Morin Oluwole, on why great leadership means embracing new ways of thinking and working

Lifestyle

There’s a particular tension that comes with becoming an experienced woman in the workplace: the more you know, the more people look to you for answers. After all, experience gives us authority. It builds confidence, credibility and, over time, a very clear understanding of what works. There’s also a quiet danger in becoming too attached to what we know. The thing is: leadership is not only about having answers. It is about remaining open enough to ask better questions.

As women, this feels particularly relevant. Many of us have spent years learning how to navigate systems that were not necessarily designed with us in mind. We learned how to prove ourselves, establish credibility, negotiate our place at the table and, sometimes, work twice as hard to be taken seriously. When we finally reach a position of influence, it can be tempting to hold tightly to the behaviours and strategies that got us there.

However, the world in which we are leading is changing. The workplace is being reshaped by AI, new generations of talent and completely different expectations around careers, communication and success. The leadership qualities that helped us rise may not be the only qualities we need to lead what comes next. That doesn’t mean abandoning experience. It means being curious about what experience might be preventing us from seeing.

I’ve become increasingly interested in the difference between having expertise and being attached to expertise. Expertise should give you confidence to explore. It shouldn’t give you a reason to stop. This is especially important as more generations work alongside one another. We spend a lot of time joking about Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z trying to understand each other at work. But underneath the humour is a real leadership challenge. A younger woman entering the workplace today may have a completely different relationship with hierarchy, technology, flexibility and ambition than the woman who entered it 20 years ago.

The instinct can be to explain to her how things really work… but what if we asked her how she thinks they should work? That’s not about assuming that younger is better. It’s about recognising that perspective is not determined by age. Some of the most valuable questions I have heard in my career have come from people who were not yet experts. They were able to see something precisely because they had not yet learned all the reasons why it supposedly could not be done.

As women leaders, we have an opportunity to create workplaces where that kind of curiosity is rewarded. AI makes this even more urgent. We’re entering a period where many of the tasks that have traditionally signaled expertise – researching, analysing, drafting, synthesising information – can increasingly be supported by technology. That raises an important question for women who have built careers around being exceptionally good at those things: if technology changes the mechanics of our work, what becomes even more valuable? For me – the answer is distinctly human. Judgement. Taste. Empathy. Relationships. Creativity. The ability to ask the right question. The courage to make a decision when there is no perfect answer. In other words, leadership.

AI should not make us less curious. It should make us more curious about the uniquely human value we bring. This also requires a certain degree of humility. It’s important to remember that one of the privileges of becoming more senior is that you have more influence. However, influence should not mean having the loudest voice in the room. Sometimes leadership is recognising when someone else has a better idea and having enough confidence not to need it to be yours. I think this is particularly powerful for women.

We’ve often been told that leadership means becoming more assertive, more certain, more decisive. And yes, those qualities matter. But there is strength in being able to say: “I don’t know.” Or: “Tell me more.” Or simply: “There may be another way.” Those are not statements of weakness. They are statements of confidence.

Perhaps the greatest evolution in women’s leadership is not simply getting more women into positions of power. It’s creating a different relationship with power once we get there. A leadership culture where experience does not become hierarchy. Where seniority does not silence curiosity. Where younger voices are not expected to earn permission to challenge. And where women do not feel they have to become a version of the leaders who came before them in order to be credible.

We can honour what worked for us without insisting that it must work for everyone who comes after us. That, to me, is the real discovery. Not constantly chasing the next trend or reinventing ourselves for the sake of appearing relevant. It’s about remaining open. Open to new technology. New ideas. New generations. New ways of working. And, perhaps most importantly, to new versions of ourselves. Leadership is not a destination where we finally know enough. It’s a practice of staying curious. Perhaps the most powerful thing an experienced woman can say is not, “This is how we do it.” It’s: “This is what I have learned. Now, what can I learn from you?”

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