The Invitation

Our 2027 theme is:

What creates the conditions in which people can lead as their best selves?

We know:

The qualities of leadership that matter most: courage, purpose, trust, curiosity and humanity. Yet in a world of increasing complexity, pressure and uncertainty, these can be some of the hardest qualities to sustain, not because of who we are as leaders, but because of the systems and cultures we work within.

Leadership never happens in isolation. It is shaped by relationships, culture, structures, incentives and the wider systems within which we work. The question is not  simply “what makes a good leader” but “what enables good leadership”.

Expectations of leadership are changing. Boards, regulators and wider society rightly continue to expect accountability, integrity and sound judgement. Yet those who experience leadership every day speak of something else. They seek fairness, compassion, respect, trust and psychological safety. Leaders who create environments where people flourish rather than merely perform.

These are not competing agendas, they are different expressions of the same challenge: how do we create organisations that are both high-performing and deeply human?

This is an opportunity to join the conversation and co-create our time together through the questions you carry. To give a flavour of what our emerging questions might include:

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• How do we close the gap between the leadership we value and the leadership we practise?

• What helps us lead as our best selves, even under pressure

• How do organisations enable or inhibit the leadership they say they value?

• What role should technology, accountability and AI play in supporting, rather than replacing, human leadership?

• How do we create the conditions where leaders, and leadership, can flourish?

• What responsibility lies with individual leaders, and what responsibility lies with the systems they inhabit?

• How can organisational cultures better support relational leadership?

• Which assumptions about leadership need to change?

• How do we balance performance with humanity?

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