It’s an interesting time in the industry. Just a quick scroll of TikTok can open your eyes to the undercurrent: quiet quitting, act your wage, resenteeism. Some brave faces have tried to coin how people feel, but haven’t these trends been going on for generations?
It should alarm us if we are losing future leaders to other fields. TikTok might predict what 2030 leaders need. In an industry dominated by traditional, linear thinking and rigid structures, there is a collective yearn to slow down and force authentic connections.
In this frenzied and celebrated “hustle culture,” when was the last time your team was not worried about the next deadline or had that anxious ball in their stomach the night before Monday morning?
Where is the time to experience that moment of true connection and how are we inspiring our teams?
How are we ensuring that the talent in the room always feel seen and championed to give their best work–away from the run-of-the-mill that plagues the industry today?
Is there hope?
Yes- as a leader, it requires daily devotion and hard work to express a deep level of truth and embodiment. I think the latter word is the key – to be in my body and operating with an open mind and an open heart, congruent and in harmony with one another.
Most of the time, our environments favour one over the other – a linear way of operating and being in the mind which can cause a lot of dysregulation, which then kills our inherent capability to create – to be creative when we are in flow.
Understanding the system allowed me to find a path of co-existence by embracing personal agency. Inner work led to external expansion, authentic connections, and purpose-led creativity
What do you think is needed to inspire this creativity?
In the past, we have rallied our teams to be brave. While that still holds true, there seems to be a greater need to create an environment where leaders must now return to virtue. Throwback to last summer–I was visiting a castle in Provence and was ushered in the King’s Court.
Down the majestic halls I saw 8 pillars–written on each were the values the King and his leaders lived. Stewardship, integrity, honor, respect to name a few.
As I listened to the history of this prosperous kingdom, I realised that the return to virtue, the leaders, the system living these values create the element of safety.
It ladders up to emboldened creativity for our teams and our industry at large. We have to overhaul the consciousness of organisations.
What do you mean by overhauling the consciousness of organisations?
There was a quote by psychologist Kurt Lewin: “If you truly want to understand a system, try to change it” which really struck me when I first encountered it and it has stayed with me over the last 19 years as I worked in largely male-dominated industries in the region.
Lewin also advocated that you cannot change a system unless you embrace transforming consciousness. To transform consciousness, it’s essential to help the system become self-aware.
This involves shifting from mere thinking to feeling, essentially, thinking with your heart and then taking action based on this deeper understanding. It’s not about choosing one approach over the other; it’s about finding balance.
Currently, there is an overemphasis on one aspect at the expense of the other. It is because our current educational and leadership training systems largely neglect these subtle but vital elements.
Emotional support is often overlooked. When it comes to consciousness-based leadership and systems change, incorporating these qualities is indispensable.
Rebalancing how?
We must embrace feminine qualities like empathy or the capacity to hold space, sensing and being present for another to create a truly inclusive and caring culture in a predominantly masculine world that has historically valued competition, hyper-performance, linear cycles, logic and strategy as the utmost and sometimes non-negotiable priorities.
The simple ability to actively practice the feminine qualities of listening with compassion, or holding space for another with the intention to create safety so that the other may feel seen.
These are the types of leaders that can attend to the whole, akin to a matriarchal system–it’s activating the “mother-of-all” archetype; a giving, nourishing energy we have all benefited from. These are the leaders that can sense a system–or an ecosystem really and have the ability to connect others to it and create expansion and growth.
Feminine leadership isn’t just about more female leaders; it’s about balancing yin and yang across industries. C-suite executives must focus on inward reflection and build HR teams that understand this. A radical change beckons.
Kristine Lasam leads the creative agency for Accenture Song while spearheading Inclusion and Diversity and CSR for Accenture Middle East. She is a creator of embodied, feminine leadership–and an inclusive and caring work culture.
