You only hold the baton for a while

Reflections on leadership, diplomacy and leaving things better

What does leadership look like when you know you are only passing through?

Not passing through a job, but through a role that existed before you arrived and will continue long after you leave. Not building something for yourself, but strengthening something entrusted to you for a moment in time.

This question left a powerful mark on me on January 27, 2026, when The Gallery Seoul welcomed H.E. Ambassador Michelle Winthrop of Ireland and H.E. Ambassador Dawn Bennet of New Zealand for a conversation on leadership, diplomacy and power.

The discussion moved across geopolitics, representation and responsibility, yet one simple phrase became pivotal to me:

the responsibility to leave things better than you found them.

It is a simple ambition. Yet from it emerges a positive and nurturing leadership style, one all of us can learn from, far beyond diplomacy.

Diplomacy makes the temporary nature of leadership unmistakable.

An ambassador does not own the seat - she borrows it. Three years, five years, and then someone else continues the work. When Ambassador Winthrop arrived in Seoul, her assistant quietly noted that she was her eighth ambassador. A gentle reminder: the institution was there before you, and it will remain after you.

Yet ego and the seduction of power can easily blur our vision. Eager to implement our vision and make visible impact, we risk imposing before understanding.

But if you manage to listen - like Ambassador Winthrop, leadership begins to shift.

It becomes about strengthening what will endure. You respect the organisation because you are only passing through it. You respect the country you serve because understanding must come before change. You observe, listen and learn, not to surrender your values, but to plant seeds that can take root.

This can be mistaken for a lack of ambition. On the contrary, both ambassadors spoke with clarity about leading with impact and wanting to leave a meaningful mark. It is simply a question of how you approach the world.

This perspective brings a certain calm. When you know you hold the baton only briefly, you stop performing leadership and begin inhabiting it. You stand in your role representing your country, your institution and, inevitably, yourself. It calls for authenticity, because ultimately all you can be is yourself. You were chosen to lead for this tenure. It will be different from before, and different from what comes next. The only option is to use your strengths to create positive change.

For an ambassador, this means understanding what matters at home. They referred to it as “navigating the mothership” - remaining closely connected to national priorities and values, and knowing what Ireland and New Zealand need from their representation abroad. When you deliver on that mandate, it becomes easier to lead in your own shape rather than conforming to a traditional mold.

This requires constant attention: how you listen, how you respond under pressure, how you care for teams navigating constant transition, how you create space for others to grow. It means leaning on systems and finding rest in the fact that you are not alone. Yet when tensions rise, you are still the person standing there, responsible for finding a way forward.

And as the world grows more volatile and the path narrows, the Ambassadors were clear; your task is to do exactly that: to hold onto hope and find the small openings where dialogue can continue. Because diplomacy is dialogue.

In a time of polarization and shifting power, this felt less like a leadership principle and more like a compass: understand before changing, strengthen what will endure, and choose dialogue even when it is difficult.

We only hold the baton for a while.

What matters is how we carry it, guided by the values we hold when the path is unclear, and whether the world we pass forward is steadier, more open, and more humane than the one we inherited.