Rotary Youth Leadership Award

Sunday 2 July 2006

Theme "The key characteristics and social context of leadership"

Good afternoon. It is great to be here today with so many young leaders. I can feel your enthusiasm and commitment. I know the future is in safe hands.

Aspiration comes before leadership. You need to have a goal, an objective and ambition and you have to believe in it implicitly. Self belief is a key ingredient of good leadership.

The society, or social context, that a leader lives in can exert a powerful influence on the nature and effectiveness of leadership. Kate Sheppard devoted her life to making things better for women and their families. She lived in an age when women did not have the vote and aspired that they should. Her leadership changed people’s values and forced a law change that gave women the vote in 1893.

Michael Joseph Savage, another great New Zealander, was distressed by the deprivation and suffering of people during the depression. It was through his aspirations for social justice that the 1935 Labour Government introduced the Social Security Bill providing universal free health and education and a means tested old age pension. Charismatic leaders like Michael Savage can be powerful agents for social change.

In coming to a decision on what our aspirations are we are hugely influenced by our own background and by the society we live in.

Christchurch is now part of a global village and citizens are influenced by the internet culture, ease of travel and the globalisation of business. People today are better informed, there is a levelling out of information so anyone with a modem can know as much as many decision makers. These factors drive my own aspirations, to have accessible local government and to enable our city and its residents to prosper and for our city to become an even more beautiful place to live.

As a politician I know that there is a very diverse range of voters who are going to make a choice on how they vote based on their values and their experiences. As Mayor I know I am not just leading people who are the same as me, I am leading people who are very different and possibly don’t even like me.

I meet this challenge by being a leader who puts service first, in other words I follow the principals of servant leadership. In this kind of leadership, service, comes before financial reward. To do this well you first have to listen to what people want.

Over the last few weeks I have been part of a very positive process, listening to submissions on the Long Term Council Community Plan. Hearing the views of the people on what they want for our city. As a servant leader I keep my mind open to their ideas, especially ideas that align with the goals we have as a Council. I accept there will be conflict and aim for a consensus.

The pyramid style of leadership with bosses at the top then middle managers then team leaders and staff is disappearing. Leaders of organisations operate in a much more democratic way. Leaders and followers are linked and must be involved in the leadership process. Teamwork and collaboration work better than command and control. There is not just one leader but a number of people in leadership roles within an organisation.

Leaders are facilitators. As Graham Henry puts it, all the All Blacks are great players and leaders in their particular position, it is his job as coach to act as a planner and facilitator to make sure their abilities are optimised. His goal of course is to beat everyone else in the world at rugby!

Good leaders are not born. They can develop through a never ending process of education, training and experience. They must have values, beliefs, character and knowledge and be able to listen to others.

Once I have listened to the people as Mayor I have to put together a sensible and workable option for the city. “The buck stops here” as one American President famously said.

Once it was easier to lead when there were just one or two TV channels everyone watched the same TV, everyone read the same papers and heard the same radio. We were all just about literally reading off the same page. Today the internet has changed the way people find out information and this makes leadership more difficult. I can’t have a statement published in the Press and expect a majority of people in the city to read it.

As media spread they have also morphed form being in the information business to being mainly in the entertainment business. It calls for new ways of communicating.

Don’t become cynical. The truth is you are not getting the full story of politics, particularly local body politics. Get involved. Local body politics are as immediate and relevant as you can get. Politics desperately needs the input of your generation. Democracy can only be healthy and well when at least some of the best and brightest of new generations choose tot take part in it.