a case for change

Flatter structures, global uncertainty driving market volatility, war for talent, higher sustainability accountability, increased complexity and ambiguous work environments are inspiring the need for more creative, connected and self-led workforces. We need leaders who can operate by a whole new playbook.

At the same time, we find ourselves at the precipice of rocketing innovation and change in the next 10 years, as we have seen in the previous hundred. The only thing limiting us to thrive in this wave of change is our capacity to continuously adapt and transform at the individual, team and organisational level.

Unknowns far outnumber certainties, and the relationship between cause and effect is not obvious.

The world needs agile leadership. Those who are not daunted by complexity, but stimulated by it. Those who are highly self-aware and equally conscious of the system in which they operate. Those who can tell the difference between a problem to be solved and a paradox to be managed, and adapt without losing their ethical compass.

In this new leadership system, leaders harness the collective wisdom in solving problems nobody has solved before and inspire, not only through their words but their day-to-day actions.

All the while, transactional leadership and archaic education streams – once groundbreaking at the dawn of the industrial revolution – lag behind, failing to provide leaders or emerging talent with the capability to sense when change is needed, and transform and adapt with it. Nor are they provided the art of fostering psychologically safe cultures and psychological maturity that’s required to navigate this new reality.