Change, Composure, and the Steadiness With Which We Row
An editorial from Lisa Kelliher CEO – Be Challenged

Inside The Hive, we talk a lot about what it means to lead when the conditions aren’t ideal. When the pressure is on, when the pace is relentless, when the path ahead isn’t clear.

Lisa Kelliher, CEO of Be Challenged, has spent her career inside that reality; not observing it from a distance, but navigating it alongside the teams and leaders she works with every day.

In this piece, she turns to one of the world’s most recognised artworks to ask a question that sits at the heart of everything we do: when the wave rises, what kind of rower are you?

At our recent conference, I spoke about something that sits at the heart of our work, our leadership, and our culture: the inevitability of change. Change is not a disruption from the outside, it is the rhythm of the world in which we operate.

Whether it arrives as a gentle tide or a surging swell, change is always on its way.

Each of us carries a different appetite for risk, shaped by our experiences, our confidence, our temperament, and the environments we’ve worked in.

For some, risk feels energising and an exciting challenge. For others, it can spark caution, concern, or hesitation. Neither response is wrong. What we must recognise, though, is that our stance toward risk and change does not live in isolation. It echoes outward, influencing our teams, our clients, and those people who look to us for stability and direction.

As we explore this idea, I’m drawn to an artwork that perfectly captures the tension and beauty of change: Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Most interpretations focus on the enormity of the wave, but what has always struck me most profoundly are the boats and the people rowing in them; small, fragile vessels cutting through turbulent water with determination.

The wave is inevitable. Its energy is beyond negotiation. Yet the rowers lean into their task with a collective steadiness. There is no panic, no scattering, no individuals breaking away. Instead, they embody composure, belief, and cohesion. They understand their context, they trust their craft, and they rely on one another.

This is the metaphor for us.

In seasons when the waves are high; when priorities shift, when new expectations emerge, when the pace accelerates, we each have a choice in how we respond. Do we grip the oar with intention, or do we freeze? Do we move in rhythm with our team, or inadvertently work against it? Do we see the wave as something to fear, or something to navigate with clarity and confidence?

Change will continue to rise and fall around us. Our success will be determined not by the height of the waves, but by the steadiness with which we row together.

Lisa Kelliher
CEO Be Challenged

A Provocation for Hive Leaders

The wave doesn’t wait for us to be ready. It’s visible, dramatic, and shared. Everyone in the boat sees it coming. What’s harder to examine is what lives inside the rower. The private calculation that happens in the fraction of a second before action: do I trust this team, do I trust myself, and do I actually believe we’ll make it through?

Lisa’s reflection asks us to stop managing the optics of leadership under pressure and start being honest about the inner posture we bring to it. Because the people in the boat with you aren’t watching the wave. They’re watching you. So fellow leaders, when the swell is at its highest, what are they seeing?