Meet the Future — A Youth Leadership Theory

• In Event: Exploring Leadership Skills and Theory for Millennials

Short Description

The world needs leadership that can lead through constant evolution and uncover opportunities that can shape and improve organizations’ future strategies. The presenter will share a theory-based, practice-proven program that bridges generations and disciplines and considers the transformation in human consciousness, culture, and social systems over the last few decades in order to accomplish this.

Detailed Abstract

Today’s culture, technology, social systems, and even our human consciousness is transforming at an alarming and accelerating rate. Developments in technology and science have driven significant changes in industrialisation, globalisation and operations, which have in turn affected our society, environment and the world’s economies. However, despite these seismic shifts taking place around us, humanity hasn’t fully adjusted; and hence we are in midst of social, economic, environmental and humanity crisis. As the century progresses and further evolution occurs, it’s clear that we not only need leaders that can guide us through existing problems, but ones that can build a path for the future. The truth is, we need a leadership that is open to and can lead through constant evolution.

In 2014, Sogeti Group ran a leadership experiment called “Meet the Future”. This program called for 17 young employees - from different countries, backgrounds and job roles - to get involved in the company’s mission, explore new opportunities, and introduce a new ideal for ‘leadership’. Meet the Future sought to bridge generations and disciplines, plus encourage dialogue across different cultures and belief systems, in order to uncover opportunities that would shape and improve the organisation’s future strategies.

Key outcomes of the Meet the Future programme showed a number of revelations around the skills and qualities young leaders need to have to thrive in todays’ world and into a shifting and challenging future. What we didn’t expect was that our young generation already display many of these.

The current generation appears to have reached a level of consciousness that enables them to observe, perceive and understand the world differently to their older peers and past generations. They are a product and intrinsic part of our fast-changing world, and have developed skills and a mind-set that enable them to adapt easily. They expect – and in some case thrive with – frequent change and furthermore, they desire a different future. Importantly, they have the passion and energy to make a change and reinvent the way we exist and work. This different way of thinking, fast adaptation, openness to change and passion are a mix of both skills and qualities that youth leaders must have to lead effectively in today’s world and beyond. Moreover, it is also clear that youth leaders must be a key guidance in any decisions society and businesses make.

Many companies have concluded that great leadership and direction is an essential success factor in solving tremendous complex problems and operating in turbulent times. In today’s corporate world, where the consequence of slow change is often dismal – just look at Woolworths and Blockbuster – leaders must exhibit a number of key qualities over and above that already mentioned in this document. The case study from Sogeti ‘s Meet the Future programme shows that ‘youth leadership’ can identify or create unique possibilities and paths, which various parts of society and industry can benefit from in difficult times. The initiative highlighted a list of characteristics which will now shape the principles of the youth leadership theory. The description of this theory, including its principles briefly described below.

Vision: The initiative suggested that effective youth leaders are passionate and ambitious enough to go beyond perceived limitations and are able to see a wider picture of what can/should be done, in order to provide direction for the organisation.

Values: Another surprise: the strategy that the young generation plan for the future is based on profound values – such as trust, integrity, balance and compassion - that have perhaps been overlooked for the past few decades. They are also determined to create opportunities where these values can be reflected in day to day life.

Courage: One of the elements of strong leadership is to go beyond what is known, to consider the future and decide what changes may be required in order to effectively guide followers or employees. Youth leaders must have the courage to take steps into the unknown and must not be afraid to face uncertainty. In addition, they shouldn’t give up the hope of creating something different when barriers are put in their way – they have the courage and confidence to find another route to the desired outcome, flowing like water around obstacles.

Dignity: Another significant outcome of the Meet the Future case study was that youth leadership operates based on a model that removes role of ‘I’ from the team and replaces it with ‘We’. This is a direction towards collective leadership, which promotes the power of one. The leader must consider the beliefs of their followers or employees and ensure they are on side.

To conclude, effective leadership is often about emotions and intuition rather than facts; it is about people and relationships rather than tasks. To be successful, youth leaders must seek trust and see decision making as an art rather than a set process.

Youth leaders are willing to express their creativity, take chances and make decisions that are not necessarily based on existing facts. The new model of leadership should use creativity to deal with today’s complex situations; therefore, an effective leader needs to be able to use a novel approach to define a roadmap that will help an organisation reach its desired future. This theory encourages employees and members of society to step away from existing rules and definitions of what is right or wrong; to have the freedom to guide our communities, societies, economies, humanity, governments, organisations, and indeed humanity itself into the 21st Century – and beyond.

Anahita Mahmoudi is a management consultant and professional coach who is dedicated to help individuals and organisations to realise their full potential and embrace change both in work and life. Leadership has come naturally from a very early stage of her career where corporate life lead Anahita to run a youth leadership programme in which later inspired her to begin her coaching career. Her approach uses transformation coaching which proved very useful in The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme where she serves as a coach.

Participant

• Anahita Mahmoudi, Capgemini