The New Portrait Of Leadership: Authors Lizzie Bentley Bowers & Alison Lucas On Which Legacy Ideas About Leadership Need To Be Discarded, And Which New Approaches To Leadership Should Be Embraced

We are living in the Renaissance of Work. Just like great artists know that an empty canvas can become anything, great leaders know that an entire organization — and the people inside it — can become anything, too. Master Artists and Mastering the Art of Leadership draw from the same source: creation. In this series, we’ll meet masters who are creating the future of work and painting a portrait of lasting leadership. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Alison Lucas and Lizzie Bentley Bowers.

Executive Coaches Alison Lucas, of Randolph Partnership Ltd, and Lizzie Bentley Bowers, of The Causeway Coaching Ltd, are professionally accredited coaches and facilitators, working at board to top talent level across all sectors. Balancing clients’ individual and commercial needs and outcomes, they equip leaders to thrive and to navigate change in their complex and uncertain world. Their combined decades of learning and thousands of conversations with leaders led them to Endings, an overlooked aspect of change that they have since been determined to bring into the leadership conversation. They are the co-authors of Good Bye: Leading Change Better by Attending to Endings and you can find them at GoodByecoach.co.uk.

Thank you for joining us. Our readers would enjoy discovering something interesting about you. What are you in the middle of right now that you’re excited about personally or professionally?

Alison: Right now, we’re in the afterglow of publishing our book, Goodbye: Leading Change Better by Attending to Endings. As first-time authors, this whole process has been full of discovery. It has really stretched us and taught us a lot and it’s a huge moment of pride for us.

Our intention was to start more conversations about how leaders and organizations handle endings, and now those conversations are actually happening out in the world, with readers, leaders, and teams.

Lizzie: We’re especially excited about the connections we’re making with people who are reading the book now. Getting to hear their reflections, joining them in dialogue, and continuing to learn as the conversation evolves is giving us huge energy and feels really rewarding.

We all get by with a little help from our friends. Who is the leader that has influenced you the most, and how?

Alison: We’re deeply aware of the leaders and thinkers we’ve learned from. So much so, we dedicated a chapter in our book to them which we called Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. The book is also dedicated to our origin giants, who are the people in our personal lives that had the most profound influence on us.

For me, that giant is my dad, Dr. Peter Iredale. He spent his entire career in one civil service department, rising from graduate to Director, ultimately leading 3,000 people.

He taught me that leadership is about relationships, not hierarchy. His final act, which was sad and very poignant for him was overseeing the dismantling of the department he had helped build. He insisted the site became a science park, not a business park, believing deeply in its potential to nurture innovation. It is a thriving hub now. Perhaps without knowing it, my Dad’s careful attending to that closure was a source of my interest in ending well.

I now live nearby, and I smile every time I see the sign. It reminds me of his humility, his vision, and a powerful kind of leadership, one rooted in purpose and quiet strength.

Lizzie: My first career was as a secondary school teacher. Dame Mary Marsh was the Head of the second school I worked in and gave me my first leadership roles. Both through her role modelling and through her expectations of us as leaders, she taught me the importance of reflection.

You could always hear the impact of her reflective approach in the way Mary spoke. Her words were considered, thoughtfully chosen, and carefully tailored to her audience and the moment, whether it was to celebrate a milestone or to address a serious challenge.

I often share with leaders the distinction between something being on your mind and truly thinking it through. They’re not the same, although one is often mistaken for the other. Deep reflection doesn’t always take long, but it does take intention. That insight has shaped my whole working life and profoundly influenced my move into leadership coaching.

Sometimes our biggest mistakes lead to our biggest discoveries. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a leader, and what did you discover as a result?

Lizzie: This question really got me thinking about a relatively recent decision I made to invest significant time, energy and finances in a master’s course. I wanted to deepen my understanding of coaching science and positive psychology, and I also wanted to achieve a qualification at that level. It was an experience that delivered in many ways, but it also surfaced difficulties in relation to my own learning struggles that I hadn’t really understood or acknowledged before.

