Humanise: Why Human-Centred Leadership is the Key to the 21st Century

CHAPTER 5 Becoming the best version of yourself

‘Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.'

ARISTOTLE

‘I want to be a better person …'

Andrew is a very successful senior executive, with responsibility for strategy across global markets in his firm. When we met to consider the next 12 months I asked what he would be focusing on during the coming year.

‘I'll focus on the things that matter,' he replied, ‘and not lose sight of these when under pressure'.

He then outlined three key initiatives that mattered, in addition to business as usual — one about people and talent, another about a multi-billion-dollar fund and the last involving commercialisation of a new market offer. After stress testing his thoughts, prodding and poking to confirm his thinking, I threw in a curve ball.

‘What really matters to Andrew, to you?' I asked. ‘Delivering organisational results without doing what matters to you would be a poor outcome.'

‘At the end of this year I want to be a better person,' he said after a short reflection, and he proceeded to list a few areas in which he could grow and develop.

Andrew is fit and healthy, financially secure, and has a warm, loving relationship with his wife and children. Many people would say that he has it all, he has it made, which is true by most material measures. He has enough self-awareness, however, to recognise that becoming a better person is a lifelong journey toward a destination that, like the horizon, we never quite reach. As we grow and develop, ...