Insights from 2023

End of the year! I am grateful for leaders with courage to lead with heart and head - you have been sensible and sensitive?leaders?and I am inspired by you.

Lessons and Insights

1. Pace of life and work

It was a much slower-paced year. While I didn't plan it this way, I think it's what my little creative soul truly desired. I even themed the year, Felix, to evoke the idea of a luxuriating?cat. So a fiercely independent cat who follows her own nose is what I was this year.

I managed to write two novels this year!?Terra Blanca?Insurrection, and the forthcoming sequel to?The Olympus?Project,?Olympus Bound, due for release 1 May 2024.?

There was a slower pace that allowed for ritual and reflection, for deliberate living, for savouring the moments that make up a life, like noticing the smell of trees after rain, the delight in the early hours as I make the tea upon waking, the water steaming and crackling softly over the tea leaves, the fall of footsteps on the gravel path to the gym, the changing light of the seasons as evening falls over the hazy hill to the horizon from our deck.

I have lived well this year and I am grateful for it.

2. Redefining success

It's something I'm always raising with clients. How we define success determines our priorities, and more importantly, how we feel and experience the world. Like many, I have (too often) been held in the clutches of a definition of success that is marked only by external factors: the bottom line, number of books sold, external accolades. While those things are important and useful to track progress, the true measure of worth and worthiness does not lie there. It lies in the daily small actions towards the bigger commitment of a meaningful vision.

Reminding myself of this is a daily practice.?

I'm here to be useful to leaders. If I'm doing that daily, then I'm being successful.

3. Creative Destruction

All things pass. Savouring impermanence is still something I am learning to do with grace and a full heart. This may be a lifetime's work. As things fade and finish, this gives rise to something emergent. Mourning loss and making space for the soft tendrils of new beginnings is a bitter sweet process.

While my vision remains the?same, Better?Leaders for a Better World, my mission and the 'how' of my work continues to evolve. I've been mulling and thinking deeply on the nature of power and leadership, and how we might create a movement for a better relationship between the two.

This is what holds my attention next:

1. The Future of?Leadership

The world continues?to change, and?leadership must evolve alongside it to contend with challenges and opportunities. Unfortunately, I see too many leaders and teams that do not do enough reflection, analysis and preparation for what's coming. It's hard work, mostly in grey murkiness with no clear answers, so it's not surprising it's the work that doesn't get done.

I intend to be helpful in this regard with the following programs:

• Future Thinkers?- strategic thinking training for executives (short bite-sized workshops)
• Horizons?- Strategy for the future - facilitated workshops on your strategy so it is fit for the future
• Compass?- Culture for the future - facilitated workshops on your culture to ensure it can deliver on your strategy.

2. Read to Lead

Books are the most leverageable?way I know to reach more leaders around the world. Fiction?and nonfiction?can inspire leaders to think more deeply, to act more courageously, and see the world and others in new and more compassionate ways. Connecting through the written word will become even more of a mainstay for me. I hope you will find the stories and resources provocative and helpful. I am also developing facilitated workshops to build your team's strategic thinking, reflective capabilities, communication and empathy skills. Watch this space.

3. The?Zo? Routh?Leadership Podcast

We will hit close to 400 episodes next year. I will continue to deepen the content and interviews on the show, making it an actionable, useful resource for deepening thinking and taking courageous?leadership action.

4.?Leadership Conclave?- 1 March 2024

I love bringing people together from diverse sectors. There is magic in this cross-connection. I also love deep reflection. I consider it a sacred space and a ritual of my own that I take very seriously. I intend to run this gathering twice per year - once in March, once in October, to harness the energy of autumn and spring respectively. Early bird tickets are on sale now for $250+GST until 21 Dec (next week), then move up in price. I would love for you to be there!

Phew! Thanks for reading to the end :)

It's been an extraordinary year and I am grateful to have shared it with you. You and your courage to lead is something I hold sacred and I honour you for it.?

I hope you find something in my?leadership pathways that uplifts and encourages you. I hold the best for you in my heart and mind now and into the future.

Al the best and may 2024 bring joyous times for you.

Zo??