Will Mamdani's election redefine how we value experience?

Zohran Mamdani hasn’t even moved into City Hall yet, and already he’s being written off. The newly elected Mayor of New York City , a 34-year-old assemblyman from Queens, takes office on 1 January, but commentators are calling him “out of his depth” and “untested”. The headline charge: he has no executive experience, as if leadership were a technical qualification rather than a human skill.

It’s an easy jab: he’s young, he’s never run a department or a company, and New York is a monster of a city. The argument goes that without management credentials, he’ll drown in bureaucracy.

It sounds convincing. Until you look at how often that logic fails.

Experience isn’t competence

Across sectors, we often see people with glittering executive résumés fall flat when faced with real leadership tests. They’ve managed large teams, signed off budgets, survived board meetings, yet still fail to inspire, to adapt, or to decide. They know process, not purpose.

I’ve seen it in corporates, charities, and professional bodies: years of experience, yet no capacity for curiosity. People who can recite the manual but can’t navigate uncertainty, and the badge of “executive experience” can create a dangerous illusion that time served equals ability earned. It doesn’t.

Leadership isn’t a function of hierarchy. It’s the craft of judgment under pressure, the discipline to choose what matters, and the courage to act when information is incomplete. Those abilities don’t automatically appear because someone once managed a budget line.

Who is Mamdani?

Born in Uganda, raised in Queens, Mamdani worked as a housing counsellor and community organiser before entering the New York State Assembly. He’s 34, articulate, and unashamedly progressive: rent freezes, free buses, universal childcare, higher taxes on the wealthy.

He’s built his career advocating for people who’ve been ignored by government, not running the machinery of it. To traditionalists, that’s disqualifying. To others, it’s exactly what the city needs, i.e., a leader who sees systems from the outside and asks why they don’t work.

Why the criticism misses the point

Executive experience has its value. Running complex institutions teaches how to delegate, manage performance, and balance priorities. Mamdani will need those muscles. But it’s naïve to assume that only people who’ve held executive roles can learn them.

Every executive starts somewhere, and most learn on the job, myself included. The difference is that Mamdani’s apprenticeship will happen in public, in an environment that demands negotiation, resilience, and focus. A leadership lab, just not the kind corporate recruiters recognise.

The dangers of overvaluing experience

Organisations everywhere fall for the same trap: appointing for familiarity rather than potential. Boards hire “safe hands” who’ve run similar things before, even if they ran them badly. It feels less risky to hire someone experienced than someone capable.

The result? Familiar failure. Fresh ideas dismissed as naïve. Agility mistaken for inexperience. And a revolving door of “proven” executives who repeat the same patterns with slightly better PowerPoint decks.

True, inexperience brings risk but so does habit. Systems stagnate when led by people who’ve stopped learning.

What matters more

Mamdani’s record suggests three traits that count far more than any executive title:

1. Clarity of purpose. He knows what he stands for and can explain it in plain language. That alone distinguishes him from half the political class.

2. Empathy with lived experience. His politics come from proximity to real problems, not briefing notes. That keeps leadership anchored in outcomes.

3. Coalition-building. Community organising teaches you how to bring people together without formal authority, arguably the hardest leadership skill of all.

If he carries those into City Hall and surrounds himself with seasoned operational talent, he can compensate for what his CV lacks.

The transferable test

The same logic applies everywhere. In business, charity, or government, success comes down to the same balance: vision, delegation, communication, and self-awareness. Executive experience can help, but only if it’s paired with curiosity and adaptability.

Some of the best leaders I’ve worked with were first-time executives who asked good questions and listened hard. Some of the worst were veterans who stopped doing both.

Experience helps you avoid old mistakes. It can also stop you seeing new solutions.

The real leadership challenge

For Mamdani, the first few months will be critical. New York’s bureaucracy is immense and unforgiving. He’ll need quick wins, clear governance, and visible delivery. The trick will be to combine activist energy with operational discipline to prove that conviction and competence aren’t opposites.

If he gets that balance right, he’ll puncture the myth that only “executives” can lead. And perhaps remind us that leadership isn’t about how many systems you’ve managed, but how many people you’ve moved.

A broader lesson

We should all be more sceptical of the way “executive experience” is used as shorthand for capability. It’s often code for comfort and for people who look and sound familiar to the hiring committee.

But cities, companies, and nonprofits rarely fail for lack of experience. They fail for lack of imagination, for weak culture, for leaders who confuse longevity with learning.

Mamdani’s election challenges that bias. He’s not a polished administrator; he’s a conviction politician with an organiser’s instinct. He’ll make mistakes, as all leaders do. The question isn’t whether he’s experienced enough but whether he’s willing to learn fast, delegate well, and listen deeply.

Experience can inform leadership; it doesn’t define it. If it did, every veteran CEO would be a visionary, and every newcomer a liability, and we know that’s nonsense.

The point is not how long you’ve led, but how you lead. And in that regard, Zohran Mamdani has the same chance as anyone with oodles of executive experience. If he leads with purpose, listens well, and builds strong teams, experience will follow soon enough, and the city of New York will be better for it.