Modern Leadership.
Image by Almosthumankreative using Midjourney.
We have entered an age of de-bossification.
In many industries, particularly “White-collar” ones, the era of “bosses” is in decline.
Less of a clamoring for bosses, managers, controllers, monitors, evaluators, and paper pushers.
This shift has been driven by changing demographics, the spread of technology, the rise of unbundled and distributed work, new behavior expectations, and a re-definition of what “work” is including the rise of fractionalized and free-agent talent who work for themselves or at multiple jobs and are expected to comprise most of the workforce in the US by the end of the decade.
There is a rise in the need for leaders, guides, coaches, mentors, role-models, creators, and builders.
Leaders matter like never before but what are the characteristics of such leaders and how do we build such skills?
A long time colleague Drew Ianni and myself were very fortunate in having one hundred leaders convene in New York over one and a half days to listen to each other and begin to work together on how to best to identify, craft, discuss and enhance modern leadership skills at the inaugural salon of The Athena Project.
Ten Insights to Modern Leadership.
Every one of us can be a leader since it is a way of being and behaving while a boss is a title and requires having people reporting to them.
Many bosses are great leaders but leaders do not need to be bosses.
Leaders focus on zones of influence versus fixating on zones of control.
Leaders build wide spectrum skills versus just being full-stack. They have wide and broad horizons.
In a world of change and connections the best leaders recognize that mastery of craft alone will not be enough to navigate the complexity of leadership.
Leaders have courage. If one goes with the flow or just follows the number there is really no need for the individual.
Trust is and always will be the key currency for leaders. Today only 10 percent of CEO’s trust their CMO’s.
The best leaders are always learning and growing but never grow up. They feed not just their mental operating systems but also their physical and emotional operating systems.
Leaders recognize that companies do not transform but people do and they need to transform themselves. But transformation is a process of transition and the best leaders are managing many transitions both of their firms, the people around them and themselves.
Today's leaders think of growth in many more ways than just growing their business or focusing only on their firms. Optionality is freedom. They want to grow their own influence whether it be writing, speaking, other boards and planing for a non company career. They wish to grow their own intelligence in many areas not just focussed on things like AI but also Private Equity, Cultural Trends to be impactful in a multitude of ways. Almost everyone is thinking about how to manage a portfolio career in a world that is in transition.
Transforming from boss/manager to leader/coach is possible for those wishing to try.
As times change the best managers adapt and learn and flex into new shapes and learn new skills.
This transformation requires three conditions:
First it requires today’s bosses to accept that to grow and remain relevant they will have to change and while it may be difficult it is better than becoming irrelevant.
It also requires their leaders to ensure that new incentive systems that are more about zones of influence, growth of craft and people versus zone of control of budgets and team size are put into place.
There is an urgent need for coaching and training and patience to help today’s managers become tomorrow’s leaders.
A personal hunger supported by new incentives and buttressed with training including the opportunity to self-learn is the formula.
Talent is short and many leaders are aware of this and planning accordingly.
They know that new brooms sweep clean but old brooms know the corners.