Leading from the Centre – Creating a Planet Conscious Mindset Across all Industries

Is the green gatekeeper time rather than money?

Two weeks ago, I embarked on a transformational journey with 22 friends paddling the Orange River through Namibia to South Africa. The six days were physically and emotionally challenging but spiritually and mentally nourishing. Each day in small boats for two people and in the 40 degrees heat we moved everything we needed for the whole trip to a new river front site that would be our lodgings for the evening.

It was touch and go as to whether I felt I would have the time to be off grid for so long with business expanding so quickly but I am truly glad that I did. The gains in terms of experience, landscape, deepening of relationships and fitness were huge but there was something else I hadn’t expected. I had lots of time.

I didn’t, in the sense that we were constantly doing something – paddling, putting up tents, eating and clearing up but I did in the way that I had been unknowingly yearning for. The meditation of having to keep going took my mind off the day-to-day usual operations of life and allowed my subconscious to speak to me.

I have been constantly evolving and stretching, launching businesses and initiatives in my mission to serve humanity and the planet. Successfully spinning multiple plates whilst innovating concepts and methodologies to create sustainable mindset change for responsible leadership and to restore and rejuvenate the eco-system. So much so that I realised on my trip that I haven’t been giving myself enough time to enjoy our primary stakeholder which is this beautiful planet that we live on.

I travel a lot, contributing to offsetting and working on the Pathway to Net Positive and am blessed to see the world, but I don’t often have a chance to truly experience it. After the first two days of repetitive paddling, finding our rhythm, my body adapted to the exertion and I could look up from my task and watch the sun, the ripples on the water, take in the flora and fauna and smell the roses as it were.

Working in the space of leadership and planet conscious procurement, I am often talking about symbiosis, the planet and what we need to do. I feel that I am as passionate as anyone can be but during those days, I really felt a sense of connection and responsibility for the future and our ability to flourish in this world.

The gift that made this possible was time. I have been contemplating for some months on the gatekeeper that seems to make it difficult for some organisations to make planet conscious and people centric decisions and the obvious answer has been money but now I am realising that it is also time.

Committing to the Pathway to Net Positive requires knowledge, expertise and constantly updated guidance for what we can be doing differently. Being a leader for both Beyond Bamboo and RoundTable Global I have encountered greenwashing and a lack of self-awareness, but my deep sense is that a lot of the time this comes from a lack of information and knowledge, not intention. That the people in charge of making the decisions do not have the time to make sure that what they are doing is best for themselves, their people, and community in terms of creating a more effortless way of being in symbiotic balance with all things.

We sit in the sweet spot between leadership (responsibility), customer experience (brand and values), sustainability (triple bottom line reporting) and procurement (costs and return).

Whether we are designing sustainability and leadership principles, unlocking potential or sourcing and creating planet conscious products we are constantly giving our customers and clients the gift of time. We strive to make it easy for them to make choices in the knowledge that we have the expertise to help them develop the skills and mindset to adapt to any situation that becoming more sustainable leads too.

As part of the Senior Advisory Council for the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance I have the privilege of working alongside world-class experts and leaders from suppliers and brands that have stepped into the feminine quality of collaboration and are openly sharing their ideas and successes with their competitors to reduce the impact that hospitality is having on this planet. They, like we, gift their time to this worthy cause but I sometimes sense a frustration when it comes to moving the conversations into deliverable and measurable action which of course takes even more time.

This is where leading from the centre comes in – a concept created by us at RoundTable Global that encourages leaders to empower everyone at all levels in the organisation to connect emotionally with sustainability and to take 100% responsibility for what they are creating towards this objective. This is the most honest and effective example of Symbiotic Leadership and what we believe is required for embedded and transformational change to take place.

I am excited to see what the next twelve months brings in terms of our growth and the projects we are embarking on. I am inspired by the leaders that are committing to sustainable practices and am determined to support and create real action towards a world that is more harmonious, collaborative and connected and a human-centric way of working where our talent has the time and the authority to make decisions that matter.

Being planet and people conscious is not a box to be ticked, it is a lens to view life through and something that needs to happen now. We are the role models for the next generation but if we take the time to listen to them we will realise that they also have ideas and solutions for what we need to do.

Every year I am encouraged by the fantastic innovations that the nominees and winners of the Global Youth Awards have created towards empowerment, education, the environment and creativity. They have the mindset to believe that anything is possible in time and are courageously showing us that this is true.

So, reflecting on my journey down the river as I roll my sleeves up to jump back into work, I am making a commitment for myself and our organisations to lead from the centre and ensure that we are practicing inclusive collaboration where everyone is involved in delivering a more human and planet conscious future.

With deep gratitude I thank the organisations and individuals that are embracing that journey with and through us and look forward to sharing our latest programmes and solutions in the coming months.