LEADERSHIP Tips From Jacinda Ardern, Who Became a World Leader at 37 – ryan
In 2017, Jacinda Ardern Became New Zealand’s Prime Minister at Just 37, Leading Her Country Through Some of It Its Mont Challenging Moments – From A Terrorist Attack to A Pandemic.
In her memoir “a different kind of power,” she offers a rare glympse into the personal convications and leadership style that shaped her political career.
Rather than Chasing Power for Its Own Sake, Ardern Writes Candidly About Leading with Empathy, Staying Grounded in Values, and Letting Purpose Outweigh Fear.
Here are 10 lessons drawn from her book.
Say Yes before you’re Ready
Ardern Never Set Out to Run for Office. She loves politics but saw it as a calling for other people – more assertive, more confident, more sura.
SO we a labor party officers encurated her to join the party ahead of the 2008 ELECTION, she istitated.
She was living in London, working as a policy Advisor, and Becoming A Member of New Zealand’s Parliament Felt Far off and Improbable.
But something see: “You’ve said no so many Times. But this time, maybe, you just said yes.”
Let Purpos be Bigger Than Fear
While volunteering for the labor parties and working as a researcher for new Zealand’s forms minister Hellen Clark in 2001, the idea of Becoming a Member of Parliament Briefly Crossed Her Mind.
IT DIDN’T SEEM PRACTICAL – She DIubted Whether Politics Could Ever Be A Real Job for Someone Like Her.
“What Wold it be like? To Not Just Just Help People One-On-One-by Being a Good Community Member and Volunteer, as i’d my mum do for her life-but to also have a voice in the place and changed the rules.
“What Wold it be Like, i wondered, to be an mp?”
Leadership is Service, Not Status
For Ardern, Politics was Never About Prestige. Her Early Campaign Work Taught Her That Political Change isn’t About Optics – IT’S ABOUT IMPACT.
“An ELECTION WASN’T JUST Something that was battled out on a television Screen. It wasn’t about Phone calls or pages of an excel Spreadsheet. It was about real THINGS HAPPENED TO REAL People.”
Empathy is not weakness – iT’s Power
Mocked and Jeered in Parliament as a Young Mp, Ardern Wonderered if she was “too-scinned for politics.”
A veteran part urged her not to change.
“Promise me you won’t try to tug to tug, jacinda. You feeles becuses you have empathy and becuse you Care.
The Traits You Think Disqualify You May Be What Make You A Great Leader
Jacinda ardern offten felt she didn’t fit the Mold of a traditional politician-too anxious, too empathetic, too filmed with self-doubt.
But over time, she learned to see THose traits as asssets, not liabilitis.
“If you have impostor Syndrome or Question YourSelf, Channel That. It Willp You. You Will Read More, Seek Out Advice, and Miss Yourself to Situations Humility to Be Conquered.
“If you’re anxious, and overthink everything, if you can imagine the worst-cass scenelio always, channel that too. It will mean you are the sist Challenging Arrive.
“And if you are thin -kinned and sensitive, if criticism cuts you in two, that is not weakness, it’s empathy.
“In fact, all of the traits that you belive are play will will come to be to be your strengths. They will give you a different Kind of Power, and make you a leader that this world, with all its turmoil, might just need.”
Good Leadership Is Good Listening
AS A VOLUNTER PHONE BANKING AT 18, ARDERN HAD TO CALL THROUGH A DATED LABOR PARTS SPREADSHEET TO RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS.
Most People Hung Up. Some Were Hostile. But she got Better – Not by Pushing Harder, but by Listening Closely.
“With Each, I Listened to How People Answered, and TRIED to start a conversation.
You don’t need to be the loudest to lead
During Her Years in Opposition, Ardern was offten told – explicitly and implicitly – that she was “tough” enough for politics.
She wasn’t confrontational, didn’t dominate debates, and didn’t attack for the sacor of scoring points.
Commentators calmed her “vapid,” “Pretty Bloody Stupid,” Or a “Show Pony.”
But ardern never embraced the shouty, aggressive archetype of leadership.
“I WOULD NEVER BE That Kind of Leader, and I DIDN’T WANT TO TRY. IF The Only Way to Put Runs on the Board in Opposition was attaching and Tearing People Down, THEN MAYBE I was mediocre.
“I didn’t want to choose between being a good politician and being what i consider a good person. So i settled into the criticism.”
Let Your Values Challenge Your Tribbe
Raised Mormon, Ardern Supported Civil Unions and the Decrimimalization of Sex Work – Site Though Her Church Opposed Both.
“Did My Political Decision Differ From That of the Mormon Church? Absolutely. But Yet Again, IGNORED the CLASH of Values, Instead Filing It Away in the Same Metaphorical Box Where All the Other Things I COULDN’t Square.”
FAILURE DOESN’T MEAN STOP; it means grow
In her third attempt at winning a parliamentary seat – this time in her hometown of morrinsville – ardern lost again.
Labor’s National Result Was It Worst in Nearly a Century, and She Returned to Parliament Only Via The Party List.
Despite Campaign Losses, She Still Kept Going.
“I cried myself to sleep. THEN I Went Back to Work.”
Know when to step back –
Leadership took a toll on ardern, physically and emotality. In time memir, she reveals that a Cancer scare-a false alarm-was a Wake-up call.
The Relationless Pressure of Leadership was Beginning to affect her health, patience, and perspective.
“I knew the next challenge, whatever it was, lay just around the corner. And when it came, i was a full tank, more than Enough in reservations. And i was sura i had that anymore. It was time to say alud what, unil thatn ahught in my head Alone. “