Climbing Is Not Always About the Top
In 2024, I participated in my third tower race. That’s a vertical climb up 49 floors of Wrocław’s Sky Tower in Poland. The format was as simple as it was demanding: no elevators, no music, no cheering crowd. Just a silent staircase and the weight of your own decision to keep moving upward, floor after floor. Somewhere around the 30th floor, when breath and body settle into a kind of strained rhythm and time becomes elastic, I found myself reflecting not on the race itself but on what it represented.
That narrow stairwell repetitively designed, offering no external view reminded me of the stages we go through in leadership, particularly in Global Business Services, where roles change shape, strategies evolve, and we are often climbing without a clear view of the summit. There is no applause in those moments. No awards waiting on the 32nd or 45th floor. There is only the silent climb.
What I’ve come to realize is that the value of the climb lies not just in reaching the top, but in what we become along the way. The effort itself, the small adjustments, the ability to stay focused through discomfort and uncertainty, these are the same capabilities that matter in GBS and in global leadership. It’s not a metaphor I arrived at once, maybe that's just something that reveals itself floor by floor, step by step.
There Is No Map, Only Movement
There was a time when we could talk about five-year plans with confidence, when progression followed a predictable sequence like from analyst to manager, manager to director, perhaps with a couple of international assignments and a gradual broadening of scope. These frameworks thrived in eras of stability, where markets moved slowly and organizational change was incremental.
But the pace and complexity of today’s GBS environment has rewritten the logic of those linear models. Business models evolve mid-year, delivery locations reconfigure without notice, and AI now shifts workflows faster than job descriptions can be updated. In such a landscape, detailed roadmaps become quickly outdated. What matters more is a capacity for directional movement, like navigating without GPS.
In my own journey, I’ve come to value those who move with intentionality even when certainty is absent. These are the professionals who keep contributing, even as roles blur
and definitions shift. They are not waiting for clarity but rather shaping a new path as they go.
Pacing Is More Important Than Planning
Tower running teaches you early that ambition alone is not enough. The instinct to sprint, fuelled by adrenaline or impatience often leads to early fatigue. I’ve seen it in stairwells and in boardrooms alike: leaders who charge ahead without pausing to align, without listening to the cadence of the organization, without noticing the people still catching their breath.
Endurance, not acceleration, that is what sustains change. True transformation does not happen in bursts, unfolds over time, in phases that require stamina, awareness, and recalibration. The best GBS leaders I’ve worked with are those who know how to pace a rollout, read a room, and resist the temptation to push forward for speed’s sake. They understand that transformation is not just a sequence of steps but a series of signals and they adjust accordingly.
The most effective planning, then, is not about perfect foresight. It is about building rhythm, knowing when to move and when to pause, when to escalate and when to regroup. That rhythm, once found, becomes more valuable than any static plan could be.
Careers Are Shaped by Curves, Not Lines
My career has rarely followed the expected path. I started on a newspaper,, moved through advertising, stepped into content strategy, and eventually found myself navigating the complexities of global operations and enterprise transformation. At each stage, I crossed borders which were cultural, functional, and organizational in nature.
That nonlinear path, once seen as atypical, now feels increasingly relevant. In today’s GBS world, the professionals who bring the most value are often those who have built their experience across disciplines. They are not only subject matter experts but connectors, the individuals who can translate expectations between marketing and analytics, between product and process, between headquarters and delivery centers.
It turns out that curves, those unexpected turns and unplanned detours don’t dilute capability. They deepen it, providing perspective that cannot be replicated by staying within a single domain. These professionals become shape-shifters, agile not because they know everything, but because they have learned how to react while in motion.
Curiosity Creates More Value Than Certainty
Some of the most meaningful innovation I’ve seen in GBS has not come from those with the deepest technical expertise, but from those who ask the best questions. A thoughtful “What if?” often triggers more transformation than any set of instructions. For sure curiosity, not
certainty tends to uncover what is hidden under the surface, or rethink what has been accepted as an universal truth for too long.
