A Shared Stance: Building ‘Leading on the Line’ for Principled Leadership
Letesia Gibson and Jo Atkins-Potts have spent years working alongside leaders and organisations trying to navigate the tension between values and action – between what they know is right and what they feel able to do.
Along the way, they've both experienced the challenges of standing by their principles in environments that weren’t always ready for change. In this conversation, we reflect on our shared history, the moments that shaped our understanding of leadership under pressure, and why we’re now coming together to create Leading on the Line: a leadership journey for those ready to act with integrity, clarity, and courage when it matters most. We are in a moment when leadership without integrity is not only unsustainable, it is untenable. Silence and neutrality are no longer safe options; staff, communities, and the public are demanding visible, values-led action. The leaders who hesitate risk losing trust, credibility, and their people. The leaders who act with courage and clarity will be the ones shaping the future. This collaboration faces this moment with a plan to change it.
our first RESISTANCE encounter
Jo: You and I go way back! We first met during a particularly high-pressure moment in my career, when values and systems collided in an organisation I was working with in ways that were impossible to ignore. It was during a time when conversations about anti-racism were gaining force in the sector and my organisation worked in communities on cohesion. What should have been a moment of urgency and clarity instead exposed the organisation’s deep resistance to change.
The team and board were in very different places: the team wanted to name racism, learn, and act, but the all white senior leadership pushed back hard. They wanted to stay neutral, airy and untethered, to make it “not their problem.” Worse still, they acted as if they cared, but consistently refused to challenge others in positions of power.
I’ll never forget how senior and influential figures in that organisation, people with huge sway, shared racist memes in a work WhatsApp chat, and the senior leadership did nothing, refusing to engage because of their own fragility and fear. They wanted silence. The team wanted action. That’s the context in which I was navigating values colliding with power - and that’s how I found you, Letesia.
Letesia: Yes indeed, that was quite a journey together, but I’m so glad it connected us! What struck me in the first instance was your perseverance in bringing in external support to help navigate what they were finding hard to face.
Once we started, it was clear to see there were so many dynamics at play - people wanting to see action but being ill-equipped to talk about racism, colleagues of colour feeling under-supported to navigate harm, senior people being disruptive in their denial and defensiveness and board members disengaging because it felt too confronting.
It was not a project for the faint-hearted. I had to find a way to bring about a different conversation at the board, empower the team to move from nervousness to confidence, create awareness of the impacts this was having on Global Majority colleagues, and build momentum towards a meaningful step forward. As you will recall, this took time and patience, meeting different groups where they were, finding shared empathy around the key issues to address, and working strategically together so that the shift towards a more integrated response was collectively owned.
To this day, I feel proud that one person in particular chose to stay rather than leave because of the change we were able to create.
SEEING THE SAME PATTERNS
Jo: After that, we stayed in touch. I moved between large charities and grassroots movements but I kept noticing the same patterns. Organisations claiming to be progressive often talked a big game, the right language, the right statements, the right buzzwords, but the follow-through was missing. Complacency thrived, competition and self-interest got in the way, and the courage to challenge the status quo was scarce. It was frustrating, sometimes infuriating, but also clarifying: I realised this wasn’t an isolated problem, it was systemic.
Letesia: The integrity gap between the inside and the outside of organisations has long been a focus area of mine, starting from when I had a burnout 10 years ago because of this exact issue. As a senior leader, my values and ethos were so painfully compromised by being in an organisation that professed to be a pioneering leader shining a light for others, but inside was a toxic mess that didn’t support its female leaders.
It prompted a career break and then a career change to build cultures and leaders where people did what they said and acted from a place of ethics and integrity. As my attention turned to building leaders and cultures that centred anti-racism, equity and belonging, I began to see the systemic challenges that kept leaders and organisations prioritising reputation or right to comfort over doing the right thing, the fears of rocking the boat that led to neutrality, and the ease with which one can lose what integrity looks like for them amidst the every pressures of the organisation.
I really began to see that integrity in organisations isn’t the idea of one person showing up with it and role-modelling; it was a whole company way of thinking that needs to be intentionally practiced and has to evolve as the world around us changes, too.
THE INTEGRITY GAP
Jo: We ended up working together again in a particularly challenging organisation. On paper, it was a feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist space, but the reality was something else entirely. Despite all the language of empowerment and inclusion, the senior leadership operated in deeply patriarchal ways: making decisions unilaterally without accountability, prioritising optics over substance, and punishing those who spoke up.
There were moments that felt almost ironic: being in a “progressive” organisation and yet witnessing behaviour that deeply contradicted everything it claimed to stand for. It was exhausting because every time I tried to push for meaningful change, I was met with defensiveness, gaslighting, or efforts to delegitimise the concerns I raised. I felt the constant tension between wanting to uphold the organisation’s stated values and recognising that the system itself actively resisted that alignment. It was frustrating, isolating, and illuminating all at once: a stark example of how the gap between words and action can erode trust, undermine morale, and make principled leadership feel like an uphill battle.
