Four Lessons From Leaders Who Challenged the Status Quo and Won In a powerful reflection on leadership, Gaia van der Esch explores the challenges of breaking the status quo, drawing from her own experiences and the insights of leaders like Christiana Figueres, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Tawakkol Karman, highlighting the resilience, optimism, and vulnerability required to drive meaningful change.

Challenging the status quo, breaking glass ceilings, and effectively driving change is a hard and often ungrateful job. As a female leader, I've been in the position to be the first to occupy specific roles, to showcase a different leadership style, to push for certain changes. I experienced success, but that came with backlash, loneliness and failures along the way.

Challenging the status quo isn't easy – but looking at other leaders who have successfully made ground in leading change and pushing boundaries can help us learn how to use our power to do the same.

Always believe change is possible
Negotiations to address climate change are in full swing at COP29, while scientists, activists, and citizens fear governments won't manage – yet again – to agree on the targets needed if we hope to confront the urgency of the crisis. But this hasn't always been the case: in 2015 the climate agreement reached during COP21 broke the status quo and delivered truly ambitious targets. It was reached under the leadership of former UN diplomat Christiana Figueres. As she took this job, Christiana thought an ambitious agreement wasn't possible in her lifetime. But what would the world become if that was really the case?

"I saw all my nightmares about social justice become reality", Christiana told me. "That's when I decided that not having an agreement in my lifetime simply cannot happen". And that's when she started working on herself, to change her pessimistic mindset and become what she calls a "stubborn optimist". Christiana used her outrage as a lever for action, not paralysis, and inspired world leaders to do the same and deliver results. Since then, she has advocated for holding together outrage and optimism as the key to challenging the status quo.

Focus on what you can control

Changing the status quo requires stamina and consistency – while understanding that not everything is under our control. Becky Sauerbrunn, Olympic gold medallist and until recently Captain of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, recently told me that – as a soccer player, and as a leader – working on what she can control is her best chance at maximizing success. Leaders often invest time on what they can't control – for Becky this would be worrying about the weather forecast ahead of her next match, or about her adversary's fitness level. This drains energy and concentration from what is under your control: your physical/mental health, your strategy, your character. "I am not particularly fast, tall or strong compared to other defenders. It is not my physical ability that got me where I am, but my capacity to show-up, every single day – while reading the game, understanding our weaknesses and leveraging our strengths", said Becky. "It is this consistency in my mindset, in training what is under my control, that has allowed me to develop as a player, to transform into a leader, and to get where I am today."

Own your vulnerabilities and make them your strength

We all have vulnerabilities. They make us feel fragile, especially when we occupy a leadership position – from which we want to showcase strength and decisiveness. So, when people are looking up to us, we hide them, fearing that others might uncover them and attack us at our weakest point. This strategy can make us even more vulnerable. Owning your vulnerability is a better way to go. While speaking to the iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg, she shared her "motto", as she broke one status quo and tabu' after the next: "being in charge". "It is first and foremost a commitment to ourselves", Diane told me. "To own our imperfections and transform them into our assets, to own our vulnerabilities and make them our strength. It's not aggressive, but it's powerful".

See backlash and failure as part of the game

Challenging the status quo invites resistance as people cling to familiar ways of life, often out of fear of the unknown. Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, led the 2011 revolution against the dictatorship in Yemen, resulting in a push for democracy. However, soon after, internal power struggles dragged Yemen into a civil war. Tawakkol has been in exile since but sees it as part of the complex journey needed for change, which requires wisdom – to see the bigger picture especially when we seem to be going backwards, and patience – to continue pushing forward. Tawakkol's motto is to take responsibility for change on your shoulders and not be afraid – even in front of backlash. "It is simply part of being a change-maker, a trailblazer, a revolutionary. Change will come, if you accept backlash and failure as part of the journey and continue pushing long enough."

Challenging the status quo is hard work, requiring perseverance, focus, and resilience. But a work that is always worth doing: if it's not us that succeeds, we might still be opening doors for others to stand on our shoulders and become the ones that challenge the status quo and win.