Gender might be irrelevant to leadership, but be hard to find many men who do it like Theresa Gattung, the CEO of Telecom New Zealand, who was voted as one of the 25 True Leaders' in the AFR Boss magazine True Leaders List in 2004. The True Leaders of List is an effort to identify leadership based on success in business and in organisations, an ability to inspire and nurture staff, and an interest in meeting community needs. am very open about my mistakes, my weaknesses, my vulnerabilities she says. Then people can feel comfortable about their own insecurities because we all have them. I suppose that is one way I have done it, by being as non-defensive as I possibly can in terms of encouraging and accepting feed pe ck, and proactively reflecting to my senior leadership team about where I have person It is far decisions, made mistakes de removed from the "never explain he advice traditionally tossed around in the work- place, but Gattung has found this influence tactic works well with senior management team that is predominantly male. have to that sometimes being a woman is an advantage you do have