Hear from the Leaders of Tomorrow, Today

This year, Brixton Finishing School held an alumni-wide competition with the goal of selecting a cohort of six future leaders to join the school at Cannes Lions this coming June.

During Advertising Week Europe 2024, Brixton’s founder and award-winning activist, Ally Owen, hosted a fireside chat with some of the competition winners. Together they explored their visions for leadership in the future, and how they see the industry better supporting diverse talent to #ARISE to the top.

When exploring what the future of leadership looks like, there were a few themes running through the alumni’s vision. Selina Braithwaite, Brixton alumni from 2022 and programmatic executive at Mindshare, focused on the importance of a people-first approach.

She spoke of positive collaboration and more importantly, open communication, in the workspace. This theme of openness led to a conversation about the industry’s acceptance of neurodiversity and the ways in which it needs to change in order to better support employees.

Selina further spoke on the importance of empowering employees to come forward and speak up about the adjustments they need from their companies in order to be their best selves. “Simply talking about neurodiversity in the workspace and training neurotypical employees on neurodiversity and explaining allyship to them is a step in the right direction.”

Freelance social media marketing specialist Kianna Lucilla Joseph sees “real people and real experience” at the helm of a better future for advertising. “It looks like people are moving away from trusting big influencers and looking to trust normal people like me, who just prop up their camera and go ‘Hi, here’s the shampoo I really love’,” she said.

According to Kianna, data could take a step back to make space for more tangible experiences where brands invest in getting to know the communities they speak to, and eventually give back to them. 

Before pursuing freelance work, Kianna tried her hand at the traditional corporate structure, but soon realised that the challenge of pursuing leadership on her own was too good to pass on. 

“I felt like I would have regretted it, had I not given it a shot,” she said. “I was already kind of freelancing on the side while in the corporate world and finally took that leap instead of continuing to do it half-heartedly.” She opened up about not feeling fulfilled in her role and not seeing enough growth potential, a pattern that all the panellists agreed must be addressed in order for the industry to move forward.

To this point, Ally added: “Looking at the industry we all know that we have the most inclusion at entry level, but it fades away as we move up the ladder. Whether it’s social mobility, neurodiversity, or other aspects. Today, a very large percentage of young professionals have decided to step out of corporate life only five years in, which is a really challenging statistic.”

Sam Mukherjee, creative producer at VCCP, spoke about a future where AI diversity is championed more widely, while barriers to entry in AI roles are removed. “It’s not that easy to start,” she said, “there is a foundational level of access that a lot of people don’t talk about. This, and also empowering people on AI literacy is my vision for leadership in the future.”

To Sam, no matter which department you’re entering the industry through, future leaders should be focused on educating juniors in AI literacy at all costs, while not forgetting “the principles of play.” She added, “It’s so important to carve out a bit of space and love for play and experimentation.”

Kevin Audience, today creative strategist at Saatchi & Saatchi UK, explained that future leaders should not only be “throwing money at a situation,” but also creating ecosystems of empowerment aimed at educating people who otherwise might not have the means to get access to the industry - similarly to what Ally does at the Brixton Finishing School.

“Oftentimes people look at a problem from one lens, but life is incredibly multifaceted. There are so many avenues where people need help. So I really believe that creating an ecosystem of empowerment is so important.”

Last but not least, Kevin spoke about the importance of leaders taking creative risks. “When you’re at entry level, it’s a lot easier to make mistakes. But the higher you go, the less people want to take those chances, which means a lot of the work ends up looking the same.”

This, according to him, is widely reflected in corporate culture too. “The culture is the same in every agency today, but in reality they should all be completely different and have their own identity. I don’t think there are enough creative risks being taken, especially at leadership level. I want to see leaders push boundaries and not stand for the status quo, if they really want to look to the future and innovate.”