At a recent ''Young women in leadership'' workshop hosted by Massey University, we asked a group of year 12 female pupils to discuss who they considered to be a leader.
They were provided with some provocative images of women well known in a variety of professions to start the discussion, and to our surprise many of them identified Miley Cyrus as a leader.
They admired her for challenging societal norms and expectations when it came to how girls and women should behave and act.
This is Miley Cyrus, the singer-entertainer, who has transformed herself from cutesy Hannah Montana to the tongue-protruding, semi-naked and twerking young woman that she presents today.
Really? Is she a leader? Is she the kind of woman our young leaders aspire to be like or at least admire?
This was a revelation for me and my fellow facilitators (which probably shows our age) and sheds new light on some of the scenarios that have grabbed media attention lately.
It explains why a group of schoolgirls representing St Cuthbert's at a football tournament would think it a good idea to strip or shop in a semi-naked state as part of their initiation process, and it may explain why a young woman in Hawkes Bay would streak during an All Blacks game and pat Israel Dagg on the derriere to tick off something on her bucket list.
Being famous, doing things for shock value or challenging authority and hierarchy is nothing new. Most of us would have done crazy and outrageous things in our wayward years as well.
The issue with shenanigans like this nowadays is that technology, the internet and social media sites make these moments of madness more permanent and less easy to ignore when the moment has passed.
But is it any wonder that young women associate these acts with leadership?
The notoriety associated with nudity and risque behaviour reflects traits we have always associated with leadership: bravery, risk-taking, challenging the status quo and having some proclivity to break rules.
All is not lost, though. There were some young women at the leadership workshop who identified the likes of Valerie Adams and Casey Kopua as leaders. Phew.
It is always going to be a challenge to appeal to young women who are exposed to the likes of the Kardashians and highly sexualised entertainers as role models, but it can be done, and sport plays a key role in offering an alternative kind of leader to follow in a world saturated with over-exposed celebrities.
We have Lorde showing that you can be expressive and successful without revealing too much skin, and we have Lydia Ko who demonstrates resilience and determination as she tries to win the Evian Championship to become the youngest golfer to win a major golfing tournament, despite having a wrist injury.
We have Adams, who uses her strength of mind and body to dominate the sport of shot put, and on an international level we have the likes of Serena Williams breaking down stereotypes and challenging tennis greats such as Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on the grand slam leaderboard with 18 majors.
The list of females in sport who could be considered leaders is endless and not all of them are in obvious and high-profile roles. Some work behind the scenes, around board rooms, on the sidelines and behind the camera.
What all these women demonstrate are those traits we tend to associated with leadership: bravery, risk-taking, and the ability to challenge the status quo, All this without a twerk, a streak or a strip performance in sight.
