Transcript
JACOB MORGAN:
One of the big challenges for a lot of leaders is not just even leading in a remote world, but it's just thinking about how leadership is changing. That was actually one of the big themes-- actually, the theme that I explored in my most recent book, The Future Leader.
And for that, I interviewed 140 CEOs around the world. And one of the things that I was trying to figure out is, how is leadership changing? And from doing these interviews, I identified a very specific set of four mindsets and five skillsets that all current and aspiring leaders need to practice.
And these include things like having the global citizen mindset, which means you can think big picture and surround yourself by people who are not like you. It means you have the mindset of the explorer, which is about curiosity, having a growth mindset, being agile and nimble.
It also included skills like the technology teenager, where you embrace technology. You don't run from it. The skill of the futurist, where you think in terms of scenarios and possibilities instead of just picking one path and going down it. The skill of the coach, where you believe that your role as a leader is to help make other people more successful than you.
Part of the challenge that a lot of leaders are faced with now is really understanding that their role has changed who they are. Their purpose as leaders has changed. For many, many years, you were able to get into a leadership role not having to be able to practise any of these mindsets or skillsets.
If you stayed at the company for a long time, if you brought in a lot of money, if you were good at office politics and bureaucracy, if you knew somebody in a higher position, chances are you eventually made it into that leadership role.
And the big thing that I'm hearing from a lot of the CEOs that I'm interviewing now is that that's not going to work anymore because there is this collective, I think, consciousness shift for organisations, for leaders, for employees where they recognise you now need to earn that leadership position. You're not just going to get it because of these loopholes that you were able to get around.
So leaders are really, I think, going through an interesting transformation where they actually have to become leaders. And part of that means understanding and learning how to lead in a virtual world, which means you're not micromanaging. You can't micromanage in a virtual world. You're going to drive people nuts.
It also means that you need to be able to practise empathy even in a virtual world. When you get on a conference call, when you get on a call with your team, you don't just jump into it and say, hey, how are those sales figures going? How are you? How is your family? Are you OK? Being able to bring that humanity even if it's in a virtual environment. All those things are very, very important for leaders.
There's also a lot of trust that goes into it because you don't see people working. You're not in an office. So there is a level of trust on behalf of the leaders. There's a level of trust on behalf of the employees.
And there's also, I think, an increased level of accountability where if you're in an office, it's very easy because you can have a leader that checks in on you all the time. Hey, what are you working on? How are you doing? Blah, blah, blah.
If you're in a virtual world and you don't have somebody constantly near you, you need to be very much accountable yourself to make sure that you are motivating yourself, pushing yourself, getting things done, producing good quality work because you might not have somebody who's constantly checking in on you. So there's a lot that goes into it. But by and large, I think leaders need to accept that we live in a hybrid world. We work in a hybrid world. And that means we need to shift how we think about leadership as well.