Around the same time as I was on the course, my sons were diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, and I began noticing connections between their learning experiences and my own. Whilst there was a lot of what was ultimately helpful recognition of how I learn, I realized that the qualification, the badge as it were, had carried too much weight in how I decided what, where, and how to study. Would I do the course again? On balance, yes. But I wish I’d understood myself better as a learner before starting, so I could have asked for support, got the most I possibly could from all that investment, and extended myself more compassion along the way.

Alison: Snap! When I transitioned from corporate marketing to executive coaching, I went on many learning journeys. During one of them I failed a written exam, badly. That moment freed me from assumptions about what learning “should” look like. I realized my most valuable learning is experiential, practical, and conversational and that clarity has shaped my growth ever since.

Lizzie Yes! It’s a reminder to weigh up not just what you’ll gain, but how the journey also needs to work for you.

How has your definition of leadership changed or evolved over time? What does it mean to be a leader now?

Alison: For me, leadership is about relationships. Effective leaders go beyond task and delivery. They build relationships that go deeper, ones that care about development, growth, and opportunity.

People remember good leaders, as you highlighted in your first question, not for their job titles or achievements, but for the care, attention, and genuine interest they show in those who choose to follow them. This speaks to your theme of what the future of leadership mastery looks and sounds like. We’ve long believed that mastery of leadership is mastery of yourself, and your impact on others.

Lizzie: Absolutely. I’ve become more and more aware over the years of the ripples that leaders create. The way a leader interacts with an individual, a team, or an organization impacts not just those immediate relationships, but spreads far beyond. For me, the art of leadership is about recognizing how leadership ripples into the homes of your employees, into the wider world that your organization has an impact on, and everything in between. It’s about taking responsibility for leaving interactions in a better, more useful place. This has been a big factor in our choice to work on endings as they can generate especially deep and long-lasting ripples. We wanted to offer a way for leaders to work through an ending in order to help more of those ripples be useful, satisfying and positive, and to make way for the brighter beginnings that can happen when we’re not still feeling ripples of discomfort caused by an ending that has been rushed or avoided.

Success is as often as much about what we stop as what we start. What is one legacy leadership behavior you stopped because you discovered it was no longer valuable or relevant?

Alison: It feels quite in keeping with the question that my answer to this is that we have both become much better at saying no. To be purposeful, we need to value all aspects of our time; thinking time, team time, rest time and family time. Learning to say no increases the quality of our yeses. Writing a book while running a business has definitely sharpened this skill for both of us.

What is one lasting leadership behavior you started or are cultivating because you believe it is valuable or relevant?

Lizzie: In recent years, through writing our book and training as a specialist ADHD coach, I realized I hadn’t been fully paying attention to my own emotions as a leader. While clients always had space to express emotions, when it came to running the business I wasn’t always acknowledging my feelings and what they meant for me, or for the decisions I was making business wise.

Now, when strong emotions arise, I pause to identify what is beneath them. Is frustration hiding disappointment or overwhelm, for example? The same goes for so-called positive emotions. Digging into the detail of joy or excitement is just as valuable as exploring frustration or sadness. And we try not to label emotions as fitting into categories, but as sources of insight and information and opportunities. Exploring those nuances frees my thinking, especially about what I want to do next.

What advice would you offer to other leaders who are stuck in past playbooks and patterns and may be having a hard time letting go of what made them successful in the past?

Alison: I’d say that before even trying to do the work of letting go, we encourage our clients to first honour those very things you might need to let go of. Acknowledge what was made possible by those patterns and behaviours, and why it made sense for where you were and what you needed to do then. Showing respect to your former self softens the grip of old habits, especially those tied to identity. And you are then more free to ask: what might be more useful now? That’s where real growth begins.

Lizzie: Yes, you can often even physically see the difference that it makes when leaders do this. They seem lighter. This brings your empty canvas metaphor to mind too, because it’s not wiping that canvas clean and starting again, it’s saying that by acknowledging the past, and how I want to move from it, it opens up a bigger canvas with more space for new choices and possibilities.

Many of our readers can relate to the challenge of leading people for the first time. What advice would you offer to new and emerging leaders?

Alison: When we step into our first leadership role or any promotion we often don’t pause to reflect on how we want to enter this next phase, and what we’re leaving behind.

By skipping that moment, we miss a vital opportunity to consider not just the new responsibilities, but how our relationships might change. Peers may now become direct reports, for example. Our place in the system shifts, and with it, so do expectations from above, alongside, and below.

