I was deluged by messages yesterday. An inbox full of messages that welcomed women of inspiration.
Some were local, many international. There were friends and icons, realistic and optimistic; all offered connection. It moved me enough to want to reflect about a phenomenal woman, the hope her leadership offers me, and the light that she could offer to us all.
Even when the world stage is loud, there is a choice.
Jacinda Ardern is a hero of mine. As the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, she has done a lot of interviews, but the one that has stayed with me most was a conversation with comedian and musician, Bill Bailey. It’s the sort of pairing that shouldn’t work on paper, but it does, beautifully. I have always admired Jacinda Ardern for her steady, compassionate leadership, and Bill Bailey is a comedian with a mind like a runaway sketchbook. Sitting together, they created something quietly powerful and inspiring: a window into the kind of leadership we keep asking for but rarely reward.
Ardern spoke about humanity, empathy and kindness without making it performative. She traced her roots back to the Scottish Highlands, through the small towns of her New Zealand childhood, and into the sense of service that shaped her public life.
The way she spoke was devoid of nostalgia, but it was a reminder that leadership doesn’t come from polish; it comes from place. Place, despite being where we are, or where we’ve come from, is the difficult mix of the landscapes, people and contradictions that shape you.
I think that groundedness lets us see the world in layers rather than slogans.
Connection across Differences
What struck me most was her insistence on connection across differences and I’ve chosen the word insistence on purpose. She talked about the importance of seeking out people who don’t share your views, not as an act of political theatre but as a basic civic responsibility. The idea of bridges being built instead of walls is a powerful one. It’s a more difficult choice to make a deliberate choice to lower the temperature so people can actually hear one another.
That ethos was clearest when she reflected on the Christchurch mosques shootings. There was no self-congratulation, just a protecting of the dignity of the victims. She named the harm clearly, refusing to let one man’s act of horrific violence harden people against one another.
She kept returning to the same idea: we are people of difference, but we share a common humanity. Leadership, for her it seems, is the work of gathering those threads together even when they’re at the risk of snapping.
The heart of my own work.
I want the above to run through everything I do. I believe that leadership isn’t measured by volume or dominance, but by whether you can deliver steadily while bringing people along with you.
Ardern, and I don’t mind stealing this to describe myself, calls herself a “pragmatic idealist.” She is someone willing to imagine a better future and equally willing to do the slow, unglamorous, daily work of inching toward it.
What to do in the presence of great leadership
There were two people on that stage, and, interestingly, when presented with Ardern, Bailey didn’t take up more space than he needed. He offered context and curiosity as a response to Ardern’s depth and fullness.
Bailey used both humour and empathy to meet Ardern, and because of this the conversation had the variety of the landscapes and people they were covering. That feeling of ‘place’ embodied what it is to be met, and to meet another.
Her closing comments landed with particular clarity. The leadership we need next, she said, is the antithesis of othering. It rejects the easy currency of blame. And it creates space instead of consuming. The connection is one with intent, and hope.
Women’s leadership shows up best when delivered like this. It presents itself as grounded, relational, and unwilling to treat humanity as a strategic inconvenience.
Watching Ardern speak reminded me how vital these qualities are, and how much they matter not just to global politics, but to workplaces, communities, and the quiet, everyday work of building things that last in a humane way.
When listening to this leadership, the future feels far more possible and far more hopeful.
That’s what I’ll be working on.
