Bartlett & Branson. Transformation with unconventional leadership

Why Unconventional Transformational Leadership matters and how Bartlett and Branson saw it coming.

In complex, fast-moving environments, conventional leadership breaks first.

Across sectors, senior leaders are discovering that management models built on hierarchy, predictability, and control are struggling under the strain of digital acceleration, workforce anxiety, regulatory scrutiny, and rising societal expectations. What once delivered efficiency now often produces fragility.

This is precisely where transformational leadership is moving from a fringe idea to a practical necessity.

From authority to adaptability

Transformational leadership does not reject structure; it evolves beyond rigidity. It prioritises empathy, judgement, and calculated risk over command-and-control certainty. The emphasis shifts from enforcing compliance to enabling capability creating cultures where learning matters more than blame and where people are trusted to think.

This philosophy aligns closely with leaders who have consistently outperformed conventional thinking.

Bartlett: vulnerability as a leadership advantage

Steven Bartlett, founder of The Diary of a CEO, has become a defining voice of modern leadership precisely because he challenges outdated assumptions about strength and authority.

Bartlett speaks openly about insecurity, self-doubt, and failure not as weaknesses, but as sources of clarity and growth. His leadership narrative reflects a core transformational principle: self-awareness precedes sustainable performance.

Rather than presenting certainty, Bartlett models curiosity. Rather than protecting ego, he invites challenge. This aligns directly with transformational leadership traits, humility, emotional intelligence, and a high tolerance for learning through failure. In environments shaped by complexity, leaders who understand themselves tend to make better decisions under pressure.

Branson: trust over hierarchy

Long before “transformational leadership” entered mainstream business language, Richard Branson was quietly proving its commercial value.

Branson built the Virgin Group by consistently valuing frontline insight over hierarchy. He trusted people closest to the problem to shape solutions and encouraged experimentation, even when outcomes were uncertain. Failure, in his organisations, was treated as data not disgrace.

His approach reflects several transformational principles: stewardship over status, autonomy over micromanagement, and culture as a strategic asset rather than a soft concern. Virgin’s success across wildly different industries was not driven by rigid process, but by human judgement supported by trust.

Human edge in a digital era

As organisations accelerate digital transformation, many are discovering a hard truth: technology does not create resilience, people do.

Without integrated, risk-aware processes and a culture of trust, digitisation can magnify risk instead of reducing it. This tension sits at the centre of a new series of CXO Breakfast Sessions launching this March, focused on:

• Delivering operational excellence with a clear plan for workforce optimisation

• Leveraging digital transformation to unlock efficiency without unmanaged risk

• Embedding integrated, risk-aware processes that enable measurable, profitable growth

• Expanding the positive impact of business on society, not treating it as a side project

The central question is simple but uncomfortable:

How do organisations drive efficiency and profit through digital transformation while strengthening trust, resilience, and societal impact rather than eroding them?

Unconventional leadership as lived experience

The focus is working with a global trusted network of transformational leaders to do well commercially while doing good for society, treating legitimacy, trust, and human connection as strategic, not sentimental.

With 50 years of life experience, 30 years of lived adventure, and two decades of unconventional leadership, the goal is to help bring a similar thread seen in Bartlett and Branson to a global network of aspiring Transformational Leaders to bring about brighter better futures in the next decade.  

The discipline of conversation

A defining feature of this approach is the value placed on dialogue. Brown’s Banter with the Bulldog series is not a podcast or a polished thought-leadership exercise. It is a live, unscripted space for leaders carrying real responsibility to think out loud, challenge assumptions, and regain perspective through informed humour.

This echoes Bartlett’s emphasis on honest conversation and Branson’s instinct to listen before leading. In all three cases, conversation is not a distraction from leadership, it is part of the discipline.

From improbable to inevitable

What unites Bartlett, Branson, and modern transformational leaders is not style, age, or industry. It is a shared understanding that certainty is no longer the leader’s advantage. Clarity, humility, and connection are.

As complexity increases, leadership that feels heavier is not a sign of failure, it is a signal that evolution is required. Transformational leadership is not a trend. It is a response to reality.

And for organisations willing to embrace it, what once seemed improbable is fast becoming inevitable.