Reflecting on my last two summers and the year in between as a Laidlaw Scholar – the experience has been nothing short of remarkable. My learnings abouts ethical leadership and being a global citizen since becoming a Laidlaw Scholar can be seen through the scope of three different perspectives: the past, the present and the future. At the start of the Laidlaw Programme, I will admit that terms such as “ethical leadership” and being a “global citizen” were very abstract to me. I knew what being an “ethical” leader or a “global” citizen meant hypothetically but I am slightly embarrassed to admit that with hindsight I had no idea what these meant in practice. Therefore, through this blog post, I will seek to testify how the Laidlaw Programme has impacted me by looking at where I started, the past, where I am currently, the present, and where I hope to be, the future.

Firstly, I want to look back at where I began. When I began the Laidlaw Programme in the summer of 2023, I had an ambition to be an ethical leader, a global citizen and embrace the Laidlaw values. In whatever I do, I have always strived to be ethical, to be open-minded and at the very least be a decent person. However, in my attempt to be an ethical leader or a global citizen, it has been incredibly hard to aim at something if you do not know what you are aiming for. Throughout my time with Laidlaw the common theme between the numerous conferences, workshops or leadership training sessions offered to scholars is that each time we are encouraged to look back at our pastselves and past situations to analyse them. What did we do? How did we behave? What did we say? How did we treat someone? How did we feel? How did we make someone feel? These numerous questions that we were encouraged to ask ourselves was the first step, because the second step was thinking about what we could have done differently or what we will do differently next time. Such an analysis or mental exercise not only taught me what the traits of an ethical leader or a global citizen are but also how to put them into practice. It forced me to challenge myself, to challenge my current behaviours, beliefs or ways of doing things. To be self-critical at times but to always think about how I could better. The whole learning process was made even more encouraging by the inspiring speakers but mostly by being surrounded by a cohort of individuals who were on the same journey as me and were sources of encouragement.

As I have said above, I started off my journey a little aimlessly with little to no sense of direction but now I have something to strive for and purpose. In terms of being an ethical leadership the programme has helped me to reflect on what success is for me from the perspective of an ethical leader. Is success achieving my goals irrespective of the consequences? Or is sucess actually bringing people with me, giving individuals a voice, and  respecting others? When thinking about what it means to be an ethical leader, the Laidlaw Programme taught me the importance of balance and that being an ethical leader is not something you do for one day, it is something which you have to continuously work on, apply and challenge yourself on. In addition to this, the Laidlaw Programme taught me that being an ethical leader is not only applicable to presidents or CEOs but to every single person, because being a ethical leader is about leading your life in an ethical way or being ethical in whatever aspect you lead in. Each and everyone of us are leaders for we are captains of our own ships meaning that we all should have an interest in being an ethical leader.

In terms of being a global citizen, the Laidlaw programme changed my perspective on this and helped me to understand the importance of not seeing ourselves as individuals but as part of something bigger. It is about having empathy, understanding, open-mindedness and simply caring about the people and situations in the world even if they are not in your own country or do not impact you directly. I felt empowered to think in such a way through being allowed to do my research on the impacts of British and French decolonisation in Africa, analysing the current Russian and Chinese influence, and then choosing the charity to do my Leadership in Action at the social housing charity KeyStage Housing in Luton. The Laidlaw Programme taught me that being a global citizen is about putting all the problems of the world on equal footing regardless of how far away they are and having a critical view of things, not only seeing that face value, but also about wanting to have a positive impact across world. We all have a duty to use our talents, irrespective of what they are, to make a difference globally. 

Now looking to the future, the Laidlaw Programme has helped to embrace ethical leadership and being a global citizen into all aspects of my life. They have become my new metric of success. My toolbox to achieve success. And the traits which I will seek to apply to everything I do in my life. The Laidlaw Programme is every scholar's launchpad into “life”.