This week has been a powerful consistent reminder that leadership is not just a concept to be taught, it’s a living, breathing practice that constantly evolves. For me, the lines between teaching leadership, mentoring leadership, and leading in practice have become magnificently blurred. They are not separate functions; they are part of a continuous cycle that is deeply aligned with my work. At the heart of this cycle is the key pillar of manaakitanga, a Māori concept of care, kindness and respect. Which is the foundation of everything I do.
The very act of teaching leadership theory has a profound effect on my own work. When I prepare a lesson on servant leadership, I’m forced to deconstruct its principles. When I explain the Tuckman’s Team Development model, I have to consider its real world applications. This process of analysis and articulation does not just benefit my students; it sharpens my own understanding. It is like a built in feedback loop. By teaching the theory, I am constantly reviewing and reinforcing the fundamentals for my own practice.
This deep alignment is a powerful tool when frustration hits, and it inevitably does. We all have those moments when a project stalls, a team dynamic becomes strained, or a decision feels overwhelming. In those times, it’s easy to get carried away by the situation and become reactive. But because I am regularly engaged in teaching leadership, I have a theoretical framework readily available to fall back on, and pause and ask myself, “What is my leadership here? Am I operating with a growth mindset? How can we continue empowering those on our team? How can I apply the principles of effective communication and stick to the process we are on?”
This week, a couple of particularly challenging projects reminded me of the importance of active listening and staying the course. My leadership in practice was challenged, working with teams both locally and overseas often presents unique complexities. Instead of being carried away by frustration, I was able to go back to the vision, our objectives, our intended outcome and be able to stick to the process and the job at hand. Applying what I had just discussed with my students and mentees changed my approach entirely. It got me out of the fiery reactive mode and back into a continuous improvement model that will better our teams. By staying on the path of the process, we were able to navigate the difficulties, move forward and our team members even picked up a few new skills.
Mentoring is the final and most personal piece of this puzzle. It is where theory and practice truly intersect. My work mentoring on our Aotearoa Impact Fellowship and working closely with two young and enthusiastic students who are leading the New Zealand Irish Barbarians rugby provides a rich, real world and real time context of how these theories come to life and the impact of leadership. Today, in a conversation with one our Fellows, we focused on what truly defines success. So often, we measure success in numbers, whether it is money, a score, or a metric, but we concluded that the ultimate measure of success lies in the impact we have on people. The success we want to achieve is with the people we work with, the people involved in our projects, and the people we impact. To achieve this, we need to focus on manaakitanga to truly care for and respect those we lead.
The lessons I learn from my mentees are invaluable and often find their way back into my own classroom and daily work. Ultimately, this cycle of teaching, mentoring, and leading isn’t just about professional development; it’s about a deeper commitment to the principles of effective leadership, reflection, self-accountability and the enduring power of care. It’s a reminder that to lead we also need to be perpetual students of the craft.
Thomas Education NZ 