Tukutuku Pūrākau

In many organisations, strategy and plan are treated as interchangeable — two words describing the same thing. Meetings fill with action lists, dashboards, and deliverables, yet few pause to ask: To what end?

Leadership is meant to cultivate safety and growth, yet in some spaces, silence becomes the soil where harm takes root. Toxic leadership thrives not only through the actions of the few, but through the silence of the many.

In Te Ao Māori, creation is viewed not as a single event but as a continual unfolding. Whakaaro — thought imbued with feeling — carries vibration, and that vibration sets mauri (life force and energy) into motion.

Growth rarely feels comfortable. From a Te Ao Māori view, transformation happens at the edges — those liminal spaces where comfort ends and new knowing begins. Like the takarangi spiral, our ascent moves through tension and release, rhythm and return. The task is not to avoid discomfort, but to develop right relationship with it — to meet it as signal, guide, and companion.

Kaupapa Māori leadership carries deep relational and collective wisdom. It is guided by whakapapa, sustained by whanaungatanga, and expressed through collective uplift. Yet within mainstream systems, this form of leadership often encounters friction — between values and structure, between kaupapa and compliance.

There are seasons in our professional lives when even certainty feels unfamiliar. A role ends, a new direction begins to form, or an unexpected opportunity invites us into unfamiliar territory. In these moments of transition, confidence can become elusive.

In a world of noise, the most powerful leadership often whispers rather than shouts. The role of the quiet leader is not to dominate space but to hold it — allowing others to stand, to speak, and to rise.

From the first breath of life — Tīhei mauri ora! — we are reminded that hā is sacred.

Change is never only external. It begins as a quiet noticing — a sense that something could be clearer, fairer, or more aligned with who we are and what we stand for. That awareness is the seed of transformation. Yet awareness alone is not enough; it must be carried into action.

In seasons of change, clarity becomes its own form of leadership. Whether stepping toward new opportunities, navigating transition, or re-imagining your contribution, how you communicate your story matters. In today’s landscape — where one role may draw a hundred applications — a memorable CV or profile is not defined by length, but by presence. It reveals coherence between purpose and practice, between what you offer and what you stand for.

Within the flow of wānanga and the rhythm of learning, feedback is not a disruption to our work — it is essential to developing an informed learning pattern that stretches our growth edges. When offered and received through trust, reciprocity, and awareness, it becomes a living current that keeps us aligned, connected, and evolving.

Arising from wānanga with self and knowing, reflection becomes rhythm and knowledge becomes light. An affirmation: Iho Taketake, Aranga Motuhake — follow your intrinsic blueprint toward extraordinary (Tupara & Tahere, 2019).

Stories shape the way we see ourselves and one another. They hold the power to illuminate or to limit, to restore or to reduce. In her renowned TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks to this power — reminding us that when a single narrative becomes the only narrative, people and places are flattened into stereotypes.

We live in an abundant world of concerns. The economy, climate change, other people’s choices, the past, the future — they all pull at our attention. But not every concern is a call to action. Some are a call to alignment. The model of the circles of control, influence and concern — popularised in Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — offers a useful reframing of where our energy is well-spent.

In traditional tukutuku, the Waharua pattern symbolises commitment, courage, and partnership — the crossing points that hold under tension. Each intersection represents the moment where two threads meet, test their strength, and stay woven. In leadership, courageous conversations are much the same. They are not acts of confrontation but of commitment — a willingness to stay in the weave when things become uncomfortable.

When organisations talk about change, what we often encounter instead is resistance. Yet, as Simon Sinek reminds us, people rarely resist the change itself — they resist how it makes them feel. Facts and frameworks might appeal to logic, but fear, uncertainty, and loss of control move much deeper. True leadership begins not with explanation, but with whakarongo — listening that acknowledges emotion before enforcing action.

There are moments when a single idea reframes the whole terrain of self-knowledge. Caroline McHugh’s TEDx talk, “The Art of Being Yourself,” is one of those moments. Her invitation is simple and radical: stop seeking reassurance and start seeking revelation. Do not look at yourself; look for yourself.

“No one can tell you that you are not important and your experience does not matter.And if they do, I challenge them to say it to your face —where they can see your eyes and feel your breath.”— Tame Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe, Waikato, Te Arawa)

What if language does more than describe the world — what if it creates it?

Even the most committed teams can lose rhythm. Communication slips, energy fragments, and shared focus begins to blur. In many Western leadership frameworks, these challenges are described as team dysfunctions — patterns that erode trust, alignment, and performance.

In any learning or leadership journey, how we think shapes what we see, what we value, and how we act. Thinking styles describe the varied ways people process information, make decisions, and generate understanding.

The Takahoa Poutama™ was never intended to be a workbook, nor a manual to be followed. It was created as a Companion of Ascent™ — a trusted ally for the haerenga within Manu Hōmiromiro: Poutama Insights™ and beyond.

Leadership is not sustained by urgency — it is sustained by rhythm.

