As Marian Wright Edelman once said, “you can’t be what you can’t see.” If this is the case, then it is often not promising for generations of young Black people in the UK, whose representation in prominent UK leadership roles are completely absent.

Take the FTSE 100 as an example. According to a report on boardroom diversity in 2021, there are no Black executives in any of the top three roles at Britain’s 100 biggest companies — this means zero Black executives in the top 300 roles of the UK’s largest corporations. This statistic could have condemning effects for young people across the country, considering studies show that children’s career aspirations are highly influenced by the media and people they see in their daily lives, with race playing an important factor.

“Visual representation means a lot,” says Duro Oye, the Founder and Chief Executive of 2020 Change, which is a youth empowerment organisation providing training and support to equip young Black people with the tools they need to flourish in their chosen profession. 

“Seeing people who look like you in leadership roles is important. It means that someone needs to be the trailblazer and go ahead. We’re starting to see a change but a lot more needs to happen,” says Duro. “When I close my eyes I like to envision the future I want to live in. I’m going to work twice as hard to make it my reality — and if it’s not a reality for me, it will be for younger generations.”

An Acumen UK Fellow, Duro is committed to working with young people to identify their core skills and locate industries where they could flourish. To date, 2020 Change has transformed the lives of over 1,000 young people across London with over 60% of candidates gaining new employment within three months of the programme.

“I feel like I have a responsibility to make the path easier for others that are like me. This kind of work is infectious because if I touch one person's life and they become a pillar in their community, they will have the potential to impact so many other people’s lives. Once I started this work, everything else made sense. My challenges, my upbringing, the learnings I had. This is why I was placed on this earth, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.”

Having also experienced a lack of comprehensive Black history from her formal education, UK Fellow Abadesi Osunsade had to turn to family members to be proud of her Black heritage. 

“Growing up in a multicultural family, with a Nigerian father and Filipina mother, the stories of Black history that made me proud to be black came from my father, not school. School's Black history always focused on the oppression of Black people, from slavery until modern times. The stories my dad shared about Nigeria gaining independence from the British Empire taught me about the courageous Black people who fought for change.”

This lack of representation continued for Abadesi as she entered the workplace. Working in tech, the lack of diversity in teams and leadership led her to establish Hustle Crew, a company on a mission to make tech more inclusive through workshops and consulting. The company's impact has been impressive — since completing Hustle Crew's recommended training, tech company Brandwatch has increased their percentage of Black and Middle Eastern employees by 800% year on year.

“Not seeing Black people in positions of power meant it was very easy for me to believe and internalise the prejudice I endured at school from teachers and classmates. The journey to self-belief, which I'm very much still on, has taken great amounts of pain and energy,” says Abadesi.

Leadership must be redefined away from its roots in toxic masculinity and broadened to encompass compassion, empathy, and vulnerability. This is how we will begin to change what it means to be a leader and see a more diverse future in the industry.