It’s no secret that business founders, entrepreneurs, and executives – those in the C-suite –face constant challenges and concerns in their demanding and responsible roles. Some thrive on being “always on”, concocting a solution and getting buy-in from the team to make things happen.

In contemporary leadership, it's becoming increasingly clear that leading with a human-centric approach above all else distinguishes the great from the good. Traditionally, the divide between “personal” and “work” was an accepted norm, but in the 2020s, it’s becoming accepted that the ability for leaders to connect with their team members on a human level fosters authentic relationships and enables them to lead every individual to their full potential. This creates a ripple effect of benefits for the organisation. 

In this article, Brian Eager of Towerstone introduces us to what he considers the new era of leadership. This, according to Brian, will see a shift from authoritarian and bureaucratic stagnation to agile and inclusive leadership.

Father of modern management thinking, Peter Drucker famously said: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". What is culture, though? For many business leaders, who deal in tangibles, this concept is an ethereal, unquantifiable notion. But culture, at its most rudimentary, is ‘how we do things around here’, i.e., how we behave together. To break it down into a simple formula: leadership equals culture equals performance. 

In today’s fast-paced and often disrupted work environment, mental health and overall wellness can’t be avoided. It demands attention from employers and employees alike. Essentially, taking care of your own and your team members’ well-being means trying to help them stay in a toward state and switched on where they can function at their best (i.e., avoiding triggering the fight/flight/freeze response that put people in an away state and switch them off). 

As we emerged from the Covid-19 disruption, the "Great Resignation" and "Quiet Quitting" became phenomena that shaped our new world of work. People re-evaluated what fulfills them and prioritized finding work-life balance.

Not only does September put the spring back in our step, Arbor week and Heritage Day also reminds us to invest in the environmental and social sustainability of our beautiful world. However, although values like sustainability and inclusion are budding blossoms all over the dry branches of past mistakes, it will not bear lasting fruit without consistent effort.