Tag Archives: Haka;

Ardern’s Leadership Given a Sporting Chance

22 Friday Mar 2019

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Something remarkable has been seen to happen in the world of management and leadership. It’s called New Zealand. I’m biased – I’m also a Kiwi. That said I can, I think, look at NZ in a dispassionate way not having lived or worked there since the 1990s. Much of my time has been spent in the northern hemisphere where things are done quite differently and more recently in Australia, where on the face of its things are similar, but on deeper scrutiny aren’t really.

In the wake of the terrible Christchurch mosque killings we have seen wave after wave of leadership on the big and small scale. Prime Minister Ardern’s role as leader and comforter to the nation is vital and how well she has stepped up to the plate. The three main NZ telcos (Spark, Vodafone and 2Degrees) open letter to the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google is another fine example. Then there are the smaller, but in some ways more poignant, demonstrations of leadership within the community where schools have broken into a spontaneous hakas. The all-conquering Crusaders, the undisputed most successful franchise in Super Rugby history have decided to review their brand name. The list goes on.

Adversity often brings out the best in people, but this tends to be at the level of compassion. This event appears to be bringing forth both the right amount of compassion AND great leadership. Why then has such great leadership bubbled to the surface? What is it about the green unspoiled environment of NZ that seems to provide such clarity of thinking in times when clear leadership is necessary? Why does, Aotearoa, the ‘land of the long white cloud’ produce great leaders?

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Not convinced that they do? In recent days President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has demonstrated his own style of poor Leadership with his inflammatory comments about sending NZ’ers and Australians back in a box from the ANZAC ceremonies in the Dardanelles. Not surprisingly, given there are important elections due in Turkey, he is playing to his base with his hyperventilated comments. Because he didn’t limit his comments to one country, we get a rare opportunity to see how two world leaders respond to a common jibe.

Bigger brother, Australia, through Prime Minister Scott Morrison issues a robust rebuke indicating that without a withdrawal and apology for the outrageous comments then there would be further consequences. The suggestion is a recall of ambassadors and asking the Ambassador of Turkey to leave. Good chest pumping stuff at a diplomatic level! Just what Erdogan wants. He’d love that so he could say “look they killed Muslims and now they kick Turkey’s ambassador out”. As he has a tight grip on media in Turkey it’s a message he can pretty much control for his own people.

NZ a much smaller brother, or should we say sister, has sent its Foreign Minister Winston Peters directly to Istanbul for face to face talks. Erdogan would respect that; two bull-headed men plainly talking behind closed doors.  The difference is in touch and diplomacy. Such differences stem from a different perspective on leadership. While NZ arguably has a more genuine case for being upset at the Erdogan comments, because the bloodshed of the Mosque attack happened on their shores, they have nevertheless taken a less sabre-rattling approach.  Better leadership all round.

So, having made the case what might be the reason for this surfeit of leadership skills? While it’s tempting to say it’s the crystal-clear rivers and lakes and un-spoilt wilderness, clearly this isn’t the underlying cause. I think it’s because NZ as a small country has had long-term exposure to a number of really inspiring leaders and this role-modelling has rubbed off on the population at large. Given sporting heroes are an easily accessible role model for sports-crazy young men and women, its fortunate that Kiwis have had such a great run of those that have excelled and done so with a real humility and dignity over the years.

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Reflecting on leadership I often think of the example of Edmund Hillary. He was the first to scale Everest but never revealed who got there first – him or his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. He even refused to have his photo taken on the summit! That’s a story that every NZ’er of my generation, and probably since, has imprinted in their marrow. He then went on to other feats of daring-do and spent a lifetime helping the people of Nepal. Humility – a cornerstone of good leadership.

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I also recall John Walker, the athlete who won a 1500m gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and broke the world mile and 1500m records on a number of occasions. He kept running for years, even when his age meant he could no longer win. He just ran for the pure love of it. Perseverance – a cornerstone of good leadership.

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Peter Blake was a world-renowned yachtie and someone who inspired the nation through his round the world maxi races and America’s Cup leadership.  He inspired a generation of sports persons through the removal of hierarchy and the ability to instill a single sense of focus. He was tragically killed defending his crew when pirates boarded his yacht off the coast of Brazil in 2001. Selflessness – a cornerstone of leadership.

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Richie McCaw, possibly the greatest All Black to play the game (which means the best player ever) continues to inspire those who follow in his footsteps. He played through pain from injuries and battled the emotional ‘scars’ of losing a World Cup final. His preparation was meticulous and his ability to inspire without compare. Leading by example – a cornerstone of good leadership.

So Jacinda is an inheritor of a fine leadership tradition. She has the strong leadership gene that is engrained in NZ’ers, especially Maori. There is a word in Maori called ‘mana’ that has no easy English translation. As a Kiwi when you see someone with ‘mana’ you just know it. Mana to me is ‘leadership in motion’ and Jacinda Ardern has it in abundance. Now it’s time for young NZ’ers to learn from her example as the baton shifts to the next generation. Given we live in this age of the 24 hour news cycle, assisted by the connectedness of the internet, the whole world now gets to see an emerging great leader in motion, inspiring well beyond the shores of the shaky isles!

