Leadership Lessons From This Decade

December 2019, is the last month of the decade, and an excellent time to reflect on the impact of this decade on leadership evolution. There are new leadership imperatives that this decade has created thanks to unprecedented changes in technology and society. Leaders have had to learn new skills and to evolve. 

In a 21st-century world that is global, digitally enabled, and transparent, with faster speeds of information flow and innovation, and where nothing big gets done without some complex matrix, it makes relying on leadership models from the last century a dis-service to yourself and your organization. Twentieth-century leadership values may provide you with a false sense of confidence, lulling you into thinking that you are more prepared than you are. While we are wrapping up the second decade of the 21st century, these last ten years have forced leaders to develop skillsets that did not exist, or the intensity at which particular skills are essential has been magnified. 

Confirmation Bias is a Big Problem

Every news article, blog, online reading, comments we share, creates digital data crumbs that are curated by 'platform' companies to feed us more information consistent with our digital activities. Our biases will be further reinforced due to the algorithms that are dictating our lives. When we are not presented with a contrarian perspective, we believe our inclinations to be the absolute truth, and with every passing reinforcement, we dig deeper into our position. Companies need leaders that are self-aware of their personal biases and take an active effort in gathering/listening to contrarian viewpoints. 

Embrace Ambiguity

Even when a leader is willing to put in the extra effort so as not to succumb so easily to confirmation bias, one needs to learn that with the many perspectives they will be presented, there will never be a clear path forward. Instead, leaders will need to embrace the ambiguity and to accept that the answers are a shade of grey rather than black and white. Learning to make trade-offs, balancing competing views, openness to pivoting one's position when presented with new facts will become increasingly essential leadership traits. 

Elasticity in Thoughts

A leader who is willing to embrace ambiguity demonstrates an elastic mind. To adapt to the new norms, we need to change how we think. The speed of technological and cultural development requires us to embrace different styles of thinking besides the rational, logical manner of analysis that tends to be emphasized in our society. The capability to rise above conventional mindsets and to reframe the questions we ask; the ability to abandon our ingrained assumptions and open ourselves to new paradigms; the propensity to rely on imagination as much as on logic and to generate and integrate a wide variety of ideas; and the willingness to experiment and be tolerant of failure, are the new leadership traits.

Regenerative and Distributive Leadership 

This decade has continued to further separate the rich and the poor, the user (abusers at times) of resources, and the creator. I believe it is time to choose a higher ambition, a far bigger one because humanity's 21st-century challenge is clear: to meet the needs of all people within the means of this extraordinary, unique, living planet so that we and the rest of nature can thrive. We need to Regenerate the world by creating solutions that can be used multiple times. We need to create economies that work with and within the cycles of the living world. Our aim should be that resources are never used up but used again and again. Also, in this century, we can design our technologies and institutions to distribute wealth, knowledge, and empowerment to all.   

Diversity

What is the diversity measure of your personal and professional stakeholder networks? These differences may be biological, physical, functional, political, cultural, socioeconomic. You know, we often hear about good ole' boy networks, and they are undoubtedly alive and well in many institutions. But to some extent, we all have a network of people that we are comfortable with. So this question is about assessing your current network diversity and thinking about your capacity to develop relationships with people that are very different from you. Despite all our differences, individuals in our networks connect with us and trust us enough to work with us and others to achieve shared goals cooperatively. Great leaders understand that having a more diverse network is a source of pattern identification at higher levels and also of solutions because you have people that are thinking differently than you are. 

Moral Compass Towards Social Needs

We need courageous leaders, yet they have to be humble. And leaders have to be guided by a moral compass that includes a social purpose. You cannot have your license to operate anymore without a purpose that contributes to society. We cannot just define why we exist as a company; we have to explain how we are going to do business and how we are going to lead. And to us, that purpose has to be to solve the following imminent crises: the climate crisis, the crisis of inequality, and the crisis of trust.

Serve as Knowledge Brokers

Information in this decade has been democratized. Being the most informed is no longer the leadership imperative. Understanding the different contexts in which information can be used and shared, the ability to examine evidence critically, and the ability to apply evidence to connect disparate dots is a new skill. 

Opinion Overload leading to Decision Fatigue

Today, technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinions about what we should be focusing on. It is not just information overload; it is 'opinion overload.' This forces leaders to make more choices leading to 'decision fatigue,' which deteriorates the quality of decisions even more. Learning what to ignore and why is an essential skill now. 

Emotional Stamina

Are you courageous enough to abandon a practice that has made you successful in the past? There's an expression: Go along to get along. But if you follow this advice, chances are as a leader, you are going to keep doing what is familiar and comfortable rather than what is novel and will have the most significant impact. Great leaders dare to be different. They don't just talk about risk-taking; they take risks. One leader recently shared with me that the most impactful leadership development comes when you can build the emotional stamina to withstand people telling you that your new idea is naive or reckless or just plain stupid. 

Interestingly, the people who will join you are not your usual suspects in your network. They are often people that think differently and therefore are willing to join you in taking a courageous leap. And it is a leap, not a step. 

I want to end this blog on a reflective thought that was encouraged due to recent life events. What is the 'why' that could help you bare (almost) any 'how'? This decade's end is a good time, as any, to be reflective.