Life-changing ideas and insights from some of the world's greatest thinkers.
The first step we must take is not hard. We simply have to pause and find a moment of peace. Then, look again at those people we are with and see their mana, their spirit, their dignity. Then remind ourselves that whatever we do as a tribe, that must never be diminished. This is where we can start.
Look at every path closely. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, the question: does this path have a heart?
The first warrior looked out on the land that was his home. He saw the hills and the stars and he was happy. For giving him his home, the first warrior told the Great Spirit that he would fight and win many battles in his honor. But the Great Spirit said, ‘No, do not fight for me. Fight for your tribe, fight for the family born to you, fight for the brothers you find. Fight for them,’ the Great Spirit said, ‘for they are your home.’
Players don’t remember what you say in team talks or practices—what they remember is how you made them feel.
Somewhere in homo sapiens evolutionary story, this fundamental role of the leader—to take care of their people—has lost its sacred place.
In Maori culture, a word for leader is rangatira, which itself consists of two words—arrange, meaning to weave, and tire, meaning a group, so rangatira literally means ‘to weave a group of people together.’
We belong to a bundle of life. Ubuntu says: a person is a person through other persons. It says: I am human because I belong.
Let me fall if I must fall. The one I will become will catch me.
I don’t particularly like checklists but when I’m having conversations with leaders on trust these are what we work through: authenticity, loyalty, competence, consistency, adaptability, and (emotional) availability.
I come from the south-west corner of the Pacific Ocean. It is a place where the three most powerful words that can be uttered to you are ‘you belong here.’