Leadership for the Future

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Central Exchange's Leadership Lyceum called "New Game. New Rules: Leading in Today's World". The speakers included Lee Woodruff (wife of Bob Woodruff), Rachel Lyle Hatch of the Institute for the Future and Daniel Pink. It was fabulous!

Lee discussed how the family navigated through Bob Woodward's injury that occurred in Iraq while on assignment. Bob was in a coma for 36 days, and she did not know what the outcome would be. She discussed how learning to live in the moment, humor and connecting with the people you love were critical during this time.

Rachel Lyle Hatch, standing in for Bob Johansen who was stranded in London, discussed the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) that leaders face today. She reviewed the ten leadership skills for the future as follows:

• Maker Instinct: Ability to turn one's natural impulse to build into a skill for making the future and connection with others in the making.
• Clarity: Ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot yet see.
• Constructive Depolarizing: Ability to calm tense situations where differences dominate and communication has broken down.
• Immersive Learning Ability: Ability to dive into different-for-you physical and online worlds, to learn from them in a first-person way.
• Bio-empathy: Ability to see things from nature's point of view; to understand, respect and learn from nature's patterns.
• Dilemma Flipping: Ability to turn dilemmas-which, unlike problems, cannot be solved-into advantages and opportunities.
• Quiet Transparency: Ability to be open and authentic about what matters to you-without advertising yourself.
• Rapid Prototyping: Ability to create quick early versions of new innovations, with the expectations that later success will require early failures.
• Smart Mob Organizing: Ability to bring people together, engage with and nurture purposeful business or social change networks through intelligent use of electronic and other media.
• Commons Creating: Ability to stimulate, grow and nurture shared assets that can benefit other players-and allow competition at a higher level.

Additional information can be found by reading Leaders Make the Future by Bob Johansen.

Finally, Daniel Pink spoke in the afternoon. He was definitely my favorite. As author of A Whole New Mind and Drive he talked about the science of motivation and what it can teach about high performance. His work is research-based. Daniel suggested paying people well so you take the issue of money off the table. He listed autonomy, mastery and purpose as to what motivates people and gave us tools to address each.

Overall, the day was thought provoking and provided additional insights into the future of leadership. It really is a new game with new rules!

What are your thoughts about leadership in the future?