Leadership has never been tougher.

Deliver results, drive change, navigate uncertainty, handle difficult conversations, stay human. All while being pulled between competing expectations: be confident and decisive, yet inclusive and responsive. Set uncompromising standards, yet invite candid feedback and admit mistakes. If you sometimes wonder whether you have what it takes, you’re not alone.

The most effective leaders hold these paradoxes with a steadiness you can feel. They set clear direction without shutting people down. They create trust without lowering the bar. They act with conviction while staying open and grounded. They move people towards bold goals without drama or force, building cultures where people take ownership and thrive.

That is Graceful Power.

In these pages, Sally Netherwood distils decades of real-world coaching into a practical guide for leaders who want to expand their impact without losing themselves in the process. With real case studies and frameworks you can apply immediately, you’ll build your own Graceful Power to grow the influence that drives performance, accelerate your career and enhance the experience of those around you.

Sally Netherwood is a world-class leadership coach who works with CEOs and founders, creatives and change-makers around the globe, helping them lead with greater clarity, courage and impact. Drawing on tens of thousands of leadership conversations, she translates complex challenges into practical strategies that improve performance, culture and daily working life.

‘A compelling guide for anyone striving to lead with strength, purpose and integrity.’ – Ariane Gorin, CEO, Expedia Group

‘This book is bigger than just business – this is a guide for a successful life.’ – Al MacCuish, Founder and Chairman, Sunshine

‘A thoughtful companion and practical toolkit for becoming the kind of leader people actually want to follow.’ – Julia Ingall, Chief People Officer at The Travel Corporation

Sally brings a rare ability to help leaders harness both power and grace — a balance the world urgently needs. Having benefited from Sally’s approach personally, I know it’s impact first-hand. Graceful Power distils her wisdom into a compelling guide for anyone striving to lead with strength, purpose, and integrity. – Ariane Gorin, Chief Executive Officer at Expedia Group

I’ve had the privilege of being coached by Sally, the absolute best in leadership coaching, and her impact on my ability to lead powerfully, unite teams, and evolve as a person has been immense. She has a brilliant, compassionate style and understands how to guide leaders to uncover the answers to their most pressing questions. What a gift that this is now captured in a book for so many more leaders to benefit from. Tyler Turnbull, – Global Chief Executive Officer at McCann

Sally Netherwood was a truth-teller and a steady force in my life when I needed it most. Her guidance didn’t just help me lead — it helped me lead in a way that was powerful, human, and sustainable, and I still lean on what I learned from her. Graceful Power is the gift so many of us have been waiting for: the wisdom, clarity and care I was lucky enough to experience one-to-one, now available for every leader who wants to do big work in the world without losing themselves. – Tarana Burke, Founder of the Me Too movement

At a time when leadership advice is cheap and often meaningless, Sally’s concept of ‘Graceful Power’ is essential reading for anyone truly committed to developing their leadership capabilities. I’ve had the privilege of Sally’s coaching for twenty years – I would have struggled to survive and succeed without her guidance. It’s brilliant she has finally captured what she does in this long overdue book. – Andy Medd, Founder of Mother

Having benefited so much from Sally’s coaching myself, I’m delighted that her valuable expertise and thoughtful practical guidance is now available to everyone in this book. I’ll be recommending it to other leaders who want to deliver with impact whilst remaining grounded. – Anabel Hoult, Chief Executive Officer at Which?

I found Graceful Power a genuinely good read that resonated with my leadership style and philosophy. The line ‘you must ground yourself deeply in your humanity’ rang absolutely true. In today’s highly pressured, fast-moving world, this guide meets leaders at any stage and helps you build a better, more effective version of your leadership-self — to the benefit of your people and teams as much as yourself. – Prof Sir Menelas N Pangalos PhD DSc FRSB FBPhS(Hon) FFPM(Hon) FMedSci FRS, formerly Executive Vice President R&D at AstraZeneca

As someone who has spent decades organizing in the trenches of democracy, I know that lasting change comes not from those who wield power like a weapon, but from those who share it like bread. Sally Netherwood has captured something sacred here – that grace under pressure isn’t weakness, it’s the kind of strength that moves mountains and transforms hearts. In these times when power is so often abused, this book is both a prophetic call and a practical guide to the leadership our wounded world desperately needs. – LaTosha Brown, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter Fund and Southern Black Girls & Women

It’s a rare skill to be able to not only bring clarity to the complex dynamics of leadership, but to have identified that success actually lies deep within each and every leader. There is no invention required. Sally has brilliantly codified a system for unlocking the graceful power that lies within all of us. And she’s done it in a characteristically Sally way: she’s told a story that we can all see ourselves in. This book is bigger than just business – this is a guide for a successful life. – Al MacCuish, Founder and Chairman at Sunshine

After 20 years of working with leaders running an Executive Search Business and having trained to be a coach myself, I have read countless leadership and coaching books. I cannot recommend Graceful Power more highly, it offers the most practical guidance for today’s challenges. Modern leadership demands adaptability, humanity, and the ability to navigate constant change and complexity. It’s a tough, often lonely role – and Sally’s book gives such insight into successful modern leadership, it feels like having a full-time coach by your side. Practical, accessible, and incredibly useful. Thank you, – Sally. Juliet Timms, Founder, Grace Blue Worldwide and Chair, Grace Blue Europe.

