From Passenger to Driver.

Are you a leader or parent (or both), racked with a sense of guilt?

I have to admit that I am.

Kicking off my Oxford class, I recently got asked about the career conditions that propelled my generation upwards. And why we couldn’t create similar conditions for this rising generation.

My guilty secret, if I’m honest, is this: I was just lucky. My upwards rise was propelled by a more stable world and strong economy that let me be just a fortunate passenger. It was only a decade into my career, when I founded an organisation, that I became anything like a true driver - and that was a hard transition.

The scary reality of today’s AI-jittery, geopolitical-wobbly world is that our rising generation will have to start driving much earlier - indeed, perhaps from the very start.

As I explored in my first book “Intrinsic”(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intrinsic-re-ignite-inner-drive-rewards-based/dp/1913068382), modern work resembles a car with two steering wheels. One wheel where we exist to fulfil an organisation’s mission; but the other wheel focused on our individual mission, with an organisation existing to help us to achieve ours. It’s when the wheels turn in tandem that career magic really happens.

Taking this approach can feel indulgent to a young graduate struggling to find their first step on their career ladder. But the alternative - of throwing your hat into an endless pile of A.I. generated CVs and cover letters - is hardly going to fare better.

Being an early driver doesn’t mean knowing exactly what career path you want to pursue. That’s an impossible early expectation. Rather, it’s about being passionate about a couple of “wicked problems” (problems with no easy technical solution) that you feel aligned to, and want to contribute to. That could mean anything from the future of climate tech to new trends in the insurance industry. And it’s helpful to think about what makes our perspective on that problem different from others - our unique ideas on how we can adopt technology better, or create more inclusive cultures, for example.

From there lots of potential career paths emerge - from working with an established company or start-up in that sector, to being a consultant or policy advisor. But when we engage in job-search, we do it from a position of perspective, passion and power. A young person will stand out so much more from someone “just looking for that first job”.

How we find our first jobs will also need to change. Much more will come from our informal networks, and from harnessing the social capital of friends, community and of course family. We will need to learn the art of “informational interviewing” ie open conversations to learn about a field, but where we are indirectly networking. Sometimes an impressed employer may create a brand new job (even if it is project based or part-time to start) to begin with, if they feel you can add value.

What can we do as leaders and parents in this? There’s actually quite a lot. The first thing is to be much more open to having conversations and mentoring with the younger generation (see https://sharathjeevan.substack.com/p/am-i-quiet-leading). And when we do, to really probe on the problems they are most excited about contributing to, what makes their perspective different, and what potential career paths could open up around that. It also means being more generous in supporting people from all backgrounds, and opening up our own wider networks. This last part is really important - if not, we will end up in a system where only those from already well-connected families will benefit.

The second is to help replicate some of the benefits that a more structured career path provided. Rigour, focus, critical thinking, high standards of excellence and learning to work with diverse others - these are some of the things that a more structured career path gave us. But all of these things can be imparted in other ways through mentoring and peer-learning. We just need to create these structures outside of the formal workplace. much more consciously.

If all of the above feels scary, there is an upside. Let’s be honest: many of the early careers that many of us jumped onto, were not that meaningful, nor did they contribute much to wider society. (A point that Rutger Bregman makes powerfully in the recent BBC Reith Lectures https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/bbc-reith-lectures-28oct25). And then many of my generation got trapped on that treadmill and unable to transition to what we really wanted to do (if we ever had space to think about that question at all).

This new world of careers is more daunting to navigate, but it holds open much greater long-term possibility.

As any insurance company will tell you, early drivers pose their own unique risks. But only if we let the rising generation drive alone. As a lucky generation, perhaps it’s time to grab that second steering wheel, and truly go on the ride with them. After-all, we were the lucky ones.