Future Leaders. What’s in Store. (What’s a store?)

Future Leaders. What’s in Store. (What’s a store?)

I hesitate to warn leaders about change, because change is, always has been, and always will be the rule. So what’s new? You’re familiar with change. Right? Well, actually, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The change coming will demand that future leaders discard almost everything they know about leadership. Today’s best practices will provide as much utility as yesterday’s carbon paper.

In terms of social and technological change, we are poised at the second half of the chessboard, according to futurist Ray Kurzweil. He refers to an old legend in which the inventor of chess asks to be paid for his invention with one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, and so on until all 64 squares on the board have received their allotment.

On the 20th square more than half a million grains are due. More than a million on the 21st and more than two million on the 22nd. You see where this is going.

Crossing the chessboard at the halfway point calls for 2,147, 483,648 grains on the 32nd square and 4,294,967,296 on the 33rd. This cute, short video should blow your mind with even bigger numbers.

If Kurzweil’s is correct in his analogy, the changes coming will astonish you. All the apps and gadgets that impress you today could very well be useless, meaningless, and laughably irrelevant before you know it. Everyone in the world may be technologically connected sooner than you think via tomorrow’s new-paradigm version of the Internet. Younger people may ask you, “What’s a retail store? Tell me about texting. Who was Google?”

How to Respond to VUCA

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. The acronym VUCA, which entered military vocabulary in the unpredictable 90s, just as accurately describes what most organizations already face. The steep upward arc of change ensures that your future leadership challenges will certainly demand that you continue to respond to increasing VUCA.

In response, future leaders will have to discard what they have learned, then learn and practice leadership methods capable of managing in an environment yet unimaginable. Management intuition for the next 50 years, an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, more thoroughly investigates the challenges ahead for tomorrow’s leaders.

Emerging on the winning side in this increasingly volatile world will depend on how fully leaders recognize the magnitude—and the permanence—of the coming changes and how quickly they alter long-established intuitions.

Deeper into the article, the authors spell out more of how leaders will have to prepare and respond.

It will be increasingly difficult for senior leaders to establish or implement effective strategies unless they remake themselves in the image of the technologically advanced, demographically complex, geographically diverse world in which we will all be operating.

The oncoming rush of change will encompass more than just technology. The world, its population and climate, the marketplace and its consumers will all demand new strategies, new leadership methods, and much more. The authors recommend a number of responses. I have incorporated a few of their recommendations among my own organized, under the four kinds of The Magnetic Power of Leadership Intimacy.

Self-Intimacy

1. Be comfortable with self-disclosure and value transparency, first and foremost
2. Be humble and accountable by owning your flaws and the mistakes you make
3. Develop strong emotional intelligence to be flexible and responsive

Organizational Intimacy

1. Think globally, keeping in mind dramatic changes taking place in emerging markets
2. Practice responding quickly to the unexpected with regular scenario-planning exercises
3. Prepare for intelligent technologies to replace work without losing the institutional knowledge of workers

Social Intimacy

1. Be collaborative and encourage high involvement as no one person knows the whole solution
2. Empower people to value different perspectives and use their collective genius to solve challenges
3. Be part of the team in a shared leadership capacity

Influential Intimacy

1. Be open to ideas and new ways of doing things, first listen
2. Practice a variety of influencing styles, not just your own preferred
3. Know what motivates each individual stakeholder uniquely

 
What will be your response? Certainly not to turn Luddite and fight the coming onslaught. Certainly there’s no future in hoping to work tomorrow’s challenges with today’s tools. You know the future as well as Kurzweil, Nostradamus, and I do. But one thing is certain. It will demand more of you as a leader. Get ready!

To learn more, download our Feel. Think. Act. Talk. paper or look into the entire CoachQuest Cycle.

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