I started my career combining consulting work at Deloitte with competing in modern pentathlon at an international level. As an athlete managing five different sports while building a corporate career, I learned early on about being the best version of yourself while accepting you can't excel at everything simultaneously. Professional sport teaches you humility because there's always someone better than you at something, but it also instils an unwavering belief in human potential.

This mindset of continuous improvement – the constant quest for marginal gains – has profoundly influenced how I approach organisational development. After earning World Championship and European Championship medals, I transitioned fully into the corporate world, taking this high-performance mindset with me. Whether working with teams or developing talent programs, I've found that the principles of athletic achievement translate remarkably well to business success.

The transition from education to the workplace presents unique challenges for today's graduates. In education, success often comes from being an expert in your field and passing exams. However, in today's workplace, pure knowledge isn't the differentiator it once was – we can search anything online at any time. What really matters are skills, particularly human skills.

We focus heavily on self-awareness as a foundational element. While about 90% of people believe they're self-aware, research shows only about 15% truly are. This gap becomes crucial when navigating workplace relationships and understanding how your actions impact others. For instance, a simple choice like working from a café instead of the office might seem natural to a Gen Z employee but could be perceived very differently by their managers. These cultural disconnects need to be addressed through targeted skill development.

It's important to understand that this isn't just about young people being less resilient than previous generations. They're facing unique pressures – from constant social media presence to significant financial constraints and broader societal concerns about issues like climate change. The pace of technological change adds another layer of complexity, as they often need to navigate between their natural digital fluency and traditional workplace structures.

This stress manifests in real business impacts. When a young employee needs to take extended leave due to burnout, it affects both their wellbeing and the organisation's bottom line. The solution isn't to dismiss these concerns with a "stiff upper lip" mentality but to create open dialogues about mental health and establish appropriate boundaries. Managers need to be equipped to have meaningful conversations about wellbeing, something that wasn't necessarily part of the workplace conversation a generation ago.

We recently launched DBL elevate in response to market demands, particularly from smaller organisations wanting high-quality development programmes for just a few graduates or emerging managers. The programme combines digital learning with live sessions, creating mixed cohorts from different industries and organisations. This cross-pollination of ideas and experiences is invaluable – while you can deliver content digitally, adult learning truly comes alive through shared experiences and stories.

We're seeing two major themes in the marketplace that elevate addresses. First, helping new employees 'decode the workplace' – providing practical skills for navigating corporate culture and understanding different perspectives. Second, supporting organisations in managing multigenerational dynamics. Our results speak for themselves: we've helped clients like Jardines increase their three-year retention rates from 61% to 86%, generating significant savings in recruitment costs while improving engagement metrics.