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my nomination for the inspiration Award is Christiano Ronaldo. He is the best football player I ever heard.

He is 35 years old and recently

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My nomination for the Inspiration Award is Jacinda Ardern.  She is the current Prime Minister of New Zealand.

She is 39 years old and recently had a baby with her partner, Clarke Gayford, since being voted into office in 2017. She became famous internationally when she took her new baby to a UN General Assembly. (see below for links to articles)

After a gun massacre at a Mosque, she showed enormous compassion and leadership and enacted immediate change to gun laws.

Even though she is a politician, she shows us qualities that we rarely see in world leaders - optimism, common sense, approachability and, most of all, empathy.

She is an amazingly compassionate, down-to-earth, and dedicated person. She cares a lot about other people and is always doing what is right, not what will get her votes.

She has inspired a lot of people to be kinder, more tolerant of racial and religious differences, and more caring to each other.

I really admire her because she is an excellent role model as a human being and as a political leader.
I, like many Australians, wish we had her as our Prime Minister.

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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - goes to meet Jacinda Arden in New Zealand.

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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - goes to meet Jacinda Arden in New Zealand.

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Stephen Colbert: The Newest Zealander Visits PM Jacinda Ardern

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/jacinda-ardern-makes-history-with-baby-neve-at-un-general-assembly

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Contrasting styles: Trump and Ardern speak at the UN

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In October of 2017, when Jacinda Ardern became the Prime Minister of New Zealand-a country with a population of fewer than five million-she assumed leadership of a place not accustomed to making global headlines. It made few headlines, at least apart from those about Ardern's appointment itself, which was a major news item across the world. The wave of Jacindamania had a way of flattening the Prime Minister's story. Ardern's center-left party, Labour, did not win the election outright, but instead struck an unlikely partnership with N.Z. First, a party that, as its name suggests, has made occasional swerves into nationalism. Ardern was not, as was often assumed, the youngest ever Prime Minister of New Zealand, though, at thirty-seven, she was the youngest in a hundred and fifty years. Nor was she the first woman; New Zealand, which, in 1893, was the first country to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections, had already seen two female Prime Ministers. Internationally, though, these nuances didn't matter so much. Ardern's rapid ascent was a welcome contrast to the painful evidence emerging from the #MeToo movement of men's abuse of power. When she gave birth, in June of last year, Ardern was again the subject of adulatory global attention.

New Zealanders were proud of their Prime Minister, but they expected Ardern to get on with things in the Kiwi way, with a minimum of fanfare. (Reflecting the national M.O., her no-frills campaign slogan was "Let's Do This.") When I visited Ardern at her Auckland home, in late 2017, for a profile in Vogue, I was struck by the resolute ordinariness of her existence. She and her partner, Clarke Gayford, a celebrity TV fisherman (a species native to New Zealand), lived in the same three-bedroom suburban house they had shared before Ardern became Prime Minister. They had just renovated, painting the walls themselves. I asked what her recently assigned security detail thought of the house. "They were pretty happy we had a fence," she said. Back then, neither she nor her constituency could ever have imagined that they would face horror like what happened last week, an event that one local political commentator described to me as "New Zealand's own 9/11": fifty people killed at two mosques in the small city of Christchurch, shot dead by a terrorist, as they prayed.

Much of the coverage of Ardern's extraordinary response to the Christchurch killings has praised her compassion, and it's true that she has displayed an uncommon ability to speak on behalf of a grieving nation. A few hours after the attack, she addressed the terrorist directly with words that exuded both eloquence and strength. ("You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject and condemn you.") The next day, wearing a black head scarf, she met with Muslim leaders and asked them what they would like her to do: "Our time is for you to determine." She also hasn't shied away from naming racism and, in particular, Islamophobia as a root cause. When, on Tuesday of this week, she addressed Parliament for the first time since the attack, she opened with the Arabic greeting of "As salaam alaikum." When Donald Trump made a condolence call and asked what support the U.S. could offer, she told him, "Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities."