The idea of “intelligence” has long been treated as a number — a measure of what a person knows, how they think, or how well they perform. Yet intelligence is far more than calculation or cognition. It is the rhythm of how we perceive, connect, and make sense of the world.

In contemporary leadership culture, it is easy to confuse momentum with pressure. Many leaders believe that the only way to achieve results is to push harder, demand more, and tighten control. Yet in truth, sustained motivation does not come from being driven. It comes from being drawn.

The Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm™ has been developed by Megan Tahere (2025) as part of the ongoing mahi to give shape and language to the philosophical foundations that guide Manawa Kōkopu and the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series™.

Strategy often fails not because of weak ambition, planning, or frameworks, but because of a missing link: human capability and context that connect strategy to execution (Kraaijenbrink, 2021). In other words, people and relationships determine whether a strategy breathes or breaks.

Whakatipu: Ako Rhythm™ (Tahere, 2025) offers a kaupapa Māori reframing of the globally recognised 70:20:10 learning model. Rather than viewing learning through fixed allocations or percentages, it shifts the focus from proportion to pattern — recentring development within whakapapa, cosmology, and rhythm.

Kaupapa Māori leadership in te ao hurihuri — the changing world — is grounded in values, relationships, and a deep awareness of collective responsibility. It is not confined to positions of authority, but flows through whānau, hapū, iwi, and community contexts where leadership is expressed through service, manaaki, and the advancement of kaupapa that sustain both people and place. 

This article draws on insights from the Māori Leadership Literature Review (Scarlatti, HTK Group, & Harcourt, 2024), commissioned by the Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence. The review provides a contemporary evidence base for understanding Māori leadership in Aotearoa — highlighting its cultural foundations, adaptability, and relevance in diverse contexts. Reflecting on this research, I explore how kaupapa Māori leadership is practised and how the leadership styles that align with its values and intent are cultivated through the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series.

In many contemporary leadership contexts, creativity is celebrated as an individual gift — a spark of originality that sets one person apart. In traditional Māori thought, however, a talent for creativity (pūmanawa) is not solely an individual’s good fortune, but the collective wealth of the kin group, the iwi, and the community (Mead, 2003). Its role is not only to inspire, but to enhance the quality of life, transform the environment, and apply the stamp of culture upon the world we move in.

In a recent article by Rosey Nathan about the 2025 NZ L&D Leadership Summit, hosted by Business Insights Asia Pacific, she highlighted a conversation on the 70:20:10 learning model (Lombardo & Eichinger, 1996; McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988). The discussion, led by Andrew Patterson with Ram Lingam (Watercare Services Limited), Andrea Duncan (Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora), and Roxanne Pascoe (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise), raised critical questions about whether enough investment is made where it matters most — in experiential and social learning.

Leadership is not one-size-fits-all. The way we guide others — and ourselves — is shaped by our values, experiences, and the unique demands of the moment. Eric Partaker’s (2025) 9 Styles of Leadership offers a useful way to think about the different ways leaders can operate.

In times of uncertainty, decision-making can feel heavy, risky, and uncomfortable. Yet research shared by David Tuckett in the MIT Sloan Management Review (Tuckett, 2025) suggests that some leaders navigate these moments with greater clarity and confidence — not by removing uncertainty, but by engaging with it differently.

At Manawa Kōkopu, the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series is grounded in the belief that transformation often begins in moments of stillness and clarity — those times when something vast, beautiful, or deeply moving shifts how we see ourselves and our place in the world. Recently, I came across a powerful article by Claire Sullivan (2022), Reaching One’s Potential Through Awe, which speaks directly to this transformative power. It offers both research-backed insights and practical guidance on how awe can help us move toward our fullest potential.

The image accompanying this article was taken by my mokopuna, Chayton Mankelow (11), while out exploring Pākihikura — the newly developed Ōpōtiki Harbour. As the oldest mokopuna, he carries a natural leadership role, setting an example for his younger siblings, uncles, and cousins. While guiding his siblings and showing them how to jump and balance through the space, he was drawn to the environmental landscape and paused to capture this photo. He also reflected on how his mātauranga grows through his engagements with whānau, te taiao, and his kura kaupapa Māori schooling journey — sharing that he thought the sky looked beautiful and the sunset was “awesome". This moment captures something essential to the development of mātauranga, the experience of awe, and the shaping of leadership — the way kōrero, lived engagement, observation, relationship with the natural world, and personal reflection weave together to shape how we come to know, understand, and be in the world.

Cultural competence is vital across health, education, and social sectors — yet it often remains superficial, reduced to box-ticking rather than lived understanding. My current doctoral research, which underpins the Poutama IQ Ascent Series, reframes cultural competency through a kaupapa Māori worldview, one grounded in relationality and identity — positioning it as a transformative practice rather than a compliance measure.

The poutama pattern — woven through tukutuku, raranga, and whakairo — anchors the Manawa Kōkopu approach to growth and transformation. These ascending steps represent aranga — the movement of life, knowledge, and being — unfolding through learning, reflection, whakapapa, and wānanga.