantly stepped back from the business.

These days, you can find Rod and Emma living the quiet life in beautiful New Zealand. As Rod continues to be treated for his illness, we’ve been assured he stills manages to get in some backswing practice on the golf course. And when Emma isn’t wrangling Rod and his golf clubs, she’s trying to get the cats to play nice.

However, the wisdom of our founders is all around us each and every day through the practical and insightful programs they’ve developed over many years.

Let’s take a look at our key players.

Luke Johnson – Managing Director

Luke is an experienced Human Resources / Learning and Development specialist and is facilitating programs on a global scale. He’s an accredited practitioner in the Hogan and LifeStyles Inventory (LSI) diagnostic tools we use and works closely with the team to create and iterate the many programs we deliver. Besides all that, we think he’s just a great human – no BS, down to earth and with a real desire to make an impactful change.

We keep him busy, here in Australia and abroad. Luke recently delivered face to face training in the United States, then a virtual program (our newest, Gutsy Change) to a team in the UK, and later in Christchurch NZ to work through the LSI with a leadership team developing their constructive culture.

Back on home soil, Luke’s supporting clients through our MPT HR program and leading three groups through our Diploma of Leadership and Management program.

What’s the Diploma program?

The Diploma of Leadership and Management is ‘a blended, accredited training program with specialty workshops and practical activities that can be completed anywhere at any time’

Registrations are now open for our 2023 intake. For more information, please contact us.

Nicole Jones – Director | Business Manager

Our newest Director, Nicole has more than two decades experience in corporate administration and HR. She joined us in an administrative capacity three years ago and has grown to love the business and what we do so much, she’s now become more involved.

If you’ve participated in any of our programs, you would’ve ‘met’ Nicole as she works behind the scenes.

She’s the one who makes sure everyone gets to where they need to be, with what they need to deliver. If it’s happening in Tactician, Nicole knows about it.

Jenny Lord – Executive Tactician

Jen is an accredited and experienced HR and L&D extraordinaire and lives in the ‘beautiful one day, perfect the next’ state of Queensland.

Full of energy and with a great sense of humour, she’s also been busy lately, facilitating a bunch of workshops including Gutsy Presenting and Gutsy Influencing, along the eastern seaboard, in person and online.

Team Tactician

We also have a bunch of Tacticians working their magic all around Australia and New Zealand facilitating workshops, delivering 1:1 coaching and unpacking the LSI with individuals and teams.

Communication tools – Professional Intimacy and Communication Styles

Why do we believe so much in our signature programs? Because we put into practice within our own team what we bring to your business and workplace.

Professional Intimacy (PI)

In our programs, we talk about the value of really knowing the people you’re working with and the importance of building Professional Intimacy (PI) based on the 3 R’s:

• Relationships
• Respect, and;
• Robust conversations.

If you build PI with your team, you’re going to get better outcomes because it takes your leadership to the next level.

Tactician offers the tools and tactics to help leaders develop their professional intimacy.

As all good leaders know, when building relationships, trust is crucial and to build trust, you need credibility, reliability and intimacy.

Our team of Tacticians also follow this framework to build relationships and professional intimacy with our own clients. It’s how we best support you and your teams and get to the guts of your leadership journey.

Communication Styles (CS)

One of the tools that we’ve developed, the Tactician Communication Styles Index, helps people relate to each other. We use this tool to support communication within our team and we teach this in our leadership programs.

People have preferred ways of behaving and responding, depending on the context and it can be helpful to tailor your approach to suit others’ preferences. Our communication styles tool has been narrowed down to four styles:

• Amiable
• Direct
• Expressive, and;
• Analytical.

How the Tactician team works best

Emma – has a direct communication style. When we communicate with her, we’re objective, get straight to the point and we talk in facts. Emma is motivated by results, efficiency and action.

Nicole – preferred style is amiable. Nic relates well to people who show sincerity, patience and follow systems (which helps with all that backend stuff). Blaming, rudeness or demanding behaviour doesn’t bode well with her. Focus on what’s right and working and you’ll see Nic at her best.

Luke – with an expressive communication style, you’ll engage with Luke using enthusiasm and talking about the future in an informal way. Motivated and excited by challenges and relationships, he doesn’t get bogged down in the detail. Luke’s our big picture thinker.

Rod – is also expressive. In this team, he and Luke always see the possibilities while Nic and Emma ruin their fun by being practical and asking the annoying questions. Being an expressive communicator powered Rod’s ability to facilitate so well, despite being naturally introverted. Imagine how frustrating it must be for him now as the tumour directly affects his communication ability.

Tactician make impactful change

We live and breathe what we do. That’s why it’s so easy to love what we do.

If you’re ready to see your leaders and teams communicating in ways designed to bring out the best in every person, we’d love to chat. It’s easy to book a free 30-minute video call with Luke.

Together we’ll have your teams communicating better than you ever imagined.