20. Answering the unsettling questions about leadership

With the expedition two months in, this episode focuses on nine of the members. Their experience so far. What they have learnt. What has sent them into a whirlwind of confusion. What has settled some issues in their minds.

For the first two months they have been speaking to women the world over. In villages and in boardrooms. In Nigeria and in Canada. In their teens and in their eighties.

It has caused Katya to think about ‘inner work’ and Alia about ‘leadership perspectives anchored in the global north’. It has prompted Ana Luz’s awe of women in politics and Isata has tried to answer some of the resulting questions. It has brought many doubts about motherhood to the fore for Anna Kuk and even more for Vidya whose conversations have held up a mirror up to her own approach to leadership. Yvette has been speaking to women who have been senior leaders both as men and as women as they have transitioned.

For Yvette it has confirmed one of her core beliefs that “leadership is leadership is leadership” but it has also raised some unsettling questions about leadership. And for Laura, she has been putting everything into practice immediately as she has started a new job.

This is a messy episode. It should be. We are at the early messy phase of the expedition. Have a listen.