[Close your eyes for a few seconds]
Imagine yourself mobilizing others to make extraordinary things happen while building meaningful relationships in the process. That’s you at your leadership best.
What makes great leaders today?
In this global, digitally enabled and transparent 21st century, nothing big gets done without some kind of complex metric.
Relying on traditional and narrow 360-degree surveys or outdated performance criteria will give you false positives that make you think that you’re more prepared than you really are.
Leadership is not about a set of skills and abilities, or a model that you must follow in order to be a great leader.
Leadership is about personality.
High demand for transparency
It is no longer appropriate for a leader to have a ”game face.”—an inauthentic public face. This demand for transparency stems from our instantly connected constituents.
We are finding that the demand for authenticity has never been higher, as workplaces become increasingly flattened and transparent. Millennials are increasing their demands for transparency.
The Social Age
Social media and globalization has a great influence on leadership.
More than 2.5 trillion text messages sent in 2013.
Generational and cultural diversity is alsoa key modern trend. Because of its high impact on communication and organizational behaviours, leaders must learn how to deal with a combination of four generations in the workplace, as well as employees from around the world.
While business success has always depended on the business’ ability to promote an engaging culture, in the social age, it is no longer an option. It is the only way a company can remain agile and responsive to the environment. It’s creating a culture where people feel a sense of belonging and purpose.
Leadership in the 21st century is defined and evidenced by 3 questions:
Where will the next change to your business model or your life come from?
The answer to this question is on your calendar. Who are you spending time with? On what topics? Where are you travelling? What are you reading? How are you distilling this into understanding potential discontinuities and then making a decision to do something right now so that you’re prepared and ready?
Share trends to correct strategies and anticipate future moves.
Great leaders are not head down they see around corners shaping their future not just reacting to it.
How diverse is your personal and professional stakeholder network?
We hear often about good old boy networks. They are certainly alive and well in some organizations.
But to some extent we all have a network of people that we are comfortable with.
This question is about your capacity to develop relationships with people that are very different than you. Those differences can be biological, political, physical, functional, cultural, and socio-economic. And yet despite all these differences they connect with you, and they trust you enough to cooperate with you in achieving a shared goal.
Great leaders understand that having a more diverse network is a source of pattern identification at greater levels and also of solutions. Because you have people that are thinking differently than you are.
Are you courageous enough to abandon a practice that has made you successful in the past?
There is an expression: Go along to get along.
But if you follow this advice, chances are as a leader you’re gonna keep doing what’s familiar and comfortable. Great leaders dare to be different. They don’t just talk about risk taking. They actually do it.
The most impactful development comes when you are able to build the emotional stamina to withstand people telling you that your new idea is naïve or reckless or just plain stupid.
Interestingly, the people that will join you are not in your usual network. They’re often people that think differently and therefore are willing to join you in taking a courageous leap. And it’s a leap not a step.
Answering these 3 questions will determine your effectiveness as the 21st century leader
What makes a great leader in the 21st century?
And I’ve met many and they stand out. They are Men and woman who are preparing themselves not for the comfortable predictability of yesterday but also for the realities of today and all of those possibilities of tomorrow.
Where do you start?
Click here to download the document Identify where you are in your own leadership journey. Find it in the tombstone “At The Right Place”.
Our model will liberate the leader within.
Are you ready to achieve the extraordinary?
