By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
“Future Leaders will have to practice foresight, insight, and action.” Bob Johansen
One of the challenges in leadership development is that we need to prepare leaders for a world that we don’t yet live in. It is important to consider whether today’s competencies will still be essential in the future, and if not – what will those future skills be. In his new leadership book, The New Leadership Literacies, Bob Johansen offers some important new insights. Johansen is a leadership futurist and distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley. Today’s world has been described as a VUCA environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The VUCA environment, Johansen notes, will continue and even escalate in the future.
To deal with the new world, leaders will need vision, understanding, clarity and agility. We may think we are connected today, but the next 10 years will be a period of explosive connectivity and asymmetric upheaval. In this future world of dramatically amplified digital connectivity, anything that can be distributed (or decentralized) will be distributed. To achieve this leaders will need the following five new leadership literacies:
The ability to Look backwards from the future
Successful leaders will be those who can provide a clear vision for the organization (goals, objectives, success, etc.) while offering a flexible path to achieve those goals. They will have to be “backcasters,” not forecasters. They will need to be able to look at the future from 10 years out and then work their way back to determine the direction of change. Successful leaders will be able to inspire hope in their organizations and provide clarity through every type of medium – in person and digitally, whether they are “there” in person with employees or not.
Engage in Fear Voluntarily
Resiliency in unknown and stressful situations is paramount. Future leaders will need to expose themselves to the unknown in simulated situations where they immerse themselves in fear and then figure out how to succeed. Personal experience is known to be the best learning tool. To develop grit, leaders will need to be willing to take risks and do rapid prototyping where failure will happen and recovery need to be quick. Johansen believes that gaming will become the most powerful learning medium in history.
Develop Leadership Skills for Shape-shifting Organizations
The future of leadership will not always be in centralized hierarchical organizations but rather in distributed organizations which are very decentralized. Future leaders will need to master the art of leading in networks and creating mutual beneficial partnerships. This is often described as the ability to do boundary spanning. Disruption in shape-shifting organizations often comes from the edges not the center.
Developing the Skill of Being there When You’re not There
In the future, the ability to successfully lead from a distance when you are not always there will critical. Leaders will need to learn to build trust and engage with their networks through the intelligent use of electronic and other media. Leaders will need to get very good at deciding what medium is good for communication and establishing leadership presence in different circumstances.
The Ability to Create and Sustain Positive Energy
In a VUCA World, hope is the key variable. Leaders need to seed realistic hope, and they can only do that if they can successfully create and sustain positive energy. To do this, they need to radiate positive energy and work hard to maintain their physical energy and resiliency. Leaders who suck the energy out of a room will not succeed. Mental, physical and spiritual fitness will be a requirement.
So how do we prepare ourselves for this different future. Johansen suggests that we teach ourselves to identify the signals and distinguish them from the noise of the present. Immerse yourself in the future that is already here. Perhaps the most powerful way to learn about the future is reverse mentoring. Those young people who are 21 or under in 2017 are “digital natives,” and the younger they are, the stronger the effect. Learn from them, even as you offer your own wisdom. Go there with them into the rich world of video gaming and learn from them.
Read to Lead
Johansen, B. (2017). The New Leadership Literacies. Oakland, CA: Berren-Koehler Publishers.
© emergingrnleader.com 2017
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