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Katherine Boiciuc, a futurist from Maximus International, takes a look at the future of leadership.
‘When I grow up I want to be a boss like you mummy’ was what my daughter Sofia (10) shared with me last week as I completed her school work with her during lockdown.
Inside I smiled, delighted that she sees a future for herself where she can lead. Later that day I was still thinking about it. When I reflected on why it was rolling around my mind, it struck me. What will leadership look like in 2030 and how is it different to the leadership we know and recognise today?
History rewards and recognises the traits and attributes of 20th Century leadership such as power, control, economic interest driven, winning, constrained by hierarchy, highly egocentric and predominantly lacking in diversity.
So, I sat down and here is what I’ve come up with so far on what I hope 21st Century leadership looks and feels like.
The leadership of the future is:
I often say the future exists; it is just not evenly distributed. I can see the bright spots of 21st leadership emerging. It is anchored in purpose, harnesses collective wisdom, starts with an abundance mindset and creates value through mobilising and building trust in others to achieve outcomes.
You can see the signals if you look for them. Greta Thunberg (climate activist), Jacinda Ardern (NZ prime minister) , Ava Duvernay (Director), Malala Yousafzai (education activist), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (US Congresswoman), Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian), Pip Marlow (Salesforce), Melanie Perkins (Canva), Nicola Rivers and Elizabeth McKinnon joint CEOs (job sharing) at Environmental Justice Australia are all shining the way forward. There has never been a better time to seize the opportunity to create a new status quo for what leadership is. I cannot wait to see what we do.
About Katherine Boiciuc
Technologist. Imagineer. Futurist. Katherine is recognised as one of Australia’s 29 Inspirational Women making waves in STEM. She is a global leader with extensive experience in the technology and telco industries. Katherine has held influential roles focused on global impact and world technology enablement. Katherine joined Maximus International after 19 years at Telstra where her team, across 20 countries, delivered services such as strategic execution, CX strategy, and digital enablement including deployment of Tableau, Salesforce and Einstein. She has a rich catalogue of blogs and articles on mentoring advice to women in digital, data, STEM and tech leadership roles.
Katherine has been an advocate and global keynote speaker on diversity in technology, women in Tech and women in data for over a decade. Katherine is an accredited Futurist and is featured in Futurist World on the topic of the Future of Leadership.