How does Jacinda Ardern Step on Stage

Trust and power can be the elusive obvious. We grasp at solutions, create a consistent pattern of behaviour, wear the right clothes and build our strength of argument, only to pass over the key currency, our personal delivery, right under our nose, literally. Fortunately, there are new expressions of leadership expressed in Jacinda Ardern’s book, ‘A Different Kind of Power’.

Day after day, leaders with poor delivery are driving what the Edleman trust Barometer calls the downwards spiral of leadership trust and the consequent 2025 ‘Crisis of Grievance’.

How bizarre to turn to our politicians for advice, but Jacinda Ardern is one admired worldwide and in her book, she summarises her strategy beautifully:

“You are decisive, confident, ready and willing to step onto the stage.”

And it is this ‘step on stage’ that is the point of difference. In my professional capacity, I find key national figures unwilling to take that step, with a staggering level of fear in facing forums such as Senate enquiries, total avoidance of media, let alone addressing Edleman’s ‘aggrieved public’.

Looking at past models of leadership, the deceased George Pell finds himself in the news again as an outstanding example of old-fashioned and no-longer-relevant presence. This time, the crisis dwells on his role as an auditor at the Vatican and his role in the discovery of possible financial impropriety, where $1.1M was transferred to Australia in secret. This follows his role (or lack of it) in child sexual abuse in Australia and links the two crimes. As an average Australian informed only by the media in this area, I have no idea as to his guilt or otherwise and make no judgement on it. However, my point is the lasting memory of a face that showed insouciance at the least and, more possibly, downright arrogance, and the consequent challenge to find him anything but totally guilty in the kangaroo court. Trust is undermined.

And don’t be fooled by Jacinda’s aura as a woman of kindness and empathy. Yes, this may be true, but she had what the ancient Romans called Gravitas: the manner of Trust and Respect, powered by the complete set of skills of Rhetoric. Devoid of any judgement on her politics, this was (or is) a woman of knowledge, keen psychological arrangement of her thoughts to match the audience, memory techniques and supreme control and thoughtfulness in delivery.

Most remember her response during the 2019 Mosque Attacks in Christchurch, but let’s consider the little things, like her bedside chats during the COVID lockdown that looked improvised and casual, but were indeed highly calculated. Her skills included: Referencing the gift of a toy bee as a gift for her baby (personal touch) from Hillary Clinton (political clout) and linked to her passion for the bee industry and all industries of New Zealand (political message); Her casual, but professional pose; The use of escaping air in her sound to exude caring; Her carefully defined, but seemingly improvised, structure that mentioned three areas and closed with a message.

Don’t forget her clever use of the rule of three in her debate during the election campaign and the interruption technique that used the name of the other speaker between their sentences twice before breaking in on the third attempt. Clever, clever and more clever.

This is no accident. In Jacinda’s introduction in the first pages, she references her keen observance of body language: “After every meeting I would leave with pages of notes, but it was their body language I was watching”.

They are the skills Jacinda learnt from her police sergeant father, her optimistic mother, her grandparents, teachers and absorption in an ancient Māori culture. But they are also skills she gained through church membership, singing and music. (Not all church leaders had the Cardinal Pell Look)

As Jacinda points out, her nagging internal voice cries “someone should do something” and she went forth to find the skills to achieve it.

These are skills we can all learn. You don’t need a parent to instil them from birth.  Cicero, a consul of ancient Rome, was known as a ‘novus homo’, which meant he had no upbringing in these skills and still became one of the greatest orators, as well as one of the funniest men in the empire of all time.

These are the skills Nuno Matos is calling for in his new role as CEO of ANZ. He wants well-structured short presentations with a clear call for action and meetings cut to 15 minutes. Love it.

There is nothing new here. These skills are all older than Methuselah and the time for us all to get on board for trust and real power is now, with a new way forward.

Let me hear your thoughts.