The Wildest, Most Unique Experiences You Can Find in the Maldives
The Wildest, Most Unique Experiences You Can Find in the Maldives
Firushan Numaan/iStock
https://www.fodors.com/world/asia/maldives/experiences/news/most-unique-things-to-do-in-the-maldives
From zooming around in a jet car to swimming with whale sharks, the Maldives offer once-in-a-lifetime adventures to justify the long journey.
The Maldives effortlessly delivers screen-saver quality tropical scenes, but it’s the unique experiences that will keep you talking about this dream destination for years to come. With no direct flights from the US, travel here can easily clock in at 30+ hours (time in the air, layovers, a bus ride to a smaller airport, and a boat ride make it possible). But rest assured, the adventures awaiting in the Maldives, like swimming alongside the world’s largest fish, restoring coral reefs with a marine biologist, or driving a jet car past overwater bungalows at golden hour, justify the long haul to paradise.
Swim With Whale Sharks and Manta Rays
As a country comprised of more than 1,190 islands, smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean, you can bet there are some incredible diving and snorkeling experiences to be had. Among them is the opportunity to swim with the world’s largest fish, the whale shark.
Whale sharks in the Maldives can grow up to 60 feet in length, but don’t let their size or name scare you. Whale sharks are harmless filter-feeders with an appetite for plankton (not people). Travelers can get a chance to see them up close off the Alifu Dhaalu Atoll all year round, with peak season from May to December. It’s a magical experience to swim alongside these gentle giants (and difficult to keep up with them), but getting too close or touching them is prohibited.
Guests at Sun Siyam Iru Veli can book an all-day whale shark excursion that includes snorkeling equipment, lunch, and a fresh fruit snack for $376 per person, exclusive of taxes and fees. While whale shark sightings are common, they aren’t guaranteed. However, there is much to see around Alifu Dhaalu’s coral reefs, including parrotfish, clownfish, sea turtles, dolphins, and massive manta rays, with impressive wing spans of up to 23 feet.
Sun Siyam Resorts
Mohamed Shah, marine biologist at Sun Siyam Iru Fushi, leads small groups with a mission. By taking part in the resort’s ongoing Coral Restoration Project, guests can make their Maldives trip even more memorable by leaving a lasting positive impact and helping to grow the ocean’s biodiversity on a micro level.
Why restore the reef? As Shah explained to our group, rising sea temperatures worldwide have led to coral bleaching. While coral bleaching itself isn’t necessarily catastrophic because it can force corals to adapt and become stronger, the current problem is that recovery takes longer than the frequency of bleaching events. With the Coral Restoration Project, guests can help the reefs recover more quickly and save portions of the reef that are headed in the wrong direction. They take fragments of coral that have been naturally broken off by wave action and carefully attach them to a secure substrate—a hard surface they can attach to and grow on.
“Once we secure the coral fragments to our [man-made] coral frame, we can now focus the coral’s energy on attaching onto the structure and then growing into a generative copy of its coral colony,” he explained. “Within a year or two, the frame we’re working on right now will be a mini reef that will host small marine life. We find coral that’s fated to die and then give them a second chance at life.”
Sun Siyam Resorts
Take a Scenic Seaplane to Your Resort
It’s otherworldly to get a birds-eye view of the Maldives’ atolls, surrounded by what appears to be every shade of blue and green under the sun. And yet, with Trans Maldivian Airways, the world’s largest seaplane fleet, visitors are lucky enough to rack up this experience simply by transferring to their resort.
From the U.S., getting to the Maldives can be exhausting, but in my experience, the stress and strain of travel start to melt away as you gaze out the seaplane window. Overwater bungalows stretch and curl like tentacles, and the sand looks blindingly white in contrast to the blues of the Indian Ocean. From my window seat, the anticipation of seeing my home away from home grew exponentially, and the thrill of landing on the water, rather than dry land, was palpable.
Sun Siyam Resorts
Drive a Pink Jet Car
At Sun Siyam Resorts, you can drive a jet car that matches your personal style and look glamorous while you do it. Choose to be pretty in pink (Sun Siyam Iru Veli), blissful in baby blue (Sun Siyam Olhuveli), or classic cool in white (Sun Siyam Iru Fushi). And because this experience is so eye-catching, and admittedly a bit bizarre, you might just have to “do it for the ‘gram” if nothing else.