After a few days, though, Ardern made clear that she was interested in more than a gesture of tolerance. On Wednesday, she made an explicit connection between Facebook, where the shooter uploaded footage of his attack in real time, and the rise of extremism. "There are some things we need to confront collectively as leaders internationally," she said. "We cannot, for instance, allow some of the challenges we face with social media to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis." The tech platforms, Ardern said, needed to take responsibility for spreading hate; she had just spoken to British Prime Minister Theresa May about it. Then, on Thursday, Ardern did something that Americans, in particular, might find unthinkable: with the agreement of the conservative opposition party, she enacted immediate and sweeping changes to the country's gun laws, banning all assault rifles and military-style semi-automatics-a major achievement in a country with a sizable rural population. (Although there are multiple steps currently involved in buying most guns in New Zealand, registration for owners is haphazard; authorities still don't know where the Christchurch shooter acquired one of his weapons.)

Ardern's extraordinary display of empathy in the wake of Christchurch has been linked to the fact that she's a woman. ("Jacinda Ardern just proved typically 'feminine' behavior is powerful," one publication declared.) It could equally be a result of her upbringing, by a police officer and a school cafeteria worker who instilled in her and her sister a strong sense of service. In either case, she possesses something else, which is an unwavering interest in enacting change. From the beginning of her time in office, she has emphasized an outward-looking vision of New Zealand. In our interview, she said that she wanted the country to act as a moral leader in confronting the most vexing global problems of our time. On climate change, for instance, she acknowledged, "We're small, and our contribution to the global emissions profile is even smaller, but we are surrounded by island nations who will feel the brunt of climate change acutely. I see ourselves as having a responsibility to demonstrate that we can and we will lead the charge." That focus on results has always been there-as she told me, "I've been ambitious to change the world but never ambitious for a title to do it"-even if it is not generally described as distinctly female the way that compassion is.

One way in which Ardern is inarguably modelling a new type of gendered leadership is in her dual roles as a mother and a world leader. Last year, she became the first head of a government to give birth in office since Benazir Bhutto. In capitalist societies, it's convenient to think that the hardest work of parenting ends when a woman returns from her maternity leave. (That's if she gets any leave at all.) But I've thought often in recent days about the fact that Ardern has a nine-month-old baby at home. In light of this, her focussed, relentless performance this past week becomes even more awe-inspiring. When I profiled Ardern, she had not yet made public that she was pregnant, though she had spoken previously about her desire for a family. I asked her if, given the fact of a warming planet, she worried about bringing a child into the world. It must have been overwhelming to realize that she now had a role to play in addressing the climate crisis. "But that means I have the power to change things, too," Ardern replied. "It just depends whether you want to take that as a weight of responsibility or just the opportunity of a lifetime."

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The Roots of Jacinda Ardern's Extraordinary Leadership After Christchurch

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In October of 2017, when Jacinda Ardern became the Prime Minister of New Zealand-a country with a population of fewer than five million-she assumed leadership of a place not accustomed to making global headlines. It made few headlines, at least apart from those about Ardern's appointment itself, which was a major news item across the world.

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Imagine, if you can, what it's like to make decisions on which the lives of tens of thousands of other people depend. If you get things wrong, or delay deciding, they die.

Your decisions affect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, resulting in huge economic disruption, mass layoffs and business closures. Imagine you must act quickly, without having complete certainty your decisions will achieve what you hope.

Now imagine that turning your decisions into effective action depends on winning the support of millions of people.

Jacinda Ardern/Facebook

Yes, you do have enforcement capacity at your disposal. But success or failure hinges on getting most people to choose to follow your leadership - even though it demands sudden, unsettling, unprecedented changes to their daily lives.

This is the harsh reality political leaders around the world have faced in responding to COVID-19.

As someone who researches and teaches leadership - and has also worked in senior public sector roles under both National and Labour-led governments - I'd argue New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is giving most Western politicians a masterclass in crisis leadership.

