Future Leadership Skills

​Welcome to the world of Rapid, Unpredictable, Chaotic, Inconsistent, Oxymoronic, and Badly-Tangled, Volatile, Complex, Hazy-Picture, Continuously-Changing, Overwhelming & Unstable Atmosphere [you are welcome to add words that I might have missed in this series].

Today's Leaders as well as the most common man need to learn the skills to cope with Chaos, Complexities, Uncertainties, ambiguous, confusing-catch-22 and volatile situations.

These are the most-immutable must-have 70+ skills*.

If you don't understand, learn, master and practice them – then you will either have a very stressful or a very mediocre life or both.

This may sound dooms-day predictions and very scary – but fortunately – polishing these competencies, can take you to the top also and make your life more joyous and fulfilling.

Many of us are afraid of the fear* of unknown – it is because our brains looks for certainties, securities, problems those solve themselves or problems* to be solved once for all[this is due to our conditioning through the most damning concept of – living happily* ever-after].

Our brain always tries to find a pattern to predict to create a permanently secured future and life – WHICH IS Just Not THERE FOR ANYONE.

Throughout our life we will be rocked, shocked and caught off-guard by constant change – THERE IS NO MENTAL, Physical AND EMOTIONAL SECURITY WHICH WOULD LAST LIFE-TIME.

Chaos and uncertainty and volatility and ambiguity is the NORM.

If we are unable to accept these – we would be chasing mirage forever – which many of us do – they spend their lifetime searching for perfect end, perfect partner, perfect job, perfect solutions, perfect answers etc etc.

Sometimes it can be real OMG, WTF, WTH and WhyMe situations – but IT IS ALSO A BIG OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL OF US.

The biggest danger is off-course are not being prepared and ignoring the warning sirens and signals.

Having failed* miserably in many-many situations and with many people and even in those circumstances that I should never have failed – I know that in spite of exhaustive plans – the Murphy's laws is the only thing that you can bank upon.

When Even the best laid-plans fail miserably – so what preparations we are talking about.

Let us first understand few of the drivers of this unpredictable and disruptive times - they could be

1.Terrorism

2.Increase in religious polarization

3.US-China power-war & UK-Europe Brexit & China's Aim on Dominating the World

4.The technology which changes every yesterday – AI, Blockchain, Big-Data, Nano-Technology, Robotics etc

5.The weak political and OTHER types of LEADERS

6.The climate-change due to human interference

7.Education systems not attune to the Practical-world

8.Globalization

9.The stock-market interdependence on all of the above and more factors

10.Too much information generation and availability

11.Impact of social media on Market, Selling, Customers, Sellers and Buyers

12.Rapid Urbanization

13. Millennials becoming the majority in the workforce

14.Accelerated Innovation

To be able to handle this type of life – you need to tone your muscles in the following areas [so that if unexpected happens, in spite of our giving 100%, being prepared for all the exigencies]

1.Able to withstand the shock more effectively

2.Able to bounce-back* faster efficiently from our failures* and setbacks

3.Developing mental-toughness

4.Toning our emotional-resilience*

5.Becoming better problem-solver*

6.Looking for and embracing change* pro-actively by Becoming flexible* and adoptable* to rapid deviations and fluctuations

7.Recognizing the self-improvement and self-development and self-growth lessons this change gives us AND applying them

8.Learning to see the Financial, Professional, Relationship Future-Opportunities* this provides

9.Able to see the same situation from widely different and paradoxical perspectives*

10.Enjoying the journey* that our life is – irrespective of what level of misery you have been subjected to

11.Able to identify more choices*, possibilities, options and different solutions - than identifiable through conventional thinking

12.Able to relate the Chaos theory – that says – even a minor change can create major impact in the outcome

13.Making learning* your everyday nature just like breathing

14.Giving your 100%* and knowing when to give-up*

15.Handling your stress* better

So What We Can Do – all the * marked ones are those I have written blogs giving DIY tips in my success unlimited mantra blogs.