If you’re wondering what a jet car is, you’re not alone. This relatively new water activity combines the look of a luxury sports car with the engine and handling of a jet ski. While not an amphibious vehicle, jet cars have a frame that looks much like a Lamborghini or a Bentley, but with a water-jet propulsion system (like that of a jet ski) under the hood. It’s the fantasy of driving a high-performance sports car over turquoise waters and with overwater bungalows in the background, and it begs for a photo opp. So why not document it? Iru Veli offers a one-hour sunset ride for three passengers, including a fully edited drone video and high-resolution aerial photos of your experience, for $574 plus taxes and fees.
Sun Siyam Resorts
You’ve come all this way, why not indulge yourself on your last day with something truly extravagant? Floating breakfasts are an over-the-top send-off for two, featuring pancakes, fresh tropical fruit, chocolate-sprinkle donuts, eggs, sausage, warm pastries, champagne, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Our floating breakfast at Sun Siyam Iru Fushi was served in a heart-shaped tray and engineered to float in our private plunge pool.
A breakfast for two people is $236 total, exclusive of fees and taxes, and guests can choose between an Asian or English breakfast. Take your experience a step further and have the hotel photographer capture photos for you and your boo. For those without a villa with a pool, the hotel can arrange a one- or two-hour rental of an Infinity Water Villa or the impressive Celebrity Retreat (some 6450 square feet). It’s the perfect chance to live like the rich and famous … if only for a moment.
Sun Siyam Resorts
Get Greeted Like Royalty
Arrive in style—with a full-blown procession awaiting you—at any of Sun Siyam’s six Maldives properties. The moment I stepped off the seaplane, I was greeted with a welcome garland made out of palm leaves (known locally as Maafathi), a cold towel, and the rhythmic sound of Bonduberu drums, an instrument that is central to celebrations across the country. A bellowing conch shell announced our arrival as we walked behind an attendant holding an ornate umbrella. We marched side-by-side down the dock in a Haiykolhu, a cultural procession that symbolizes deep respect and is often reserved for the arrival of dignitaries and other VIPs. It certainly humbled me, got me curious about Maldivian culture, and made me feel seen.
The new welcome ceremony, known as the WOW Welcome, greets all Sun Siyam Maldives guests before they check in. It is one of several new Signature Experiences introduced across all six resorts as part of a brand refresh and celebration of 35 years of business in the Maldives.
The longer you stay in the Maldives, the more unique experiences you can uncover. Think: bioluminescent beaches, stingray sightings from your overwater bungalow, and reef surfing with no one else around to snake your wave. Without question, this bucket list destination offers far more than just postcard views. It’s a vibrant island nation with a strong cultural identity, begging to be explored.
‘Alpine Divorces’ Is a Dangerous Hiking Trend. Here’s What You Need to Know
Davor-Geber/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/news/uncategorized/what-are-alpine-divorces-the-dangerous-hiking-trend-explained
A woman died of hypothermia after her boyfriend left her behind during a climbing trip in Austria.
A viral video on TikTok has sparked conversations about what’s being called “alpine divorces.” In the post, the text reads, “POV: you go on a hike with him in the mountains, but he leaves you alone by yourself, and you realize he never liked you to begin with.” The woman, Everafterriya, is crying in the background as she walks down a trail. In a follow-up video, she explained that her date wanted to run to the top of the mountain. “I like to run, so I wasn’t against it, but also didn’t see the point. Eventually, I couldn’t see him anymore because he was running faster than me! After getting home, she blocked him.
The video has generated 25 million views, and women around the world are sharing similar experiences of dates or partners abandoning them. But it’s not as simple as walking out of a restaurant. Women have shared that their dates, boyfriends, and long-term partners have left them behind in dangerous conditions or on treacherous hikes.
