Over the past few weeks, I’ve traveled across the U.S. and Europe, attending back-to-back leadership conferences. These weren’t your average networking events; they were filled with C-suite executives asking difficult questions in a particularly charged moment: What’s next for DEI? How do we adapt and innovate when it comes to AI? How do we steer employees in a politically divided country? On stage, speakers repeated polished points, but to me, the most important part of what these gatherings offered wasn’t the panel talks—it was the smaller, informal meetings taking place, the standing around high-tops, and the walks to the various meals.

In these candid conversations, leaders spoke with a level of candor and vulnerability that there isn’t always room for at the office. Some asked questions, others gave answers. What unified us all was a strong desire for connection, a resolve to make sense of the world together. Today’s leaders are seeing the status quo rapidly dissolve and are looking for support and guidance. As often as not, they’re finding it in one another, not in town halls or board meetings. 

At one conference I attended, an impromptu group debate over what it means for a brand to have a literal........

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