How can citizenship shape the future of leadership?

I had the privilege of facilitating an inspiring conversation for Next15’s Live Leadership Lessons—a series focused on elevating leadership across the organization throughout the year.

Monday’s TIE Leadership session featured insights from Claudio Guedes Fernandes, a representative at the G20 and C20 conferences and economist at Gestos, where he dove deep into the role of active citizenship in shaping stronger, more resilient teams and companies.

We explored the idea that leadership is not just about strategy and decision-making—it’s about empowering people to take responsibility for the communities they belong to, whether in the workplace or beyond.

Claudio’s experience advocating for social justice in Brazil, and his work on the Spotlight Report on Sustainable Development, provided a powerful example of how local actions can have global impacts.

One key takeaway?

Leadership is about accountability.

Claudio emphasized that effective leadership in today’s world requires more than just hitting targets.

We must move beyond the bottom line and cultivate a leadership culture that leads by example, embedding human values into our daily actions and long-term goals.

At the heart of this conversation was the idea that fostering diverse perspectives and creating safe spaces where everyone feels heard and valued is critical to building resilient and effective teams.

The word trust was used a lot.

After all, leadership is not about being the loudest voice in the room; it’s about enabling the collective to solve complex challenges together.

This session left me deeply inspired about the future of leadership at Next15, and I’m confident that by embracing active citizenship, we’ll continue to build a company culture where accountability, trust, and purpose lead the way.

Thank you Samantha Theobald, Kyla Britton, Jessica Harwood MCIPD, Ben Tagoe and everyone that joined the session.

Better Leaders. Better Companies. Better World.

xPhilippa