By Erin Beattie, Founder and CCO, Engage + Empower Consulting
Some words find you when you’re ready for them.
For me, that word has been stewardship.
It’s appeared again and again in unexpected places. In a friend’s book draft. In client conversations. And most memorably, during a long wait in an emergency room, where I fell into a quiet conversation with someone about care, ceremony, and what stewardship can mean in pregnancy and birth. Not as a title or a task, but as a kind of trust. A way of holding something sacred and temporary.
That conversation stayed with me. Since then, the word keeps showing up. And every time it does, I pause.
What we hold and how we hold it
Stewardship feels different from leadership. Leadership often focuses on vision, direction, and achievement. Stewardship is about how we care for something that isn’t ours to keep.
It’s about honouring what came before and preparing the ground for what will come next.
It’s a quiet kind of strength. The kind that takes patience, humility, and intention.
Recent research connects stewardship with servant-style leadership. Teams led by people who act out of care rather than control tend to be more resilient, communicative, and collaborative. Another study looked at stewardship through Indigenous leadership in conservation, describing it as a practice of reciprocity and shared care. Those findings align with what many of us already know in our bones. When we lead with care, everything changes.
What it looks like in my life
I think about stewardship as a parent all the time. My sons are now 19 and 22, and guiding them into adulthood has been its own lesson in learning to let go. Parenting has taught me that we don’t own the people we love. We get to guide them for a while, and then we step back so they can find their own way.
That’s stewardship, too. It’s knowing when to hold close and when to release. It’s trusting that care still exists, even when we’re not in control of the outcome.
I see the same truth in my work.
In communications, we often talk about legacy and impact, but the real work of stewardship happens in the handoff. When a strategy or toolkit leaves my desk, I want the next person to feel supported, not overwhelmed. I want them to sense the care and thought that went into it.
That’s how I define success.
Where strategy meets humanity
Stewardship sits at the intersection of strategy and humanity.
It’s what happens when we build systems that are meant to be shared, not owned. When we prioritize relationships as much as results. When clarity and care move together.
Earlier this year, I completed the Human-Centred Leadership course with Compassionate Disruptors, which added a new layer to this reflection. The program explored how compassion, courage, and accountability shape the way we lead. It reinforced that leadership isn’t about control or perfection. It’s about presence and care, even when things are uncomfortable.
That course helped me see stewardship as something living, a practice that grows stronger when we combine empathy with structure, and intention with follow-through.
Questions to hold
If stewardship is new to you, start with these:
What are you caring for right now that isn’t yours to keep?
Who will come after you, and what will they inherit from your work?
Where might you be holding on too tightly?
How can you create something that outlasts you in the best possible way?
Those questions don’t have simple answers, but they’re worth sitting with.
What I’m learning
The more I explore stewardship, the more I see it as the quiet heartbeat of lasting leadership.
It’s not about perfection or performance. It’s about attention and care. It’s about showing up fully for what’s here and trusting that how we hold it matters.
That conversation in the waiting room reminded me that stewardship isn’t a label or a role to be filled; it’s a mindset. It’s a practice. A way of being. One small, thoughtful act at a time.
Closing thought
Stewardship is what happens when we care for something we know we’ll eventually release.
It’s how we honour the work, the people, and the future that will follow.
It’s quiet, careful, and full of hope.
Resources and readings
If this idea speaks to you, here are a few places to explore:
- Steward Leadership Compass – Stewardship Asia Centre
- Servant Leadership and Team Resilience Study, 2025 (Frontiers in Psychology)
- Royal Roads University Truth & Reconciliation: Faculty publications – RRU Library
- Compassionate Disruptors – Human-Centred Leadership Course
