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My husband and I recently returned from a holiday in Vietnam. I found myself thinking about culture. Not the big obvious parts of culture, like language, history or food, the tiny unwritten rules people just know. In Vietnam, one of those rules is crossing the road. A raging river of scooters, cars, bikes, people and horns greet you at any road. The first instinct is wait for a gap. Except, there is no gap. On our first day I ended up messaging a local friend to ask how one

The mornings are slow to lighten. The grass slows. Trees stand bare against grey skies. The ground is heavier underfoot, and evenings draw us indoors earlier. Across many dairy farms, cows are dry and calf sheds are empty between seasons. Elsewhere, there are wintering animals arriving, stock to feed and mud to manage. But winter carries a different rhythm. The natural world does not apologise for this. It contracts and gathers itself before the next burst of growth. Paddocks

There is a concept in leadership that most people need to “see to be.” Before we can imagine ourselves in certain spaces, we often need to see someone else stand there first. For me, that moment was spring 1999. I was a university commerce student in Wellington when Theresa Gattung became chief executive of Telecom. At the time, Telecom was one of the largest companies in New Zealand. Suddenly, a woman was visible at the head of corporate New Zealand. I remember thinking, if