THE BOOK

There is an emerging consensus that the 20th century ways of leading just aren’t good enough for the 21st century. So where do you start if you want to lead change and transformation?
Change in the 21st century is continuous, ubiquitous, and exponential. It can’t be managed with a mechanistic 3-step or 7-step model – that’s ridiculous. The ground beneath us has shifted, and the mechanistic, linear and reductionist paradigm that have consumed us, no longer apply.
In The New Leaders of Change, Maitri O’Brien, draws on her twenty-five years of international experiences in Fortune 500 companies, bringing a wealth of insights and shares her unique new approach to empower leaders by embracing people-centered leadership.
After two years of intense research, involving in-depth interviews with more than 50 next generation leaders from around the world, the call-to-action is clear: you start with people.
The next generation leaders are transforming themselves, their businesses and the world by putting people, planet and humanity at the center of their leadership. They are leading with empathy, compassion, purpose and courage.
Filled with riveting stories from the front-lines of real-world change and transformation, The New Leaders of Change is the missing manual for next generation leaders, leadership development professionals and CEOs of organisations facing exponential change.
The New Leaders of Change is a critical reminder that all business is driven by people, change involves people and it is always the people who drive change, innovation and transformation. The people-centric principles in this book can be applied to leadership at any level, inviting readers to use another lens – the human lens – that can provide a different perspective and lead to different insights and solution.


What people have to say about my book
#newleadersofchange
An inspiring read on a fresh approach to leadership by the next generation
The New Leaders of Change was an inspiring read. I am energized by how the next generation of leaders will shape the future of business and impact our world in positive ways by leading with purpose.
Janet
Amazon Review
Find new inspiration for your transformation, change, and human-centered leadership.
Do your feel stuck in your corporate transformation or change program? Are you looking for ways to up employee engagement rates? How to better embrace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)? Then this book is for you.
I have had the privilege of working with Maitri for several years. Time and again, we would be discussing why and how some of the change programs we had designed and were involved in didn’t bring the expected results. How it was not possible to provide sufficient space and time for the human dimension. The book provides insightful answers to this quandary. It also led me to reflect on past experiences in more depth.
You will find an encouraging perspective: the Human Experience Revolution. With many tangible, inspiring, and vivid examples.
Eva Maria Scheid
Amazon Review
With an authoritative, engaging and pragmatic style, The New Leaders of Change explores how we listen to and understand the new generation of leaders; how to evolve with them to bring about effective and much-needed change. Specifically, how we use a people-centred lens in an innovative, fresh way and how we harness their passion for purpose, meaning, diversity and inclusion and saving the planet.
Developed based on thoughtful research and a diverse set of interviews, The New Leaders of Change not only provides rich and useful insights but is told against a backdrop of an incredibly engaging personal story; proof of Maitri’s life-long experience of dealing with change and her passion for guiding the next generation of leaders.
Karen Gaydon
Chief People Officer, Board Member and Operating Partner
Fantastic, real-life insights on the next generation of leadership skills, a MUST read.
A thought-provoking; insightful, real-life guide to the skills and approach you need as a next-generation people leader.
Maitri has interviewed leaders across different industries and sectors to bring together the most current insight on how to recognise and potentially develop the next generation of leadership skills. These are distilled into the seven “C’s” of People-Centred Leadership. My favourites are “Compassion – The need to care and help others” and “Change Catalyst – From Managing Change to Being a Catalyst for Change”.
I’d thoroughly recommend this guide as we all learn to navigate the complexities of 21st leadership. As Maitri ends with….. “As long as you demonstrate some of these characteristics, then you can make an increasing difference in the humanistic workplace of the 21st century.”
Martin Summerhayes
Amazon Review
The New Leaders of Change gives us an intimate view of how the new generation of leaders are defining leadership, change, and transformation. Their mandate is clear: regardless of the type of business you’re in, the B-to-B world, the B-to-C world, the C-to-C world, or the A-to-Z world, business is fundamentally H-to-H, human to human. Maitri O’Brien documents that the value of empathy, compassion, courage, and collaboration are more relevant today and they are making a comeback.
In the process, O’Brien liberates the term “humanity” from the stigma of being “too subjective,” and not “true science,” and inspires us to embrace our humanity as a path to building a sustainable and forward-thinking workplace that thrives during times of exponential change.
Chip Conley
Founder, Modern Elder Academy
A highly recommended book for aspiring changemakers and the new generation of leaders! In The New Leaders of Change, Maitri O’Brien offers an intimate look at what this new world led by the new generation of leaders will look like – and how change must happen at multiple levels: personal, interpersonal, organizational, and the world. Maitri O’Brien shows us that people are at the heart of the business. Our shared humanity is actively expressed through compassion, curiosity, collaboration, and connectedness with other people.
It is an impressive effort to collect the stories of a new generation of leaders who have set out to change the world and forge a path for growth and success. I found it inspiring to read about people of my generation and ask myself how I could be a better person and put people in the center of my leadership every day and with every interaction.
Johannes Reck
CEO of GetYourGuide
The New Leaders of Change is an insightful book for leaders of ages who want to lead with purpose, people, and the planet. The new generation of leaders in the book convinces us it is time to shift from the bureaucratic, top-down, command & control ways of leading and bring humanity back into the workplace. As leaders, we have a responsibility to care for the people – employees, customers, partners – communities we work in, and the planet we inhabit. I found myself cheering throughout the book and thinking, “Yes, this is the new paradigm of leadership we need at this moment in time.
Armin Meier
Owner, Boyden global executive search (Switzerland) Ltd, Chairman and member of non-executive Boards
We live in a VUCA world: Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. This requires the next generation of leaders to rethink how they make decisions, plan forward, manage risk and foster change. The New Leaders of Change provides an in-depth view of how brilliant young leaders take on this challenge – with passion and by taking their heart to work.
Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Uwe Krueger, FREng.
Head, Industrials, Business Services, Energy & Resources
Head, Europe, Middle East & Africa
Temasek International Pte. Ltd.
Nobody should just read this book. All you must do is deeply digest every single sentence, one after the other and reflect on them for the rest of your day. This book is a lifetime journey: Stunning!
Beat Geissler
HActivist-Entrepreneur, Family-Man and Biker (Berlin, Palo Alto, Zurich)
7C's of Leadership
with Maitri O' Brien
1. Compassion
2. Curiosity
3. Courage
4. Collaboration
5. Connectedness
6. Change Catalyst
7. Conviction
I explore the 7C's of Leadership characteristics in The New Leaders of Change. They are highly interconnected and reinforce each other.
FEATURED NEW LEADERS OF CHANGE




Featured New Leader of Change
“I see leadership as three overlapping circles – Self-awareness, Organizational Awareness and the Awareness of the World around me, how I contribute towards a bigger purpose. Currently, I am focusing on self-awareness. I have a daily mindfulness practice and it helps me to approach my team in a non-judgmental and fresh way. When I can accomplish that, everything else just naturally follows organization, team, and the world around me. I think it becomes a bit more beautiful.”
Kevin Jolly
VP Data (Interim) at TIER Mobility