Following the Inspiring Wāhine conference, in Alexandra on Tuesday, a panel reconvened in the Dunstan High School library on Wednesday morning to talk to girls who had been selected by their teachers as future leaders.
Academic, rugby star and the first woman appointed to the NZ Rugby Board Prof Dame Farah Palmer led the panel, which also included Rural Women NZ national president Gill Naylor, Horticulture NZ regional representative Chelsea Donnelly and Central Lakes Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger, who all live in Central Otago.
Be bold and have faith in your ability, grasp opportunities while being picky about which ones to take up and never let where you come from hold you back was the message offered.
Dame Farah said her career path had altered over the years as opportunities arose and she saw things she wanted to change.
"Every time I think I’m getting a bit flat or a bit bored I shift a little bit, change and change focus and do something still in the area of education because I’m really passionate about that."
Leadership came in many forms and you did not have to be the person everyone saw as the leader all the time but could be working in the background demonstrating leadership, she said.
There were many ways to lead and she had a quiet leadership style.
"I’m not the person talking all the time; that doesn’t come naturally to me. I describe myself as a quiet leader, a leader who does things behind the scenes rather than out the front. But when you are in a crowd of people who are all 6 foot [1.8m] tall ex-locks and they’re all like ‘who’s got the loudest voice?’ How can you stand out from that?"
Her skills as a team player were revealed in her approach to those situations.
"So I choose my moment to speak and I’ll wait for the noise to kind of go down and then I’ll say something that I feel is really, really important but really pointed or I will go and talk to people in smaller groups and convince them of my idea and then they’ll go into the meeting and they’ll talk about my idea. I don’t care how it gets across the line as long as they all hear it. So sometimes you might not be the one sharing your idea. It might be somebody else that everybody else is listening to and I’m OK with that," Dame Farah said.
All the women spoke about imposter syndrome and how that had, at times, limited their willingness to try new roles and experiences.
Ms Bridger said a man would look at a list of 10 attributes needed for a job, decide he had three or four and apply. Women tended not to apply unless they could tick off eight or more.
Dame Farah encouraged the students to find things they loved to work towards.
"Choose things that you are passionate about; choose things that you feel you really want to invest in."