Coined after the eponymous 1893 short story by Scottish-Canadian author Robert Barr, the term refers to a situation in which a partner leaves the other behind in a remote natural setting, often while hiking or trekking. Barr’s story centers on a married couple vacationing in the Swiss Alps; during a hike, the husband plans to push his wife off a cliff. The tale ends with the wife jumping of her own volition and framing him for her death.
In 2026, this is more than just a TikTok trend. A woman died of hypothermia after her boyfriend left her behind during a climbing trip in Austria. The man, identified as Thomas P., was climbing Austria’s highest mountain, the Grossglockner, with his girlfriend, Kerstin G., in January last year when he left her behind. She was later found frozen to death by a rescue team. The temperature was minus 8 Celsius, with winds up to 45 mph, making conditions even more severe. During the trial, it was revealed that Thomas had done the same to a previous girlfriend. He pleaded not guilty, but the experienced alpinist was found guilty of negligent manslaughter and sentenced to five months in prison and fined €9,600 ($11,000).
Not So Rare
What may sound like the plot of a fictional story is a reality for women around the world. Many have shared instances of being abandoned in remote locations, and the frequency is striking. Some also recounted how other hikers came to their rescue, helping them find their way or accompanying them back down the trail. A commenter on the original video wrote, “I ran into a girl a few years ago along the trail, clearly lost and terrified. It was the exact same situation as this, except it was about 100 degrees. I shared my water and hiked her out to the trailhead. She must’ve been so scared.”
A Reddit thread is also filled with accounts of people being left behind on hikes, often due to differences in pace or experience. A search-and-rescue volunteer commented, “This is a way to (sic) common phenomenon, men leave partners behind, don’t have the ability to self-regulate risk, they overestimate skills and competence.” Whether due to impatience or mismatched expectations, Alpine divorces can be both dangerous and traumatic.
A Red Flag for Deeper Issues
Psychologists have weighed in on the issue. Psychology Today notes that someone who leaves a partner in a risky situation may lack empathy. It can also be a form of abuse or a sign of coercive control. Psychotherapist Jessica Ronyak told Mashable, “Taking someone to a remote location is the ultimate form of isolation and control because they’re essentially taking away all access to help, communication, or witnesses.”
Stephanie Sarkis told USA Today that people should watch for other signs of low empathy, such as dismissing needs, ridicule, or indifference. “If it is someone that you feel has a lack of empathy, it’s probably in your best interest to not go on a hike alone with them or any other strenuous activity where you might be isolated.” If it happens once, she adds, it may happen again.
How to Stay Safe
Commenters have also shared practical advice for handling situations like this. One TikTok user wrote, “If this ever happens, change your voicemail immediately and say where you are, who you were with, what day you and the time you went, etc!! When people notice you’re missing and start calling, this could absolutely save your life with a dead phone or no service. Also, please tell loved ones where you are going beforehand!
Inbound travel to Middle East could fall 25-30%
New research by Tourism Economics shows that a two-month conflict in Iran could impact the region by as much as $56 billion.
https://www.hotelinvestmenttoday.com/Regions/EMEA/Inbound-travel-to-Middle-East-could-fall-25-30-percent?
INTERNATIONAL REPORT — Inbound travel to the Middle East could fall sharply in 2026, by as much as 25% to 30%, with an extended two-month conflict in Iran, according to research by Tourism Economics.
Dave Goodger, managing director EMEA for Tourism Economics, presented the research as part of “The Middle East Outlook: Assessing the Impact on Global Travel and Hospitality” webinar from Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Tourism Economics showed three projections for Middle East inbound arrivals: one was baseline with no conflict which showed a 13% increase in inbound travel; the second scenario was a conflict with an early resolution (which Goodger acknowledged was not likely since the war was already entering its third week); and a third scenario with a two-month conflict, which showed inbound travel to the Middle East overall declining 27% year-over-year. The projection suggested travel within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — declined by 26% YOY, while non-GCC countries saw a 34% decline.
Goodger said economic activity in the Middle East last year exceeded many expectations, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt being the biggest beneficiaries. That had led to a lot of optimism for the region’s growth in 2026, which has now been dampened by the war in Iran.