1.Challenging our assumptions*

2. Reframing our beliefs and Thinking*

3.Nurturing and Practicing Learning Agility - The ability and willingness to learn from experience and subsequently apply that learning to perform successfully under new and challenging conditions

4.Developing Leadership Across ranks and files

5.Leveraging Polarities Inherent in Complex Challenges - Leaders need to take their thinking to a new level by recognizing seemingly unsolvable challenges not as problems to be solved but as polarities to be leveraged — shifting their mindset, thinking, and decision-making from either/or to both/and

6.Assess the current impact and possible influence in future on

I.Social

II.Technological

III.Economic & Financial

IV.Ecological

V.Political

VI.Market

VII.Customer

VIII.Employees

IX.People

7.Develop Existing Leaders to Be Agile Leaders.

8.Defining organization of the future culture and linking it to desired results

I.Learning agility is all and more of the following

Flexibility – to change, stop-doing, alter-frequency, give up

II.Grasping new ideas fast

III.Experimenting – trying newer ideas till you find the best fit

IV.Taking Risk*

V.Getting Mentor* and Asking others for help, feedback, suggestions

VI.Leveraging the skills of the team by practicing Situational Leadership*

VII.Becoming Great Observer* to be aware of the world, the environment

VIII.Asking meaningful questions*

IX.Introspection* and Reflecting

X.Living the change you want to create by Becoming a change agent

XI.Becoming a culture agile person

XII.Becoming a talent magnet by leading by example*

XIII.Being Yourself - totally authenticity

XIV.Moving from Best Practices to The Bestest-This-Moment-Thinking because the Best practice was yesterday

XV.Getting in touch with the Market and the emerging trends in your field as well as in totally non-related field

XVI.Developing Ability to turn frustrations, crises* and dilemmas into advantages and opportunities*

XVII.Developing Ability to engage with and nurture purposeful business or social change networks through intelligent use of electronic or other media

9.Collaborative co-creating

10.Get There Early – initiating changes before you are forced to

11.Creating Physical and Mental Discipline

12.Creating and practicing sharp focus*

13.Listening* and Empathy*

14.Creating Humble Strength within yourself

15.Practicing Strong ethics and value* based leadership*

16.Be tough-minded yet tender-hearted – practice being sift yet firm

17.Being demanding yet fair

18.Sharpen your Decision-making

19.Be respectable and not likable*

20.Master Communication And 'Soft Skills'

21.Learn to grow From empathy to emotional intelligence*

22.Be poised and thoroughly professional*

23.Going From being ambitious to visionary

24.Create your very own Big-picture vision

25.Practice using System thinking Design thinking, Lateral thinking, creative thinking[all are almost same] in your everyday decision making and action taking and thinking

26.Understand the power of interdependence

27.Be up to date in your Understanding of Technology

28.Leverage technology to ease your task as well as to make life more convenient for all your stake-holders

29.Create the right style to manage a human-robot workplace interface

30.Develop your people as leaders

31.Use Diversity and Inclusion to your best advantage

32.Involve the team or the world in problem solving – don't try to be a martyr

33.Be a real life hero*

34.Develop your Human intelligence quotient by increasing your ability to understand human behavior

35.Know when to persevere * and when to PIVOT

36.Start enjoying Experimenting in face of UNCERTAINTY

37.If made mistake – accept and move on – no excuse, no justification

38.Challenge yourself and all your assumptions

39.Ask experts to clarify their logic and press on till you can understand as layman – their logic. If not convinced take second or third opinion

40.Be ready to dump any process if it creates more effectiveness

41.DRAW OUTLINES IN AN AMBIGUOUS WORLD

42.Be Transparent

43.Be accountable

44.Take responsibility for all your decisions and actions

World Economic Forum listed Top 10 skills needed in 2020—all of which are soft skills and people skills:

1. Complex Problem Solving
2. Critical Thinking
3. Creativity
4. People Management
5. Coordinating with Others
6. Emotional Intelligence
7. Judgment and Decision Making
8. Service Orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive Flexibility