Because Michael Moka has worked with over 1,500 leaders across Aotearoa and beyond, and delivers executive leadership training at the highest levels, when he talks about career progression – it’s worth listening.

From our interview with Michael Moka on the Zeducation Podcast, we asked him a simple but important question:

“What should our people start doing today if they want to move into senior leadership – maybe even CEO one day?”

Based on years of working with Māori, Pacific and Indigenous leaders in corporate and community spaces, Michael shared three clear, practical tips. These aren’t fluffy ideas but they’re real strategies you can start using now to move from “hard worker” to recognised leader.

Here are his three tips for progressing your career and moving into more senior leadership roles.

1. Stop waiting to be noticed

Michael sees a common pattern with a lot of our Māori and Pacific people in corporate: we work hard, keep our heads down, and hope someone will eventually notice us and tap us on the shoulder.

His message was clear: "that is not enough!"

Michael uses this line to explain it:

Leadership is earned through service, mahi and doing your job well. You still have to deliver. You still have to put the work in. But success – the promotion, the opportunity, the senior role – is given by people in decision-making rooms.

That means people need to know:

• that you want more

• that you are ready to grow

• and that you are serious about leadership

Instead of silently grinding and hoping, start having honest conversations.

You can say things like:

This does two things. It puts your intentions on the table, and it invites feedback that you can act on.

Michael also talked about the idea of sponsors. A sponsor is someone in the organisation who talks about you in rooms you are not in. They might be a senior leader, a project lead, or someone in HR. Build genuine relationships with them. Join projects, working groups, or culture initiatives where these people are involved. When opportunities come up, you want your name to be one of the first they think of.

Michael also reminded us that people make decisions emotionally first and then justify them with logic. If they feel your integrity, your work ethic and your heart for people, you become the emotional choice, not just the logical one.

The shift is this: stop waiting to be discovered. Start being clear, curious and intentional about where you want to go.

2. Use your overtime to build your next role, not just your current one

Michael shared a practical challenge for anyone who wants to move up:

Work out what your next role is, then apply for 20 of those roles – even if they are in different cities or countries.

You might not be planning to leave, but the market will tell you the truth about how ready you are.

If you are not getting interviews, that is feedback. If you are getting interviews but not offers, that is feedback too.

When you get a “no”, ask why. You might hear something like:

Now you know what to work on. This is where how you use your overtime really matters.

Instead of using all your extra hours to work overtime on the same job, Michael encouraged our people to use that overtime to hustle and invest in learning the skills required for the next level.

That might look like:

• taking a course on strategy or leadership

• joining a school, church or community board

• volunteering to help with planning days or projects

• shadowing someone more senior to see how they think and decide

  
  

In other words, study the job you want, not just the job you already have.

Michael put it bluntly: if you are using all your energy doing overtime on the same job, you might be stealing from your future $100-an-hour role just to earn an extra $20 or $30 today.

The people who move fastest are the ones who treat their career like a long-term investment. They do their current job well, but they also put intentional time into building the skills, experiences and relationships needed for the next one.

3. Get into rooms where decisions are made

The third tip Michael shared was one we do not talk about enough in our communities: if you want to fast-track into senior leadership, you need to get used to being in decision-making spaces. That starts with boards and governance roles.

You do not have to start with a big corporate board. You can begin with:

• a school board

• a church or faith-based board

• a community or charity trust

• an advisory group or local kaupapa

Boards give you something most operational roles do not: context. You learn how high-level decisions are made about money, people, risk, strategy and impact. You hear the questions that senior leaders ask. You see what they focus on.

For Michael, joining a charity board and setting up an advisory board for Indigenous Growth put him in rooms with people from Microsoft, the NZ Film Commission, universities, and major New Zealand companies. Those relationships built over time. They came from serving, delivering and showing up consistently.

That is when you start to get the “tap on the shoulder” – not by accident, but because you have been visible in spaces where leadership is expected and tested.

Michael was very honest about what does not work:

Just doing your job really well, keeping quiet, and hoping one person will notice.

For Indigenous, Māori and Pacific professionals, we need more than quiet excellence. We need to hustle smarter, be intentional about where we show up, and get comfortable with being seen as decision-makers, not just doers.

Final thought: leadership is earned, success is given

From our kōrero with Michael, three things stood out.

First, make your intentions clear. Stop waiting to be noticed.

Second, invest your extra time in building skills for your next role, not just surviving your current one.

Third, get into rooms where decisions are made, even if you start small with local boards.

Leadership is still earned through service and mahi. But success is given when people in the right rooms know who you are, what you stand for, and what you are capable of.

Your job is to make sure that when those conversations happen, your name is already in the mix.

Listen to the Full Episode