Huihuinga Wāhine Māori Leadership Summit

Ngāi Te Rangi wāhine including Maureen Ririnui, Huhana Rolleston, Angeline Samuels, Simmone Hoete, Riri Ellis, Hannah Jones, Wakata Kingi, Pirihira McMath and Paula Werohia attended the Huihuinga Wāhine Māori Leadership Summit in Auckland on 24 July.

The summit rallied together Māori women in leadership roles across a range of sectors to share and evaluate their leadership experiences. The key note speakers and facilitators challenged the attendees to think about the many roles and responsibilites they have (not just their job title), the skills and attributes they have developed, and how those skills and attributes contribute to their current roles and life goals.

One of the unique and important aspects of the conference was that it provided a forum for upcoming leaders to be inspired and challenged by their ‘tuakana’ and for current leaders to learn and understand how to connect with rangatahi.

Our wāhine very much appreciated gaining an insight to the journeys of each key note speaker; the adversities that were overcome to achieve the successes in their lives and the skills and coping strategies that were learnt along the way.  All wahine gained advice to help with the challenges  they  face in their own lives and professions. The challenge is to put that advice into practice.

If anyone is interested in signing up for Huihuinga Wahine 2016 keep an eye on their facebook page (www.facebook.com/HuihuingaWahine?fref=ts)

The following is a list of wise words pertaining to leadership that were heard on the day:

• “Don’t forget your roots – make decisions with your heart and mind”
• “Change is not a risk, not changing is a risk” 
  
• “It is important to know what you can influence. What you can’t influence you have to manage!”
  
•  A sense of presence is very important. Do not let you appearance make cause for distraction.
  
• Success is not one thing, it is a number of successes that moves you closer towards mastery.
  
• If you want to be a leader, you must choose your specialty, put in the effort to speciailise and dominate it (work hard, have confidence, courage and curiosity)