Among the Tall Poppies’: Some Notes on Cultural Leadership in New Zealand

In this article I make a distinction between two types of leadership action: technocratic leadership, which is one-way and based on institutional power, and creative leadership, which employs more subtle and indirect tactics but wields considerably more power to shape the lives of citizens. I note that creative leadership is comparatively rare in the New Zealand experience, and often falls flat, but that two Prime Ministers, Norman Kirk and David Lange, used it effectively. To explain why this is so, I introduce Erwin C. Hargrove's concept of ‘cultural leadership’. Cultural leadership permits the analysis of leaders’ actions in terms of how they are grounded in the culture of New Zealand. I describe its two key components, awareness and avoidance of ‘cultural traps’ and an understanding of the ‘historical moment’, and explain how each applies in terms of New Zealand political history. I conclude by briefly exploring the implications of the transition to MMP, arguing that the concept of cultural leadership is ultimately an analytical conception of universal aspects of human behaviour.