Late last year, I was blessed with a copy of Wayfinding Leadership by Dr Cherie Spiller, Hoturoa Barclay Kerr and John Panoho (shout out to Bishop Danny Gautusa). Dr Spillers TEDx provides a taster on the book which looks at Indigenous Leadership and expounds on Wayfinding Leadership.
“The gift of the wayfinder’s journey is not arrival at a destination; it is who we become along the way as we fulfil our potential”
I am constantly looking at ways to refine my leadership skills, and despite the many years of service in various sectors, what I’ve landed on is that leadership development never ends. You don’t ever arrive as such, my growth in leadership has always been about the process and living and learning through it. Have I always got it right? Hell no, but being humble in defeat when those times occur, take the lessons, adapt and start again.
“Manaakitanga transforms mana through acts of generosity that enhance all, produce wellbeing, and create ‘a climate whereby the mana of all players is elevated. Reciprocity is at the heart of manaakitanga”
Reciprocity is something that I had a front row seat too growing up through my Great Aunty ( 3 generations deep in Aotearoa because of her manaakitanga) and it flowed to my Parents. My Parents were resourceful, they did so much with the little they had, our humble home (Eliot) became the centre of our community. One of the first families to have a umu in Hamilton, Saturday and some Sunday mornings were a hive of activity, there was a season where boxing trainings were held at Eliot, the boxing bag just hung off a limb of a tree, Samoan ingenuity at its best. Eliot was busting at the seams with people from all walks of life. What is now deemed as overcrowded houses, well, we didn’t know any different, as that was our normal back in the day ( I sound so old saying that phrase ha). Reciprocity was active at Eliot, and thankful we had great role models in our family matriarch and my Parents, the baton has now been passed on to us to carry it on.
Do I see myself as an explorer? Not yet, BUT the hope is that as I put myself in places where I’m uncomfortable, where I can truly glean off those who know more than I do in their spheres of influence, strategically positioning myself in the “traverse unchartered waters”, despite being the minority, with my village behind me in the spiritual/unseen sense, I truly feel I’m part of the majority.
Still have a long way to go in terms of my Wayfinding Leadership journey, I choose to call out the Explorer within, watch this space🌊
i am moana 