Editor’s Letter
The moment that has stayed with me most from Journey to Excellence began not with a business case study or a leadership framework, but with Dr. Alia Bojilova recounting the day she was taken hostage in Syria. Armed militia surrounded her and her UN team. They were trapped just 500 metres from safety with no way out. What decided their fate was not firepower, but the ability to hold a conversation. She described how survival came down to listening, asking questions, and finding common ground with people who, only hours before, had seemed like enemies. It was not the kind of negotiation we usually think about, but it was negotiation at its purest. Presence, empathy, and the courage to see multiple truths at once.
I realised as she spoke that while most of us will never face that kind of extreme test, we all know what it feels like to be under pressure. We all know the moments when fear or uncertainty threatens to take over. Alia’s story reminded me that resilience is not about being unshakable. It is about slowing down enough to ask the right questions and creating the space where something unexpected and life-changing can emerge.
That thread ran through the whole event. Cynthia Hunefeld talked about humour and helpers as survival tools, the quiet people who show up when the world feels unbearable. Mariele Klering reminded us that resilience can be found in movement when our minds are too heavy to help us. Danu Abeysuriya spoke about AI as a leveller, urging us not to fear it but to use it as a way to become more human. And Naomi Ballantyne reminded us with refreshing bluntness that leadership is not about the title on your door but about the substance of your choices, your curiosity, and the way people remember how you made them feel.
These lessons echoed beyond that room. In this issue, we also hear how Rosanne Graham is reshaping education in New Zealand and challenging us to stop treating university as the only measure of intelligence. We also hear how Jodie King is helping One NZ become one of the most AI-enabled telcos in the world, while still leading with empathy and trust. And then there is Lorde, our cover star, whose return is not wrapped in spectacle but in radical transparency. Standing in a park with just a guitar, she showed us that sometimes honesty is the bravest performance of all.
For me, what connects all of these voices is the reminder that leadership and resilience are not lofty ideals. They are lived moments. They are the choice to speak when you are scared, to move when you would rather freeze, to laugh when it feels easier to cry, and to be honest when hiding would be simpler. If there is one lesson I am taking with me from these stories, it is that the future does not belong to those who pretend to have all the answers. It belongs to those of us willing to stay human, to keep asking better questions, and to show up anyway.
