From Guarding to Guiding: What the Next Generation Actually Needs from Leadership

While designing a strategic approach to organisational leadership for a non-profit youth organisation, I found myself asking a different question:

What do today’s youth—Gen Z and beyond—not just need, but want from mentorship as we begin handing over the reins of leadership?

Because this transition is already underway.

It also struck me that when consultants are engaged to design programmes and plans—no matter how skilled or well-intentioned—they inevitably bring their own biases.

These biases shape recommendations. They shape structures. And often, they result in systems being imposed onto others… even if unintentionally.

This is why I continue to come back to a simple principle:

Move away from hard rules.
Move toward guiderails.

Not the absence of structure—but a different kind of structure.

An approach where doing the right thing, simply because it is the right thing to do remains central.

Where guiderails exist not to constrain, but to guide behaviour toward a shared vision, purpose, and goals—anchored in a set of collectively understood and chosen behaviours.

The power of this approach is that it transcends generations.

It allows organisations—especially multi-generational ones—to navigate inevitable change not by enforcing alignment, but by creating it through listening.

Listening to one another’s:

• hopes

• needs

• perspectives

• and yes… wants

More than that, it is empowering.

It signals trust first.

It says:

“I trust you to do the right thing.
So I won’t burden you with layers of control to ensure it.”

And in doing so, it creates the conditions for people to bring their best.

Not just their technical expertise—but their imagination, creativity, and judgment.

Yet in most organisations, trust is something we talk about more than we practice.

Instead, we focus on what goes wrong.

We build rules around failure.

We create layers of control to prevent recurrence.

Entire functions emerge to monitor, enforce, and contain.

The unintended consequence?

People spend more time navigating the system than doing meaningful work.

And to regain efficiency, they begin to look for exceptions. Workarounds. Shortcuts.

Not out of malice—but necessity.

Which, in turn, leads to more rules.

And so, the loop tightens.

Now, consider a different approach.

Start by asking:

What is already working?

Bring people together to identify it.

Understand why it works.

Then elevate those patterns into shared principles.

Not imposed—but co-created.

Not enforced—but lived.

These principles become the guiderails.

The space within which people agree to operate.

The conditions within which trust can grow.

And when those conditions are right:

People don’t need to be controlled.

They choose to contribute.

They experiment.

They make mistakes.

And importantly—
those mistakes are not just tolerated, but celebrated
(as long as people remain safe)

Because that is where learning happens.
And where innovation actually begins.

This is how we begin to break the cycle.

Not by tightening the system further—
but by loosening it, intentionally.

And perhaps most importantly:

This is how we reduce the bias we bring as leaders, as designers, as consultants.

Not by trying to eliminate it—
but by creating space for others to shape the system with us.

Across generations.
Across perspectives.
Toward something shared.