Inspiring Leadership in the Age of Overload

WIBF was delighted to have Leigh Bowman-Perks give a fascinating talk about inspirational women leaders and how to become one. It was the first WIBF event at HSBC where more than 20 people attended and which was hosted by Tracie Pearce - Head of Banking & Propositions, Retail Bank, HSBC.

Leigh is a trusted leadership advisor, speaker, mentor and coach for global corporations and top teams. Leigh has come from corporate background herself therefore has a lot of practical wisdoms to share.

Leigh rightly stated that with VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world around us there is no place for ego-centric agendas. In groups, we also discussed what inspiring leadership meant for us in the age of overload. Commonly people mentioned the need of leader’s presence, recognition for good work, recognition of overload and what respired the energy in others. Everyone agreed on the fact that they would see a believable, authentic and approachable leader as inspiring, too.

Citing American entomologist and biologist E.O. Wilson ‘we have Palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and God-like technologies’ Leigh meant that we had not evolved much yet and there was a long way to go to reach truly inspiring leadership.

Leigh stressed the importance of leadership for everyone, because she believed even if you were not leading people, you would be leading on something else which made her work quite far reaching.

Research also unsurprisingly revealed that women tended to give up all for work and set higher standards for themselves, thus under-rewarding themselves when things went slightly wrong. Some women in the audience actually recognised that they were terrible at accepting compliments and it touched briefly on another important topic of self-appreciation.

During the session Leigh presented a book that she had written together with her husband and which was a special edition and extended version of ‘Top Tips for Inspiring Leaders’. The book focused on 8 tips for inspiring women leadership and here is a flavour of what it is all about:

1. Moral Integrity – do you challenge toxic behaviour or are you a bystander to them?
2. Meaning and Purpose – live your life on purpose rather than off purpose by being authentically yourself.
3. Health and Wellbeing – be a corporate athlete and don’t wallow in a toxic culture.
4. Wisdom and Judgement – create strategic thinking time in order to make better decisions.
5. Emotional and Social Intelligence – use your emotions intelligently. Build trust and rapport so people willingly work for you.
6. Resilience and Coping with Adversity – be resilient from adversity and learn from it.
7. Brand Reputation and Impact – what’s your image?
8. Leaving a Sustainable Legacy – deeds not words.

All things considered the main takeaway from the session was that we are always one decision away from a totally different life therefore let’s not let our comfort zones let a lot of things pass by.

The topic generated a lot of interesting discussions and questions which proved that there was still a lot to be done in this space, so let’s not waste any time and get on with it!