“What we were expecting in 2026 was that this was going to be a year of rebound. But sadly, that is not the case for reasons I'm sure everyone's aware of,” he said. “This is something we're coming to grips with now. We are updating all of our forecasts. We're running alternative scenarios. This is a sneak peek of our current thinking, some of the key risks, some of the key changes that may [happen].”
Goodger said trying to forecast the travel impact in the middle of a conflict is challenging.
“The good news from this is we do always see recovery. Travel is resilient. People do want these new experiences,” he said. “The experiences that are available in the Middle East are things that people will want and they will return to it. It's a question of how long it will take for them to return?”
Tourism Economics also projected that a protracted conflict in Iran could cut travel spending in the Middle East by as much as $56 billion, with $36 billion of those cuts coming to GCC countries. That would represent a baseline decline of over 35% for the Middle East.
The projection said the biggest impact for inbound arrivals would happen in the second quarter of 2026, with a full recovery potentially coming in the fourth quarter.
Regionally, Tourism Economics said the biggest impact would be felt by Africa (with Egypt having the largest potential impact on international nights at risk). Travel to and from Asia Pacific could also feel a significant impact because of flights disrupted that fly into the Middle East.
In addition, the research found that higher air fares are a risk as oil prices continue to spike during the conflict.
Goodger also said the study found that increased regionalization of travel could benefit Europe the most.
“We are going to see that move towards Europe. It's what we've seen… when we looked at what happened following Arab Spring and what’s happened with other impacts in the Middle East,” he said. “We did see a drop in travel, notably from European travelers, going to those countries, and they stayed at home within Europe.
“Mediterranean destinations benefited, Spain being probably the largest Mediterranean destination... This is going to compound that. So Spain, obviously, is set to see large gains. The difference this time is that we will also see opportunities there for North Africa," he said, noting potentially gains in countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.
Staying in the game: How women CEOs build leadership that endures
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/staying-in-the-game-how-women-ceos-build-leadership-that-endures?
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What distinguishes those who achieve sustained excellence in the CEO job? In-depth conversations with leaders reveal five common principles they rely on to guide their actions.
Seasoned women CEOs, however, have learned to meet those realities. They have crafted and lived by a set of leadership principles that strengthen their effectiveness and enable them and their organizations to thrive over time.
We have spent several years speaking with women leaders who have deep experience navigating disruption, ambiguity, political headwinds, and nonlinear career paths. They have done so in predominantly male-led industries such as banking, energy, and logistics.
In a 2025 article, we examined how early-tenure CEOs in this cohort harnessed their human-centric skills to navigate the challenges and polarities of the role. Here, we look forward in leadership tenure to understand how seasoned women CEOs “stay in the game.” We found that those who sustain high performance over time share a distinctive leadership architecture—a set of deeply held convictions that guide decisions, protect energy, and create durability under pressure.
“Performance and humanity can coexist,” said one of the women CEOs we interviewed. “I believe we can lead differently.”
In this article, we explore five leadership principles these CEOs share: grounding their actions in purpose, showing authentic courage, accepting support, seeing the system clearly, and making the job sustainable within the context of their broader lives. These principles offer insights for all leaders grappling with challenges that may not have easily discernible outcomes.
Creating an operating system: How I lead and how we work together
Leadership principles are the clear, deeply held beliefs that guide how a CEO makes decisions, especially when the path forward is uncertain. They sit between values (what we care about) and actions (what we do).A strong leadership principle is:Actionable:
- It guides choices in key moments
- Nuanced: it clarifies trade-offs when priorities collide
- Stable: it holds steady across cycles, crises, and contexts
- Specific: it reflects the leader and the organization, not generic ideals
For CEOs and other senior leaders, these principles function as a leadership operating system; they are a recognizable way of creating value. They clarify a leader’s unique edge, define how value is created beyond metrics, and become a “decision-making brand” that others can anticipate and trust. Here are five common leadership principles that emerged from our interviews.
Make decisions based on purpose, not pressure
Personal leadership principle: I exercise authority in the service of purpose, not to protect my position or prove my worth. I use my position to advance what the organization needs, even when doing so is unpopular.“Purpose-driven decisions create clarity, reduce frustration, and fuel resilience,” said the CEO of a utility. “Uniting around purpose also means anchoring decisions in long-term societal impact. In our case, that means delivering for our customers through reliability, affordability, and service.”
