A Christmas Wish - Stewardship for People, Place and Planet
At Christmas, wishes soften - but they should not lose their strength.
They strip away performance and leave us with what we are truly prepared to stand for.
They are not strategies.
They are not demands.
They are quiet statements of what we hope might be held more carefully in the year ahead.
So this is my Christmas wish.
Not for ease.
Not for certainty.
But for stewardship – care that lasts, responsibility that stretches beyond us, and love that does not retreat when things get difficult.
I wish for a year where people can flourish, places can recover, and the planet can endure – not by accident, but by choice.
Here is what that wish asks of us.
Social - My wish for people
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” - Simon Sinek
My Christmas wish for people is this:
That fewer people quietly carry more than they should.
That care is designed into work, not offered only when someone breaks.
That dignity is protected before resilience is demanded.
Stewardship asks:
Who is carrying more than their share – and why?
Where are people absorbing the cost of broken systems in silence?
What would it mean to design care into the work, not add it afterwards?
If this year is to be kinder, it will be because people were held – not used up.
Technological - My wish for power and technology
“Just because something can be automated doesn’t mean it should be.” - Dame Wendy Hall
My Christmas wish here is for restraint.
That as technology accelerates, judgment is not surrendered.
That efficiency does not outrun responsibility.
That humans remain answerable for the systems they build.
Stewardship asks:
Who carries the risk when this system fails?
Who can understand, challenge or contest its decisions?
What must remain unmistakably human – no matter how efficient automation becomes?
Progress that forgets these questions is not progress at all.
Economic - My wish for value and the economy
“An economy that destroys its natural and social foundations is not an economy that works.” - Kate Raworth
My Christmas wish is that we become more honest about cost.
That growth is no longer confused with extraction.
That prosperity is measured by whether lives can be lived well – not just worked hard.
That wealth is a measure of empowering others, not in profiting from them.
Stewardship asks:
Who benefits from this growth – and who pays for it?
What is being taken that cannot easily be restored?
Are we investing in capability, or simply accelerating output?
An economy worthy of the future must serve people, place and planet – not quietly consume them.
Environmental - My wish for place and planet
“The natural world is not something separate from us. It is the system that sustains us.” - Sir David Attenborough
My wish for the planet is not dramatic. It is relational.
That land, water and air are treated as living systems, not background assets.
That restoration carries pride.
That care for place feels like belonging, not sacrifice.
Stewardship asks:
What damage are we normalising because it feels distant or slow?
What would restoration look like – not just mitigation?
What will this place remember about how we treated it?
We are not owners here.
We are guests with responsibilities.
Political - My wish for politics beyond terms of office
“We shall not achieve a just society by taking refuge in abstractions.” - Aneurin Bevan
This is where my Christmas wish finds its fire.
I wish for politics that thinks beyond the next term.
That treats institutions as inheritances, not trophies.
That understands power as a duty to those not yet here.
That looks beyond a term and plans for an eternity.
Stewardship asks:
What must endure beyond this Parliament?
What should never be traded for short-term advantage?
What will future generations thank us for having protected – even if it cost us now?
This is not slow leadership.
It is long leadership.
Legal - My wish for law and trust
“The rule of law is not a technicality. It is the foundation of trust in public life.” - Baroness Hale
My Christmas wish for law is that it steadies rather than intimidates.
That justice feels reachable.
That power is restrained with care.
That fairness holds even when it is inconvenient.
Stewardship asks:
Does this law protect people as effectively as it enables action?
Where does convenience erode fairness?
What precedents are we setting – and who will live with them?
Trust survives when law remembers who it exists to serve.
Ethical - My wish for conscience
“Hope is not naïve. It is something we choose to practise.” - Roman Krznaric
My final Christmas wish is the quietest one.
That ethics is lived, not laminated.
That choices are made with an eye on who carries the cost.
That hope is treated as responsibility, not reassurance.
Stewardship asks:
Who does this serve – really?
What cost am I willing to pass on to others, or to the planet?
What choice will I be able to stand behind later, not just now?
Ethics is what remains when certainty fades.
Systemic - And at the heart of my Christmas wish
“The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realise that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.” - Fritjof Capra
That we stop pretending these are competing priorities.
People do not need to be exhausted for systems to work.
Places do not need to be diminished for progress to occur.
The planet does not need to be sacrificed for growth.
Stewardship brings them back together.
Care backed by courage.
Love that refuses to stay polite.
Responsibility carried forward – long after the season ends.
So this Christmas, my wish is not for comfort.
It is for stewardship – quietly chosen, patiently practised, and fiercely defended.
Because a future that honours people, place and planet will not be wished into being.
It will be stewarded.
Stefan
CEO, Be The Waves | Executive Coach | Father | Citizen