2025 has been a year of profound transformation. And yet, amidst the complexity and change, as we arrive at the end of the year at Global Warriors we're taking a stand to celebrate remarkable signs of hope.
Record-breaking crowds are filling stadiums to celebrate women's achievements. Communities are coming together with unprecedented generosity when disaster strikes. Young leaders are stepping up with courage and compassion. Businesses are choosing collaboration over competition to tackle challenges no single organisation could solve alone.
As the year draws to a close, we'd like to invite you to join us in our annual moment of reflection. Where we choose to bring our conscious attention to what continues to inspire, uplift, and motivate us.
Because the story of 2025 isn't just about what's going wrong. Yes, conflict, suffering and uncertainty still exist – and we would never imply that ignoring, minimising or forgetting the challenges we face is the solution.
Yet, there’s power in celebrating the countless quiet acts of bravery happening in every corner of the world—leaders choosing courage over comfort, teams extending compassion when it would be easier to look away, communities weaving connections that lift us all.
When we rise, we rise together.
Courage: The Spark That Ignites Change
Real courage rarely looks like the movies. Often, it's the manager who speaks up in a meeting to say, "I think we're missing something here—let's pause and really listen." It's the team member who admits they don't have all the answers. It's the leader who chooses transparency over polish, showing their team that vulnerability and strength can coexist.
This summer's UEFA Women's EURO 2025 in Switzerland showed what happens when athletes refuse to accept less. Over 657,000 fans filled stadiums across eight cities—shattering every previous attendance record. These athletes didn't just play beautiful football; they demonstrated what courage looks like over the long haul. For decades, women footballers persisted in a sport that undervalued and underfunded them, yet they kept training, kept competing, kept believing they deserved the same platform as their male counterparts. Their refusal to shrink created a cultural shift that's now impossible to ignore.
In 2002, Susana Trimarco's daughter, Marita, was kidnapped and trafficked in Argentina. What followed was an act of courage and love that reshaped an entire nation. Susana refused to give up. She searched brothels herself, posed undercover, followed every lead—not just for her daughter, but for every girl trapped in the same system. Her determination exposed trafficking networks, helped rescue more than 100 women, led to multiple prosecutions, and inspired critical anti-trafficking legislation. She founded the María de los Ángeles Foundation, providing legal, psychological, and social support for victims. Susana was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize not because she found a way through her grief, but because she transformed it into a force for collective protection and change.
This is how we rise. When we face our inner demons—the fear of rejection, the worry that we'll get it wrong, the doubt that our voice matters—we create permission for others to do the same.
Compassion: The Bridge Between Us
Courage opens the door, but compassion is what invites everyone through it. It's the force that transforms a workplace from a collection of individuals into a community. It's what allows us to see past differences and recognise our shared humanity.
When Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica in October 2025 as the strongest storm ever recorded to hit the island, the devastation was unimaginable. With winds reaching 185 mph, the Category 5 hurricane destroyed 116,000 structures and displaced 25,000 people. The weight of loss was everywhere—homes reduced to rubble, livelihoods swept away.
The Jamaica Red Cross mobilized 400 volunteers who assessed damage, distributed relief supplies, and managed shelters. Many of these volunteers had seen their own homes destroyed, yet they continued to show up for their neighbours. This wasn't just an organisation responding—it was a community refusing to let anyone face recovery alone. Volunteers provided not just supplies but psychosocial support, recognising that people needed emotional care as much as physical aid. We see compassion as a living force: the instinct to care for one another even when carrying our own burdens, the choice to show up when it would be easier to turn away.
When wildfires devastated Los Angeles in January 2025, businesses mobilised immediately. Companies like Patagonia collaborated with relief organisations, bringing what they uniquely had to offer: outdoor gear expertise, logistics networks, communication infrastructure. Organisations that normally operated independently suddenly worked in concert, each attuned to what others were doing, filling gaps as they emerged—not one central command dictating action, but multiple entities responding to urgent need, creating a collective response far more powerful than any single organisation could achieve alone.
Compassion multiplies. One leader's approach ripples through their entire team. Others begin showing up more vulnerably, asking for what they need, extending grace to one another. Teams don't become less productive—they become more resilient, more creative, more connected.
Connection: The Network That Holds Us All
Individual acts of courage and compassion are powerful. But when we weave them together through genuine connection, something remarkable happens. We create networks of support that can weather any storm.
Think of starling murmurations—thousands of birds moving as one, pivoting and flowing in perfect synchronicity without any central command. Each bird stays attuned to its nearest neighbours, responding to subtle shifts in movement. The result is a collective dance of breathtaking beauty and precision.
Sara Cox's recent Great Northern Marathon challenge for Children in Need exemplified this. Across five days, she covered 135 miles on foot—five marathons through hills, storms, exhaustion, and pain—raising an extraordinary £7.6 million. Having been bullied as a child, Sara chose to turn her own experience into fuel for change.
It wasn't just her determination that lifted her. It was children with homemade banners. Friends appearing unexpectedly. Dogs joining her on the road. Messages from across the country. Strangers walking beside her when the last miles felt impossible. Sara's triumph reminds us that strength grows in community. When courage meets compassion and connection, the extraordinary becomes reality.
Where All Three Meet
Here's the truth we keep discovering: courage, compassion, and connection are inseparable. They're three facets of the same fundamental shift in how we lead and how we live.
Without courage, we can't step forward into the unknown. Without compassion, our courage becomes reckless, leaving people behind. Without connection, our individual acts remain isolated sparks rather than becoming the wildfire of transformation.
But when all three are present? That's when we truly rise together.
This is the work of the spiritual warrior—not fighting external enemies, but facing our inner demons so we can bring our best selves to the world. It's choosing love over fear, connection over isolation, growth over comfort. And it's understanding that when we do this work, we don't just transform ourselves. We create the conditions for everyone around us to transform too.
Your Invitation to Rise
You already have your own stories of courage, compassion, and connection. That moment when you chose honesty over harmony—that was courage. The time you extended understanding instead of judgment—that was compassion. Every genuine relationship you've built, every time you've asked for help or offered it—that's connection.
These aren't separate from your leadership. They are your leadership.
So, we invite you to ask yourself: Where in your life or work can you be the spark? Where can you stand up for what matters? Where can you extend compassion? Where can you strengthen connections?
The world doesn't need you to have all the answers. It needs you to take one brave step. To offer one act of kindness. To reach out for one meaningful connection.
Together, we are creating the world we want to see—one courageous conversation, one compassionate gesture, one authentic connection at a time.
Let's rise together.
Share your own "Together We Rise" story with us, or join the Global Warriors community to explore the next edge of leadership together. Because the journey doesn't end—it deepens, evolves, and transforms.