Our group was unequivocal: The CEO role is not about the title, but the impact. “Once you’re in the role, you realize you’re swimming in your purpose,” said the CEO of an energy company. “It stops being about the job and becomes about what only you can do.”
“The title is not the right motivation,” said the retired CEO of a financial services company. “You need to want to accomplish something—to have a vision and a conviction about the contribution you want to make.”
When deciding whether to enter a high-stakes CEO race, she tested what motivated her. Was there a mission worth the personal and political cost? She also has declined board seats at “fantastic companies” when the people, values, or culture didn’t align with her own, even when the prestige or compensation was attractive. “Don’t ask, ‘Is this role impressive?’ Ask instead, ‘Is there something here that calls me to serve?’”
How we work as a team: We optimize for enterprise impact, not for individual agendas or optics. We elevate issues based on what is right for the organization. We challenge misaligned work quickly. Once we make decisions, we align and execute them together.
Common purpose is strengthened when leaders are open and vulnerable. The utility CEO said that if you pretend to know something, people will figure that out fast. But “when you admit you don’t know, it’s amazing how quickly they will help you.”
A defining leadership pivot occurred when she admitted that she didn’t know something in an area where she had little expertise. She found that her vulnerability led to more credibility and support, and better results. “Humility is a strength, and vulnerability can be a performance accelerant,” she told us.
She believes the difference between authentic and performative vulnerability is crucial to a CEO’s success. For instance, she used to script her town halls and deliberately insert a “vulnerability story,” believing that’s what strong leaders should do. The stories were real but curated. She was crafting how her openness would land.
That was performative vulnerability: controlling disclosure to signal authenticity.
When she stopped packaging the stories and allowed herself to speak more spontaneously—admitting uncertainty and sharing reflections that felt unfinished—she was being authentically vulnerable. She had gone from managing perception to offering an unpolished openness that strengthened connection.
Purpose-driven leadership also shapes how CEOs engage stakeholders, especially in moments of uncertainty. Just days after stepping into the role, the CEO of a logistics company was urged to avoid a tense national customer conference. Service levels were down, customers were frustrated, and she had not yet fully formed a response. A CEO’s instinct in such moments might be to wait to gather data, prepare the narrative, and reduce risk. But she went anyway.
“I had almost nothing to say,” she recalled. “But in difficult times, the worst thing you can do is pull back.” Her philosophy is simple: Call stakeholders before they call you and show up before you have all the answers. Presence, she believes, signals accountability and builds trust.
Choose courage over comfort
Personal leadership principle: I act with courage rooted in principles, not in comfort with the outcome. I make hard calls when values and evidence are clear.Principled courage builds durable value because it improves the quality of decisions, reinforces accountability, and strengthens trust. Performative boldness, by contrast, may appear decisive in the moment, but consumes energy and weakens credibility over time. As one CEO put it: “Learn fast, ask for help, don’t posture.”
A global energy company CEO told us that earlier in her career, she found herself misaligned with her boss on a decision she believed was fundamentally wrong—not just strategically, but in terms of values. She made her case, but he wouldn’t listen. She realized that if she stayed silent and complied, she would be endorsing a direction she did not believe in. She told him that if this was the path forward, she would have to leave.
That moment of principled courage changed the dynamic. Her boss saw that she wasn’t acting out of ego or stubbornness, but from conviction. He asked her to sit down and talk it through, and ultimately he revised his course of action.
The outcome was positive. But what made the moment powerful wasn’t that she “won.” It was that she was willing to lose.
The logistics company CEO also said something about courage that struck us as crucial. She believes leaders should run to the fire because they learn the most and become better leaders in the toughest moments. If an executive comes to her and says, “I have an activist investor and I think I’m going to leave,” she counsels them to stay and deal with the situation because they won’t get a better hands-on experience.
How we work as a team: We face reality immediately and act before problems become crises. We surface risks and trade-offs early, putting personal fears and interests on the table, and don’t defer difficult decisions. We act on principles even when outcomes are uncertain.
