The goal of this blog topic—Future Leadership Issues, in the Linked 2 Leadership constellation of conversation, is to uncover future issues and equip leaders to be more effective with their teams and others who follow their lead. In recent weeks, we have asked just about everyone we meet, “Where are you looking for answers and some indication of what’s around the corner?”
This is a popular question and one we hope you are asking. And we hope you will come back to this blog and write what you are finding out in the comments area below.
People want to talk about this because the scramble in on for smarter, wiser, bolder leaders. We want to find them. When we focus on short term situations, such as the economy and failure of leadership all around us, many like to discuss where they are searching for answers and who they are listening to.
Does it seem like the more the market drops, the demand for crystal balls increases?
Taking time to think seems to be very important now, more than knee-jerk reactions and highly-emotional decision making. Slowing down long enough to read a book, reflect, “get away for a few minutes” just to take deep breaths and look at the much bigger picture seems to be working for those we consider savvy and bold leaders.
Here are the books that have been recommended to me this month and I’m heading to my library to put these on reserve for my reading next weekend. Please add the name of any books you are finding especially helpful in your role and journey as a leader.
Blue Ocean Strategy – looking at the big picture and seeing the opportunity where everyone else is not clamoring.
Leadership by Design – some of the best future thinkers are designers because their stuff has to last a few decades or centuries.
Bold Leadership for Organizational Acceleration—“What you have been today isn’t good enough for tomorrow”
Future Leadership Issues from my perspectives:
(1) The changing workforce, work values, trust, followers’ sentiments and unpredictable people problems. Can future leaders sense the changes and adapt?
(2) In the future global world, we will be working with different kinds of people coming from different backgrounds, hold different perspectives on how things are done and should be done. Do future leaders have the courage to make mistakes, re-learn them and lead on (no matter what)?
(3) Who should be training the future leaders?
(4) Shouldn’t the old leadership system die before the new leadership system can emerge? Or can it be used as a lesson to learn?
Regards,
I want to be hopeful . All the conversation out there, about the kind of transformative change needed to succeed in today’s “new” reality – Will it actually lead to the kind of real introspection in business leaders that will take talk to action?
I haven’t seen it yet..Can anyone reading this talk about real change they are witnessing at their company or organization?
Oh my goodness, Olga, the shift already happened. If you are not part of it, leading it or witnessing it, then it’s close to you and you may need to get more active in moving to a place where it is happening. The internet totally flattened the organizational org charts, so those are pretty much relics on paper. The generation values and ways of perceiving the world, getting and giving information, completely revised how change starts and moves through a company, whether it is a sole proprietorship or a multi-location corporation. Leaders are no longer isolated. They move fast and surround themselves with reliable information and loyal customers. We see this every day. We provide high-level counsel and strategy to many of these national business leaders. They don’t twitter. They don’t spend much time blogging either. They pay attention to their BlackBerry email and listen very well in face-to-face meetings and conference calls.
It’s real. It’s been happening since 1995. It’s making a difference.
I know it happened and believe it is happening in some places. Thankfully the internet has made a great many things possible. Our ability to exchange ideas this way bears witness to this.
I was more interested in hearing examples of how the current economic climate has been a catalyst for change. How are managers transforming themselves into leaders that seek out opportunities from all of the organization not just direct reports. Where is theory turned into practice? Are they listening and willing to consider competing truths to make their companies more viable?
How do you transform corporate cultures that are top down to become more bottom up?