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The Future of Leadership
As our societies and communities are rapidly changing around us, so our world of work is going through a huge transformation.
Clearly there is no denying that the current global pandemic has shifted /accelerated / upended our daily working lives forcing us all to perhaps think or act differently as we do our jobs. Some common questions such as, who do we deem essential workers? What is the role of digital communications and how can we all access them?, How equitable are our organisations? Why interaction is so important, How do we address workforce mental wellbeing? and How do we lead in a crisis? raise merely a few of the challenges we are facing, as we start to scratch the surface of the impact of Covid-19.
And many of these shifts will certainly have a long-term impact, potentially changing forever the future of our work lives.
But the future of our working lives was already undergoing substantial change and scrutiny.
A number of key studies undertaken by global consultancy powerhouses such as PwC, Grant Thornton and McKinsey have all determined the huge impact that ‘megatrends’ will have on workforces by 2030. Technological breakthroughs, demographic shifts, rapid urbanisation, shifts in global economic power, resources scarcity and climate change are seemingly commonly predicted as the key drivers for the changes which may come.
Of course, it’s impossible to entirely predict the needs of our future workforces. But the two things we can all predict is that the future will happen. And change will come.
But importantly, as PwC stress, the future is not a ‘fixed destination’. It isn’t pre-determined. And so our future world of work can be shaped. It will be designed by how we understand and respond to these drivers and changes.
Our leaders therefore are fundamental to our success in evolving. How do they build organisations which can thrive through change? With workforces who can adapt and learn? How do they understand their future people’s needs? And impact positively on our communities and wider world around us?
So what does the future of leadership look like, and how could our future leaders navigate their organisations into 2030?
Strategies become obsolete?
Leaders approaches to strategising is already evolving. The days of producing a permanently inked strategy is becoming a thing of the past. And leaders who see their job as delivering a linear, fixed end point neatly packaged into a glossy document may find their future success as short-lived as their plans.
More leaders should be asking when the environment is so unpredictable, and change is so rapid, how can short-term planning cycles stay relevant? How can an organisation prepare for a future few can define? Well, the answer is of course that it can’t.
But what leaders can do is create a clear long-term vision of their future which serves as a rallying cry. And a roadmap for how they will respond to and create changes needed.
I’m not talking about a just a statement on a wall. Or a pie in the sky, generic ‘shoot for the moon’ type statement which people can neither relate to, nor believe can be achieved.
Nor, distinctly, are we talking here about our WHY.
We know the critical importance of being clear on an organisational WHY. It’s reason for existing. But, as author of ‘Start with The Why’, Simon Sinek notes, our WHY is our origin story. Its fixed. It’s made up of our values and beliefs. And so it’s our WHY – unique to each organisation.
But strategy is different. Or certainly will be in the future. It can’t be fixed as its yet unbuilt. We can’t know what form it will take.
And that’s the type of vision which strong future leaders needs to talk about. It might mean having multiple strategies, based on possible different future scenarios. It may not be clear. It may need to change. And maybe can’t even be written down. But we do know its purpose. Its intent. Its ‘Just Cause’ as Sinek defines it. We can have our own or join others and make it our own. Or galvanise others to join our movement. But the essential thing is it will ebb and flow. It will iterate, evolve and emerge, as our learning of our future world does.
Having leaders who recognise and can realise this is crucial. Leaders who understand strategic thinking and approaches must adapt. Who embrace that the impact of their efforts may be beyond their tenure but believe that building future workforces is still worth investing in.
That it’s about creating the conditions, not plans.
An agile organisation needs agile people.
Whilst the world around work has shifted, so have people’s needs from work. We’ve learnt, even more so in 2020, that as human beings we want to connect, to feel a part of something ‘bigger’ than ourselves. And this has translated into what we want from our working lives. Working for an organisation with a sense of purpose, doing work we feel gives us fulfilment, working with others who we feel connected to, are all key engagement trends.
Consequently, our leaders of the future need to think and work with their people in a different way.
Seeing workforces as mere resources to be deployed, or even ‘unlocked’ is long gone. Humanness, trust and appreciating the value of people, not jobs, is the future of leadership. Especially if the Fourth Industrial Revolution sees robotics reduce the number of jobs available to the human workforce.
