When Answers Become Cheap

For most of my life… Women have been my most significant and inspirational role models.

Indeed, I see now that they’ve helped to shape the window through which I view the world.

In this world… men have largely played supporting roles.
The convent priest. My Stepfather. Mum’s many brothers.

Unusual?
Perhaps.

But not surprising… for a kid holding onto his single mother, fleeing from Jamaica…
And raised in a Convent Children’s Home in Hertfordshire.

A home which only accepted boys younger than age 14.

Perhaps that’s why…
when I look back across forty years in financial services…
certain leadership qualities stand out more clearly than others.

Curiosity.
Listening.
Calmness under pressure.
The ability to build trust without demanding it.

More often than not…
I’ve found those qualities in women.

Now, you might think I’m heading towards this question…

“Women in business; particularly leadership.

Better than?
Worse than?”

But…I think that’s the wrong question.
A better question is this…

“What if the qualities we’ve historically valued most in business – particularly financial services…
are not the qualities we’ll need most in the years ahead?”

You see, the truth is…

For decades…
expertise mattered.
The smartest person usually won.

The person with the best answer.
The deepest technical knowledge.
The most sophisticated solution.

We built entire careers around those assumptions.
And they served us well.

Until now.

Those decades. They’re over.
Aren’t they?

Reading this… you already know.

You also know that we’re faced with fresh questions today.

Questions like this…

“What happens when expertise becomes free?

What happens when answers become cheap… and commonplace?”

It’s then that the most valuable person in the room is NOT the one with the greatest technical competence.

Nor even the one with the best answers.

It’s then that the most valuable person… is the one with the rarest gifts.

The gift of listening. Long and deeply.
The gift of relational intelligence.
The gift of emotional safety.
The gift of nurturing. Across years and decades.

The clear signs are…

The future belongs to those who can use resources like AI…
to do something more thoughtful than produce advice more cheaply.

The future belongs to those who will use the freed-up capacity…
to deepen the human side of business relationships.

And that matters.

Because I think this is no longer about Nature.
Male or female.

Nor, even, about Nurture.
How you were raised.

I think it’s about Choice.

The future that will belong to those who deliberately cultivate these qualities.

Because, rising out of the mire of admin-related tasks that currently beset us…
We can choose how we then invest our human energy.

Especially when we remember this:

The greatest transfer of wealth in history is already underway.
And much of that wealth will soon sit in the hands of women.

They will expect more than technical expertise.

And what of the future?
The future that’s already with us?

It belongs to those who can do far better than simply provide answers.

It belongs to those who sit quietly with another human being…
long enough…
for them to discover their own.