Author Ruth Farenga Launches ‘Next Level Leadership: Nine Lessons from Conscious Leaders’

Most of us have suffered a toxic boss at least once in our careers. How can you ensure that you’re not that type of boss but, instead, a conscious and compassionate one? 

‘Next Level Leadership: Nine lessons from conscious leaders’, by Ruth Farenga, is an opportunity for leaders to gain an insight into the top traits and behaviours of some of the UK’s most admired leaders. It is backed by global research and the author’s experience supporting leaders as a facilitator and executive coach. The book features contributions from some of the UK’s most respected business leaders, including Sir John Timpson CBE, chairman of Timpson and Guy Singh-Watson, Founder of Riverford. 

Author Ruth Farenga was inspired to write the book following a harrowing experience with a toxic boss, which saw her mental health hit rock bottom. As her confidence recovered, she built a business to encourage conscious leadership and spent three years interviewing top leaders for her Conscious Leaders Podcast. On her podcast, she hacks into their brains about what’s working, what’s hard and what’s gone wrong, so that people can learn from their philosophy and day to day practices. Next Level Leadership digests the learning from this work into nine lessons.

Ruth explains: “The idea of the podcast, and now the book, is to allow leaders to reflect on their own behaviour so they can step up for their teams in practical and meaningful ways. I was not expecting those I interviewed to be so open and honest about their past difficulties alongside their successes. That honesty is extraordinarily helpful because it makes for very practical learning.”

Grace Francis, global chief creative and design officer at global creative agency Wong/Doody, is a Conscious Leaders podcast guest and a key contributor to the book. A passionate supporter of creating a step change in industry they offered Wong/Doody’s design studio to create the book’s cover artwork.

Grace, is transgender non-binary and wants leaders to share different ways in which to foster empathy and inclusion, including enabling belonging by shifting the dynamics in the workplace, and being open about differences from the start, so that everyone feels comfortable sharing their own lives and experiences: “I bring my confidence and in doing so, share that confidence with others – you can’t do anything wrong in this room.”

Toxic leadership makes the workplace miserable and leads to high staff turnover as well as contributing to the rising mental health issues. A Gallup study found that 75% of people left their job, not because of the position itself, but because of their manager. Drawing from a vast range of experience and research, this book shows leaders how they can transform and create a huge ripple effect on other managers in the organisation who typically emulate the leadership style of the senior managers.

Sir John Timpson CBE, Chairman, Timpson described it as: “Personal, credible, practical – this book is about real behaviour change. A powerful read.”

‘Next Level Leadership: Nine lessons from conscious leaders’ is published on 28th September 2022 by Rethink Press, link to order here. In addition to Timpson, it is endorsed by Andy Woodfield, PwC Partner and author, Hephzi Pemberton, CEO, The Equality Group, Rosie Anderson, Associate Director, Accenture, amongst many others.