We are the leaders we have been waiting for — A Call to Conscious Leadership

bongiwe53
Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: Sep 1

Leadership failures, corruption and global turmoil demand a new kind of response — and that response must be “conscious leadership,” Brenda Kali told women media leader in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kali was delivering the keynote address at the fraymedia Foundation’s Rise & Shine Women in Media Breakfast on August 22, 2025, where she called on women leaders to rise “despite the odds” and embrace courage, compassion and integrity in political, corporate and personal spheres.

“The world is heavily tormented at the moment. The global leadership crisis. Conflict. Chaos. The rise of national sentiment. Failed political leaders who hang on to power. Shifting global narratives. It never ends,” she said.

“Somewhere in the world today, at this very moment, a mother mourns a child. A partner feels a sting with betrayal. A man sits in silence, stripped of his word. A young girl endures the unspeakable act of rape. And an accident leaves a bright young student in a wheelchair.”

Drawing from her personal story, Kali reflected on the accident that left her 21-year-old daughter in a coma for ten months. “She was breathing when she was absent. Present yet gone. Admitted dead to us. As such, searching desperately for her essence. And in that searching, I found myself plunged into question: What is life? What is death? What is consciousness? And what is the purpose of this life?”

She told the audience how this experience, combined with her disillusionment in the corporate world, set her on a global journey. “The search took me on multiple journeys across the world and like many in search of truth and consciousness, I wanted to deepen the power of purpose, productivity, profit and responsibility infused with the different kind of thinking and being in the world.” For Kali, this search for meaning revealed one lesson:

“We as human beings must marry the technology of how to make a living with the psychology of how to live, because all living challenges are here and they are not optional.”

Turning to South Africa’s own challenges, she criticised corrupt leaders and executives:“Politicians feed at the trough while people go hungry. Corporate leaders destroy livelihoods through shareholder grain. Greed becomes a system and indifference and silent partner, the most destructive force of any country or business, are corrupt and crooked politicians and narcissistic business leaders.”

But even in this crisis, Kali stressed hope.

“Every decay is worth renewal, every shadow offers the possibility of life out of the hot mess of our times. And new kind of leaders must arise … a conscious leader.”

She challenged women in the room to claim their power: “Women must stand up and show themselves to rise to power despite the odds. Because, we don't show ourselves enough because we know these corridors we have walked.”

Conscious leadership, Kali explained, is not about “flowcharts, metrics, data and strategy” but about “humanity, about the transparency of industry. You cannot affect integrity. You cannot outsource confession, and you cannot pretend to care.”

She urged the audience to see leadership as a moral choice. “For in every political arena, in every boardroom and in every home, we face the same choice to surrender to greed and corruption, cruelty and brutality, or to rise to courage, compassion and clarity.”

Concluding with a challenge to women in media, she declared:

“The world needs you not to play small. The world needs you awake. It needs your voice, your fire, your compassion, your courage. It needs your boundless capacity to nurture, uplift in need.”

Kali ended with a call to action: “The time is not tomorrow. The time is not some day. The time is now. And the leaders we have been waiting for are us.