The Match Before the Match

02 Monday Nov 2015

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I’ve watched pretty much wall-to-wall rugby over the last nine weeks crowning that ‘achievement’ with the World Cup Final – a spectacle featuring the top two rugby nations in the World namely New Zealand and Australia. No real game can be watched without the obligatory pre-match build up. Here, so called ‘experts’, become hostages to fortune with outrageous claims of what is likely to happen and why. There is a universal phenomenon that occurs at this time. Despite being selected for their expertise, presumably based on their substantial knowledge of the game and their objective assessments, they throw all sense out the window opting for comments based, not on the years of expertise honed from playing and observing the game, but rather from some form of softish xenophobia.

Rugby is a brutish game; arguably the most ruggedly physical sport of them all. But is also, too, a game of great tactics where the muscle between the cauliflowered ears is often more useful than the size of one’s quads. When the pre-match experts make their comments, it is the former rather than the latter that they are opining. The age-old desire to out-muscle the opponent surely harks back to some Darwinian instinct that tells us if we can be the strongest we will attract the best mating partner. It’s old playground stuff. I’m bigger than you and if clearly I’m not then my Dad is bigger than your Dad.

What we know from the World Cup Final is that brains will almost always prevail over brawn. The ‘back three’ loose forwards of Australia were acknowledged by the press almost universally (except probably in New Zealand) as being the dominant force in the world game. ‘Foocock’ as the collective noun became (an abbreviated version of Pocock*, Hooper and Fardy) were seen as just having more muscle than the rest. The constant close-ups of Pocock’s twin-barrelled black eyes and references to this warrior dogged determination were testament to the fact that, yes, our Aussie (Australian) genes are …well frankly… better than yours. As it turned out New Zealand, a nation allegedly full of rugged men and nervous sheep, simply out-thunk us. They played a game that nullified the potency of the brawn. Clever!

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The other aspect of the pre-match build up that interested me was much more specific. There was a discussion about the power of the Haka (the New Zealand ‘war dance’ done traditionally before kick-off which is a cultural under-pinning of New Zealand indigenous Maori population). Much has been written in the UK press about the special treatment afforded the All Blacks (NZ) in allowing them to perform the Haka and that it gives them an unfair advantage. On paper this would seem like a petty thing but to stand in front of the haka with a group of hardened warriors challenging you to ‘war’ is as intimidating a spectre as you will find in world sport. Added to this, it both fires up those doing the Haka and dilutes any excess of adrenalin which at the beginning of a match streams through the veins and can cause early handling errors. So maybe then it is a bit unfair.

Perhaps the better question the UK press should have posed is what special indigenous ‘ceremony’ each nation should be allowed to do to make it an equal playing field? In fact the All Blacks are not the only nation to perform such a ceremony. Other Pacific Islands have their own variation of a haka and these are performed without any rancour from the press (most probably because these minnow nations don’t pose a threat to the established order of rugby). To their credit the pre-match panellists from Australia stood firm in support of the Haka for their trans-Tasman rivals. They even lamented the fact that they had no such equivalent.

Australia has an indigenous population, many of whom have graced Wallaby (Australian) teams over the years including the current one. Our First Australians have dance and war dance every bit, one would have thought, as intimidating as the Haka. The fact is NZ uses the Haka because it speaks to NZ culture. This is where NZ differs from many other nations. The Haka, derived from Maori culture is now intrinsically part of NZ culture and not sectioned off for the indigenous only to be wheeled out for the wider world for visiting dignitaries etc. Everyone knows a haka, including the nation’s most common one used prior to rugby games. It is not only a war cry. The Haka is an expression of a nation’s pride, happiness, or sadness.  It speaks to the mana (soul) of its iwi (people). New Zealanders know this, accept it and embrace it. Other nations could learn from this. Rugby runs through the veins of New Zealanders whereas in other nations (with the exception of Pacific Island nations and Wales) it runs through the blue-blood. Perhaps therein lies the strength of NZ rugby. They truly take their nation with them. There is a spiritual, or soul aspect that is missing from the way many other nations play the game.

So in giving away NZ’s secret ingredient to prolonged rugby success, we must ponder how other nations can level the playing field. Can I suggest England needs a Morris dance before the kick-off. Scotland can do some Highland reels and Ireland some twinkle-toed Irish dancing à la Michael Flatley. As for other nations, the Welsh included, the onus is on them to discover or re-discover the absolute joy of dance and bring this to bear to intimidate and stir in equal measure.

And so to how we can apply these learnings to the world of business? Well let me just say that many hours without sleep doesn’t make for the best judgement when making decisions. Perhaps when challenged at work by a colleague, or competitor, the Haka – while tempting – is not the best response when under pressure!

*The irony here is that David Pocock is indeed a thinking man, despite the size of his ‘guns’. His support of issues relating to Australian refugee policy, his stance on homophobia in rugby and his thesis about the structural violence of capitalism set him above the ‘scrum’ as it were.