Business Leader Future : A Sketch

February 1, 2012 6 Comments

Leading in a Complex Global Context

I did some research about global trends and challenges and how they will change the way we will lead in the future.  The answers I found explain why we sometimes feel that we’re in a perpetual state of disequilibrium.

The Leader of the Future

This description was adapted from the sources listed below.

The Leader of the Future is a globally aware, fast-learning, socially and financially responsible leader with amazing digital skills and social media savvy, who is agile, resilient and collaborative, demonstrates exceptional thinking skills, deals well with uncertainty, has connections across disciplines, synthesizes information easily to find meaning, learns quickly and continually, adapts to solving new and complex problems and meeting competing demands, is environmentally responsible, open and transparent, internationally mobile, with a global view and local cultural sensitivity, who cares about others, behaves and leads ethically, holds people accountable while helping to develop their leadership potential, serves as a change agent promoting responsible leadership, values differences, and engages diverse collections of employees, customers and communities in a common purpose.

Improving Our Leadership 

Consider these questions:

1. What does this business leader of the future do well that I need to learn?

2. How will learning in those areas make me a more responsible leader?

3. How will I engage the other leaders in the organization in learning with me?

4. How will making these changes in leadership help us survive and thrive?

Sources:

Key Global Trends Impacting Leadership Hay Group Press Release About “Leadership 2030” Report

The Leader of the Future: Ten skills to begin developing now  Greatleadershipbydan.com

Emerging Leadership Trends Rick Lash, Hay Group on YouTube

The 2020 Leader: Attributes for Success in the 2020 Workplace Jeanne Meister at skillsoft.com

Emerging Leadership Journeys Spring 2011, Regent.edu

Shaping Health Systems Network: Emerging Leadership in a Global Context Center for Innovation in Health Management, UK

Emerging Leadership Issues  Lev Lafayette, doctoral candidate at the Ashworth Centre for Social Theory

Future Work Skills 2020 Research Institute for the Future

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For more, see new book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?

7 Lenses is a Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Ethics41cEVx-Tu4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
2014 Axiom Business Book Award Winner 
About 7 Lenses
 
 
Info@LeadinginContext.com  @leadingincontxt  @7Lenses

© 2012 Leading in Context LLC 

Filed under Ethical Leader, Trends Tagged with , , , , , ,

Disposable Marketing Freebies: What Message Are We Sending?

August 17, 2011 Leave a comment

Consumers Want Sustainable Marketing

Many consumers now shop around for “ethical” companies and those consumers expect a new kind of business marketing – the kind with a long-term view and a sustainable approach. When we decide what to hand out to customers that will help them remember our company, we need to consider the unintentional messages our choices may be sending.

We may be talking about environmental responsibility, but cheap plastic marketing items that break easily and add to the trash problem will send a message that is louder than the one in our corporate brochures. To be sure we’re sending the message we intended, we need to evaluate all of our marketing give-away programs with a sustainability lens:

Are We Using Sustainable Business Marketing?

Is the paper used for our corporate stationary sustainably sourced? Recycled?

What message are we sending with our corporate logo items?

  • Are they made from new materials or recycled?
  • Are they local or imported?
  • Are they made by a responsible company?
  • Are any of the parts or ingredients harmful to people or the environment?
  • Are they immediately useful and durable or likely to end up in a landfill within a month?

Articles That Explain Green Marketing and How to Implement it:

Impact of B2B Green Marketing in an Increasingly Environmentally Conscious World by Bob Lipp, Marcomm Group, Inc.

Seven Reasons Why Ethics Helps Your Business Succeed–And Five Easy Action Steps  Shel Horowitz

Green Marketing: 4Ps PLUS Triple Bottom Line California Green Solutions

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For more, see Linda’s book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?

7 Lenses is a Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Ethics41cEVx-Tu4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
2014  Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner 
About 7 Lenses
 
 Info@LeadinginContext.com  @leadingincontxt  @7Lenses 
© 2011 Leading in Context LLC 
 

Filed under Ethical Leader, Trends Tagged with , , , ,

The Financial Crisis and the Sustainability Crisis Have a Common Cause

August 11, 2010 1 Comment

How are the financial crisis and the sustainability crisis connected?

