COMMENT It’s funny how things work out.
In 2019, I stood on the stage in King’s Place in London as one of the first EG Future Leaders. I was slightly nervous but well-prepared and ready to speak up on a topic I’m passionate about; women in the property sector and the need to modernise our culture. I was seven months pregnant with my second child, Mylo, who is now nearly three, and I was imploring this brilliant, but old-fashioned industry to change its ways.
I spoke about the challenge of being a working mum, the competing demands and the constant juggling act. I outlined why I thought it was so difficult for women to stay in transactional roles long-term. I was pushing for flexibility, team-oriented goals and targets that incorporated industry-building activities, not just the bottom line – themes we were glimpsing in consultancy and client-side roles. My hope was that, by speaking up, I could help shift the dial and slowly move the industry forward.
Change for good
Three years on the property sector in many ways is unrecognisable.
When I compare now with 2019, it’s crazy how much things have changed. It is late August, the school holidays and the art of juggling requires even more dexterity. I started writing this piece at the end of a full working day of meetings but I’m on the Isle of Wight, at the beach, and me and my husband have just attempted to help my kids win a sandcastle competition. I’m working here for the rest of the week and will still deliver, and manage, and achieve. When I’m back in London, I’ll do a few days in the office and one or two at home as my diary dictates. I now do the school run whenever I can and dial into meetings from my kitchen and no one bats an eyelid because the reality is we are all managing similar juggles and benefiting from this new-found autonomy. Three years ago this was a future that felt unreasonable.
It only took a global pandemic for this to happen.
At this stage, I should admit to a career move I made two years ago away from a transactional role and into the consultancy side of our business. The irony has not escaped me.
Seismic shifts
What we can be certain about is that Covid, with its terrible impact on so many people, has brought with it some positive change. It was seemingly the lightning rod, black swan, seismic shift that reinvented the way we work and parachuted in the flexibility many of us have been championing.
We working mums were a lonely bunch for years, wanting flexible working, less “ego-driven” objectives, more collaborative and pioneering rewards – hopefully now we have all woken up to this necessity to modernise our working cultures. It’s better for the dads too, and the carers, and the team members with elderly parents, and the people suffering from poor mental health, and the gym-goers, side-hustlers and night owls. Surely, we can all now embrace this culture shift and not return to the toxic environments of the past.
The focus on ESG has also been accelerated since Covid, and the pace of change is likely to continue with the current energy crisis across Europe. If I do a pitch next week that doesn’t talk about how we are delivering sustainably, thinking about D&I or establishing community-focused credentials, both as a firm and for our clients, then we are unlikely to win the work. And I hope this will start to change the myopic focus on financial targets as the only thing worth striving for. For our children, we need to take a more holistic view of what defines company success.
We are in a world that is changing so rapidly. The future feels quite uncertain, and yet, what EG Future Leaders taught me was the future is yours for the taking. If you are willing to speak up and use your voice, opportunities will arise and you can propel yourself forward. But no one is going to give you things on a platter – hard work, tenacity, resilience, networking – all of these attributes need to be in your arsenal as you seek to become a leader of the future. It’s not always easy, but worthwhile things in life never really are.
Learn, grow and take risks
My advice for the next cohort of EG Future Leaders is to seize this opportunity with both hands. Learn, grow, take risks, meet people and find your voice. The industry needs you.
And what about the industry? The property sector has come a long way in three years, but there’s more to be done. As the world grapples with macro shifts around climate, energy, security and myriad other challenges, it’s the property sector that can be a facilitator or a blocker, and I know which side I want to be on.
We need to resist the pull back to pre-Covid mindsets, embrace change and lead the industry to a more purpose-driven place. I want the next generation of future leaders in property to think about changing the world, and know that they can.
Kathryn Cripps is a partner in the property asset management team at Knight Frank
