14 August 2025
What I Learned Leading in a War Zone (And Why It Matters in the Boardroom)
Leadership lessons from conflict zones—and why the skills forged in high-stakes settings are the ones missing in boardrooms today.
The first time I was responsible for a decision that could cost someone their life, I was on a rooftop in Sudan. I was in my early thirties, advising on a peace process where the wrong word in the wrong room could unravel months of negotiation. There was no playbook. There was no quarterly review cycle. There was just the weight of a decision that had to be made before the sun set.
I think about that rooftop often—not because corporate leadership is the same as conflict mediation (it isn’t), but because the skills I learned in those high-stakes settings are exactly the ones I see missing in boardrooms today. And the irony is that most leadership development programmes never teach them.
Lesson 1: Clarity Is a Luxury You Can’t Always Afford
In a conflict zone, you rarely have full information. You make decisions with incomplete data, under time pressure, with real consequences. Most leaders I work with in the corporate world are paralysed by uncertainty—they wait for the perfect data set, the comprehensive market analysis, the consultant’s report. Meanwhile, the moment passes.
What I learned in Somalia, and later in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, is that the ability to act decisively without perfect information is not recklessness. It is a discipline. You learn to distinguish between what you actually need to know and what would merely be nice to know. You develop an instinct for the 70% solution—the point at which you have enough to move, and waiting longer creates more risk than acting now.
The ability to act decisively without perfect information is not recklessness. It is a discipline.
Lesson 2: Listen to the Room Before You Speak
In peace negotiations, the most dangerous thing you can do is walk in with a pre-made plan and try to impose it. You have to listen—really listen—to what each party actually needs, which is almost never what they say they want. You have to read the room: who is afraid, who is bluffing, who has already made up their mind, and who is waiting for permission to change theirs.
This is no different in a boardroom. The most effective leaders I know are the ones who resist the urge to be the first to speak. They ask the question nobody wants to ask. They notice the person in the corner who has gone quiet. They understand that leadership is not about having the best answer—it is about creating the conditions for the best answer to emerge.
Leadership is not about having the best answer—it is about creating the conditions for the best answer to emerge.
Lesson 3: Trust Is Built in Small Moments, Not Grand Gestures
In a war zone, trust is everything. And it is not built through team-building retreats or town halls. It is built when you show up in person to a difficult meeting that nobody thought you’d attend. When you follow through on a small promise. When you admit, publicly, that you got something wrong.
I watch senior leaders spend enormous energy on “trust-building initiatives” while ignoring the basics: returning an email, remembering a name, giving credit where it belongs. Trust is not a programme. It is a practice. And the leaders who understand this—who treat trust as something earned in the daily, unglamorous moments—are the ones whose teams will follow them into uncertainty.
Lesson 4: You Cannot Lead from Behind a Desk
The most important leadership lesson I carry from conflict settings is this: proximity matters. In Sudan, you could not understand the dynamics from a report written in an air-conditioned office in Nairobi. You had to be there. You had to sit in the heat, eat the food, hear the stories, see the faces.
In corporate leadership, the same principle applies. The leaders who lose the confidence of their teams are almost always the ones who have retreated—to the C-suite floor, to the strategy offsite, to the data dashboard. The best leaders stay close to the work. They walk the floor. They have lunch with the junior associates. They know what their people are actually thinking, not what the engagement survey says they are thinking.
Why This Matters Now
We are living in an era of permanent uncertainty. Supply chains fracture. Markets shift overnight. AI rewrites entire industries in a quarter. The leaders who will thrive in this environment are not the ones with the best strategy decks. They are the ones who know how to lead when the ground is moving beneath them.
I learned it on a rooftop in Sudan. And every day, in my work with leaders across five continents, I see the same truth confirmed: the skills that matter most in leadership are the ones that are forged in the moments when the stakes are real, the path is unclear, and the only option is to lead.
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14 August 2025
What I Learned Leading in a War Zone (And Why It Matters in the Boardroom)
Leadership lessons from conflict zones—and why the skills forged in high-stakes settings are the ones missing in boardrooms today.
The first time I was responsible for a decision that could cost someone their life, I was on a rooftop in Sudan. I was in my early thirties, advising on a peace process where the wrong word in the wrong room could unravel months of negotiation. There was no playbook. There was no quarterly review cycle. There was just the weight of a decision that had to be made before the sun set.
I think about that rooftop often—not because corporate leadership is the same as conflict mediation (it isn’t), but because the skills I learned in those high-stakes settings are exactly the ones I see missing in boardrooms today. And the irony is that most leadership development programmes never teach them.
Lesson 1: Clarity Is a Luxury You Can’t Always Afford
In a conflict zone, you rarely have full information. You make decisions with incomplete data, under time pressure, with real consequences. Most leaders I work with in the corporate world are paralysed by uncertainty—they wait for the perfect data set, the comprehensive market analysis, the consultant’s report. Meanwhile, the moment passes.
What I learned in Somalia, and later in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, is that the ability to act decisively without perfect information is not recklessness. It is a discipline. You learn to distinguish between what you actually need to know and what would merely be nice to know. You develop an instinct for the 70% solution—the point at which you have enough to move, and waiting longer creates more risk than acting now.
Lesson 2: Listen to the Room Before You Speak
In peace negotiations, the most dangerous thing you can do is walk in with a pre-made plan and try to impose it. You have to listen—really listen—to what each party actually needs, which is almost never what they say they want. You have to read the room: who is afraid, who is bluffing, who has already made up their mind, and who is waiting for permission to change theirs.
This is no different in a boardroom. The most effective leaders I know are the ones who resist the urge to be the first to speak. They ask the question nobody wants to ask. They notice the person in the corner who has gone quiet. They understand that leadership is not about having the best answer—it is about creating the conditions for the best answer to emerge.
Lesson 3: Trust Is Built in Small Moments, Not Grand Gestures
In a war zone, trust is everything. And it is not built through team-building retreats or town halls. It is built when you show up in person to a difficult meeting that nobody thought you’d attend. When you follow through on a small promise. When you admit, publicly, that you got something wrong.
I watch senior leaders spend enormous energy on “trust-building initiatives” while ignoring the basics: returning an email, remembering a name, giving credit where it belongs. Trust is not a programme. It is a practice. And the leaders who understand this—who treat trust as something earned in the daily, unglamorous moments—are the ones whose teams will follow them into uncertainty.
Lesson 4: You Cannot Lead from Behind a Desk
The most important leadership lesson I carry from conflict settings is this: proximity matters. In Sudan, you could not understand the dynamics from a report written in an air-conditioned office in Nairobi. You had to be there. You had to sit in the heat, eat the food, hear the stories, see the faces.
In corporate leadership, the same principle applies. The leaders who lose the confidence of their teams are almost always the ones who have retreated—to the C-suite floor, to the strategy offsite, to the data dashboard. The best leaders stay close to the work. They walk the floor. They have lunch with the junior associates. They know what their people are actually thinking, not what the engagement survey says they are thinking.
Why This Matters Now
We are living in an era of permanent uncertainty. Supply chains fracture. Markets shift overnight. AI rewrites entire industries in a quarter. The leaders who will thrive in this environment are not the ones with the best strategy decks. They are the ones who know how to lead when the ground is moving beneath them.
I learned it on a rooftop in Sudan. And every day, in my work with leaders across five continents, I see the same truth confirmed: the skills that matter most in leadership are the ones that are forged in the moments when the stakes are real, the path is unclear, and the only option is to lead.
Explore more leadership resources →
Ready to transform your leadership? Learn about the Lab →
← Back to Commentary