The Art of Leading Tomorrow: Cultivating Leadership Skills for an Uncertain Future

Being able to lead effectively in today’s globally competitive and increasingly disruptive world is less about barking orders and expecting people to fall into line, and more about adapting, inspiring and navigating a group through the fog of uncertainty – and, more often than not, over water and into the valley of death. From what have these courageous leaders fashioned their arrows and how do they find the mettle to make such great shots? Let’s explore.

Embrace the Growth Mindset

Number one, toss that limiting-belief mentality – ‘I can’t do that, I’ve never been able to, I never will be able to.’ Wrong! Skills can be developed. Abilities can be acquired. Call it a growth mindset, if you like. The Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck coined that term to convey an attitude about challenging things – seeing them as tasks to be learned from, rather than roadblocks.

A case in point is Richard Branson. The bloke left school at 16, having never mastered reading or writing. Whenever I buy a Virgin product – whether it be a new record or a trip in the sky – it feels a bit like parting with a twin. Despite his dyslexia and his chaotic approach to school work, the man has been on a steep learning curve ever since he began his first business. And looking at him today, with his fingers in his billion or so pies (some body part must be relatively pie-free), it shows.

Master the Art of Emotional Intelligence

Would-be tribal chieftains, or leaders in business or society, increasingly face personal attack when they fail to connect and read grieving voters, employees or constituents. That’s why intelligent leaders are turning to the toolkit of emotional intelligence (EI), to help themselves understands – and interpret – their own and others’ emotions.

As the man credited with writing the book on EI, Daniel Goleman, says, emotional intelligence is twice as important as technical skills and IQ for job success. It’s all about knowing what makes people tick, keeping your own emotions in check, and meandering uncertainly through the social matrix.

I have a friend who works at a tech start-up. He once told me about his boss, Sarah – an exemplar of EI in action. During a critical crunch period, when the team had been burning the midnight oil for days to hit a vital deadline, Sarah didn’t just crack the whip. She also got in some pizza deliveries, made jokes and rolled her sleeves up to help recode. The kind of leader people will crawl through fire for.

Cultivate Adaptability and Resilience

Perhaps the only certainty that resulted from COVID-19 is that the only constant is change, and if there is something that all future leaders will need, it is flexibility.

This kind of flexibility goes far beyond ‘keeping your spirits up’ in the face of adversity – it involves looking forward to change, and learning to see shifting circumstances as an opportunity rather than a threat. For this demand, learning to unlearn, as a process of letting go of ways of being and doing that no longer serve us, also comes into play. While adaptability is an ability and a frame of mind, resilience is a quality – it’s what emerges from the process of adapting well and overcoming, or bouncing back in the face of setbacks, stronger than before.

But you can think like Jacinda Ardern. The former New Zealand PM faced a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption and a global pandemic over the course of just four years in office. But she wrote: ‘Each crisis was different, and so my leadership style shifted to meet it.’ She communicated clearly and compassionately, she enlisted help amongst her community, she identified shared goals for facing the convulsive transformation the crises wrought, and she encouraged the population to play their part.

Sharpen Your Communication Skills

If you have the best ideas in the world and nobody can understand what you’re saying, you’re about as much use as a chocolate teapot. All these new leaders have to be the best communicators in the world, in expressing their vision and what they see.

This doesn’t mean you need to be able to rally the nation’s troops with Churchillian flair (though what a gift that would be). It means being direct, sincere and emotionally intelligent in your communication; being heard as much as you’re hearing others.

Years ago, I had a boss who was very good at this. Instead of using PowerPoint slides and buzzwords during town halls, he shared personal tales, admitted the limits of his knowledge, and listened to his employees’ questions. The organisation he led reported less absenteeism, higher output and greater workforce satisfaction.

Embrace Technology and Innovation

Assuming that you are not living in a cave, you might have noticed that technology is changing the way we work more rapidly than you can say artificial intelligence. Leaders of tomorrow need to embrace technology and innovation.

That doesn’t mean you have to start coding tomorrow, but that you need to understand the potential impact of technology and what that might mean for your business.

Take, for example, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. When he first became CEO in 2014, Microsoft was considered somewhat dated. Since then, Nadella has embraced the cloud computing and artificial intelligence, transforming Microsoft into a pioneering provider of cutting-edge technologies.

Develop a Global Mindset

Today, as we have become increasingly interconnected, a leader willing to step up needs to think beyond borders. She needs to be able to appreciate the cultures of all corners of the globe, be mindful of global trends, and understand how an occurrence 10,000 miles away can affect your bottom line.

Having a global mindset doesn’t just mean going to exotic places (although that can help). Rather, it means being curious about the world, exposing yourself to other views and opinions, and challenging your own assumptions.

Once, I spoke to a friend who works for a multinational company about a project in which a deadline was nearly missed because cross-cultural differences had not been taken into account. To one team, a particular project deadline was quite reachable. But to their Indian colleagues – whose culture values vacations a great deal – it fell right in the middle of a major holiday. A global-minded leader would have anticipated this cultural dissonance.

Prioritise Ethical Leadership

With great power comes great responsibility, as Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben used to say. Tomorrow’s leaders must be ethical stewards who make decisions that serve not just their organisation, but society.

This means going beyond simply meeting legal and regulatory requirements: it means fostering a culture of ethical conduct, taking a long-term outlook to decisions made and speaking up when it is not easy to do so.

Exhibit A in the gallery of ethical leadership is Paul Polman, former chief executive of the household products giant Unilever. For a long time now, he has been battling the seeming contradiction between good business and doing good by securing the long-term future of the company through prioritising sustainability and social responsibility.

In Conclusion

Leadership for the future isn’t easy, but developing aspirational new skills takes hard work: a willingness to learn, to reflect and to do things differently. But the benefits, both to oneself and one’s work, are undoubtedly worthwhile.

Leadership is not about having all the answers; it’s about asking the right questions, inspiring action, and leading with an excellence of uncertainty. And so, are you now prepared for following your compass to the leader, above the call of today? The future awaits.