What Leadership Means To Me Now?

Earlier in my career, I thought leadership was mostly about:

• execution,

• operational excellence,

• accountability,

• delivery,

• and results.

And while those things absolutely matter, my understanding of leadership evolved significantly over time.

I was fortunate to have mentors and leaders who challenged me to think beyond limitations. To name a few:

• Dot Velasco, the Country HR leader when I joined Accenture, consistently advocated for Filipino talent and inspired me to believe that leaders from the Philippines can thrive globally.

• Loida Samson encouraged me to widen my horizons beyond traditional HR work and exposed me to areas including Finance transformation and process improvement.

• Margaret Spink worked with me to secure funding so we could demonstrate Robotic Process Automation and AI solutions, even during the early years when these were not yet common business buzzwords.

At one point, I thought my career would simply remain within the path I originally trained for.

But over time, I was encouraged to step into areas I had never formally studied — including organizational development, process engineering, transformation, organizational design across multiple business functions, technology and automation including robotic process automation and AI, and managing global HR, shared services and operations team.

Those experiences changed the way I viewed growth and leadership.

As someone from the Philippines, I also learned how powerful it can be when leaders genuinely believe in your potential beyond geography, title, or background.

Over time, I realized leadership is not only about expertise, authority, or hierarchy.

Leadership is also about:

• helping people see possibilities in themselves,

• creating opportunities,

• challenging others to grow,

• and believing in people before they fully believe in themselves.

In one of my previous companies, there was an employee who had been rated below expectations and was already on a performance improvement plan. The employee’s manager approached me and asked whether I would be willing to take on and help develop that individual. Apparently, the employee was interested in work related to process migration and shared services transformation, which was part of my remit at the time. After discussing the opportunity and assessing the employee’s foundational capabilities, I decided to invest in his potential. We established clear expectations and provided the necessary coaching, guidance, and development opportunities. Within a year, the employee significantly improved performance and regained confidence. To this day, we still keep in touch, and he is now leading a transition team within a global outsourcing organization. Experiences like this reinforced my belief that leadership is not only about driving performance. It is also about helping people unlock potential they may not yet fully see in themselves.

Today’s workplace still requires:

• innovation,

• operational excellence,

• accountability,

• transformation,

• and results.

But sustainable leadership also requires:

• trust,

• mentorship,

• adaptability,

• empathy,

• and growth.

And increasingly, research is reinforcing the same idea.

McKinsey & Company noted that psychological safety helps create “a safer and higher-performance work environment.” The same research also highlighted that when people feel psychologically safe, organizations are more likely to innovate, adapt to change, and benefit from diverse perspectives.

I believe people perform at their best not when they operate from fear, but when they feel trusted, supported, challenged, and empowered to grow.

That belief became part of the foundation of the ALEX Principles:

Aspire. Lead. Empower. eXcel.

Because great leaders do not just build organizations. They help build people too.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing leadership reflections, operational insights, podcast conversations, personal stories, and research-backed perspectives on leadership and growth in a rapidly changing world.

If that resonates with you, join the Circle.