How Jacinda Ardern Balances Between Motherhood and Leading a Nation
New Zealand’s PM is a global inspiration today
Jacinda Ardern has served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand since 2017. She just won her re-election following an ultra successful first term. A long list of accomplishments could be inserted here, but what truly matters is that Jacinda has the people’s vote — she has the people’s love.
There are many resilience lessons we can all learn from New Zealand’s PM, from being a terrific leader that delivers daily global inspiration to millions of people to excelling as a wife and mother. To this day, there’s no earthquake, pandemic or terrorism attack that can shake her off her game: that’s a fact.
On motherhood and raising a child in today’s world
Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford welcomed a baby girl — Neve — in 2018, a year after her appointment as PM. The wholesome equality in their relationship is part of what introduces her as such a stable and empowering figure in today’s global picture.
I have a partner who can be there alongside me, who’s taking up a huge part of that joint responsibility, because he’s a parent, too — he’s not a babysitter.
Jacinda became New Zealand’s first prime minister to be pregnant in office, but there were more firsts to come.
Soon enough, New Zealand’s PM made history again when she became the first female leader to bring her child to a United Nations general assembly.
While she kept her personal live away from the spotlight, Jacinda also made it clear that she won’t be apologetic about being a mother. We are imperfect as human beings and the trick to a peaceful life is to embrace that fact as soon as possible.
I might be at the odd press conference with a little bit of spill on me because I’m not going to hide the imperfections of parenting. I don’t think anyone needs that.
Jacinda Ardern is redefining what it means to be a caring mother who also has a successful career. It is not so much that we believe it’s impossible to achieve it, but rather that the examples to follow are not as many or as empowering as her story.
What’s fascinating about Jacinda is the fact how honest and down to earth she is about her life situation, regardless of privilege and her position of power.
I refuse to be held up as some kind of superwoman because, in my mind, the superwomen are the ones who do it on their own. I have my partner, who will be a stay-at-home father. I will do as much as I can, but I will have a village around me, and there’s lots of people who don’t have that.
While we’re all given the same amount of hours in a day as Jacinda Ardern, not all of us can afford the help that she has. Yet her message is not of despair, but one that encourages young women to dream big and keep their aspirations as high as they can.
I want to be a good leader, not a good lady leader. I don’t want to be known simply as the woman who gave birth.
With every effort, Jacinda Ardern leads by example — we can do more than what we believe we’re capable of achieving as long as we keep pushing forward. We can achieve more than just one thing in life.
On leading a nation and looking after New Zealand
Success is about adapting to the circumstances. When the coronavirus pandemic hit New Zealand, Ardern firmly vowed to review the situation on a daily basis, putting the nation under local lockdowns at the face of a single case as a way to reduce the unnecessary risk (compared to so many other big time leaders around the world who pretty much did the opposite).
Today, after months of battling COVID-19, Jacinda is being praised for her strategic, scientific approach to handling the pandemic in New Zealand. It’s one of the primary reasons she was re-elected.
Connecting with people during the pandemic didn’t stop at official briefings. Most of us switched to online calls and Jacinda was not an exception. She used her Facebook page to make a quick appearance — still in her motherly attire — and reach out to people to see if they were doing okay.
A great parent can multitask between work and personal life, but a true leader is proud to be a parent who leads by example.
Lots of people juggle a lot of things in their personal and private lives, and I’m not unusual in that. Plenty of women have multitasked before me, and I want to acknowledge that.
A positive mindset goes a long way. We don’t often see leaders smiling at every conference, briefing and interview.
More often than not, we expect from our leaders to be serious, which in turn might cause them to decrease their own empathy for the sake of objectivity. But this strategy could end up backfiring and destroying everything human — such as care, interest, love — that a leader has to offer.
Some of today’s most impactful charismatic leaders are with a strong positive attitude towards life, even in the face of crisis.
There’s a reason why we are so drawn to Barack Obama, for example. He showed us what it means to be a gentleman who not only adored his own family, but lived to connect with his nation.
While New Zealand might feel like a far away land, one that belongs to the hobbits, Jacinda looks at her position of power and leadership as an opportunity to work for a more sustainable future worldwide.
When global leaders have an understanding of the current problems — especially problems that could affect negatively the future of many generations to come, they need to work together with an aligned vision for a better future for all of us.
Just think of Trump for a second. His whole campaign is about making America great again, a very noble mission to some, yet a selfish one that seems to be benefiting mostly the privileged ones.
Together we can do so much more than alone. Jacinda knows that well and she wants to deliver results that benefit everyone.
We need to make sure we are looking at people’s ability to actually have a meaningful life, an enjoyable life, where their work is enough to survive and support their families.
Life happens — you can’t stop nature. Whether we talk about earthquakes, global warming or COVID-19.
What we can control, however, is our response. Jacinda Ardern is the kind of person that goes with the flow, all the while following scientific advice.
Earlier this year, there was an earthquake during a live interview — yes, a lot of things happened out of the blue this year — and Jacinda composed herself like a superhero.
Speaking of nature, what’s even more important is that New Zealand’s PM understands that climate change is real and our time to act is now.
If we are to overcome the extraordinary threat that climate change poses we all must start with an honest appraisal of our current situation.
In the face of crisis, we need to understand the full story. There’s no guarantee that we will have all the answers, but a great leader must be willing to at least listen to the other experts in the room.
In 2019 Jacinda had to face one of the biggest challenges a leader would have to face in their career — a terrorist attack that took the life of 51 people. They were killed during prayer.
Instead of condemning the killer, she chose to tell the stories of the victims, which made a tremendous difference.
Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the man who took them. He may seek notoriety but we will give him nothing, not even his name.
But Jacinda didn’t just rely on storytelling to make the pain go away, she passed a gun reform to ban all military style assault rifles. While gun violence was not new, there was a new gun law that would make it more difficult to end up in the same situation.
Jacinda Ardern is praised for her words and actions, because she doesn’t spend time making promises — she simply changes the world.
The #WomenTalking Takeaway
Nations everywhere are looking up to Jacinda Ardern for wisdom, inspiration, courage and innovation, because she’s proven that her words lead to actions with lasting consequences.
New Zealand’s third female prime minister once said:
To me, leadership is not about necessarily being the loudest in the room, but instead being the bridge, or the thing that is missing in the discussion and trying to build a consensus from there.
Since stepping into the shoes of a prime minister, her actions speak louder than her words. Better yet, her actions are in sync with her words, which make her leadership style so inspiring.
It is unfortunate that we don’t get to witness many global leaders who keep their word intact during the years they serve, so when we come across a powerful, empathetic leader like Jacinda Ardern, we must treasure her for as long as we can.
If you enjoyed this article, keep an eye on my column Women Talking for more stories on how women are changing the world. 💃
