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Question Of The Month
How can leaders reflect on their year in a way that deepens humility, gratitude, and commitment to serving their people?
At the end of October 2025, an important advancement in corporate reporting in South Africa was released. The Institute of Directors in South Africa (IoDSA) and the King Committee of South Africa released this iteration, known as King V, which is a significant move forward, as the landscape has shifted in the past nine years since the previous disclosure framework. In this article, we take a closer look at the issue of intent in corporate governance reporting, and we turn our attention to the key issue of legitimacy and why you should care about it.
In this thought-provoking message, Simon Sinek challenges a common misconception: that humility is a sign of weakness or softness in leadership. He argues that humility is, in fact, one of the greatest strengths a leader can cultivate because it shifts the focus away from ego and towards service — the true essence of leadership.
According to Sinek, humility equips leaders to create environments where people feel safe, supported, and empowered to give their best. It turns leadership from a position of privilege into a responsibility of stewardship.
For more information regarding the above, please e-mail events@legitimateleadership.com
Question Of The Month
By Paulette Daniels, Associate, Legitimate Leadership.
Question: At the beginning of a new year, what is the most important intention a leader should set to create the conditions for better relationships and performance?
Answer: At the beginning of a new year, leaders often return refreshed, optimistic, and focused on the promise of improved results and renewed momentum. Employees likewise re-enter the organisation with anticipation and hope for what lies ahead. Yet beneath this sense of renewal lies a more complex reality: the previous year often ends with incomplete initiatives, unfulfilled targets, partially delivered projects, and unresolved relationship dynamics. These residual pressures do not reset automatically on the calendar; they carry over into the new year unless addressed.
From a Legitimate Leadership (LL) perspective, the most essential intention a leader can set at the outset of a new year is to intentionally invest in the quality of relationships through emotionally mature, values-aligned leadership behaviour. This intention recognises that sustainable performance is not driven primarily by strategy or targets, but by the relational conditions leaders create. Intentional Relationship Building as a Leadership Discipline – Know Your People. Read the full answer by clicking here.
To submit your question, email info@legitimateleadership.com
Article: Leading Through Challenge & Change: Reflections From HCSA 2025
By Sean Hagger, Managing Director (International), Legitimate Leadership.
Back in November, I spent two days at the Telford International Centre with 900 healthcare procurement and supply chain professionals for the HCSA Annual Conference & Exhibition. Since then, I’ve been travelling and working in the USA and South Africa, which has given me time to reflect on what was a truly great conference and some genuinely inspiring conversations about leadership.
The theme, ‘Collaborate to Innovate’, couldn’t have been more relevant to the challenges facing NHS procurement teams today.
Legitimate Leadership have been partnering with the HCSA for the last couple of years as part of their learning and development programme. This year, as part of our contribution to this wonderful annual conference, I offered to run complimentary coaching sessions for attendees.
The reason is simple: leadership is difficult. If someone can spend 45 minutes or an hour with me and take away a few useful pieces of information, get some stuff off their chest, or share a problem, then that feels like a valuable use of time, both mine and theirs. If they can come out of one of these sessions feeling a little bit more motivated, a little bit more clued in as to how to solve their problem or just experiencing that ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ feeling, then I reckon that’s been worthwhile.
Read the full article by clicking here
Article: Good Leadership? It All Starts With Trust
By Abbey Lewis, Harvard Business Review.
COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE BY SEAN HAGGER, MANAGING DIRECTOR (INTERNATIONAL), LEGITIMATE LEADERSHIP: Trust is an essential component of any high-performing group. The leadership of that group builds trust in two fundamental ways – firstly, by being overly concerned about their people; they know them as human beings and understand what drives them – it’s not just about learning about their personal lives. It’s about learning about who they are, what they stand for and why. Secondly, leaders gain trust by trusting others. They have to relinquish control. This is a leadership paradox: to gain control of the things, they must let go of control over the people.
Our summary of the article: The article makes a strong, timely argument that, in today’s organisational environment, marked by rapid change, rising employee expectations, and widespread institutional scepticism, trust is no longer just a leadership virtue; it is the core operating system of effective leadership. Without trust, even the most sophisticated strategies fail to gain traction. With trust, people engage, collaborate, innovate, and stay.
At its heart, the article reinforces a simple but profound truth: leadership success depends less on technical competence and more on the quality of relationships leaders build. And those relationships depend on trust.
1. Trust is the defining asset of high-performing organisations
Drawing from research and real-world examples, the article explains that trust-rich cultures outperform others in almost every measurable way:
- higher engagement
- stronger innovation
- lower stress and burnout
- more initiative and better problem-solving
- lower turnover
Employees in high-trust environments are more willing to take risks, offer ideas, and lean into challenges because they feel protected rather than exposed.
Read the full article by clicking here