2020 has seen so much sadness; now to push back in 2021
Most will accept that this has been the worst of times. Leaders have been consistently facing set back after set back during 2020 and employees have constantly felt vulnerable. The latest news of a lockdown hardly makes things easier. However, it can be all be too negative; it has been like watching in slow motion a battle where this is little hope of winning until the odds do turn and just trying to hang on until the reinforcements (a vaccine) arrive.
The environment will turn in time and it is important to be planning for that. We do want to start pushing back, finding new answers, new friendships and working towards some positive ways forward for 2021.
Out of this most awful of times, there will be many lessons to learn from others, a need to give hope and inspiration to emerging talent and a need, regardless, to find positive ways forward.
Our aim is to create positive “homes” for those who want to learn and share ideas. The future market will be less about qualifications and far more about ideas, friendship, colleagues, mentors and the sharing of knowledge. Leadership today is a continuous process of learning and change.
For those who have lost their jobs, it is important to find a place of hope and inspiration. For those in work, the same is true. Our aim is to create an interactive hub which offers support to all. In the last few months, we have been approached by corporates wanting to support those in need. This is the time.
Leadership has become sadly almost unpopular over the last twenty years. Forbes magazine quoted that 63% of employees do not have trust in their leadership teams across the world. The Deloittes report into millennials notes that the majority do not believe that business is run on ethical grounds – and yet leadership is one of the most privileged roles but it is/should be about service to a business, a community, a society.
There is a gap which needs to be bridged. More practically, emerging talent today carry higher levels of debt than ever before and yet upward career mobility has never been harder. The average age of a C-Suite Director today is 56-58. The average age of a CEO is 59 and the average age of an entrepreneur lies in the mind-forties.
Last week, we published an interesting interview with Bob Cotton, the former CEO of the BHA (British Hospitality Assoc) and a former Government advisor, on this subject - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pOx-3i0f1c&t=2136s
Our core objectives with the leadership hub are:
- To promote the concept of leadership as an important role of service to others: to make leadership once again aspirational and viewed as a privilege.
- To help support and enable the upward career mobility of great people
- To really highlight the importance of continuous learning
- To support young entrepreneurs
- And finally, during this period, to help those who need to find hope and inspiration in the hardest of times.
So the challenge is to make leadership once again aspirational and attractive, to enable all talent and to give talent a voice.