This is an inspiring story, especially to read on International Women’s Day. It makes me reflect on the kind of leadership needed to activate and amplify soft power. I imagine it requires the ability to think beyond widely accepted frameworks and models, and the courage to envision something different. And of course, the inner strength to stay with that vision when challenges appear and the dominant power structures of the world insist, “That will never work.” I’m looking forward to learning more about soft power and how it can be applied in leadership.
The conditions have changed. The cost, complexity, and capacity to solve hard problems at scale have all shifted - structurally, not incrementally. Technology can lower the cost and barrier to entry. We can see it in digital identity rails that cut onboarding costs from tens of dollars to well under one, in payment infrastructure like Brazil’s Pix that now reaches the vast majority of adults including those far from any bank branch, and in AI systems that can execute and adapt across workflows without needing a person in every room.
The inner strength you are describing matters in this context. As your work demonstrates, it is the factor that determines whether a leader can actually use these new conditions - or whether they stay inside the old frameworks because the old frameworks feel safer.
This is an inspiring story, especially to read on International Women’s Day. It makes me reflect on the kind of leadership needed to activate and amplify soft power. I imagine it requires the ability to think beyond widely accepted frameworks and models, and the courage to envision something different. And of course, the inner strength to stay with that vision when challenges appear and the dominant power structures of the world insist, “That will never work.” I’m looking forward to learning more about soft power and how it can be applied in leadership.
The conditions have changed. The cost, complexity, and capacity to solve hard problems at scale have all shifted - structurally, not incrementally. Technology can lower the cost and barrier to entry. We can see it in digital identity rails that cut onboarding costs from tens of dollars to well under one, in payment infrastructure like Brazil’s Pix that now reaches the vast majority of adults including those far from any bank branch, and in AI systems that can execute and adapt across workflows without needing a person in every room.
The inner strength you are describing matters in this context. As your work demonstrates, it is the factor that determines whether a leader can actually use these new conditions - or whether they stay inside the old frameworks because the old frameworks feel safer.