Graceful Power is not just a leadership framework; it’s a lifeline. Eighteen months after completing my coaching sessions with Sally, I suffered a traumatic brain injury due to Meningoencephalitis and spent a month in Neuro-ICU. The tools I had learned with her became my anchor in the storm — helping me confront my darkest fears, live in congruence, and forge deeper, more meaningful connections with everyone in my life. In a high-pressure leadership role, where I was facing what felt like a certain end, this approach helped me come back not just smarter, but more human. Sally’s work is a gift to anyone who wants to lead with strength, authenticity, and heart. – Thabang Skwambane, Chief Executive Officer at Nahana Group

Sally is the best leadership coach I have ever had the privilege of working with, and by writing this insightful, inspirational and practical guide on Graceful Power – complete with clear tools drawn from her years of experience and wisdom working with entrepreneurs, business leaders and game-changers – many more leaders around the world can now learn from her. With Sally as your pocket coaching guide, you can really tap into your own vision, values and purpose as a leader in the 21st century, and take your leadership abilities and influence to the next level with grace, humility and confidence. – Molly Aldridge, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at The JJ Club Group

As someone who directly benefited from Sally’s coaching prior to becoming CEO of the national youth charity OnSide, I can fully vouch for the depth and value of her insight. Sally’s wisdom and support helped me step into the authentic leader I wanted to be, clearing away the limiting beliefs that stood in my way. Graceful Power beautifully captures the essence of what makes her approach so impactful — a practical and deeply human framework for leading with courage, care and congruence. I have no doubt this book will be an invaluable companion for anyone seeking to lead with impact while staying true to themselves. – Jamie Masraff, Chief Executive Officer at OnSide

Graceful Power offers something genuinely rare: a leadership approach that doesn’t ask you to choose between strength and humanity. Drawing on 25 years of coaching experience, it guides you toward the self-awareness that makes leadership feel less like a struggle, because it’s harder to lead well when you don’t truly know yourself. Whether you’re starting your leadership journey or have led for many years, this is a thoughtful companion and practical toolkit for becoming the kind of leader people actually want to follow. In a world that desperately needs more grounded, human leaders, this book is both timely and transformative. – Julia Ingall, Chief People Officer at The Travel Corporation

In defining and exploring what Graceful Power means as a leader in the modern world Sally Netherwood has created a truly thought-provoking guide for all leaders. By recognising at the outset your own individual style and sense of purpose, this book builds on who you are to create a unique, authentic and impactful leadership style. Wherever and whoever you lead, this book will enable you to navigate the complexities of all the many demands the world now places on its leaders and leave you inspired to fulfil your potential. – Lynn Dunne, Partner and Global Board Member at Ashurst LLP

I’ve recommended Sally to CEOs, celebrities, and close friends — and without exception, they all describe her coaching as life-changing. To now have all her wisdom, experience, and perspective distilled into an inspiring philosophy and book, accessible to a wider audience, is a true gift to the world. – Carter Murray, formerly Global Chief Executive Officer at McCann

Sally’s writing on the persistent paradoxes facing latter day leaders really resonates. Her framing of Graceful Power as a way to navigate these challenges is an insightful approach. This book is so worth reading to understand how this can be applicable and addictive to your leadership. – Anna Bateson, Chief Executive Officer at Guardian Media Group

Graceful Power is a wise antidote to the noise of modern leadership. Sally Netherwood shows how courage and care can sit side by side — enabling leaders to act decisively while never losing sight of people. Public servants and business leaders alike will find both clarity and practical guidance here. – Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Former Prime Minister of Denmark

Graceful Power is the definitive practical playbook for modern leadership. Like any great leader, it does more than just set out the vision. By embracing the contradictions that plague every leader instead of wishing them away and charting a path to harmony by starting from the inside out, it shows us how to become more like the leaders we admire and the leaders we wished we had the opportunity to follow. – Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Chief Marketing Officer at DoorDash

Introduction

Part I: Understanding Graceful Power

1.What is Graceful Power?

2.The paradox of modern leadership

3.The qualities of Graceful Power

Part II: Congruence

4.The role of congruence in Graceful Power

5.Deepening self-awareness

6.Developing authentic agility

Part III: Courage

7.The role of courage in Graceful Power

8.Understanding fear

9.Managing fear and unlocking courage

Part IV: Compassion

10.The role of compassion in Graceful Power

11.A mindset and a skillset

12.Creating a climate of flourishing

Part V: Leading with Graceful Power

13.Bringing it all together

14.The ripple effect

About the author

Acknowledgements

Notes

Appendix

Index

FORMAT / ISBN / PUBLICATION DATE / RRP

Hardback / 9781788606486 / March 31, 2026 / £25.99

Paperback / 9781788606493 / March 31, 2026 / £15.99

Ebook / 9781788606516 / March 30, 2026 / £7.99

Paperback and eBook Bundle / £17.99

Sally Netherwood

A world-class leadership coach with decades of experience, Sally Netherwood attracts extraordinary clients from around the globe: CEOs of major global organizations, radical entrepreneurs re-inventing market sectors, influential activists advancing social justice and gender equality, celebrated artists creating and reflecting cultural change and societal attitudes, non-profit leaders improving the lives of disadvantaged communities, policy-makers, pioneers and innovators.
A catalyst for transformation, Sally brings the gift of clarity to her clients. She cuts through clutter, chaos and contradiction to reveal the simplicity and authenticity of each leader’s passion and purpose, releasing them from the fears that hold them back from even greater accomplishment. Discovering and embracing what Sally describes as their Graceful Power, her clients find an inner strength and external influence that allows them to achieve so much more, with significantly less personal effort.
In Graceful Power, Sally has for the first time distilled her 25 years of coaching expertise and the insights gained from tens of thousands of leadership conversations to create a practical and accessible guidebook for independent leadership transformation. Graceful Power is for anyone who aspires to powerfully positive leadership and a significant role in shaping the world for the better.