Leaders Digest

Leadership in Chaos: 18th edition. the power of empathy, by design, escalation of commitment. Hi 👋, welcome back to our 18th edition 🙌. “If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run—and often in the short one—the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.” Arthur C. Clark Culture: the power of empathy. What if you were told you that a doctor's empathy, has a bigger effect on chronic back pain than opioids, surgery and exercise. You’d think it should be prescribed it, right? Well, a new study found that “very empathetic” doctors are associated with greater pain relief, better functioning, and higher quality life among chronic back pain sufferers. Why? Because, empathy creates more open communication with patients and doctors, resulting in better treatment plans. And when patients feel like they’re being listened to, they stick to the plans better. Sadly though, empathy declines with medical students, and doctors often deprioritise it due to time constraints. A thought for leaders: We talk a lot about the importance of softer skills. Skills like empathy. But often, just like in medicine, they’re deprioritised. They sound too soft. But empathy is a superpower. Employees are dealing with a dizzying amount of change all of the time, and 41% are experiencing “lots of stress”. Companies with bad management are 60% more likely to have stressed employees. Empathy from leaders, just like above, goes a very long way to improving management. Performance: by design. The 2024 Euro’s finished this month, and one of the bigger talking points was the English team. Bemoaned for their underperformance and their manager (despite a 2nd place finish), what was discussed less was their team culture, which was carefully and intentionally designed around psychological safety, and a sense of belonging. They worked with applied psychologist Dr Pippa Grange to build a system of culture. They considered every touchpoint. From the kit men and the physio’s who spent quality time with the players. To the re-naming of substitutes to finishers, which made sure everyone felt a part of the team. To a buddy system for penalty takers to maintain togetherness. A thought for leaders: The English team is a great story of recognising the relationship between culture and performance. They recognised that 70% of human behaviour is determined by environment. And they proactively built a better one. One with a collective vs an individual identity. One that considered the whole culture, not just parts of it. So despite receiving all the flack, and going through multiple penalty shoot outs, they stayed resilient. And they very nearly won. Change: escalation of commitment. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best. Last week, to everyone’s relief, Joe Biden finally did. Whether a jump, or a push, it highlighted a common human condition as Adam Grant wrote, that in the face of impending failure, extensive evidence shows, instead of rethinking our plans, we often double down on our decisions. It feels better to be a fighter than a quitter. The formal name for this trap is the escalation of commitment to a losing course of action. Like sunk cost fallacy, it blinds us to reality. Egotistical stubbornness is delusional. Great…

Leadership in Chaos: 17th edition. accelerator or brake, high reaching informality, gravity. "The universe is transformation. Life is opinion." Marcus Aurelius George Byrne Change: accelerator or brake. There’s always tension between wanting change and wanting to change. The new boss of Formula 1’s Williams Team found this out last year. He identified that the team had fallen behind the competition in tech and coordination. Despite the cars costing an est $12–$16m each, with a resource cap of about $145m, they were using an Excel sheet to build and manage the entire car (all 20,000 parts). Some of the most advanced machines on earth were being managed on Excel. Why? Because transitioning to a modern tracking system was "viciously expensive” and complicated. So they continued on Excel. Which required "humans pushing themselves to the absolute limits and breaking." A thought for leaders: Formula 1 is all about speed. Slowing down feels like a bad idea. Change can feel slow, like slamming on the brakes. Leadership, though, is about winning the season, not just the race. Efficiency, not just results. Great leaders know that change (eventually) is transformational acceleration. The job of a leader is not only identifying visionary change but positioning it as an accelerator and not a brake. George Byrne Communication: high-reaching informality. We’ve all seen the David Brent, informal, approval-seeking leadership. And we’ve all seen high control, low empathy, low fun, leadership too. It’s not easy getting the balance right. But as Neil Perkin wrote, the best leaders typically have one common characteristic, which might be described as "high reaching - informality”. They get the best from their people, by getting them to reach further and think bigger, in a way that has both self and situational awareness, without being too formal. They’re taken seriously but don’t always need to be serious. It builds trust, respect, and comfort with dissent, which maintains a productive informality. A thought for leaders: Getting informality right, is partly about the right balance of autonomy. Knowing when to step in and when to step out. As Warren Buffet said, “tell people what you need, not what to do”. But also about openness, spontaneity, and a sense of collaborating as equals. Which all requires trust. But as the saying goes, “he who does not trust, will not be trusted”. So it starts with you. Hire well, show them the vision, and get out of their way. George Byrne Culture: gravity. Earlier this year, Boeing had multiple issues with their planes. Remember? Doors were falling off etc. Historically, Boeing had an engineering, product-centric culture, but things have changed. Boeing is a good example of what happens when a culture goes wrong. They turned from an engineering culture relentlessly focused on product, to one more focused on profit. They forgot what made them great. Similarly, an ex-Amazon employee wrote about Alexa, and how, despite 500m devices, €20-€40 billion in investment and 10,000 employees, they missed their opportunity with AI. Bureaucracy, a slow-moving culture and corporate sludge were blamed. A thought for leaders: It’s easy to think of culture as a soft, nebulous, almost imperceptible thing. It’s easy to de-prioritise it. To focus on immediate problems and…

