The professional online network site’s opening key speaker spoke about expecting “characteristics of humanity” of leaders “at all times”.

Speaking to 1,500 talent acquisition practitioners from 50 countries, Ardern reflected on her reluctant rise to the top leadership role in New Zealand, which she held for six years, and her approach to the cataclysmic events occurring in both her country and the world during her tenure. 

“Crisis and change are our new constant,” she said. Between 2017 and 2023, when Ardern was prime minister, New Zealand experienced earthquakes, a terrorist incident in which 51 died, with the atrocity broadcast live on social media as it occurred, and, alongside the rest of the world, the Covid-19 global pandemic. 

The massacre targeting Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers in March 2019 led to changes in the country’s gun laws within 10 days of the incident. “It was our job to do something,” Ardern said. 

The former PM was praised for her humane, caring approach to survivors and other constituents, as well as taking practical deterrence issues such as not naming the terrorist publicly in the aftermath. “In moments of crisis,” she said, it was most important for leaders to ask themselves “one simple question: How do I feel?” she said. “It’s likely your people feel the same.”

When faced with crisis, she said, it is fine for leaders to say, “I don’t know” if they don’t have an answer. They can also talk about “what we don’t have”, she said. However, she added, “you cannot reply, ‘I don’t know what to do’.”

Talking about her political career in New Zealand, she noted the following: 

• “Capability and competence [but] not necessarily confidence” were often traits of people who found themselves in higher office. 
• In contrast to the many who get into politics for the love of “the bloodsport”, she said her own spirit was “more like a Labrador”.

When leaders, reluctant or keen, do move into office, however, Ardern said all want to progress their specific issues and projects. Wryly, she said she had never seen anyone “with a deep, relentless drive to keep the status quo”.

She closed by calling for leaders to demonstrate “characteristics of humanity in leadership at all times” and to live out the lessons taught to children about being human “but have stopped expecting of ourselves”.

The Talent Summit continues today [Wednesday, 4 October] in New York City.

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