#WEF24: Reflections on Leadership from a "young social-change-maker" at Davos

Colleagues and friends,

As some of you may be aware, I was invited as part of the “Davos 50” delegation of young social change makers by the World Economic Forum to attend and speak at its Annual Meeting in Davos last week on the coveted "white badge". (Imposter syndrome, much?) to share about Global Shapers New York and my nonprofit initiative Partner With Purpose . I never imagined I would be sharing the stage with Presidents, CEOs and world leaders in my 20s. I don't believe what I had to offer beside them was groundbreaking, but the experience was transformative to my own perspectives on leadership, and so I wanted to share some reflections ( albeit lengthily) both with colleagues and friends present at the Meeting and with anyone who may find some of my reflections interesting.

Spoiler: this is not formatted like journal entries, it is not a "back-stage pass", and none of this will be about the parties, though those were great. (s/o to TIME and 麦肯锡 for the best nightcaps).

Overall reflections

One of my main panels was in the Congress Center called “How to Believe in the Future” where I shared my thoughts on what it will take for business leaders and politicians to build a vision for the future that young people can believe in. The current global landscape of worsening conflicts, climate crises and deepening social inequalities has created profound uncertainties for young people about their future, resulting in a documented crisis of youth mistrust in industry and government in the past decade. But, personally, I was more taken by how most of our world leaders share in this uncertainty.

On leadership and the way ahead: some unexpected lessons

The theme for this year's Annual Meeting was "Rebuilding Trust," and my focus for the week quickly became understanding what it would take to get there.?My personal focus?was to understand what makes world?leaders tick. Sharing my top three takeaways from 1:1 conversations below:

Takeaway #1 Extraordinary leaders can be circumstantial

We live in uncertain times. I was surprised to learn how human our world leaders are, how little they know beyond what we do at the beginning, how measured they too are about our collective future.

I asked several of them “What is the difference between a good leader and an extraordinary, once in a generation, leader?”

Here are some of the responses I found most insightful:

• “I’m not sure I could tell you the difference, because I don’t think I’ve been an extraordinary leader. I can tell you that I wake up in the morning and run Goldman Sachs, but I don’t think anything about it has been extraordinary” – David Solomon , Goldman Sachs
• "I got lucky with timing. I was getting into private equity at a time it was enormously profitable to do it because the rules hadn’t been defined yet. But becoming successful in it was about having clarity of vision for where I wanted to take others, and a willingness to persevere after the first two or three times I failed.” – David Mark Rubenstein, Co-Founder Carlyle Group
• “I think extraordinary leaders are more often than not a product of circumstance. Once in a generation leaders are just good leaders who rise up to the occasion in extraordinary circumstances, look at Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. I think a lot of them, if they hadn’t faced those circumstances may have just been considered ordinary. But of the many people who faced those circumstances, the extraordinary leaders were the ones who knew what it would take to meet the moment. With a clear enough moral compass, perseverance to stick with it, enough charisma to bring people along, any of us can be ‘extraordinary.’ “ – Christine Lagarde European Central Bank, former IMF

Takeaway #2 Leadership is a habit, but tenacity and vision during periods of upheaval are critical

Almost every business leader I spoke with described perseverance and a clarity of vision for other people as the most critical personal qualities in a leader.

I asked many of them “What makes you a good leader?”. Some responses:

• “You must have an impossible vision for where you want to take people and be able to describe it to them over and over again till it becomes their truth too, because you have made it possible” – Nadir Godrej & Rati Godrej , Godrej Industries
• “Have a meditation practice and listen to your gut. You’re going to be doubted for a very long time if you’re doing anything worthwhile and you’ll need something to help you stick through it.” – Marc Benioff , Salesforce (and I guess now TIME ?)
• “I see my Foundation work and shaping innovation to be the unique role I help play. I think more leaders need to volunteer, even within the US. I think those who engage in volunteer work will be the sort of people who bring the world together and combat this divisiveness which remains my greatest concern” – Bill Gates , Gates Foundation

Takeaway #3 Leaders are constantly challenged on their values

With topics on hand like achieving security in a fractured world, geopolitical shifts and shocks, every moment at Davos was a choice: do you focus on building a personal relationship, or ask hard questions? Do you prepare for your own panel, or support a friend when they need it? These decisions may seem simple in theory, but are not as straightforward when you’re surrounded by power and opportunity. Each of us had to contend with our stated values on a minute to minute basis during the week.

I asked leaders “How do you make your hardest decisions?” Some responses:

• “Don’t ever take decisions on other people’s time. You need to sleep on important decisions, and take the call on your own time because you can only mess up a big decision once.” – Stephen A. Schwarzman , Blackstone
• “I’ve made tough calls this year. I can talk to thousands of employees and not be phased but I’m father to two beautiful children, and each day when I come home I look at them and wonder if I’ve done right by their future today” - F50 CEO, asked for Chatham House
• “I think about which choice would make my mother proud of me” – Michael Dell , Dell TechnologiesInterestingly, I found the least compelling answers to be about consensus-building, listening to others, and the most compelling answers to be about family and personal values as a leader.

Final thoughts: the work is only beginning?

Every day, thousands of decisions about the future of our communities, nations?and the planet are made by people like those I connected with over the week.

As Natalie mentioned in her Forbes article about the Davos 50, "Too often, young people are excluded from these decisions. Young people are given limited voice to shape the world – resulting in a crisis of youth mistrust in others and the future."

My fellow panelists, and other social changemakers proved to be the most authentic, brave and courageous voices in any room I was in. I was encouraged by how open most people I spoke with were to remaining in touch. I felt lucky to be able to share some thoughts on how young people want to?engage with the businesses we buy from, work for, engage with and invest in, and share some examples of my experiences at 麦肯锡 and other institutions. It was clear that we’re the closest thing to?hope for the future that our leaders have.?

I look forward to continuing our work with Partner with Purpose, which officially launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting . We thought we would do "a little pre-work" in the sixty days leading up to Davos, but we've already scaled to 35 cities in 25 countries countries with teams connecting purpose-driven companies to last mile nonprofits. If you're interested in building deep-sustained partnerships in your community, either as a company or organization, nonprofit or energized Global Shapers Community volunteers, do get in touch.?

Signing off,

Saisha

Disclaimer: Quotes are my best recollection from personal conversations and may be slightly paraphrased for clarity.