One CEO made sure to frame team actions as a question: “If we were acting with courage, what would we do now?” This enabled her to create psychological safety while maintaining a rapid pace of decision-making.
Find strength through support
Personal leadership principle: I strengthen my impact by avoiding excessive self-reliance and the reflex to become the rescuer. I invest in coaches, advisers, and teams that challenge me, broaden my perspective, and help me lead with clarity.Our CEOs believe it is essential to ask for support—and to find people you trust who see you more fully than you see yourself. One CEO practiced both an “official tour of the table and an unofficial tour,” or formal meetings followed by informal conversations to discover what people really think. She continues that practice today as a board chair, creating space for dissent and recalibration. “Don’t wait for the truth to come to you—go looking for it.”
If success depends on the CEO personally holding everything together, the system must be redesigned. Self-reliance is what gets so many leaders to the top, but it is a less useful attribute once in the role. Scaled leadership creates durability—for both the CEO and the institution. “We get there by being self-reliant, but that becomes a trap,” another CEO noted. “If you don’t ask for help, eventually you burn out.”
How we work as a team: We define strength as the ability to mobilize the right support at the right time. We avoid unnecessary heroics and last-minute rescues by asking for help early, building complementary teams, and making ownership explicit. This increases speed, reduces risk, and sustains high performance without an overreliance on any one individual.
At the leadership table, asking for help is often misunderstood as admitting you can’t do the job. To the contrary, it’s about having the courage to put your toughest, most complex issues on the table—especially when you don’t yet have answers. Inviting different perspectives shows that you believe these challenges deserve collective problem solving.
Strength is not how much you can carry alone—it’s how effectively you engage the system around you. Teams can ask: Who else needs to be involved so this work doesn’t rest on one person? How can we bring multiple perspectives and productive dissent to inform complex decisions?
Another CEO said she likes to “build coalitions to drive stronger outcomes,” adding, “I don’t believe I know everything, so learning and improvement are disciplines I live by and I want my teams to live by.”
Own the system, not just the outcome
Personal leadership principle: I must see the system clearly, whether looking at a team or the whole organization. I expect resistance, criticism, and volatility as part of the role and I manage my inner critic deliberately. I don’t take the system personally, and I approach challenges with curiosity.This learning mindset enables decisive leadership without ego. It creates strong authority without identity entanglement. “You’re there to serve the institution, not yourself,” said a former university president. “That mindset changes how you lead.”
One CEO described an evolution in her approach to the job when she learned not to take organizational dynamics personally. She “takes herself out of the picture” to observe the system—the incentives, positioning, and patterns at play. What once felt threatening now feels fascinating because she looks at complexity, personalities, and power dynamics more strategically. “Most of it is just noise,” she concluded.
However, under sustained pressure, disagreement can quietly morph into self-doubt, eroding confidence and creating hesitation, especially when leaders become depleted. That may be a problem that affects women more than men, in her opinion. As the former financial group CEO put it, “When doubt shows up, widen the circle, don’t shrink into yourself.”
As leaders move into the most senior roles, the nature of leadership changes, another CEO said. The challenge is no longer execution, but judgment. Decisions increasingly generate resistance—not because they are flawed, but because the stakes are higher and interests diverge. This is where many leaders, particularly women, begin to lose confidence because they mistake resistance for a signal to dilute conviction. Instead, they must maintain an unwavering focus on doing what is right for the organization, she said.
How we work as a team: We debate ideas rigorously without personalizing disagreement. We separate people from problems. We test assumptions without blame and treat challenges as a performance behavior, not a threat. We recognize that outcomes reflect the systems we design—our incentives, norms, and behaviors. By continuously strengthening how we work, we build trust, reduce friction, and drive sustainable performance together.
Owning the system sometimes means redesigning the incentives that quietly undermine performance. As one CEO examined her organization’s annual business planning process, she realized leaders were “negotiating” their targets rather than discussing what was possible. Because compensation was tied to negotiated business plans, “everyone was working their paycheck,” she said.
