Stewardship, According to Mum (on her 70th)
A conversation with my mum on her 70th which chimes with stewardship and the work of Be The Waves; the mindset, movement and collaboration I founded last month.
I visited my mum this week for her 70th birthday - seven months after we lost my dad.
It was an emotional few days. We spent time with one of my brothers and his wife, shared quiet cups of tea, and made a couple of visits to Dad’s grave. Turning 70 felt like a milestone - a marker of love, loss, and resilience.
At one point, Mum asked how work was going. I told her about launching Be The Waves - how we’d just launched, how another organisation had asked us to provide a coach for their project, and how the whole mission is about growing stewardship for a thriving planet.
She looked a bit puzzled. So I asked if she knew what stewardship meant.
She frowned. So I said, “What if I said steward - what would you think of then?”
She paused for a moment and said this:
Me: What does “stewards” mean?
Mum: “Stewards… a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes good - good at their job - they get the workers better pay, better conditions and workers’ safety.”
→ How I interpret what she’s saying: She starts with balance. To her, being a steward isn’t about authority - it’s about care and fairness. The good ones protect people and make sure work serves human needs.
Me: And when is it bad?
Mum: “Sometimes bad - cause more trouble… they don’t agree with the owners. But the owners would rather get rid of the people than go with the stewards. And others worried about their jobs.”
→ She recognises the tension: standing up for fairness can make waves. Stewardship can be seen as “trouble” when it challenges comfort or power.
Me: Do you think they should rock the boat sometimes?
Mum: “When workers haven’t got safety, there’s no safety in mind. Even if it rocks the boat they should step in.”
→ Her answer is simple and moral: yes - when people aren’t safe or cared for, step in. Stewardship, for her, means acting even when it’s unpopular.
Me: Just safety, or other things too?
Mum: “Better pay. Time off to spend with ill partners with pay.”
→ She expands the idea: stewardship is about dignity, fairness and compassion - not just physical safety.
Me: Do you think our government needs someone to steward it?
Mum: “Yes, because the people in charge are a waste of time.”
→ She laughs but she’s serious: leadership without stewardship is empty. She wants people in power to be held to account.
Me: And what should stewards of government do?
Mum: “Make sure people get a decent wage, make sure people in council houses and private rented are better looked after. Some people are living in private rented accommodation full of damp, it makes people ill.”
→ For her, stewardship is about justice - making sure no one gets forgotten or left in unfit conditions.
Me: If you could give one piece of advice to those in charge?
Mum: “He doesn’t seem to stand up to anybody.”
→ That’s her closing line - and her definition of stewardship in a sentence: stand up for people, especially when it’s hard.
She was thinking of trade union stewards, not the kind of planetary or organisational stewardship I had in mind - but I agreed with the sentiment of what she shared.
Because what she described, in her own words, is stewardship.
It’s about care - for others, for fairness, for safety.
It’s about equity - making sure people aren’t forgotten or mistreated.
And it’s about courage - standing up for what’s right, even when it’s uncomfortable.
For me, stewardship means valuing care, equity and contribution with courage - finding ways to serve people, place and planet together.
(This isn’t about any particular policy - just the kind of leadership we all wish we saw more often: fair, caring and brave.)
That’s what Be The Waves is about: growing stewardship for a thriving planet - with the ambition of seeing a steward on every board, and stewardship woven into the governance and culture of every meeting on Earth.
That’s what we need most right now - more people, in every space, quietly and courageously standing up for what matters.
Think AI. Think war. Think poverty. Think climate change.
Who is showing stewardship right now? and where are the people quietly and courageously standing up for what matters?
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I am…
An executive coach and the CEO of Be The Waves, growing stewardship for a thriving planet.
I helping good people lead great things; in other words - I empower Stewardship
Good people care about others, our planet and beauty. Great things are changes for the betterment of society and all that lives within an around it. It sounds big and fun - it is.
I'm also an endurance racing cyclist and a go getter.
You can read more about me and what I do; how I work here