The Three Gs of Modern Leadership

The  International Women’s Day 2026 theme was one of the most thought‑provoking yet. Give to Gain resonated deeply with me, both as an executive coach and as an executive search and strategic HR consultant. Having been part of driving progress toward 40% female board representation and supporting the appointment of more women into executive leadership roles, I value how this theme turns reflection into action. It challenges us to move beyond awareness and inspire genuine commitment and change. To bring this theme to life I spoke with two modern leaders who embody it through their work and careers.

Fiona Parfrey is co-founder of Riley, a B Corp certified startup with the ambition to create a world built for women to thrive through better care, better access and better education.

Michelle Dervan is CEO of SkillsTrust, a HRTech company helping EU SMBs implement pay transparency. Her curiosity and belief in tackling social inequities drive everything she does.

What are the three Gs of modern leadership?

Future focused leadership requires us to give, gain and grow to create opportunity through inclusion, to invest in development that drives real ROI, and to evolve our talent strategies for the challenges ahead.

Give: How inclusive hiring creates opportunity and equity

Gain: The ROI of investing in leadership development

Grow: Future-proofing talent strategies for tomorrow’s challenges

Give - creating opportunity for others

How can we give more women the opportunity to thrive within their own organisations and communities?

Both Michelle and Fiona have created businesses that shine a spotlight on two fundamental truths; the gender pay gap and the lack of funding and understanding in women’s health care.

We give transparency around two taboo topics, periods and pay.

From their experience in working in these two industries both women have seen how empowering it is when people are given the information they need to make informed decisions and succeed.

Giving information that strengthens the hand of women.

Michelle helps organisations align with the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which demands fairness in how pay is set. Research shows that women often start on lower pay scales than men, a gap that compounds over time.

At Riley, Fiona is breaking taboos and normalising women’s health needs at work. “At every stage of the female health journey, women are let down, we want to flip that,” she says. She envisions a workplace that considers life stages from menstruation to menopause, with small but meaningful adjustments that could allow women to continue working for longer and perhaps grow the number of women at c-suite level from 29% to a more equitable number.

We want to give trust and openness to women in the workplace. 

Gain - the ROI of leadership development

Having established the importance of offering these opportunities, do our leaders have any reflections on the benefits, for both individuals and organisations that stem from this active leadership development?

Fiona reflects that, without people championing her potential rather than experience, she might not have had the career growth she’s enjoyed. This confidence now shapes how she builds her team at Riley, hiring for ambition and attitude as well as skill.

Confidence follows opportunity, not the other way around

She sees this style of talent investment as a way of future proofing her business. With the world changing at such high speed, skill-specific experience can ebb and flow in terms of relevance.

How you respond to change and show up with resilience and show those leadership characteristics.

Grow - future-proofing talent and leadership

As two leaders who have ambitious plans for their company’s future, how do Fiona and Michelle grow the talent and leadership around them?

Growing your network and nurturing your relationships brings many advantages, but as Michelle highlights, it can also unlock a hidden superpower: negotiation

Negotiation is a skill that improves with practice, yet one of the best confidence boosters is access to information. Research isn’t always desk‑based; it often means leaning on your network, asking questions, sharing insights, and learning from others.

Negotiating is easy with good access to information

Growing your capacity for curiosity is also essential in a changing world. Traditional leadership is evolving, and women’s natural empathy and kindness align perfectly with this new era of inclusive, emotionally intelligent leadership.

What I learned...

Change is not only possible, it's actively happening. Watching leaders like Fiona and Michelle drive their businesses forward with such tenacity and transparency gives me real confidence in the brighter, more inclusive future we’re creating. They represent a new type of leadership that is fostering a resilient and future-proof workforce. Ireland now ranks fifth in the EU for number of women on boards after years of dedicated work to climb these rankings it shows there is a momentum growing for the opportunities for women at executive levels.

Success looks different at every stage of life, it’s up to you to define what it means to you and reflect on how that might change.  What matters most is how we give, gain, and grow, both as leaders and as people.