We know already that high impact cultures succeed where organisational structures are designed for interactions, and connections. Where performance is about delivering goals but also, importantly, about employees’ behaviours and societal impact.
Future leaders will also though, need to tackle bringing diverse workforces together. The workforces of the future will need a blended mix of much sought after talent and skills in which people can continuously re-skill and up-skill, taking up jobs we cannot even foresee yet, enjoying potentially either multiple careers or maybe even jobs for life again. With ageing people and generation alpha joining the workforces, leaders need to ensure flexible ways of working, providing integrated work/life balances and benefits packages which attract, engage and reward, not in financial terms, but using value and societal impact as currency.
Formal lines of hierarchy are already blurring in strong cultural organisations in which accountabilities are clear, but a diverse range of voices and expertise steers its direction and fortunes. Leaders of the future will need to drive even further an ability to demonstrate how a whole place shares an ‘in it together’ philosophy.
The rewards of such leadership seem clear.
People can thrive through having autonomy and flexibility to shape and determine the work they do and the purpose they can have in society.
Organisation’s can thrive through growing sustainable skills, abilities and commitment over the long-term. They can respond and learn quickly, and build a workforce who are committed, agile and resilient.
Of course being able to realise this is the challenge. And it will take attributes and behaviours not always associated with strong leaders of today.
Embracing transparency, sharing vulnerabilities, having a collaborative mindset, knowing their own limitations, enabling others to steer when required, moving away from management through policies and procedures, being prepared to get it wrong, changing strategies, re-learning skills themselves and building trust without titles will all be hallmarks of highly effective leaders.
And of course, we don’t mean just the one leader. Traditional views of leadership may be taken over by many types of leaders, all with differing roles, who sit within, rather than apart from or atop, structures. Developing and sourcing leaders who actively advocate and promote their own self-development will be instrumental in inspiring and guiding others to do the same.
Innovate. And then innovate again.
What current leaders frequently cite, as the most important attribute needed for a leader in 2030, according to for example, the IBR global leaders data survey, will be the ability to innovate.
Megatrends themselves tell us that automaton in some form will be an essential element of future working. The why is evident… rapid technological advances through AI could help bring new products to market and reduce costs, digital platforms could replace the need for travel and enable high-speed communication, whilst scientific and ecological advances could help protect scare environment resources and combat climate challenges. Undoubtedly every organisation will be impacted by it. But the what and the how will be determined by leadership’s approach to it.
Talking about innovation in organisations isn’t new. Whether it’s been revolutionary or evolutionary, there is little doubt that creativity enables organisations to keep moving forward. And we should learn from that.
But having a workforce awash with ideas isn’t simply enough. Equally innovation for the wrong reasons can lead to competition and individualism. Sinek astutely refers to his learnings from working with both Microsoft and Apple, where he notes at the former’s summit, executives spent the majority of their presentations talking about how to innovate to beat Apple, whilst at the latter’s,100% of their executives talked about how to help teachers teach and how to help students learn.
So future leaders need to harness innovation for the greater collective good. Building a culture which enables entrepreneurial spirit and ideas to flourish based on advancing the organisation’s commonly understood purpose and enabling its people to see and feel the difference they are making.
It needs mindsets focused on growth and systematic learning processes. Leaders who can encourage others to see new possibilities and go beyond what is currently out there. Where continuous improvement influences who is brought into organisations, how decisions are made, what skills are developed, how plans are iterated and how success is determined.
It’s a brave new world!
‘Leadership is an action, not a position’ is a line I frequently use in my conversations with leaders. The need to reflect this will surely be all the more vital for our leaders of the future.
Preparing to respond, acting now and being bold will be critical characteristics we need. Creating the conditions for collaboration, co-design and inclusive practices are, of course, fundamental. But that doesn’t negate leading with strong and effective action taking the bigger steps needed. They go hand in hand.
Ensuring that their organisation can not only keep up with, but meet, or indeed drive the pace of change will be arguably the only line needed in a future leader’s job profile – if such a thing will exist.
So acting now to redefine leadership and identify who our future leaders will be, where they will come from and how we will develop them is something every organisation should be doing. Today. For as we all know tomorrow is the future!