The sensitive new male leader has arrived
Crikey, we do, as a country, seem to have turned a corner. In my column last week I wrote about how the old order would soon be making way for generational change. In some ways this is power shifting from one tribe in society to another.
I knew it was going to be painful for people like me but didn’t realise just how painful until this week when some leading figures in our society showed how much the ground has shifted.
You might have heard that the country’s aviation industry was thrown into chaos this past week after the discovery of a 20-centimetre tear in an underground pipeline through which aviation fuel is pumped from the Marsden Pt oil refinery to Wiri, in Auckland.
It appears the original tear was caused by a digger driver who missed some big signs in the area advising the utmost caution when digging.
Refining NZ is obviously doing its best to get the pipeline operating again and has bent over backwards to do what it can for people in the vicinity.
That’s all good public relations for the company but it still beggars belief that the country’s jet fuel supply line is so vulnerable and that no contingency plans were in place. A 170km pipeline buried in the dirt is always going to be susceptible to some mishap and you would have thought some back-up facility was available.
The other priority, you would think, would be finding out how it occurred and for some efforts to be made to find the party responsible. Refining NZ chief executive Sjoerd Post might, for instance, be forgiven for some harsh words such as what sort of bloody idiot would hit the pipeline in the first place and then not tell anybody about it.
But this week Post appeared to be more concerned about the person’s mental well-being than identifying the culprit and making them accountable.
Post said he was ‘‘pretty certain’’ the digger driver would have known what he had done, but said no-one had come forward.
‘‘No, and I actually worry about the person who did this, I think this person must be under tremendous emotional strain.
‘‘In this particular case, I actually hope that the person who did this has family or a partner who actually understands that he or she is going through this and are supporting them.’’
You have to wonder whether Post is taking empathy a bit far here.
I know chief executives need to show emotional intelligence and boundless empathy these days but Post seems to be taking these qualities to extremes. I would be a lot more worried about all the different parties who have experienced extra costs and disruption because of a stupid mistake than about some reckless person.
No doubt Post will be praised for his terrific humanity but the praise will be misplaced.
Post’s human touch was soon to be matched by another top New Zealand chief executive. Spark managing director Simon Moutter was nearly brought to tears when he told an audience of mostly women that his organisation had failed their gender.
He told this week’s Global Women’s 1 Day for Change conference that he struggled to swallow the feedback from some female leaders who left Spark this year.
It made him rethink his approach to achieving a diverse and inclusive workforce for women and minority ethnic groups.
‘‘Diversity is about being invited to the party, inclusion is about being asked to dance. At Spark we are clearly not asking them [women] to dance.’’
Although one-third of his company’s staff were women, it still had work to do to make every female employee feel comfortable at work, Moutter said.
Yes, another business leader not afraid to show his emotions and own up to sexism in the workplace.
Except I’m left wondering if Moutter would be so moved by some of his male leaders leaving the company and saying it was crap place to work for. In fact, ask the staff of most big companies if they are happy with management and the responses are generally terrible.
Moutter was nearly brought to tears when he told an audience of mostly women that his organisation had failed their gender.
Shouldn’t Moutter be working to ensure everyone was comfortable at work? And if everyone is so comfortable, is any work getting done?
I think we have to be careful not to assume, as American commentator Andrew Sullivan said in a brilliant recent essay, that ‘‘different outcomes for men and women in society are entirely a function of sexism’’.
Well. at least we can depend on male politicians to conform to the normal stereotype of bravery under fire. Not so fast.
Because of election day rules I can’t mention his name but a certain individual got a feisty reception from a meeting of farmers in Manawatu¯ this week. Apparently he was ‘‘physically pushed’’ and walked out because he felt unsafe.
Rudeness and aggression at a political meeting are hardly unexpected and this politician could have shown a bit more intestinal fortitude, in my view.
But I guess we live in a world where everyone must feel psychologically and spiritually safe and that probably applies to political meetings as well.
Heaven preserve us. The new man has arrived. That was quick.