Hello!
To state the bleeding obvious, there is a lot of negativity in the air right now. In the news, in our feeds and in day-to-day conversations. We know that fear is contagious and travels fast, and I suspect outrage travels even faster, which is why it's so prevalent across the socials. Weirdly, I've been feeling a bit more buoyant than those around me. I can't work out why but it could possibly be to do with a fabulous two weeks in Kenya (I know), and also seeing this all through a systemic lens in which the pendulum is constantly swinging from one side to another. I'm not sure tbh - but it did take me down a rabbit hole about optimism, hope, negativity and fear. Read on if you're interested...
Fear and outrage narrow our leadership. They pull us into threat-mode, shorten our time horizons and reward certainty over curiosity. Under their influence we become more reactive, more rigid, and more focused on control than connection. It often looks decisive on the surface, but underneath it erodes trust, weakens judgment, and makes it harder to stay human in the face of real challenge.
What's the alternative? Well, it certainly isn't pretending everything is fine! There are genuinely terrifying things happening on the world stage. There are the events in America and Iran, and a sense of instability that feels both global and close to home. It would be naive, and frankly disrespectful, to gloss over that. I’m not interested in optimism that asks us to look away - I am increasingly interested in what happens to our leadership when fear becomes the dominant lens through which we view the world.
I'm conscious that I'm echoing the words of Dame Deborah James, but perhaps choosing optimism could be quietly rebellious? When researching this, I also came across Rebecca Solnit. She says 'Hope is not optimism. It’s a form of resistance'. Unpacking it further, her core idea is that hope is active, not passive. It’s about staying open to the possibility of change even when the evidence looks grim, precisely because history shows that progress often happens unpredictably, quietly, and against the odds. That’s where the “rebellious” quality comes in: hope refuses the story that nothing can change.
So, back to Kenya 😊
I first went there in 2004, and I’ve returned a couple of times in more recent years. Something that you might not know is that conservation efforts are really working. It seemed evident to me that there were more animals. Researching this I found ...
🐘 Elephant numbers in Kenya have grown significantly over the last two decades, reaching 30,000 in recent national counts and exceeding 42,000 by 2025, reflecting real conservation progress after the severe declines of the late 20th century.
🦏 Black rhino numbers in Kenya have steadily recovered over the past two decades, growing from a few hundred animals in the early 2000s to well over a thousand today, as a result of sustained protection, habitat management and anti-poaching efforts.
🦒 I was volunteering at a giraffe conservancy for a week when I was there, so what about the giraffes? While giraffe populations across Africa have declined, parts of Kenya have seen stabilisation and recovery of certain species over the past two decades, driven by targeted conservation programmes, protected habitats and community-led conservancies.
If I’d only relied on headlines, I might assume things are moving in one direction only. But standing there, seeing it with my own eyes, I could see that there were more animals and structured, community led conservation projects.
Closer to home, the headlines make it feel like London is more dangerous than ever. However, I read this morning that London homicides are lower than they were ten years ago. It doesn’t mean there’s nothing to worry about. But it does complicate the story we’re often told, and I think that complication matters. What we repeatedly pay attention to shapes how we think, how we lead, and how we relate to one another. As leaders that has real consequences as what we amplify becomes culture.
When fear leads, we tend to default to control, certainty, and simplification. When optimism is present, the grounded kind, it allows for openness, learning, and better decision-making. It helps us hold multiple truths at once, rather than collapsing into extremes. And that's not to say that fear isn't the absolutely appropriate response to some of the things we're witnessing. It comes back to this idea of polarities. I'm aware I keep going on about it (!), but that's because I increasingly think it's the work of leaders to be able to hold this complexity and ambiguity. How do we hold some optimism alongside fear, some hope alongside threat and maybe even openness alongside protection? When fear dominates, leaders narrow, harden and collapse complexity in the name of certainty. When optimism dominates, we risk denial and naivety. The work, as ever, isn’t about choosing one or resolving the tension, but learning to hold both. In an age that rewards certainty and fear, this both/and capacity is, in my mind, one of the most important leadership muscles we can build.
So this isn’t a call to ignore what’s wrong with the world but an invitation to hold a wider lens. For me, holding the systemic perspective helps. As does thinking about polarities. And I also know that my best ideas and creativity come when I'm consciously choosing to pay attention to the positives. Happy 2026 and here's to a year of community, courage and connection.
Rox xxx