Leadership in Chaos: 16th edition. exploit vs explore, meetings, vampire problems. "Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute." George Bernard Shaw Nikola Gocic Team: exploit vs explore. Most jobs are new jobs. 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940, and the World Economic Forum estimates that 65% of children entering school will work in jobs that don’t exist today. We’re always preparing for an uncertain future that doesn’t yet exist. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report last year predicted that 44% of workers’ core skills will be disrupted, and 60% will require training before 2027, with analytical and creative thinking and AI and big data most in-demand. AI is supercharging this change. The challenge is keeping up and balancing the exploitation of existing skills and resources with the exploration of new ones. A thought for leaders: Are you prepared for the agile era? Are you balancing exploitation with the right amount of exploration? Are you embracing new roles, new titles and new jobs? As organisational psychologist Adam Grant wrote “In a stable world, success depended on building expertise. In a changing world, it hinges on evolving expertise. Potential is no longer defined by ability. It's a function of agility”. Nikola Gocic Communication: meetings. Meetings, meetings, everywhere, and not a drop to think. According to research in Bruce Daisley's recent Presence Deck, hybrid workers spend, on average, 50% of their time in meetings. According to Microsoft meeting time has doubled since 2019. Separately, research from Microsoft and LinkedIn found that nearly 50% of people are thinking of leaving their jobs this year. While HBR found that 50% of managers feel burned out. You don’t need to be a scientist to join the dots. More meetings means less attention. Less attention means less meaningful meetings. Which means more meetings. Which creates frustration and an untenable burnout loop. A thought for leaders: Are you addressing the meetings crisis? Are you designing a culture where meetings are consistently effective? Amazon’s famous crisp memo, messy meeting approach is one approach. They believe in intention, preparation and, within a meeting, exploration. A fact based memo, prepared in advance, read at the start of the meeting, is preferred to powerpoint. Effective meetings, designed with intention, are great. Does your culture have them? Nikola Gocic Change: vampire problems. Imagine you can become a vampire. You’d have incredible vampire powers. But there’s a catch. It’s an irreversible decision. You'll give up being human. Plus, you won’t know what it’s like to be a vampire until you become one. Asking vampires is just their experience, not yours. Their preferences are now vampire. So there’s no way to compare your life now to that of a vampire. It's a leap into the unknown. That can't be undone. This is the vampire problem, a philosophical concept that reflects lots of life’s major decisions. With no clear-cut solutions, they require courage, introspection, and a willingness to embrace the unknown. A thought for leaders: Marcus Aurelius said, “Everything is borne from change”. These big decisions that challenge us to leap into the unknown define us. They…

Leadership in Chaos: 15th edition. octopuses, consensus trap, little things. “I’ve always thought of myself as an 80 percenter. I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession that doesn’t appeal to me. Once I reach 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different.” Yvon Chouinard — rock climber, “existential dirtbag,” and founder of Patagonia Todd Hido Resilience: octopuses. In business, words can become tired and lose all meaning (semantic satiation). They become corporate speak. Nothing more than a signal. Box ticking. Resilience is in danger of becoming one of them. Which is why this post on resilience and Octopuses resonated. Resilience and people, are a bit like Octopuses. Which are intelligent, can use tools, remember faces, and when facing danger, can chop a limb off as a decoy. Then grow it back. Which is quite cool. But, as the writer points out, when they do lose a limb, they also lose a little bit of their central nervous system. And growing it back, takes lots of energy. So they’re reduced by the need to do so. As she says, "Resilience is the ability to regrow, or to survive in a holding pattern, but it's exhausting". A thought for leaders: The writer says, "I think we should honour resilience but also recognise that it takes something from a person who has to keep bouncing back". That’s the key. Resilience is great, but not something to exploit. If there are Octopuses losing limbs, instead of celebrating them, we need to focus on finding out why they’re losing them, and creating (and maintaining) the conditions to avoid it happening. Todd Hido Culture: consensus trap. Imagine you’re with a group of friends, trying to decide where to eat. You badly want pasta. So, you can take two approaches. Plant the seed with the group, and build low level support with everyone, or work to build a couple of die-hards (pasta or bust). People overwhelmingly choose consensus as this Kellogg Institute study shows. Statistically, though, both can be right. We tend to favour strategies that win broad-but-weak support, over narrow-but-strong support, which can lead us astray. The danger is you end up with either; a) a group of waverers, b) a consensus culture which breeds groupthink (as Churchill said “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.”), or c) an organisation mired in slow decision making and procrastination. A thought for leaders: Two thoughts actually. Firstly, despite the great benefits of consensus, it’s slow. Jeff Bezos attributed much of Amazon’s success to its “high-velocity decision-making.” Leaders must recognise the need for balance. Some big decisions should take time, and need consensus. Others should have “higher velocity”. Secondly, the problem with pleasing everyone, is you please no one. There can be great strength in deep support. In fans. Don’t forget to create them. Todd Hido Change: little things. If you grew up in the 90s and watched tennis, you’ll probably remember the fierce rivalry of Andre Agassi and Boris Becker.…

