When you step into that position of power, be it in the board room or leading a team, who are you leading as?
Are you leading with your positional power OR with values-driven leadership?
When you enter a boardroom or sit in on a meeting, do you rely on your title and hierarchy OR do people follow you because of the values that you embody?
I began this journey with a hypothesis, that our cultures can provide insights on becoming better leaders in this modern world. At the time it felt like a contradiction to think that our traditions and culture—aspects we assume as irrelevant—had a place, let alone innovate, how we lead in modernity. But as I continued to talanoa, research, and write about the things I discovered along the way, I find confirmation that this is the case.
The values and practices within our cultures, if integrated into our leadership styles, have the ability to transform us into value-driven leaders that create the perfect environment for growth and innovation.
Leadership Through a Pasifika Lens
Through my interactions with Key People of Influence (KPIs), I’ve seen core Pasifika values be the cornerstone to their values-driven leadership. I’ve heard their followers talk at length about how different this person is compared to their previous experiences with leaders. When I trace the charisma and the relationality that this leader exudes, in talanoa sessions with the leader, I’ve found time and again that they are simply following the teachings they’ve learnt in their communities.
A Fijian value that shows up in positive Pasifika leaders is veiqaravi or service. The word means to “face” and I believe it stems from traditional settings where the chiefs and his/her people are seated facing each other. Positive Pasifika leaders manifest veiqaravi when they do acts of service for their people, i.e. providing help or service without expecting anything in return. It doesn’t have to be flashy acts of kindness that get packaged into a heartwarming Insta reel either. Simple acts of service such as holding the door open or bringing over a cup of coffee make a difference.
Another Fijian value that contribute to the charisma of these leaders come in the form of veiwekani or the relational. When positive Pasifika leaders are builders and developers of relationships, the workplace has a certain atmosphere around it. You can almost tell when you enter such an environment. The people are happier and their moods lighter. People tend to be loyal to the leader and the organisation, going as far to associate the workplace as another “home”.
The impact that a positive Pasifika leader can make in the organisation and the lives of the people that they lead, with just these two values, is exponential. These values show up time and again in teams and companies that are industry leaders or trailblazers.
Power in Practice
When power is rooted in relationships rather than rank, innovation tends to be forefront and this is because people feel safe enough to experiment with new ideas and try new things. This psychologically safe environment is rooted in how the leader has created trust through service and building relationships.
It isn’t all rainbows and butterflies though. As a traveler between traditional leadership systems and corporate hierarchies, there are tensions that I notice.
I’ve observed how leaders tend to shy away from using Fijian value terms when describing their values “kit” in front of their followers, e.g. instead of stating that they practice veiqaravi they speak on service; but behind closed doors and one-on-ones, they attribute their styles back to traditional values. I believe this stems from the stigma that surrounds culture in the workplace. To be public about culture seems like a death sentence for the “modern professional” and the fear of not being taken seriously emerges. By repackaging their culture, they are able to build their reputation without the weight of being “native” or “FOB”. I completely understand taking this path of least resistance. We grow up understanding that we need to conform or at least pretend to be normal in order to progress in life; or at least the two big institutions that it revolves around—school and work. But shouldn’t we be proudly pointing back to our culture when we’re being recognized as being “different”?
Being a values-driven leader also becomes hard when we’re being asked to quantify the impact that our style has on organisational performance. Modern business models don’t usually factor in relationality when analysing profitability. Trying to justify being a positive Pasifika leader can be hard without metrics and data backing it up.
Despite these tensions, leaders can continue to honor cultural leadership values by explicitly highlighting the benefits and success stories that come out of these types of leadership. I’ve begun working on building Narrative Spines for founders and executives to support their values-driven leadership. The narrative spine maps out the leader’s values so that they understand it better themselves, before we work together to build these values into the organisation or team. We highlight why these values are important and how relationships have brought success thus far. It’s become something I’ve come to enjoy recently.
Have you been forced to justify your Pasifika values at work?
Identity as Strategic Advantage
By understanding yourself (via a narrative spine) and becoming self-aware, you can become a better strategist, negotiator, and team-builder. You are able to understand your strengths and weaknesses. You can better plan how to approach a task and innovate; you can reach resolutions because you know what you can live with; you understand who you need to complement your strengths.
When I code-switch between values and expectations, I tend to lose my compass bearings. I try to justify decisions that fulfil corporate expectations but lead to moral bruising. I’ve learnt that sticking to my values and influencing through relationality rather than positionality usually equates to unforeseen positive upsides for all parties involved.
My Invitation
If you’ve reach this far, how about you ask yourself these questions again:
When you step into that position of power, be it in the board room or leading a team, who are you leading as?
Are you leading with your positional power OR with values-driven leadership?
When you enter a boardroom or sit in on a meeting, do you rely on your title and hierarchy OR do people follow you because of the values that you embody?
If you’re committed to anchor your leadership in identity then could I make one suggestion on the first step you need to take?
Know thyself
- Work on a narrative spine for yourself.
- Write down the values you stand for and will not compromise.
- Understand the tensions that could arise from sticking to those values and how to navigate them.
By integrating positive Pasifika cultural values and practices, you’re bringing familiarity into the workplace. You’re building an environment that promotes innovation and excellence; an environment that led to the voyages of the greatest seafaring people the world has ever seen; an environment that created navigational systems that this world continues to marvel; and people that populates the largest body of water on planet Earth.
Think about that for a minute. Then I invite you to take a small step today in becoming a positive value-driven Pasifika leader:
Know thyself. Know who you lead as.
By doing so you’re able to understand you greatest competitive advantage: Identity.
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Alfred Tora 
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