Heidi Barnard,
Head of Sustainability
“I realised the power wasn’t in the artwork, it was in the feelings it evoked and the conversation it sparked.”
Sharing the Compass
Sharing something so symbolic felt vulnerable. But as soon as I began talking it through, I realised the power wasn’t in the artwork, it was in the feelings it evoked and the conversation it sparked. The imagery freed me from leadership jargon and allowed for different, more meaningful questions.
It reminded me of a recent conversation with a third-party colleague, where I unexpectedly learned he was once an Olympian alpine skier. A reminder that leadership is never a fixed set of traits. It’s a living practice. To understand it, we often need to step outside familiar forms and explore our hidden depths.
What Matters Most
Honouring intuition
Leadership in complex systems isn’t purely logical. It requires sense-making, pattern-spotting, and the courage to sit with ambiguity. Letting images guide me helped unlock that space. In complexity, we often sense things long before we can articulate them.
Acknowledging complexity
The compass isn’t neat or symmetrical. Neither is real-world leadership, especially in sustainability and systems change. The design mirrors the work: dynamic, textured, interdependent. Not idealised. Not simplified. Just real.
Staying grounded in purpose
Every element ultimately points back to service: supporting others, enabling progress, creating conditions for people to flourish. That clarity keeps me steady when the landscape inevitably shifts.
Reflection
This experience was more than a reflective exercise. It gave me a tool to return to, reminder of who I am when I lead at my best. A map of the forces that support and challenge me. A way to notice when I’m being pulled off-centre and how to come back.
Most importantly, it’s a conversation starter: about how we lead, what anchors us, and how we create environments where others can thrive. And if nothing else, it offers you all a small window into just how deeply and delightfully weird I am and how ok I am with that.
