Much of the work we do as TomorrowToday revolves around this particular theme: leading in a changing world. We help leaders both understand and respond to an exponentially changing world.
Leadership is always context specific and this is why leaders cannot afford to ignore or turn a blind eye to what is happening ‘out there’. The ‘out there’ will always impact on the ‘in here’ (internally within the organisation) and it is the leader’s responsibility to be the hinge between the external context and the internal realities.
All to too often leaders get too absorbed in the internal challenges and concerns at the cost of paying attention to external disruptions that could prove to be game-changers.
The other area of shortsightedness that characterizes much of corporate leadership is the sole focus on industry norms and orthodoxies. The real disruption is likely to emerge from outside of your industry as you currently know it and the danger of ‘benchmarking’ is that the focus is only on those running in the same race as yourself. The ultimate winner of your race might well be someone that is yet to lace their boots!
My colleague Graeme Codrington and I will soon have a book published under this same title: Leading in a Changing World. It will be available in both print and digital versions and we are looking forward to the launch given the subject matter that the book addresses. From our global experience we know it is a real issue for leaders everywhere.
Our book is underpinned by a popular TomorrowToday keynote presentation (yes you guessed it…also titled, Leading in a Changing World!) that we anticipate will work hand-in-glove with one another.
Looking out the window and bringing coherency to the ensuing conversations is the difficult work that leaders need to do.
The second step involves instilling and cultivating the appropriate adaptive leadership mind-sets and behaviours amongst those you lead.
To succeed in these twin challenges is to build an organisation that is ‘futurefit’. Failure to do so means that you are running on borrowed time.