On Being the Change and Helping Others Achieve the Same

Leadership is the act of bringing people together to achieve things they would not have done on their own. The best leaders catalyze the collective into being greater than the sum of its parts. We see examples of it every day all around us—in neighborhoods, in workplaces, in politics, in sports. Like a pebble thrown into a calm body of water, sometimes the smallest of acts can have a big ripple effect. The leaders who are hungry for firsts say yes when everyone else says no. They have the courage to be the change.

Over the past 18 months, our families, our employees, our clients and our world has faced and continues to overcome a seemingly insurmountable set of challenges. During this time, some amazing things have happened. People took time to reevaluate their careers and lives, incredible advances have happened at record speed in healthcare, DE&I has become not only a business imperative but a top one at that, social justice has become an issue around which people of every background are rallying, and stakeholder value is gaining prominence alongside shareholder value. Albert Einstein captured it well: “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Why Change One Company When You Can Change the World?

I am a passionate believer that business leaders have a role to play in creating a better world.

At Russell Reynolds Associates, we guide companies on leadership challenges as they build, grow and transform in this increasingly complex world. We have sought out every possible opportunity to help change the world through our daily work. We find leaders with bold ambitions to improve the world around us. Our purpose, our raison d'être, is to improve the way the world is led.

Why? Because this is what is at stake:

• A Kenyan woman who is locked out of the traditional banking system applies for micro finance in Nairobi and lifts her family out of poverty.
• An 87-year-old grandfather who gets the Moderna vaccine can finally see his family again.
• A company in California, supplied by PG&E, has continuous electricity for the first time since the fires.
• A Chinese restaurant worker is one of 5 million people who can get to and from a destination safely on the Shenzhen Metro amid a pandemic.
• A company launches a product for blood tests that can detect cancer before symptoms occur.
• The African Development Bank has the leadership team it needs to continue to drive sustainable economic development and social progress in sub-Saharan Africa.

Each leader we help identify, recruit and develop has an opportunity to create a critical societal impact. We identify leaders with the will, passion and skill to make a difference. We continue to work to change the face of boardrooms across the world and help drive inclusivity, sustainability and adaptability. Recent engagements with our clients led to the first transgender CEO leading a luxury business and to (the only) two Black female CEOs currently running Fortune 500 businesses. Every day these executives lead their companies to new firsts, the impact of which ripples across communities and individuals in every corner of the globe.?

Being the Change

The time of simply talking the talk is over; we have to walk the walk. We must not only be the change ourselves, but we need to help other companies and leaders achieve the same. As one of five siblings growing up in a big Irish Catholic family, I learned at a young age that competition and collaboration not only co-exist but are interdependent.

We have pioneered programs and partnerships to help develop and recruit Black executives, starting with mobilizing our own industry to join forces to tackle the issue of underrepresentation of Black leadership in Corporate America. We have partnered with the United Nations Global Compact to advance sustainable business leadership, launching a first-of-its-kind analysis of the behaviors and competencies possessed by sustainable leaders. We are founding members of the 30% Club, a global campaign led by board chairs and CEOs that seeks to increase gender diversity at board and senior management levels. We look deep within and challenge ourselves, and we inspire and empower one another to be the change.

I invite you to share with me and other readers your stories of firsts and how you too are leading change in your organization. The more we share with one another, the more we change the world together.?