BUILDING LEADERSHIP FROM A FIRM FOUNDATION
Leadership in Business, Advocacy and the Community
NZ Federation of Business and Professional Women's Conference
May 1, 2015
I am pleased to welcome BPW NZ to Christchurch.
I am sorry I could not be here for the first part of your evening as I was
involved in supporting what was a partnership between the Christchurch
Nepalese community, the Student Volunteer Army and we as a city to hold a
candlelight vigil in solidarity with the people of Nepal and surrounding areas
affected by the earthquake.
In Christchurch we understand what it is like to wake up to a large earthquake
and also to experience an even stronger shake less than 6 months later,
when many had already expected that the worst was over. We know the pain
of losing loved ones and friends, our homes and communities.
But Christchurch is a significant city in a first world country, which had high
levels of insurance cover.
Given that we are still facing challenges today, we know their journey has only
just begun and they have a long way to go.
I am pleased you have asked me to speak tonight about empowering women,
gender equity and your conference theme – building leadership from a firm
foundation.
I know the city’s Chief Executive, Dr Karleen Edwards, has already spoken to
you about our history as a city and the role models it has already produced,
as well as the opportunities that our disaster has actually offered women –
especially those in non-traditional roles.
But when I thought of the theme ‘building leadership from a firm foundation’, I
felt a sense of irony in that it was the shaky ground that saw leaders emerge
from seemingly nowhere – only they didn’t emerge from nowhere – they
emerged from their communities and they became the voice of the people.
The disruption caused by the quakes actually empowered certain people to
step up in a way they may not have envisaged themselves doing.
The Canterbury earthquakes have taught me new words – like liquefaction
and lateral spread – but they have enabled me to understand words I thought
I understood well, but didn’t, like community, resilience and leadership.
My staff gave me a necklace with these words on them, because they know
how powerful their true meaning has become to me.
Community is not the co-location of houses; that’s a suburb. It is the
relationship between people in those houses and their connection with
decision-makers, be they central or local government.
The extent of social capital within communities is not measured by socioeconomic status; it is measured by those relationships.
Resilience is not about being strong in the face of adversity – that’s stoicism.
It’s the capacity to prepare and plan for an adverse event, and to absorb, to
respond, to recover, to adapt and where necessary to co-create a new kind of
normal. Resilient communities have plenty of pre-existing social capital.
When we have cannot possibly predict with accuracy what we will have to
respond to at any time in the future – the effects of climate change, a disaster
triggered by a natural event or a crisis triggered by our own doing communities need to be prepared to respond themselves. The government
cannot be everywhere and cannot do everything. If communities have been
disempowered to the extent that they are unable to fend for themselves then
recovery will be much slower and much more challenging.
And then we come to leadership. Leadership is not a position – it is a
characteristic based on certain qualities. Sometimes people who are
described as leaders do not have these qualities and are not true leaders.
And sometimes those qualities are evident in people who do not hold
leadership positions, but are true leaders in every sense of the word.
I remember going to a forum where young people were asked to describe
leadership and the usual words were offered: strong, decisive, committed,
authoritative, responsible. Any textbook would associate those words with
what it takes to be a leader. But this is what is described as a heroic model of
leadership – someone who comes in and takes charge – such leaders issue
orders and are obeyed.
In the emergency response period following a disaster, people often look for
this form of leadership – command and control can be comforting; someone
else taking charge, knowing what to do.
But there is another way to define leadership and this definition ties in with my
experience once the crisis is over and we begin the process of recovery.
The kind of leader that emerges in this environment is one that is respectful,
engaging, empathetic, inclusive and intuitive.
Why do we think of women when we hear those words and yet we don’t
necessarily think of women when we look for a leader?
Have we had the image of the heroic leader drummed into us to the extent
that we don’t see that these are the qualities that build trust?
And that’s what marks a true leader – trust. The distinction between the
heroic leader and the true leader is not about taking charge; it is about
engaging others in a way that enables them to lead in their own right.
We saw that here in Christchurch time and time again.
Helen Clark, who is now the head of the UN Development Programme
(UNDP) spoke about this at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk
Reduction in Sendai, which I was honoured to attend.
In saying that “promoting women’s equal participation and leadership in
disaster risk reduction [was] essential”, she stated:
“From UNDP’s work around the world, we have learned that it is critical
that gender issues are not considered as “side-concerns” or “add-ons”,
but as an integral part of successful policy measures. This is as true
when we are promoting disaster risk reduction, as it is in tackling
climate change, strengthening food security, and reducing poverty.
This year we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action, which was intended to provide a roadmap to
achieving gender equality and empowering women. It was adopted at the
Fourth World Conference for Women in 1995, which I also had the privilege of
attending as a very young Member of Parliament.
I remember Hillary Clinton stating that women’s rights were human rights and
how that phrase encapsulated the mood of the conference.
But today there is so much more still to realise if we want to be able to say we
have achieved the goal we set back then. The challenges we face have
become even greater, disasters – man-made and otherwise - climate change,
income inequality, armed conflict and terrorism. Unless women are up front
and central to the solutions, they will continue to be their greatest victims.
My necklace my former staff gave me says this too:
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud”. – Coco Chanel.
She may not be the world’s most famous philosopher but the words are true.
Never be afraid to speak your mind.
I remember someone sending me JK Rowling's speech on the occasion of
Harvard University's 357th Commencement.
She talked about failure – not to glamorise the experience of finding herself at
the end of a broken marriage as a solo parent with a classics degree and not
much else. In fact there was nothing glamorous about her experience of
poverty and despair. But she said this:
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure
meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to
myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct
all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I
really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the
determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.
I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised,
and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had
an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid
foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is
inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless
you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in
which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing
examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have
learnt no other way.
I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had
suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly
above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from
setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to
survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your
relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.
Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has
been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
This quote has come to mean so much more to me over the past few years.
The knowledge I have gained is a true gift. I, like so many others here in
Christchurch, have discovered what truly matters. I too have stripped away
the inessential. In a way I have been set free.
I left my Parliamentary role, because I felt I was needed here. And I never
wanted to have to confront the question, what if…what if I had had stood.
And that’s what I hope each one of you takes from this weekend.
Your firm foundation for building leadership may in fact be shaky ground; it
may even be failure. But it will never involve you saying ‘what if…’
Because whether you succeed in your endeavour or not, you will have shown
that you too understand what truly matters and that you are prepared to stand
up and be counted.
And that’s what leadership is.