Future Ready Leaders

Look around yourself at the present. Look at how the technology has changed rapidly over the past few decades. How we are accustomed to new technologies from air conditioners to smartphones. Everything from fashion to climate has changed, and we have very well adapted ourselves to it. Now, imagine the future. Technology is transforming with advent of artificial intelligence. By then, AI would be present everywhere. Climatic conditions will get worse with time, and the shift in the phase of marketing would have had taken place from mere Marketing, to social responsibilities for corporate organisations.

In the future, corporate entities would have a tremendous shift in functioning. But the question to ask here is, are our Corporate Leaders ready for this shift?

The Deloitte Human Capital trends report shows how organisations are shifting from hierarchical structures to networks of high powered teams driven by an entirely new model of management. The role of the leader has become entirely different in this new model of management. From the vision of mere skill and specialisation in a certain skillset of work, the leader is now viewed as an individual capable of being agile and flexible to deliver what is required of him in this world.

In this constantly changing world, developing the required skills and abilities is getting increasingly challenging. The first step to developing the required skills in the Future leaders, is identifying the challenges that they would be facing, and then developing a plan to tackle the same. A few of the challenges that may be faced by the Future Leaders are:

1. Changing Model of Management

As stated earlier, the model of management in many large organisations is changing. From a hierarchy based, specialised departments, the organisations have begun adapting networking high powered teams. Hence, from a specialised skill set, the focus of finding a leader has become far vast. Where it was earlier expected of a leader to be the best at his work in his field, the expectations have risen much more for the Future leaders. The organisations will have to identify people, who are prepared to lead, and then, train them to be leaders. The real challenge is making people aware of the skills they possess (such as leading the change, innovation, creativity, communication, etc.), and enhance them for the organisation’s benefit.

2. Innovation

Innovation is the driving factor for businesses these days. It has become a key factor for success. With innovation, new technologies are coming into place from Artificial Intelligence, to cloud algorithms to machine learning. This is making jobs easier for the organisations adapting to the change. This, adaptation to the change is one of the biggest challenges Future Leaders would face. The leaders of tomorrow require giving great importance to innovation in any field, and needs to prepare the whole team to adapt it, in a positive way. It would be the leader’s duty to ensure, that the whole team not only welcomes innovation and change, but also supports any requirements regarding the same.

3. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy

Soft Skills, is one of the very important skills, given least importance in today’s time. Future Leaders need to understand the dire need of development of soft skills and empathy for everything and everyone around them. These skills are used for their own benefit of persuasion, influence and convincing techniques. Mastering these skills by the leaders would prove to be a great asset for the company. In order to make people achieve a common goal for the organisation, successful leaders will have to appeal to emotions and be a source of motivation.

4. Spontaneity

In this VUCA world (Versatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous), the Leaders of tomorrow need to be spontaneous in their actions. Traditionally, the practice of planning, analyzing and controlling have been given great importance. Though these fundamentals were of great importance in the past, and in some cases, the present times, it is not the same with the future. Because of the ongoing changes in the business environment, this methodology has become less dispensable, as the leader cannot effectively plan, analyse and control the unpredictable environment. Thus, the most valuable ability for the Future Leaders, is Spontaneity. Decisions need to be taken at the heat of the moment, and any wrong decision may have drastic effect for the organisations.

The question now is, what should the organisation be doing about tackling this change? According to Kennedy Leadership Development Consulting, it is given that more than £40–60 billion is invested in leadership annually. Organisations need to address where this money is being diverted. Proper allocations to Human Resource, Talent, and Learning and Development need to be made, and it needs to be looked as to how they can maximize the return for organisation’s investment into leadership.

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