����vlog����

“YOU CAN BELIEVE in consensus more than you believe in conflict. You can be human. You can feel and show emotion. You can be kind, empathetic, and strong. You can, and indeed you must, be your own kind of leader,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in December as she received this year’s Gleitsman International Activist Award from Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership (CPL). 

Ardern has become known for her leadership through the pandemic as well as through the March 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch—New Zealand’s deadliest such attack. At an event moderated by Wendy Sherman, director of CPL and professor of the practice of public leadership, Ardern spoke about the challenges of leading—and of leading as a woman. 

“Don’t wait for the moment when you suddenly feel you are ready,” she said. “Sometimes that moment won’t come. We need to accept opportunities, take them, and be bold—despite that feeling of fear and doubt.” 

Ardern also gained attention in 2018 for being only the second head of state, after the late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, to give birth while in office. 

“There was never a point in my life that I can recall where I thought, ‘I can’t do that because I’m a woman.’ However, I have on many occasions thought, ‘I cannot do that because it’s me.’ Imposter syndrome is real,” she said. “It’s been a journey for me. I want to be a good leader, not a good female leader.” 

Past Gleitsman Award winners include Malala Yousafzai, John Lewis, and Nelson Mandela. Ardern requested that the $150,000 prize be used to fund a scholarship for a student from New Zealand attending the Kennedy School.

—

—

—

—

—