Kia orana, Kia orana tatou katotoa

E mihi ana ki a koutou katoa

Nau mai, haere mai ki tenei kōrero

Welcome, everybody, to this week's, this fortnight, bi-weekly, two-weekly newsletter (kōreo)

This week, I want to talk about feedback.

And I want to share something that happened to me when I was in a team, leading a team.

I share this story sometimes when I'm in wānanga (workshop) to highlight…

One, feedback is a gift.

Feedback is a koha.

If somebody is going out of their way to help you grow, to help you evolve.

He koha, he gift. It's a gift.

And so, I will start that kōrero with that.

And it's something I've been talking about for many years.

But I want to share a time where I was a team leader,

and there were 13 teachers, and 13 kaiawhina (teacher support), and then specialist teachers.

So, across the 13 classrooms, and each of the classrooms, there was small.

Okay, maybe I'm being dramatic, but I felt like it was this big, maybe it was a little bit bigger, but a very small amount of lego in each classroom.

And so, I decided, because I thought to myself, in a classroom of 15 children.

There's not really much you can do with a small amount of lego, so ki au nei, my thoughts were, go and get all of the small bits of lego and put them into one.

Big one, and then rotate them around the classroom, so at least 5 or 6 children could play with lego and actually build something.

You know, like, actually create something. So that was my thinking.

So I went and did that, everyone had gone home, I went and collected all the lego, put it, and then I told my team this amazing idea the next day.

This is an amazing idea. We can have our kids, like, create something, which I think is the purpose of lego.

Anyway, one staff member, one kaiako teacher, yells at me and just says

“You always do that, Naketa! You always just go and do what you want!”

And at the time, of course, I was totally offended.

I was professional. I mean, there was a quote recently, 

"When you lose your sh*t, you lose your leadership"

Actually, that was from Taylor Swift. But it's true, when you lose your sh*t, you lose your leadership. So I was calm, and so…

On reflection, though…

And it wasn't immediate, but on reflection, she's actually right. I do take over, and I do, do lots of things without asking.

But in my defense, I'm the oldest in my family, and often I do have to do all the things, like…

Because I do. That's my responsibility. So, he koha. So why I share this with you this week is that sometimes.

The feedback, the gift of feedback, is not presented in this beautiful, lovely, present, right?

Not this beautifully wrapped present. Sometimes it's presented with barbed wire.

Or, you know, nails. But it's still a gift, right?

Anything you get about reflecting on how you are impacting others is a gift. So, that's our newsletter this week. I hope you are all great. Look forward to seeing you in another couple of weeks.

Mauri Ora