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PAE
survey of HR directors found that Four mindset shifts are required.
A those from nearly three quarters of the
corporations involved said their organisations 1. Be adaptive
do not have the leadership they need for the Businesses and governments operate within
challenges of today. Nor do they have the complex systems and always have done.
depth of talent needed for tomorrow. However, these days more parts of the system
are shifting simultaneously and at faster rates.
Leaders have to make more decisions, and
make them more quickly. When there were
fewer factors at play and the rate of change
was slower, leaders had time to formulate
forecasts.
Leaders have always been required to split
their energies between working “on” the
business for the future (doing things like
reshaping and repositioning) and working “in”
the business (that is, achieving the results
required today).
These days, working “on” is an almost
constant requirement that is not restricted to
the annual planning cycle. That leaves leaders
with less time to be working “in” the business,
and the distinction between the forward-
leaning leader and the operationally focused
manager is growing.
Investors disproportionately reward forward-
leaning leaders who instil the confidence that
they will be able to overcome as-yet unknown
challenges.
As leaders have to make decisions about
the future without knowing what it holds, they
have to be adaptive. Correcting course should
Yet the function of management has not not only be expected, but celebrated.
changed and instability is not new; so why is
there this crisis of leadership? As I argue in 2. Form alliances
my book, Antidote to the Crisis of Leadership, The World Economic Forum forecasts that six
it is the result of a mismatch between the out ten jobs will be changed due to technology
reality of leadership today and a stubborn
reliance on traditional practices.
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