Three communication skills every leader needs

When it comes to assessing New Zealand's public health response, we should all be listening to epidemiologists like Professor Michael Baker. On Friday, Baker said New Zealand had the "most decisive and strongest lockdown in the world at the moment" - and that New Zealand is "a huge standout as the only Western country that's got an elimination goal" for COVID-19.

But how can we assess Ardern's leadership in making such difficult decisions? A good place to start is with American professors Jacqueline and Milton Mayfield's research into effective leadership communication.

The Mayfields' research-based model highlights "direction-giving", "meaning-making" and "empathy" as the three key things leaders must address to motivate followers to give their best.

Being a public motivator is essential for leaders - but it's often done poorly. The Mayfields' research shows direction-giving is typically over-used, while the other two elements are under-used.

Ardern's response to COVID-19 uses all three approaches. In directing New Zealanders to " stay home to save lives ", she simultaneously offers meaning and purpose to what we are being asked to do.

In freely acknowledging the challenges we face in staying home - from disrupted family and work lives, to people unable to attend loved ones' funerals - she shows empathy about what is being asked of us.

The March 23 press conference announcement of New Zealand's lockdown is a clear example of Ardern's skillful approach, comprising a carefully crafted speech, followed by extensive time for media questions.

In contrast, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pre-recorded his March 24 lockdown announcement, offering no chance for questions from the media, while framing the situation as an "instruction" from government, coupled with a strong emphasis on enforcement measures.

Where Ardern blended direction, care and meaning-making, Johnson largely sought "compliance".

Read more: As NZ goes into lockdown, authorities have new powers to make sure people obey the rules

Enabling people to cope with change

Ardern's approach also strongly reflects what well-known Harvard leadership scholar Professor Ronald Heifetz has long argued is vital - but also rare and difficult to accomplish - when leading people through change.

Ardern has used daily televised briefings and regular Facebook live sessions to clearly frame the key questions and issues requiring attention.

Also consistent with Heifetz's teachings, she has regulated distress by developing a transparent framework for decision-making - the government's alert level framework - allowing people to make sense of what is happening and why.

Importantly, that four-level alert framework was released and explained early, two days before a full lockdown was announced, in contrast with the prevarication and sometimes confusing messages from leaders in countries such as Australia and the UK.

Persuading many to act for the collective good

The work of another leadership scholar, the UK's Professor Keith Grint, also sheds light on Ardern's leadership approach during this crisis.

For Grint, leadership involves persuading the collective to take responsibility for collective problems. Much of the prime minister's public commentary has been dedicated to exactly that - and it's been overwhelmingly effective, at least so far, with a recent poll showing 80% support for the government's response to COVID-19.

Grint also argues that when dealing with "wicked problems" - which are complex, contentious and cannot be easily resolved - leaders must ask difficult questions that disrupt established ways of thinking and acting.

It's clear this has happened in New Zealand, as shown in the suite of initiatives the government has taken to respond to the pandemic, including its decision to move to a national lockdown relatively fast compared to many - though not all - countries.

Read more: Where are we at with developing a vaccine for coronavirus?

Of course, not everything has been perfect in New Zealand's or Ardern's COVID-19 response. Ongoing, independent scrutiny of the government's response is essential.

But as my own research has argued, expecting perfection of leaders, especially in such difficult circumstances, is a fool's errand.

It's never possible. Nor should we allow the "perfect" to become the enemy of the "good" when speed and enormous complexity are such significant features of the decision-making context.

Whether you're comparing Ardern's performance against other Western leaders, or assessing her efforts using researchers' measures of leadership excellence, as a New Zealander I think there is much to be grateful for in how she is leading us through this crisis.
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Three reasons why Jacinda Ardern's coronavirus response has been a masterclass in crisis leadership

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Imagine, if you can, what it's like to make decisions on which the lives of tens of thousands of other people depend. If you get things wrong, or delay deciding, they die. Your decisions affect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, resulting in huge economic disruption, mass layoffs and business closures.