Dame Jacinda Ardern’s kindness and compassion set to inspire a new generation of leaders

OPINION: Good on you, Dame Jacinda Ardern. The world of politics is dominated by outrage, division and point-scoring, but I find it genuinely heartening that a leader who advertised kindness and empathy as a message of courage is now taking those values into education.

The University of Sydney has appointed Ardern as a Professor of Practice, where she will mentor students and deliver guest lectures. Her focus will include empathetic leadership, social cohesion, civic trust and public health.

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Image: Dame Jacinda Ardern, pictured with Vice-Chancellor of University of Sydney, Mark Scott. (Stefanie Zingsheim / The University of Sydney)

Ardern’s new job is not a full-time teaching position, but I believe its significance goes well beyond a job title.

What a wonderful opportunity for students to learn from someone who has experienced the pressures of leading a country while consistently talking about compassion, inclusion and the responsibility we have to one another.

I have always believed leadership should be about more than power, wealth and political victories. It should be about people, particularly those struggling to be heard.

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Image: The unseen cost of leadership is laid bare in Prime Minister, where Jacinda Ardern reflects on the private sacrifices that came with leading a country while navigating new motherhood. (Prime Minister documentary)

Ardern’s time as prime minister was far from easy. She led New Zealand through the Christchurch mosque attacks, the Whakaari eruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. Her decisions were debated and criticised, as decisions in a democracy should be. But I admired her willingness to speak openly about humanity and kindness when the country needed reassurance.

Not everyone shares that admiration, and that’s fine.

I am not asking anyone to agree with every policy or decision under Ardern’s Labour government and leadership style. I am celebrating the idea that empathy deserves a place in political discussions about how we lead for the greater good. I would rather see students challenged to understand inequality, build trust and approach disagreement with respect than be told that compassion somehow makes a leader weak.

The university says Ardern will help explore leadership, equity, inclusion and wellbeing.

Those are values I want more young people to encounter, not fewer.

Imagine the influence of teaching future leaders that listening is strength, compassion matters and success should be about how we treat others.

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Image: Jacinda Ardern said she treated power as a form of responsibility, empathy as courage and human fallibility as something to acknowledge, a leadership model that stands against the political aggression now too often presented as strength by the current coalition Government. (Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films / The Daily Show)

So yes, good on her. Congratulations.

I hope this next chapter gives students the confidence to lead with both courage and care, and reminds them that kindness means belonging.

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