I once met the Dutch animator Paul Driessen, whose career spanned styles, cultures, and decades. His work always carried a sense of experimentation, and his choices were driven less by industry trends and more by personal wonder. We met in France during a time when I was beginning to question what might come next professionally. He was there with a calm smile to remind me as a young professional, that curiosity is guiding us through thin and thick.
In global business, especially in GBS, this principle holds true. Leaders who remain curious are those who see around corners, they identify possibilities before others see problems. And they remain open to new methods, new roles, and new ways of thinking, even when that openness challenges their current expertise.
Ambiguity Is Not a Detour, It Is the Environment
As I ascended the Sky Tower, I noticed that each floor changed slightly. The air thickened. The lighting dimmed. Sound softened. The repetition of steps and my own breath masked a subtle truth: though the structure remained the same, the conditions evolved with each level. And in that evolution, I had to adjust not only once, but continuously.
This is exactly what it feels like to lead through enterprise change. Even when you think you understand the environment, a new technology, a policy shift, or a stakeholder transition alters the context. By the time a strategy is halfway implemented, the conditions that justified it may no longer exist.
Professionals who see ambiguity as a problem to be resolved often get stuck. But those who accept it as part of the terrain tend to move more freely. They recognize that the role of a leader is not to eliminate uncertainty, but to make progress within it. And they do this not by knowing all the answers, but by creating clarity where it matters most.
Learning Builds Legacy More Than Position
My parent’s generation believed that legacy was built by holding important roles or staying in a position long enough to be recognized for it. Over the years, through my own experience this view has changed. What truly lasts are the insights we pass on and the growth we enable in others.
In many cases, the most impactful leaders I’ve known were not those with the highest titles, but those who taught others how to think differently, who made complexity feel manageable, and who encouraged movement rather than enforcing structure.
Legacy is perhaps shaped by those who enable reinvention. The systems we build will be upgraded. The structures we design will eventually be replaced. But the confidence we
inspire in others, the questions we provoke, and the learning we catalyze, those ripple effects remain. They are felt long after we’ve moved on, and they often become the foundation for what comes next.
Purpose Is Not Found at the Summit, but Along the Climb
Not long ago, I visited a small island considered a Blue Zone, a place known for the longevity of its residents. Life there is lived slowly, deliberately, and with a profound connection to routine and community. People find joy in repetition, in simplicity, and in each other. It’s a rhythm that feels almost opposite to the pace of global business.
And yet, it reminded me that meaning is not always tied to ambition. Sometimes, it lives in the act of presence itself. I know that my own energy is still oriented toward motion and the feeling of climbing, still searching, still learning. What I’ve come to understand is that purpose in our careers is not a finish line or something that waits at the top of the tower, ready to reward us for our effort. There’s no celebration that emerges in the silent moments we choose to continue, even when the reasons are unclear.
That grows through reflection, recalibration, and resolve. And in GBS, where the climb never truly ends, that understanding may be our most valuable insight of all.
What This Means for GBS in 2025
The GBS leaders who are shaping the future are not doing so with rigid strategies or linear plans. They are doing it by embracing movement, by guiding others through ambiguity, and by continuing to evolve even when their own path is uncertain. These leaders understand that careers are no longer built on vertical progress alone. They are built on depth, on learning, and on the ability to lead while climbing.
Adaptability, curiosity, and reflective momentum are not just individual traits. They are now the foundation of team culture, organizational resilience, and enterprise transformation. And they are redefining what it means to build a meaningful professional life, floor by floor, step by step.
Join the Climb
The upcoming chapters of 49 Floors: Climbing the Corporate Ladder, One Floor at a Time will continue to share insights drawn from experience, change, and the climb itself. These stories aim to offer practical perspectives on how leadership in global operations continues to evolve, especially in uncertain times.
For more top tips on leadership and managing the workforce, check out the recent 2025 Workplace Evolution Market Report. The report examines the forces reshaping today’s workplace in depth, providing essential insights from SSON’s member network and industry experts at Qualcomm and TripAdvisor. Download your copy now!