Instead of calling rhetorically for a more ambitious approach, she simplified the system by reducing dozens of performance measures to a small set of enterprise-wide metrics. The message was clear: We win or lose together.
The tone of conversations changed as leaders began debating potential rather than defending targets. “Truth telling isn’t a personality trait,” she noted. “It’s a system outcome.”
One CEO faced declining survey scores showing reduced employee confidence in the senior executive team. She dealt with this tension by creating a reframing exercise. She asked her team to imagine teaching a class, “How to undermine confidence as an executive team,” inviting them to define the behaviors and dynamics that would produce exactly the results they were seeing. That playful format allowed everyone to see their contribution to the problem, shifting the conversation from blame to ownership. As a result, the senior team was able to focus on changing the system they had created.
Make the job sustainable
Personal leadership principle: I design my life and my leadership so I can stay in the game, not just survive the role. I treat my energy as a strategic asset that I use to create value and invest it only where I can create real impact. I involve my family and other partners in major decisions and treat intensity as episodic, not permanent.Our CEOs made life architecture part of their strategic decision-making, not an afterthought. They involved their families in major decisions, including relocation. The question can be reframed from whether the family can adapt to whether a new posting might be an adventure for everyone. As one put it, “Test the family system—does it support the intensity of the role?”
Instead of trying to find sustainability inside the role, these CEOs focus on designing sustainability within the context of their broader lives. They recognize that leadership is part of life, not separate from it. “I don’t like power or money enough to burn energy on the wrong fight,” said a former telecom CEO.
Making the job sustainable also requires disciplined management of time and energy. The logistics company CEO was surprised by how quickly her time ceased to feel like her own once she stepped into the role. Invitations multiplied, external visibility increased, and every meeting seemed important. “In some ways, the world opens to you,” she reflected. “But the demands are incredible.”
Early on, she said yes too often. The cost was subtle but real: fragmented focus, less recovery time, and diminished strategic clarity. Over time, she introduced a deliberate filter. She evaluated every invitation by asking two questions: What outcome am I trying to drive? and What impact do I uniquely need to have? If the connection was weak, the answer was no.
This discipline was difficult—particularly for a naturally curious leader—but she came to understand energy as a strategic asset. By aligning time with purpose, she sustained herself and clarified priorities for the enterprise.
Treating energy as capital helps leaders with alignment, boundaries, and trade-offs, optimizing the job to ensure a sustainable life. When that doesn’t happen, women may leave leadership—not because they lack stamina, but because energy is spent without impact. “Burnout comes when you confuse exhaustion with opting out, when really what’s needed is support and redesign,” one CEO said.
How we work as a team: We are intentional about how we work, not just what we deliver. Most executive teams drain energy through long reporting meetings and by operating as a team of leaders rather than a true leadership team.
We focus work that only we can do together—making big-bet decisions, resolving complex interdependencies, reprioritizing resources, and engaging in deep collective learning. When executive teams concentrate on this value-creating work, meetings become energizing rather than depleting, burnout decreases, and the work becomes sustainable. Simple practices, such as tech-free meetings, sharp agendas, and clarity of purpose, reinforce the shift from energy drain to energy generation.
The women we spoke with focused on their team’s psychology, building trust in both meetings and in their operating rhythm. One of our leaders summed up the stakes for CEOs and their teams well: “People don’t need a perfect CEO,” she said, “They need someone real they can follow.”
Top-line thoughts on staying in the game
Today’s leaders operate in what some describe as a “BANI” world—brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. The pace of change and constant flow of information can create deep disorientation. Tools and data may increase speed and offer apparent certainty, but they can also create the illusion of clarity in a world that is complex and ethically charged. Leaders face decisions that require business acumen, ethics, and judgment, often without reliable reference points. There are no easy answers.One experienced CEO offered advice for women earlier in their careers: Think beyond your role and expand your perspective early. Don’t think only about your function, but about the whole organization. “Future CEOs think like CEOs long before they have the title.”
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We transform hospitality and tourism businesses through strategic solutions, operational efficiency, and comprehensive renovation. With over 40 years of experience working with brands like Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, and Sonesta, we enhance asset value and profitability through:
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✅ Successful projects across 6 Latin American countries
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