Dear Readers,
I’m thinking a lot about leadership lately — or rather, the lack of it. There is an urgent need right now for leaders who will lead differently. Leaders who will lead for solutions, who will not pander or compromise for personal gain, who will prioritize their communities, constituents, country and Planet Earth. Leaders who take the long view rather than settle for short-term gains.
Such leaders are in short supply… just as some four billion people in more than 60 countries are voting this year.
But recently I had the privilege of interviewing a world leader at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford who confirmed for me that it’s possible to lead differently and get stuff done.
Jacinda Ardern, the third woman prime minister of New Zealand, the second youngest in the country's history, and the first to give birth while in office, faced multiple crises during her tenure — a devastating volcanic eruption, the Christchurch terrorist attack on a Muslim community, and of course, the Covid-19 pandemic.
The measure of her accomplishments comes from the ways in which she responded to these and other crises.
During the Covid crisis, she got high marks for the ways she responded, decisively and with speed. Some may remember — certainly I do — that she gave her big state address on the pandemic dressed in a sweatshirt, delivering it from her baby’s nursery!
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hosts coronavirus Q&A from home after putting child to bed.
She said being casually dressed and at home was meant to inspire calm, and it did. For me, the decision to model a different look and style was a brilliant way to present herself as a different kind of leader which she clearly proved to be.
Among the many insights she shared in our interview was that growing up in NZ, she never thought her gender would be a barrier to leadership — and how great is that? — but she worried her personality might be. Watch:
Another surprising revelation in our conversation was one that resonated deeply with the Skoll World Forum community and that I believe will have an impact for anyone who watches our conversation. She talked about how she suffers from “imposter syndrome,” the feeling that you haven't earned what you've achieved. It's estimated that as many as 82% of people have encountered these feelings at some point in their lives, according to the American Psychology Association. But to hear this from a woman who rose to the top leadership position in her country, who is renowned as one of the most respected leaders globally, and who is now Dame Jacinda — it was a surprise to me.
What is so encouraging for many women and men who identified with her admission of her lifelong struggle with “imposter syndrome” was that she came to view it not as a weakness, but a strength. “Because ultimately,” she told me, “it meant that I was willing to bring in the best experts possible. I wanted to hear the advice of others. I wanted to be well read and well versed on an issue.” And that learning enabled her to be decisive in her decisions, feeling confident that she had gained the knowledge that she needed.
Later in our conversation, we talked about the expectations that women face as leaders and how, given her "reluctant" rise to power, she was able to be kind, compassionate, empathetic, courageous, decisive and bold as a leader. As she said, “I had no time or inclination to change who I was; I was able to be a human first and a leader second, and what a blessing that was for me.”
And she was a very effective humane leader, passing reproductive and trans rights legislation, and groundbreaking climate regulations, among others. After the horrific Christchurch attack on the Muslim community that killed or injured more than 100 people, she gave an emotionally charged and powerful speech at the memorial service and immediately called for a ban on all military assault weapons. She got the new law passed in less than 10 days, and she also had all such weapons collected by the government, an unprecedented action many doubted she could implement, but she did.
In response to the clear influence that social media and extremist hate content had on the attacker (and the fact that Facebook allowed the attack to be live-streamed for 17 minutes before taking it down), Ardern also took another unprecedented step. She pulled together a multi-stakeholder coalition of governments, tech companies, and civil society organizations to establish new guidelines for extremist and violence-inciting content on the internet.
She continues that work today with some success, including new guidelines for live streaming. She is committed to continuing what is now known as the Christchurch Call. I urge you to follow this important work as she continues to build and strengthen the coalition of necessary leaders to get these needed changes enacted.
At her inauguration, Ardern said she wanted her leadership’s legacy to be kindness! Have you ever heard another world leader express such a hope? And reflecting now on her time as prime minister, she added, “We teach our kids kindness. We teach our kids curiosity and we teach them generosity, and at some point we stop expecting that of our leaders.”
“And so now that I'm no longer in the position I was [in], I want to ensure that our children no longer just think, ‘my gender doesn't matter.’ I want them to think ‘my sensitivity doesn't matter, my heart doesn't matter. In fact, these are traits that will make me a good leader. That's what I want.’”
Reflecting on her decision to leave office on her own terms in her own time, she says she has no plans to re-enter politics, but she wants to “remain useful.” I reminded her of something she said when she announced that she would not run again — that everyone has the ability to be their own kind of leader in their lives. Looking out at the audience of leaders attending the Skoll World Forum, I asked her what advice she would give them.
“I am an optimist,” she said, “and there's this phrase in the world at the moment, ‘optimism bias’…that is often used in a derogatory way, as in rose-colored glasses or not seeing the world as it is. Well, I think my reframe of optimism bias is expectation bias.”
“Do not lose your sense of expectation — your expectation that political leaders do better, your expectation that people keep showing up, your expectation that you can create change if you organize and collaborate and work together. The moment we lose our expectation, that is when hope dies. Do not lose your expectations.”
I hope you will watch our entire conversation, share it with your friends and expect leaders to lead differently if we are going to have different and better outcomes.
Onward!
- Pat
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