Micah Jenkins is a NSW Law Society Accredited Specialist in Business Law and has more than 15 years’ experience working in the Hunter and United Kingdom. His work in both private practice and in-house has provided him with unique and specialised skills in business law and commercial property law.

As the Legal Director of Jenkins Legal Services Micah leverages his extensive experience to assist in the planning and implementation of business succession as well as advising SMEs, local government, healthcare and hospitality.

Micah is a passionate Novocastrian and provides his time to a range of not-for-profit and community based organisations.

• What do you believe has shaped your leadership style?

Well I’ve been working on this for a number of years and I had some good examples to work from in the early days. Beginning at a large law firm and working with great leaders like Paul Anicich, I went through a period of trying to emulate the leaders I saw. It was then about working out about my own personality and trying to adapt some of those traits to work for me.

• What do you believe makes business unique in the Hunter?

I’ve worked in a few different places and what I think makes it particularly unique in the Hunter is the accountability we have. It really is one pool of a business community here, whereas if you go to places like Sydney or London, because of their scale there are a number of different communities. So non-performers, or people who are flaky, can survive by working through those different communities. But in the Hunter everyone knows each other, you are literally as good as your last meal.

• How do you think Hunter business can work to lead?

Hunter businesspeople need to be bold. Anyone who has worked outside of the Hunter knows that we have strong work ethic, because we get great opportunities to try new and challenging things in the Hunter. When we go outside we can shine. So Hunter businesses don’t need to be in awe of the competition outside of the region.

There are lots of examples of Hunter businesses who have made it on the national and world stage, so we really need to be bold. The other aspect of it is that to continue leading on a national or global stage, we need to talk and collaborate together and those businesses that have already made it need to be listened to and observed by others. And hopefully they will give back to our community too.

• What makes a good leader?

There are many traits I think, but in my observations of many leaders a trait you see in all of them is the ability to make strong, decisive decisions. The way they do that is that they are normally good listeners, so they listen and take in the information, then analyse the pros and cons and the business case. And whether they make that decision in five seconds or over a week, they follow that process and follow that decision through.

• What local businessperson do you find inspiring?

I talked about the boldness and taking a local product on a national stage, so I often think about Kyle Loades. He’s a bold leader and he’s into innovation. He’s taken a local product, his business AutoAdvanatge, and also himself as a businessman, now he’s the President of the NRMA, onto the national stage. I think that’s perfect example of what Hunter people can do.

The other set of Hunter leaders I find inspiring are leaders in the not-for-profit space. Where, similarly they’ve taken their local product – helping people –  and they’ve developed an innovative model that the rest of the country has latched on to. Organisations such as Compass Housing, and the leaders there, and Life Without Barriers.