Christopher Luxon: The CORRECT WAY to run New Zealand.

But the reality is what New Zealand needs right now is really real, world, proven leadership. And, you know, we have a defining moment on October 14 about where we're choosing this country gets to go and whether it's going to step up and realise all that latent potential that it has. And I think, you know, I personally think, you know, my background and skills are actually meeting that moment well and it's the kind of leadership that's needed. So for me, you know, yes, but you step out of that and you step out of your comfort zone of what you knew well and. But I guess for me, I'd also come from New Zealand, I'd graduated, I was here two years working in New Zealand, then I was away for 16 years in Sydney, London, Chicago, Toronto, New York, and then doing global jobs and regional jobs from those places. So I've always been used to transitions. And then you leave a world of fast moving consumer goods and you decide to go run an airline and that's a different challenge again. So those transitions have actually been quite a key part of my life. I moved schools a lot and so I got good at making transitions, I think. And I think in some ways the principles of moving from my old world and the commercial world to the political world, there is a lot that's transferable. But you're also very clear about the things that you don't know and the things that you have to learn and the things you have to unlearn actually in order to be successful in a new endeavour as well. So, yeah, I think if you're connected to mission and purpose, you say, that's what really important to me and I feel deeply committed to New Zealand and making it better and help it realise its potential. Then you stay connected to that. Even in the morning when you wake up at 4:30 and you look at Twitter and you go, I think I might just stay in the embryo position under the covers today. But you've got to get up and get going. And I think that's a trick to anyone. Anything in life is stay connected to mission and purpose, something bigger than yourself, know why you're doing it. And then you can get through the good and the bad days. And I think don't go too high when things are going well and don't go too low and catastrophize when things are more challenging. Keep that even keel even, you know, keep it even. And it's hard, easiest to say than to at times, but I think that's really important. And then you model that out to your Teams as well.

And everything really, I believe, rises and falls on leadership. So good leadership, well, things generally go in a good direction and the opposite is true.

Yeah.

So what do you think? Leaders. So for the leader that's listening or watching right now, what are the traits or the filters that they've got to be looking at the world through to ensure that they actually create good culture, thriving culture?

Yeah, look, I think the best leaders I've met, whether it's been in a community space or a political space or a business space, and I've been really privileged to meet some fantastic global world leaders. The best leaders actually are people who carry themselves with personal humility and humbleness, but have massive determination and professional will essentially for the cause of the country, the organisation, the business that they're leading. And you know, I've always looked for leaders in my organizations that often you can run into complete, utter egomaniacs who actually aren't very self actualized or self aware, think it's all about them and as a consequence, you know, they've got a high ambition for self and ego relative to the cause of the organization. I just, every leader I've seen and met that I've really been impressed by.

Has had that dynamic inside, that duality inside them, which is personally humble, but massive professional determination, competitiveness, will to win for the cause, for the organization, for the collective. And I think that's something that I sort of have tried to carry myself at from very early on, but I think that's just intuitively what I've seen. I think for leaders out there today, increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous vuca world, as the US military is prone to say, and really getting really clear on mission and purpose about what you're doing, what you're bringing the complementary casting of your teams so that you can actually deal with a diverse set of issues that are coming your way and more complex issues that are coming your way. Yeah. And I just think even being more intentional and more purposeful about outcomes and deliverables, you know, I see that in government, you know, there's a lot of activity, a lot of busyness, but. But no achievement in results. And that's the bit that actually improves people's daily lives really. If you can make it faster to get through an emergency department, that's great. If you can build a road, that's great. If you can keep people feeling safer in their homes.

That'S what our job is.

Simple things done really well.

Simple things done brilliantly and executed well. Yep. So it is get the economy fix the economy so that we can reduce this cost of living for me my mantra is really simple right Countries are very complex it's difficult definitely not like running a company there is differences let's be clear about it but some of the principles are similar but for me I've just got to be ruthlessly focused on we're there to fix the economy so that we can reduce the cost of living we're going to restore law and order and because we've got a strong economy we can then make sure we can have better public services like health and education and so that's what I'm fixated on yes there's a lot of other issues and don't get me wrong I've got views on all of those too but when you ask me when I leave this job if I'm successful what will it be that we want to have left behind? Stronger economy, restored law and order better health and education and I like that.

You start with the end in mind rather than hey what think do you.