At the enterprise level, organisations need leaders who can hold the long view, think systemically, and navigate complexity - together; leaders who act as stewards of the whole, not just their part.
Yet too often, the capacity to navigate broad relationships and complex systems, the essence of enterprise leadership, is treated as an add-on, rather than the organising core for identifying, transitioning, and developing leaders at this level.
Also, the preparation systems that produce the pool of leaders eligible for enterprise leadership often reward something else. Advancement and promotion typically favour task focus, technical confidence and output delivery. While these behaviours and skills support leaders to succeed in complicated domains, they do not necessarily set them up well to navigate and lead in the complex domain that is enterprise leadership.
This conditioning shapes not only what leaders do, but how they see and interpret the enterprise. By the time many leaders reach senior levels, they have been shaped by years of reward for efficiency, decisiveness and control. These are valuable capabilities but they are not the same as the relational, contextual and adaptive capabilities needed for successful enterprise leadership.
The tension between survival in today’s context and building resilience for tomorrow’s is biased by the very real pull of the immediate. The result however leaves us in a classic ‘Catch-22’. The focus needed to compete and deliver today, means our organisational systems may be preparing leaders for a narrow game, when the ultimate field is complex and broad. We may be producing exceptional operators, drivers of the machine, when what the system also needs is architects and stewards of ecosystems.
What the system rewards, it reproduces
Leadership pipelines teach more through what they reward than through what they explicitly train.
- At early levels, leaders are rewarded for delivery; control, compliance, and technical excellence.
- At middle levels, they are rewarded for problem-solving; simplifying complexity and providing certainty.
- At senior levels, the signal shifts to ‘executive presence’ as a marker of readiness (it's often ill-defined but usually associated with visibility and confidence).
While humility, reflection and relational depth are widely acknowledged as levers of leadership success, they are rarely rewarded in real terms. For leaders grounded in collective or relational values, this creates a quiet dissonance. They may excel at convening, listening and sustaining trust, yet find these contributions undervalued beside visibility or self-promotion. The same pattern holds for those who engage at causal rather than symptomatic levels, who focus on the lead indicators of future success, rather than chasing short-term results.
The issue is not individual bias alone, but systemic design. Our definitions of potential and talent are shaped by what the system chooses to see and reward. This is how well-intentioned leadership systems can inadvertently constrain the very capabilities they need most at the enterprise level
Te ao Māori and complexity theory
My understanding of te ao Māori is still emerging, but my curiosity is deep and growing. It was further ignited at Meihana Durie’s Unleashing Māori Potential seminar. Following his challenge, “What will you do next?” this reflection took shape. Shaped by a Western education, I am inclined to approach new domains through the lens of the familiar, yet strive to hold the distinct value of the unfamiliar. I hope that intention is reflected here.
Te ao Māori and complexity theory, while distinct, both present a similar perspective of the world: everything is connected, context matters, and outcomes emerge through relationships. Both perspectives challenge the Western fixation on control and linearity, reminding us that leadership is about relationships within living systems.
From te ao Māori, we are reminded that leadership is inherently relational and intergenerational. It draws strength from whakapapa; from knowing one’s place in a lineage of relationships and obligations. It values collective success over individual triumph, and long-term stewardship over short-term control.
From complexity theory, we learn that in uncertain systems, prediction and control give way to sense-making, experimentation, and adaptive learning. Leaders succeed not by commanding outcomes but by creating the conditions for emergence.
Both perspectives invite humility: a willingness to listen, to attend, to adapt, and to act with awareness of the whole. Te ao Māori emphasises the value of whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building) for collective impact.
Imagine, for example, Health and Education in Aotearoa NZ, if leaders were genuinely able to hold these perspectives. That level of complexity is not served by competing ideologies or heroic leadership. Solutions can only emerge through collective leadership at the enterprise level, beyond political affiliation, this is genuinely about and for the whole.
Questions to Ask
If our systems shape what we see, the way forward begins with new questions; questions that invite reflection rather than reaction.
- What kinds of leadership do our systems make visible through reward and which remain unseen?
- How might humility and self-advocacy coexist as complementary vs. competing expressions of leadership?
- How are we preparing leaders for complexity (and to let go of control)?
- What would change if we defined ‘high potential’ through contribution to collective success, rather than individual visibility?
- How might bicultural design, grounded in both te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā, reshape what we look for and how we grow potential?
While individual reflection matters, the power of inquiry is also amplified by the collective. Invite your peers and colleagues to also contemplate these questions.
Closing Reflections
If we want enterprise leaders capable of navigating complexity and leading for Aotearoa’s future, we may need to look again at the soil our system grows them in.
Leadership potential is not simply a matter of who shines, but of who connects, who can see the whole, listen for what is emerging, and act in ways that strengthen both people and place.
Perhaps the challenge before us is not to make ‘the kumara speak more loudly’, nor to silence it, but to ensure that its sweetness, wherever it resides, can be recognised, valued and shared.
Need more information? Contact the Winsborough Team:
winsborough.co.nz | 0800 222 061 | support@winsborough.co.nz
Image credit: Sora Sagano (Unsplash)