Running a Leadership Development Programme today with the brilliant Mark Nobbs, we kicked off – perhaps predictably – by asking people who it was that they admired as leaders and why.
Amongst the usual suspects – Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela and many other extraordinary human beings who have shown exemplary leadership – was a 17-year-old Swedish young woman whose name is becoming as iconic as any of those more mature, experienced and in some cases highly educated leaders who have shaped our history.
A new challenger appears!
Greta Thunberg: her name is now picked up by the predictive text on my phone, she has become a heroine to my daughters and their friends, and in the face of aggressive opposition from older, established political and academic minds, is not only holding her own but also teaching us that leadership is not merely the preserve of politicians, sports coaches and captains of industry.
When your name starts appearing on flip charts in training rooms, you know you have made a difference!
React, adapt and grow
Generation Z is full of surprises. They are not just shaping our present but teaching us about the future they aspire to live in.
How we react to being educated by, in our adult perspective, “kids” will define how well we will adapt to the ever-changing society we live in.
There will be more Greta Thunbergs. Let’s embrace, support and learn from them no matter how uncomfortable, inconvenient or expensive that may be.
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training