Understanding shifts in relationships and how you now need to lead others helps clarify where your time should go, and how your sense of value may need to evolve to succeed.

Lizzie:

New leaders can often feel disconnected from the skills and qualities that earned them their role. There’s always more to learn but you’re not starting from zero. My advice would be to regularly reflect on your past achievements and make conscious connections to the skills, strengths and experiences from your past that you bring to today’s challenges.

Avoid telling yourself the story that you’re “new” or maybe not totally ready. Instead, recognize that you’re equipped with your history and ready to lead, learn, and grow even more.

Based on your experience or research, what are the top five traits effective leaders exemplify now? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. End Well

As we say in Good Bye, ending well leads to brighter beginnings.
Effective leaders don’t rush past endings they acknowledge them, honour what came before, and create space for people to move on with clarity and confidence.

Example: One client of ours led the closure of a long-standing business unit. Instead of brushing past it, she gave space for people to share stories, celebrate contributions, and say goodbye. That deliberate ending became a powerful bridge into the next chapter, with more trust and cohesion.

2. Be Constantly Curious

Great leaders never stop learning from others, from themselves, and from every experience. They model a growth mindset and invite curiosity into the culture.

Example: A senior leader we worked with began every team meeting with the question: “What surprised you this week?” It shifted the tone of the conversations from status updates to shared learning and helped build a culture where it was safe to reflect and grow.

3. Stand Your Full Height

As Brené Brown says, “Don’t puff up, don’t shrink, stand your sacred ground.” This means knowing your strengths, owning your impact, and being honest about your limitations.

Example: One executive we coached had a habit of downplaying her abilities. Once she learned to “stand in her full height,” she didn’t become louder she became clearer. That quiet confidence transformed how others responded to her and opened up new opportunities for leadership.

4. Relationship Is Everything

Leadership isn’t about hierarchy it’s about connection. Strong leaders invest in relationships at every level: up, across, and down. They lead through trust, not control.

Example: A client once told us about how the most impactful moment in their career wasn’t a strategy session or a presentation it was when their manager checked in with them during a tough personal time. That simple act of care built loyalty that outlasted any project.

5. Be Generous

Generosity in leadership means giving credit, showing appreciation, and recognizing those who came before you, those who stand with you, and those who will come after you.

Example: During a major product launch, one leader insisted on including the contributions of a former team member who had laid the groundwork years earlier. That act of acknowledgment didn’t just build goodwill it reminded everyone that legacy matters.

American Basketball Coach John Wooden said, “Make each day your masterpiece.” How do you embody that quote? We welcome a story or an example.

Alison: I try to be mindful about how I spend my time and energy. It’s not about perfection but noticing what matters. Sometimes, it’s a proper check-in with a colleague or fully switching off with loved ones. Those small moments can mean more than any meeting.

Lizzie: I take a moment towards the end of each day to note what I’ve appreciated. In a lovely piece of synchronicity with what Alison just said, it’s something that not only grounds me in gratitude and all the wellbeing benefits that come with that, it also helps set the tone and intention for the day ahead. Something I now try and do to that end is to add a ‘to be’ list alongside my ‘to do’ list so that I’m intentionally thinking about how I want to show up, not just what I want to achieve. Crucially, when I reflect on what I’ve appreciated at the end of the day, I also consider the part I played in those moments in terms of the strengths I brought and the contribution I made. It’s a helpful reminder that I shape my environment as much as it shapes me.

What legacy do you aspire to leave as a leader?

Alison and Lizzie: All the clients we’ve accompanied on their journeys hold a place in our hearts. Our hope is always to leave them, and everyone they ripple out to, in a better place.

Good Bye is our way of offering that legacy more widely. It’s our contribution beyond the clients we work with directly, and we hope it sparks hundreds, even thousands, of conversations that help organizations face endings well and thrive because of it.

How can our readers connect with you to continue the conversation?

Please connect with us on LinkedIn @Lizzie Bentley Bowers and @Alison Lucas, or email us at hello@endingsforbeginnings.co.uk. You can find out more about Good Bye at GoodByeCoach.co.uk

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to experience a leadership master at work. We wish you continued success and good health!

About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.