Letesia: Yes, it was hard to watch this unfold, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve seen strong, bold brands making big claims on their position as an authority in a movement or issue but simply not having the culture or leadership to support them.
It can be heartbreaking when people work there because of the claimed values and the belief in a shared ethos. I’ve seen deep organisational wounds take hold when the dissonance between the inside and the outside creates division and disillusionment in staff and communities on the outside, too. In one client organisation, I remember staff saying they felt ashamed to tell anyone the name of the organisation that employed them because they’d been publicly exposed to be the opposite of what they claimed.
LEADING ON THE LINE WAS BORN
“It became clear to me that what we’d both been observing for years separately pointed to the same reality: the gap between personal conviction and organisational reality is a systemic issue.”
Jo: I’d spent years trying to push change from within, even winning real victories, like strengthening governance and consent frameworks, campaigning for stronger discrimination protections for myself and colleagues, and navigating whistleblowing around equality and fairness. But each success also highlighted the dissonance: how these organisations appeared from the outside, versus who they really were behind closed doors. When pressure came, the gap between values and action often felt like a chasm. And as the re-election of Trump, the rise of Reform, the threats of authoritarianism, and the scapegoating of trans and migrant communities unfolded (just to name a few of many), it became ever more obvious how unprepared many organisations were to act with integrity. I realised there needed to be a space for honesty, for reflection, and for learning together how to show up when it’s hardest to prepare leaders to act with clarity, courage, and integrity, even when the system resists.
Letesia: Our conversations kept coming back to the gap between what organisations say and what they actually do. Silence on Palestine, the rise of authoritarianism, the threat of fascism, which were no longer abstract issues. They raise a critical question: what does principled leadership look like now? We could see the divide growing between what leaders prioritised and what communities expected. Integrity can’t be optional. When we looked for strong examples, we found very few. That’s when we knew we had to build something that helps leaders put values into practice. Integrity isn’t a lofty ideal; it’s knowing your boundaries, naming when behaviour falls short, and taking action to close the gap. Leaders can’t afford to wait years to build these muscles. The moment to practice integrity is now.
Jo: What the sector needed wasn’t more ad hoc coaching or quick fixes. Leaders needed a structured way to navigate dissonance, act with integrity, and build the skills and confidence to hold their ground when pressure comes. It needed to go beyond reflection, preparing leaders with support to stay grounded, bring their organisations into alignment, and prepare real strategies for responding, not reacting, when crises hit. That’s how Leading on the Line was born.
We were looking for the best examples of organisations flying the flag for integrity, and we’re struggling to find them. That’s when we decided we had to do something.
From Strategy to Culture: Leading with Integrity Under Pressure
Jo: I bring over a decade of experience across charities and movements from grassroots initiatives to international campaigns and senior leadership roles. My expertise spans bold campaigning, strategic communications, values-driven crisis response, and building movements that turn conviction into collective action. I’ve led complex change projects, shaped organisational policies, advocated for equity and inclusion, and navigated high-stakes, high-pressure environments where integrity was deeply tested. I know what it takes to speak truth to power, to support leaders in tough decisions, and to help organisations translate values into meaningful, practical action. Leading on the Line draws directly on this experience: supporting leaders to act decisively, ethically, and strategically under pressure, with practical frameworks and tested approaches that actually work in complex, high-stakes environments.
Letesia: My career has always been about helping leaders and organisations move forward together. Sometimes that means taking a risk on a new idea, finding the shared story that energises a team to move together, or being the first in a sector to do something differently. I bring the blend of leadership, cultural and narrative expertise needed to create purposeful organisations that connect with people and communities in ways that matter. My work spans brand and organisational strategy, culture development and leadership coaching, always anchored in practice and what’s happening in the real world now. I know how to navigate conflict and taboo or sensitive topics, how to work with people wherever their starting point is, and to name with a healthy balance of support and challenge, how and where supremacy culture traits that keep us stuck in neutrality. Guiding organisations to walk the walk of JEDI in their everyday practice is foundational to all the work I do.
JOIN US ON THE LINE
Both: This is just a glimpse of what led us to create Leading on the Line. It’s not a conventional leadership course. It’s a four-part journey for leaders navigating complex moral and strategic tensions. A space to reflect, rehearse, learn from peers, and act with confidence.
Our shared history has shaped every element of this programme. We know what it feels like to be on the frontline of organisational misalignment, to face resistance from those in power, and to act despite personal and professional risk. We also know how to build support, find solidarity, and move strategically through those moments. That’s why we built Leading on the Line: for leaders who want to hold to their values even when the system pushes back.
Together, we’ll work through the moments when values and power collide, so you can:
Strengthen resilience: Stay grounded under pressure without losing conviction
Close the integrity gap: Align organisational behaviour with stated values
Build decision-making confidence: Rehearse high-stakes scenarios before they happen
Find solidarity: Lead alongside peers who won’t let you stand alone
Equip your organisation for trust: Strengthen morale, credibility, and accountability
The stakes are high, and the need for principled leadership has never been clearer. If you’re ready to step into this moment with integrity, clarity, and courage, to lead on the line, not from the sidelines, we’d love you to join us.
