I’ve been catching up on UN speeches this week because I am a nerd, and one in particular has stayed with me. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb (2025) delivered what I think might be the most thoughtful address I’ve heard from the General Assembly in years. Not because it offered grand solutions or stirring rhetoric, but because it laid out a framework for thinking about how we engage with complexity that feels remarkably relevant beyond the corridors of diplomacy.
Stubb argued that meaningful engagement with the world rests on three elements: values, interests, and power.
In the context of international relations, this makes immediate sense. Values represent what we stand for, interests are what we need, and power is our capacity to influence outcomes. But watching him speak, I found myself thinking about how these same forces shape every interaction we have, every decision we make, and every relationship we build in our working lives.
The Shadow We Cast
Julian Stodd (2024) has written beautifully about the concept of our shadow, the influence we have that extends beyond our immediate awareness. What’s in our shadow? What are we covering? What kind of shadow do we leave behind us? I think Stubb’s words help us understand how that shadow forms and what shapes its reach.
Our values create the longest shadows. They influence not just what we do, but how others perceive what’s possible in our presence. When we consistently prioritise substance over appearance, when we choose difficult conversations over comfortable silence, when we support others’ growth even when it doesn’t directly benefit us, we’re casting a shadow that gives others permission to do the same.
Our interests shape the direction of that shadow. There’s nothing wrong with having interests, with wanting career advancement, recognition, financial security, or simply the satisfaction of doing work that matters. The question is whether our pursuit of those interests creates space for others to pursue theirs, or whether it diminishes the opportunities available to everyone else.
Our power determines the shadow’s intensity. Power in the workplace isn’t just formal authority; it’s expertise, relationships, credibility, access to information, or simply the ability to make things happen. How we exercise that power ripples outward in ways we rarely track.
The Fragmentation Risk
What strikes me as particularly timely about Stubb’s framework is how it speaks to the fragmentation happening everywhere around us. Society seems to be pulling itself into increasingly segregated groups, and I worry that workplaces are following a similar pattern. We cluster around our departments, our levels, our specialisms, our perspectives, building walls that feel protective but ultimately weaken everyone.
When we become protectionist about our power, hoarding influence rather than sharing it, we limit not just others’ growth but our own. When we pursue our interests in isolation, treating career advancement as a zero-sum game, we create environments where trust erodes and collaboration becomes transactional. When we retreat into values-based silos, surrounding ourselves only with people who think exactly as we do, we lose the creative tension that drives real innovation.
The irony is that the more we pull apart, the weaker we all become. Industries thrive on cross-pollination, on the unexpected connections that happen when different perspectives collide productively. Individual careers flourish when they’re built on networks of mutual support rather than protective isolation. And the people entering our workforces tomorrow need to see environments where growth is possible, where opportunity isn’t finite, where their success doesn’t require someone else’s failure.
Questions Worth Exploring
I’m still working through what this means in practice. How do we pursue our legitimate interests whilst creating more opportunities for others? How do we accumulate power in ways that make the whole system more powerful rather than just shifting influence around? How do we live our values without becoming dogmatic about them?
Maybe the answer lies in recognising that these three forces are always in conversation with each other. Our values inform how we pursue our interests. Our interests shape how we use our power. Our power gives weight to our values. When they’re aligned and integrated, they create the kind of professional presence that elevates not just our own work but everyone around us.
Or maybe I’m overthinking a diplomatic speech and seeing connections that aren’t really there. Maybe the workplace is fundamentally different from international relations, and ideas that work for presidents have little relevance for the rest of us.
But I don’t think so.
I think the people who’ve made the biggest positive difference in my career, the managers and colleagues I remember years later, understood this integration intuitively. They helped me advance my interests because it aligned with their values and they had the power to make it happen. They used their influence to create environments where good work could flourish. They cast shadows that made space for others to grow.
What shadow are you casting? And in a world that seems increasingly fragmented, how might we use these three forces to build workplaces that bring people together rather than pull them apart?
Stodd, J (2024) ‘Day #646 - Shadows’, Social Leadership - Daily.
In recent years, I have experienced disillusionment caused by a marked difference between the values spoken and the values acted out by those in power. These people protect their own interests with a hell of a lot of preaching and very little practice.
Whether in DEI, mental health in the workplace, or bringing one's whole self to work, the values are brightly coloured from a distance but utterly transparent up close at the personal level.
You're right, in my opinion, to say the three are in conversation with each other, but when one of them lies, whether in the workplace or in international relations, the other two are sorely compromised, and the shadow is being cast by a dark foreboding cloud.
Wonderful piece, Tom. Very thoughtful and an insightful parallel to draw.