Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj - Futureproof Your Career: How to Lead and Succeed in a Changing World

An enjoyable and refreshing take on major trends and changes that leaders must successfully embrace if they are to ensure that they succeed in their career. This book provides thought-provoking insights, research and advice that all leaders should actively consider.

Helen Gordon, Chief Executive, Science Council

This book blends scholarly research and practice-based insights to force a rethink of what ongoing social shifts, enterprise innovations and altering societal values imply for future careers.

Alnoor Bhimani, Professor of Management Accounting & Director of South Asia Centre, London School of Economics

As this book sets out, leading is an activity not a label. The authors set out a compelling vision for a more people-centred, impact-led approach to navigate the next normal.

Gwen Hines, CEO, Save the Children UK

An inspiring and highly energizing read which enables us to take stock of where we are, and where we want to go in our careers. This book decodes complex and accelerating changes in the world around us and brings a refreshing way to think about how we develop ourselves, our teams and our workplaces.

Erem Kassim-Lakha, Partner, McKinsey & Company

We dedicate this book to our students, colleagues and
friends who have inspired us, and to our families who
have supported us throughout the writing process.

For Surinder and Amina, Iliyan, Kais and Zayn, from
deep roots grow strong branches. SJJ

To my wonderful family and friends who remind me that
the little things in life are actually the big things. NP

Contents

Although this book has our names on the cover, there are so many people who have a hand in this project. This book first started as an idea in 2018 when we were part of the delivery team for an award-winning program for Women in Emerging Technology, between EY and Henley Business School. Claire Hewitt and Selma Turki, thank you for trusting us to shape the content which sparked this idea. The impact of the pandemic and first wave of lockdown created the perfect storm to decipher the implications of new technology on careers and ask critical questions about working in the new normal. We grabbed the opportunity to start working on the book. Writing a book is challenging, but we wrote while working from home, juggling the demands of home schooling, family needs, promotions, and an international relocation. Any one of these scenarios would have been challenging enough but combined we persevered with the support of family members, friends, and colleagues. So heres where we call out our heroes.

From Shaheena:

My gratitude starts with my husband, Zahir, my champion, for allowing me to nurture yet another spark. Education is given for a successful career, but the importance of a supportive partner can never be underestimated. He is a powerful role model to our boys, Iliyan, Kais and Zayn who provided humour and challenging conversations to keep this book alive. To the rest of my family, thank you for everything. Kitty Chisholm as always by my side, Stephane Dubois and Karim Nanji for their immense support. Former colleagues from Henley Business School, the team on the Education Board and colleagues at HEC Paris, Qatar, particularly, Dean Pablo Martin de Holland for his patience as I moved into my new role while completing this book.

From Naeema:

There are four amazing people I want to acknowledge: my son Yusuf, as by some miracle he supported me in my dream of writing this book while achieving his own remarkable goals, and my nephews and niece Umar, Amaan and Zainab. They all inspire me because they not only inherited my intelligence, brilliant humour and modesty genes, they show me that while the world is changing fast, and the problems in it are challenging, their curiosity, courage and compassion shows our part in shaping a better world and excitement for the astonishing possibilities ahead. Massive thanks also to the wonderful people in Henley Business School who make me work harder and think better.

To all our contributors, who generously shared their insights on this area. You certainly challenged our thinking and your perspectives make the book so much richer and valuable to our readers.

To our students, we are so privileged to be part of your development and your growth as leaders in a constant source in inspiration. We hope you will recognize class discussions in the chapters.

Last but by no means least; to our amazing team at Bloomsbury: Matt James, Allie Collins, Amy Greaves; thank you for your patience, wisdom and humour.

The world of work is a place filled with so many opportunities for you to immerse yourself in to jump in, contribute, shape and lead. Theres no doubt this decade gives us an exciting time to think about work and changes that are happening. When we consider the specific impact of new technology on work, the shifts we are already experiencing and are likely to experience over the next five to 10 years, so much of what we are used to will be transformed. A fair amount will seemingly be at a visible level how we consume technology, hybrid working (hybrid working is when work is carried out as a blend of home working and workplace working), adapting into distributed organizations and leadership styles. Other elements of change are more deep-rooted and far less visible but equally, if not more, impactful on how we will work and what we will focus on. In this book we dig deep in these areas to help you make sense of the changes that are happening at such a fast speed and equip you with the thinking and knowledge to prepare the next steps in your career. Our position is that each of you is vested, not only in your career but in developing your leadership capabilities to bring about change and become an agent in this workplace transformation. This new era of work, the next normal, demanded very different leadership skills and we introduce entrepreneurial leadership as a way of creating talented pluralistic teams together to anticipate change and innovate and transform.

Before we jump into the contents of this book further, we want to share why we, Shaheena and Naeema, wrote this book together. This book is the result of a four-year journey. As colleagues, we were both delivering on a week-long programme for Women in Leadership in Emerging Tech. After we delivered our sessions on the future of work and leadership capabilities, we reflected on the sessions and the conversations emerging from this group of highly talented individuals sharing their views on workplace changes as a result of tech integration. The points ranged from the impact of implementing deep learning (IBM Watson) to governance around data handling and decision making, and ethical issues on how data was accumulated and deployed. As we continued to work together on teaching programmes, conversations kept coming back to how individuals understand the impact of change that is upon us and more importantly, their reactions. We were seeing so many dynamic individuals who are clearly an asset to their organization but who hadnt had the opportunity to step back and comprehend the ramifications of change in their roles and organizations, and more importantly, for their careers. Despite writing numerous articles for Forbes and other publications, including Management Today and HR Magazine , and delivering keynote speeches, webinars and podcasts across this area, we wanted the opportunity to dive deep into this area to give our readers the chance to break down these big, complex issues and really consider what these mean on an individual level. As we discuss the impact of new technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the fourth industrial revolution, the future of work, reskilling as our currency for renewal and relevancy, the need to rethink leadership with a more entrepreneurial approach, there is a thread that runs across all of these areas for every individual: your relationship with work, your responsibility to invest in your career and your opportunity to develop the necessary skills and step into leadership.