Category: Wise Leadership

Tender men

My favourite All Black and one who has usually not failed to provide success for me in the “score a try” bet is Mils Muliaina. It seemed like half the country were concerned about who the number 15 should be and how obvious to everyone that it had to be the new younger Israel Dagg and not the vastly experienced but apparently aging Mils (oh to be 31!). Check him out here on the All Blacks site – his rugby career is truly impressive. You’ll also learn that his real name is Malili.

When All Black coach Graham Henry selected Dagg ahead of Mils he described it as one of the hardest and most emotional decisions of his coaching career.  Henry has been involved through much of Mils’ first class career and in that moment we caught a glimpse of tenderness and compassion in leadership, so often put to one side. After all this is Rugby,

The photo here catches the mood perfectly.  It shows the wonderful leadership relationship between an older mentor and a younger high performing and deeply respectful mentee. I can feel the pain for them both.

Mils for his part (I hope no-one minds me calling him by his first name even though I’ve never met him) said that all he wanted is for the All Blacks to win. He would happily do that from the field, the bench or the stands.  Amazing maturity and team commitment.

Whether he gets to 100 test caps or not, he’s an inspiration for leaders and teams everywhere. And Henry, for showing his tenderness showed why you never ever hear of dissention in the All Blacks these days. Honest, caring and driven. That’s a recipe for success. We saw that all come together with the best rugby skills on the planet on Saturday.

Go the All Blacks!

Go tender men everywhere.

Stephen

Rugby on 9/11

If you enjoy Rugby Union it’s a feast right now. There’s always something less tense about watching two teams other than your own battle it and the England vs Argentina and South Africa vs Wales games had plenty of tension with a result that any one-eyed ABs supporter could live with. Although you’d have to say surely that penalty goal was in?! Lots of the action was happening while American was remembering the murder of its people on September 2001 in New York and Washington DC. Was I the only one that realised I was much more interested in the Rugby than in remembering 9/11? I guess 9/11 will go (and perhaps already has gone) down in history as one of those dates like Friday 13 where we remember bad things happen and to be cautious about.

On Friday 13 October 1307  French King Phillipe IV conspiring with Pope Clement V commenced the arrest of the Knights Templar. Most of their alleged crimes were related to the sort of claptrap we now view as laughable such as denying religion, idolising false gods (how do you choose which one is false!?) etc. As you can imagine, many were killed including being burned at the stake for (as the arrest warrants asserted) causing displeasure to God (not a false one I presume). There’s no universal agreement that this is the cause of our fear of Black Friday, but it’s a good start for thinking about 9/11 in a weekend consumed by that (false?) god of Aotearoa, Rugby.

A man called Rick Perry  who is the governor of Texas would like to be the next president of our most powerful country, USA. He has expressed skepticism about evolution as scientifically valid and claimed that the two “theories”  – evolution and creationism were taught in Texas. Turns out he was wrong on the teaching part as it’s been ruled unconstitutional to teach a religion, which is what creationism is part of, in school. He has used phrases like “it’s only a theory” and “there are gaps” to somehow put down what is, frankly, beyond any doubt. As far as scientific theories go, the court will rule beyond any doubt that it’s true.

The events of 9/11 were obscene and as I’ve blogged here in the past, murder. It is inescapable that those who put this together and executed the plan used religion as some sort of twisted justification either to themselves, their families and the global population.  Included in this justification was a “belief” that there would be a reward in the metaphysical world for their actions. Communities far and wide including the Muslim world were and are repulsed by this. As intelligent beings we are entitled to a belief. But that belief must be based on credible and justifiable propositions, facts and reasoning. As a potential leader of the USA Rick Perry shows the same dark-ages belief system as those who controlled the events of 13 October 1307 and 11 September 2001. No, Rick Perry isn’t burning anyone at the stake (although his state has executed 473 of the 1266 people executed in the US since 1976), or flying plane loads of innocent passengers to a terrifying death.

My gig in leadership is authenticity. Everyone knows that. Being authentic in leadership means being real. Being yourself. It also means being real and true. Hanging on to absurd, middle-aged and demonstrably false “beliefs” when aspiring to the highest leadership in this world is dangerous role-modelling at its worst. There’s always going to be crackpots who say, deny the Holocaust, but our most powerful, would be “world’s policeman” shouldn’t be anywhere near this. Even being in the argument as he must inevitably be provokes the worst in those who are denied or have limited access to science. He has no excuse.

