29/10/2026
As a child right through to young adulthood, inspirational leadership was something I embraced. My parents of course were my original leaders teaching me life skills, decency, respect for others and the basics of work and reward.
As a teenager, my youth group leader Peter Barnes was the only adult who gave me confidence in my church, and it was because of his innate goodness, not what he talked about. He led our highly impressionable minds with positivity, humour and genuine freindship. At school, Mr Bowditch and Mr Wood were teachers who inspired me, once again because their character matched their knowledge and wisdom. And in the early stages of my working life, Beppie and Andrew taught me everything I have carried through my career with trust, kindness and creativity.
Leadership that embodies all of these things seems hard to find in the world today. And yet we all desire it. We actually need it. Our sense of security and optimism for better days ahead is contained in our trust of those we elect to make the decisions that determine that future.
To be clear, I am not talking about skilled sportspeople, artists or writers. There are plenty of people that excel and inspire us with their special abilities.
I believe the world is craving leaders who can communicate a hopeful vision for what we can be as a society. Who articulate carefully and caringly with immense respect for everyone, including those they disagree with. In fact, especially those they disagree with. Who tell us the truth, always. Who don't need specialists to spin their messaging. Who consider greed and wildly excessive wealth or ludicrous profit a crime against society. Who treat the whole planet as the home of humanity, and who have the courage to set us on a course to protect it, nurture it and respect every other life form we share it with. Who surround themselves with like minded specialists to balance the knowledge needed to solve the tough problems we face. Who our children and grandchildren can look up to, knowing they represent the best of who we can be, and are inspired by their words and actions to collectively make our world a better place.
Sir David Attenborough, Barack Obama and Mark Carney are people who inspire me today. I am grateful for their intelligence, wisdom, communication skills and the ongoing influence they have on my life.
I am hopeful the leaders we choose for New Zealand's future and those that are chosen by our American brothers and sisters to be the next leaders of their country will be the ones who are recorded in history as the course correctors, the inspirers and the people who helped shape our world to reach its true potential. We've never needed great leadership as much as we need it right now.
