Leading as me: Reflections on authentic leadership in complex times

Yesterday’s conversation during our TRACE Leadership Webinar with Sheila Stenson and Andy Knox offered something increasingly rare in organisational development spaces: permission to lead as ourselves. Not as the polished, strategic, always-certain version we sometimes feel pressured to perform, but as the real, curious, sometimes uncertain humans we actually are.

What became immediately apparent is how this practice of authentic leadership supports every element of our TRACE model. Leading with transparency and curiosity helps establish the Task more clearly because we’re working with reality rather than aspiration. When leaders are honest about what they know and don’t know, teams can engage with the actual challenge rather than the sanitised version. The collaborative approach helps us determine the best Route together rather than imposing one from above – recognising that those closest to the work often see paths forward that aren’t visible from the executive corridor. Authentic leadership builds Alignment because people can trust what they’re being aligned around – there’s no hidden agenda, no unspoken tensions undermining the stated direction. It develops Capability because there’s genuine space for learning, experimentation, and honest feedback rather than performance management theatre. And perhaps most critically, it sustains Energy because people aren’t exhausted by performing a version of themselves that isn’t real.

Sheila Stenson opened by exploring what she calls “leading as me” – a deceptively simple phrase that carries profound implications for how we show up in healthcare leadership. In a system that often rewards appearing to have all the answers, choosing to lead authentically feels almost countercultural. Yet as she unpacked the concept, it became clear this isn’t about self-indulgence or navel-gazing. Leading as yourself is fundamentally about creating the conditions where others can do the same.

The transparency piece Sheila explored particularly struck me. We’ve all sat in meetings where the unspoken tension is louder than anything being said. Where everyone knows the emperor has no clothes, but nobody’s willing to say it. Leading with transparency isn’t about oversharing or creating unnecessary anxiety – it’s about naming reality so we can actually work with it rather than around it. When leaders are honest about genuine struggles, it gives everyone else permission to do likewise. That’s when real problem-solving becomes possible. That’s when we can properly define the Task and be honest about what the Route forward actually needs to include.

Her exploration of curiosity as a leadership practice felt equally important. In healthcare, we’re drowning in certainty – or at least, in people performing certainty. We have frameworks, models, best practices, and evidence-based approaches for everything. But complexity doesn’t respond well to premature certainty. The problems our NHS leaders are grappling with right now – workforce sustainability, financial pressures, care quality in stretched systems – these aren’t puzzles with known solutions waiting to be implemented. They’re complex, adaptive challenges that require us to stay curious long enough to discover what might actually work in this specific context, with these specific people, at this specific moment.

Curiosity in leadership means resisting the urge to jump straight to solutions. It means asking more questions before offering answers. It means genuinely not knowing, and being comfortable enough with that uncertainty to create space for collective sense-making. This connects directly to the collaborative leadership Sheila discussed – because if you believe you have all the answers, collaboration becomes theatre rather than genuine partnership.

When Andy Knox introduced the Art of Hosting and the fourfold practice, he offered a practical framework for how this kind of leadership actually happens. The four elements – being present, participating, hosting, and co-creating – aren’t sequential steps but interwoven practices that support each other.

Being present sounds simple until you actually try it in a high-pressure meeting where you’re simultaneously thinking about the next agenda item, monitoring who hasn’t spoken, and worrying about whether you remembered to send that urgent email. True presence requires discipline and practice. It means showing up fully to what’s actually happening in the room, not what you planned would happen or what you’re anxious might happen next.

The distinction between participating and hosting particularly resonated. As leaders, we often slip unconsciously between these roles without recognising they require different ways of being. When we’re participating, we’re in the conversation, contributing our perspective, advocating for our view. When we’re hosting, we’re holding space for others’ contributions, creating conditions for productive dialogue, paying attention to who’s not being heard. Both are valuable, but they’re different muscles, and confusing them creates muddle.

What struck me most about the fourfold practice is its inherent humility. Co-creating – the fourth element – explicitly acknowledges that the best solutions emerge from collective wisdom rather than individual brilliance. It requires leaders to genuinely believe that the people closest to the work often have the clearest insight into what might actually help. This belief fundamentally challenges traditional hierarchical leadership models where insight flows downward and implementation flows upward.

Perhaps what I’m taking away most strongly is this: in a healthcare system facing unprecedented complexity and pressure, the answer isn’t more heroic leadership or more sophisticated frameworks or more rigorous performance management. The answer might be simpler and harder – leaders who are willing to show up as themselves, stay curious in uncertainty, and trust that the wisdom needed exists in the collective if we’re brave enough to host the conversations that surface it. Leaders who embrace the TRACE conditions from a position of humility, partnership, curiosity and kindness.

That kind of leadership requires practice, support, and courage. But given the alternative – more burnout, more churn, more exhaustion from performing certainty we don’t actually possess – it feels like the only sustainable path forward.

Watch the recording here.