They are both fueled by large numbers of business people simultaneously using a narrow, short-term view of their responsibilities.

A short-term view is thinking that is narrowly focused on accomplishing short-range internal company goals and fails to consider the impact of business choices beyond the company’s walls and beyond the current financial reporting period.

Using such a narrow definition of corporate responsibility leads businesses to make unethical decisions. Read more about the implications of business leaders using short-term thinking in these articles:

“Sustainable Investing and the Next Economy” by Joseph F. Keefe, Speech to the Boston Economic Club, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

“Short Term Thinking Shorts us All” by Jeffrey Hollender

“Short-Term Thinking Linked to Compensation Problems” by Justin Lahart, WSJ Blogs

 

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For more, see Linda’s book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?
 
  7 Lenses is a Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Ethics41cEVx-Tu4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
  2014 Axiom Business Book Award Winner 
  About 7 Lenses
 
 
Info@LeadinginContext.com  @leadingincontxt  @7Lenses

© 2010 Leading in Context LLC 

Filed under Context, Ethical Leader, Ethical Organization Tagged with , , ,

The Bottom-Line Benefits of Sustainability (Written By a CFO)

May 19, 2010 Leave a comment

Selling the sustainability mindset within your organization may require some preparation and persistence. Not all C-suite leaders may be convinced that sustainability will pay off for the company in the long run, and CFOs may be particularly hard to convince.

Kurt Kuehn (CFO of UPS) has written a great blog article, “Five Ways to Convince Your CFO That Sustainability Pays” (online at Greenbiz.com) with practical advice to use when demonstrating the tangible bottom-line benefits of sustainability to your CFO.

 

For New Blog Posts, visit LeadinginContext.com/Blog

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For more, see Linda’s book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?
 
  7 Lenses is a Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Ethics41cEVx-Tu4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
  2014 Axiom Business Book Award Winner 
  About 7 Lenses
 
 
Info@LeadinginContext.com  @leadingincontxt  @7Lenses

© 2010 Leading in Context LLC 

Filed under Ethical Leader, Ethical Organization, Ethical Thinking Tagged with , ,

The Sustainability Mindset

April 28, 2010 Leave a comment

There is a completely new mindset required to navigate the complex issues of our time. Sustainability is a word that is being used to describe the practice of operating as if our impact on the world and its resources truly matters to us.

Thinking holistically means having a heightened awareness of the complex webs of relationships within our ecosystems, so that instead of reductively seeing discrete species and applying linear cause-and-effect explanations, we comprehend pattern and relationship, value and quality, the non-linear dynamics of life where the “sum is greater than the parts’ (Berman, 1981, Capra, 1988, 2001)

Thoughts on Sustainability Volume 1: Principles leaning into process, Edited by Adam Faruk, Ashridge, UK.  www.ashridge.org.uk

The paper quoted is one of the most well-written overviews on this topic that I have seen. The entire document is available online at the Ashridge website. I highly recommend it as background for your leadership learning, and for stimulating discussions in leadership development programs.

The author is not claiming to be perfect and above the pressures of society, which adds to the credibility of the paper:

In writing this paper I have been very aware that I too am steeped within the the current Western mindset. I experience the hypocrisy of wanting to live ethically and lightly, whilst being attracted to new bright shiny things. Yet I can see this new paradigm emerging, and quickly, though not necessarily quickly enough.

Thoughts on Sustainability Volume 1: Principles leaning into process, Edited by Adam Faruk, Ashridge, UK.  www.ashridge.org.uk

For New Blog Posts, visit LeadinginContext.com/Blog

522

For more, see Linda’s book 7 Lenses and the 21 Question Assessment: How Current is My Message About Ethics?
 
  7 Lenses is a Bronze Axiom Business Book Award Winner in Business Ethics41cEVx-Tu4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_
  2014 Axiom Business Book Award Winner 
  About 7 Lenses
 
 
 
Info@LeadinginContext.com  @leadingincontxt  @7Lenses

© 2010 Leading in Context LLC 

Filed under Context, Ethical Leader Tagged with , , , ,

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