Conscious Unbossing

Dawn has worked in hierarchical and collaborative leadership structures for close to 30 years, where long-term tenure and elevation through the ranks was a measure of loyalty and success, and served as a risk management tool for business.

The future of work is trending differently – management and leadership is not the expectation. Financial security, agility, personal fulfilment, and balance are key considerations.

Businesses that are not ready to adapt to appeal to their youngest employees risk a hollowing out of management and leadership in the future, and will fail to engage with short-term employees for it to be a win-win in the moment.

Driven by expertise, personal growth, creativity, autonomy, balance, collaboration, and purpose, they need something more - something different - more congruent to their values.

Equally, the youngest employees can choose to ‘opt out’ or ‘opt in’ and be part of shaping the solution; to reimagine what leadership can look like.

Dawn challenges leaders and younger generations to think beyond short-term metrics of success, personal ambition, and preferences, and consider the enduring cultures, values, and systems they create - igniting a passion for leadership from younger working generations, and trust and sponsorship from those passing the baton on.

About Dawn Stallwood

Dawn Stallwood, podcast guest

Corporate Counsel, Author of Beautiful Leadership, and Chief Integrity Officer Shaping Governance, Leadership and Ethics at the Top

Nearly 30 years Leadership counsel & professional advisory experience9 Beautiful Leadership qualities10 Beautiful Leadership practices1 of 770 UK Notary Public

For nearly three decades, Dawn Stallwood has sat at the intersection of power, principle, and people. She is a corporate and commercial lawyer turned Leadership Counsel and Chief Integrity Officer, and one of only 770 Notary Public’s in the UK. Her practice environment has evolved – in-house, private practice, UK Top 100 Law firm partner, business owner and independent consultant. Dawn has supported owners, boards, senior leaders, and teams across sectors and geographies in deals, collaborations, growth, business as usual and crisis response. Her practitioner life has shown that deals collapse, value is lost, teams fracture and reputations fail, not because of bad strategy, but because we fail to prioritise the human side of leadership.

As a Notary Public, Dawn is the quiet witness in rooms where signatures and transactions decide futures. What she saw behind the paperwork, especially during the Global Financial Crisis, changed her course. In 2010, she founded Floodlight Business, an integrity and impact platform supporting business owners, founders and leadership teams as they navigate value creation, professional relationships,collaboration and legacy.

Turning 50 in 2024, Dawn marked her ‘half-time’ by pouring her experience into a proprietary framework built on Nine Beautiful Qualities and Ten Leadership Practices that make leadership truly attractive, authentic and impacting.

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The Board Integrity Question That Makes Leaders Uncomfortable | Dawn Stallwood
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