We know Rugby is our false god. That’s okay. We’ll be gutted if we don’t win the World Cup. But we’ll survive and no-one will (I hope!) get hurt or suffer irrational consequences for enjoying their false-god religion. In fact, come to think of it, we should encourage everyone to support a false god like Rugby. It’s a heck of a lot safer than the true one!

Go the ABs!

Stephen

Two days of leadership

In many backward countries there are military leaders who are also political leaders. It usually arises because of  view that “managing” a country can only be done though force, micro-managing events and the public necessarily involving a loss of freedom, both physical and emotional.

We’re pretty fortunate in New Zealand to be a democracy with a reasonable amount of freedom. I can write pretty well anything I wish to express a view here on this blog, without interference. I felt uneasy when it was announced that the new governor-general was to be a man who was a public servant heading the spy agency and very recently had headed the defence force. Part of that was his reputation for being a micro-manager which didn’t inspire the sort of leadership that we might expect from our head of state’s representative. He said on his first day in the job that he was looking forward to getting to know New Zealanders and it’s been reported that he will bring an informal style to the role.

On day two he’s back to where he was – responding with indignation that anyone should question the integrity of the defence force. This followed Nicky Hagar’s book making allegations about the defence’s actual role in Afghanistan and Iraq. The rights or wrongs of whatever Hagar says is not relevant to Mataparae’s reaction. What I think is most concerning is that our supposedly independent governor-general has breached that impartiality almost immediately. What if a government is to be sworn in that has a commitment to dismantling parts of the defence force? Would Mr Mataparae have a view on that, that he would similarly feel the need to share?  On current form, you would have to say he would, which would be totally inappropriate as his comments now are.

In leadership development we often talk about a leader’s inability to obtain appropriate feedback at the most senior levels from those around them. Having watched the sycophancy displayed by those that support politicians and senior civil servants, I can imagine no-one said anything. And being a micro-manager, he wouldn’t have welcomed such feedback. I hope that those who are there to support our new GG will have the courage to help the man in what is obviously a difficult leadership step up for him.

The defence force can speak for itself and the head of state’s representative, whatever his intimate knowledge, has no role in launching into the topic. Count to ten next time! You’ve got 4 years and 363 days to go.

Stephen

Friday night

Someone told me today that I hadn’t done enough blogs lately. It was nice to know that someone was reading. They wanted to know if my boys were comfortable getting mentioned as I do from time to time. I assured her that they were! Or that they got notified and didn’t object. It’s been another busy week ending with the farewell of Wilson Irons, CEO of the Anglican Trust for Women and Children who I have come to know over the last couple of years. As I looked around the room there was quite a bit of sadness apparent at Wilson’s departure.

What really matters then? Tom and Dad were here in Cashel Street six months ago on 22 February

When I get to Friday, if I’ve achieved something of what I had hoped for – which is never enough as it keeps growing – the end of the week is a good feeling. This time for once I’m home during daylight and it’s sunny and bright in my house as I type. I’ve been to Wellington, facilitated a workshop on the 6 month anniversary of the fatal Christchurch earthquake, got ready for another workshop on Tuesday, battled the crazy bureau as you need to do from time to time, spoke to a group of 400 prefects, run a couple of times, made some long overdue appointments for bits and pieces, scheduled a host of programmes and workshops, and promised myself that next week, I really will get through the rest of the stuff.

People spoke of Wilson’s contribution to his work, his passion for the children and the fine leadership he exhibits to his team. None of those things have gone. They all still exist and I reckon we’ll see evidence of them again soon. All of these things are the role of the leader, and if we like the role-modelling from our leader it’s our job to be the model, ready to take the role when needed. There’s some really capable people at the Trust who will do that.

What if I didn’t have to go back on Monday? Apart from the obvious annoyance from my clients to whom I have commited work to, how would I feel? There is no doubt that rewarding work gives us a sense of being and satisfaction despite the occasional or frequent irritations that go with bureaucracies and small organisations alike. I’m more than confident that I would be okay with it. Partly because I like new beginnings and the excitement, cleansing and the refresh that goes with it. Which is why I like Fridays and the promise it holds.

If someone you are close to goes from your everyday world, it’s your job to take what you learned and role-model that to others. Then we all grow. And when it’s your turn to go, you can look forward to a refresh and a new beginning, knowing a lot of you is keeping others going. 

Your whanau are always there anyway, so they’ll be no escape for Tim from these pages whatever I’m doing as family is the most important thing anyway. Nothing else can compare and the six month anniversary of 22 February can remind us all. So Tim, be ready I’m on my way, we’re having dinner tonight together. Can’t wait.

Stephen