For the past two years, I’ve been thinking seriously about leadership. One book still inspires me: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek.
Leadership, however, always felt distant. I admired it from afar but never imagined stepping into that role myself. I often felt raw, inexperienced, and not “ready enough.”
The Gen Z and the City Conference, organised by Cumberland Lodge and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London with support from Future Leaders UK, shifted that perspective. Although it focused on intergenerational differences at work, it became much more.
It made me question my identity – not just as part of a generation, but as a leader in the making. Now, with the support of a mentor and a small team, I’m learning to embrace leadership.
Dr. Edward David talk on leadership typology was a turning point. He explained that leaders need not be perfectly wise or experienced.
You can begin as a novice leader – curious, open, and eager to grow. That idea freed me from waiting. Leadership, I realised, starts where you are and grows with practice.
Edward also described other leadership types. The hero leader takes bold action, carries responsibility, and supports teams with care. The wise leader brings long experience and perspective, often associated with older generations.
Together, these types show that leadership has many faces. Each generation contributes something unique to the workplace.
Another moment that shook my thinking came from Dr Angelika Love: she offered a very convincing perspective on why we must act now.
She urged us to view change across three levels. At the macro level, global shifts like AI reshape economies and raise dependency concerns. At the meso level, organisations must prepare infrastructure for disruption while lowering risks and staying competitive. At the micro level, individuals face both opportunity and fear, including the risk of being replaced.
Leadership in the future must work across all three levels. We must act now, because tomorrow is too late. This also means preparing and training Gen Z today for tomorrow’s leadership challenges.
Professor melissa butcher added another dimension – values. She explained how our priorities shape decisions, often without us realising.
We constantly move between three dynamics: cultural, organisational, and intergenerational. Choices reflect these values, whether we notice it or not.
This raised tough questions: Am I making the right decisions? Am I listening with empathy? Or am I labelling, calling Gen Z “lazy,” instead of truly understanding behaviours?
The conference ended on a playful yet powerful note. Antonia Dixey from Participation People and her young consultants, Jeremy Williams and Megan Perkins, led a game of Would You Rather.
It was fun but meaningful. Even simple questions can spark cultural shifts and open space for change. For example: would you prefer annual performance reviews, or continuous feedback?
These small shifts encourage us to challenge norms. Over time, they grow into bigger changes – within generations and across them.
I’m deeply grateful to Cumberland Lodge and St Paul’s Cathedral for creating this unique space. It fostered dialogue, empathy, and intergenerational exchange.
What I carry forward is simple yet powerful: today, I want to be more curious, more empathetic, and more purposeful.
Because leadership is not a faraway destination. It is something we grow into, step by step, starting now.