Leadership in Chaos: 14th edition. fractional, micro-cultures, slow learners. “Love does not consist of gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Michelle Maguire and Kelsey McClellan Change: fractional. One of the dominant themes from this years Talent Summit, was flexibility. Most agreed it was good for business and talent, with some suspicion. In lots of ways flexibility will be the defining feature of a new type of emerging worker. We’ve had the full-time employee, the full-time or part-time contracted employee from another firm and the freelancer. Now, with the forces of technology, shifting demographics and new mindsets, a new fourth type of worker is emerging: the fractionalized employee. They have the continuity and loyalty of a long-term employee with the cost flexibility of a part-time employee. Not only will it benefit companies looking to manage new talent mixes or costs, it may also attract a lot of talent who want to work in a company 50 to 75% of their time. A thought for leaders: AI is driving change and a rapid need to adapt. So, we need to think differently. Fractionalized Employment starts to open up mutually beneficial possibilities. It allows talent to think about exciting “what if” scenarios. And it allows businesses to frame transformational change, in a really positive light. Instead of doomerism, it gives everyone the potential for positive growth, instead of negative decline. Plus, it gives employees a sense of agency over their own futures. Michelle Maguire and Kelsey McClellan Culture: micro-cultures. In our Talent Summit wrap up, we mentioned how organisations are communities of communities, and how important it is, to connect and listen to these groups. This Deloitte report on orchestrating micro-cultures underlined the importance of “thinking small” when it comes to culture. Almost a third of new employees leave their jobs within the first 90 days, with unmet expectations from recruitment and culture being top factors. Often it’s a disconnect between the overall organisation culture, and the individual team culture. When the culture differs from their expectations, the impact can be huge. Big generic monolith cultures can also hide the appeal of individual teams, that might operate in a slightly different way. Plus in a world of volatility, a one size fits all culture may be more vulnerable. A thought for leaders: Worker preferences, technology, and new ways of working are driving the growing importance of micro-cultures. Though senior leaders may rate them as less valuable, directors and those closer to the work itself recognize their importance. Bruce Daisley writes on inside the culture clashes about the disconnect between Google’s claimed mono-culture (innovative, exciting etc), with feedback from individual teams who describe slow moving bureaucracy at the coalface. Maybe thinking small about culture, enables bigger culturally transformation? Michelle Maguire and Kelsey McClellan Team: slow learners. Training, support and resources were big themes at this years Talent Summit. There’s a lot going on: from AI, DEI, to multigenerational awareness. Knowledge and awareness are important, but we shouldn’t forget that speed of learning isn’t always the right focus. Ian Leslie recently wrote in praise of slow learners. He…

Leadership in Chaos: 13th edition. speed of trust, workplace not worker, stop trying to impress. “The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say….What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing...the thing that might be worth saying.” Gilles Deleuze  Hannah Starkey Team: speed of trust. Warren Buffett famously said, “trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.” In this snippet, negotiation expert William Ury tells the story of Buffett negotiating with a partner over the purchase of the ABC TV network. Buffett offered $500 million and the partner called to ask, the terms of the deal. Buffett said “you’ve probably thought about more than I have, what do you think the terms should be?”. The partner outlined the terms, which Buffett quickly agreed. They trusted that they’d both done the work. And they operated at the speed of trust. Despite the high stakes. Just like this amazing video of conductor Riccardo Chailly, live on stage, trusting pianist Maria Joao Pires when she realised she learned the wrong piece. Trust is a bridge, a path forward, and a superpower. A thought for leaders: If trust is a superpower, how can you, as a leader, engender more of it from (and with) your people? A study on trust by a military psychologist found 3 factors central to maintaining trust. The “3 C’s” of trust he found are: competence, character, and caring. Importantly, the research also found that all 3 were were essential to maintaining trust. And leaders who exemplified all 3 were more effective. Are you, and your people, leveraging all 3 C’s?  Hannah Starkey Culture: workplace not worker. In 2019, Ronald Purser wrote the book McMindfullness. It was a scathing attack on the widespread adoption of mindfulness by corporations, as shallow and mostly self serving. The term has since come to describe the general trend of poor wellbeing initiatives. A new study by the University of Oxford, which researched 40,000 people, has now found no evidence that individual wellbeing initiatives had any impact on employees well being. Individual level health interventions, like mindfulness, resilience, stress management, yoga classes etc, have no impact. Organisational changes however, things like flexibility, clarity around roles, more job security, better resourcing, do. A thought for leaders: Holistic workplace wellbeing is a key criteria for talent (even more so for Gen Z). But table tennis, yoga and free donuts, don’t cut it anymore. As was summarised by the researcher Dr William Flemming “there is growing consensus that organisations have to change the workplace, not the worker”. Pulling drowning people out of the water isn’t enough, you have to go upstream and find out why they're falling in. So, are you starting with the organisation, or the individual? Hannah Starkey Communication: stop trying to impress. Good communication as the saying goes, is the language of leaders. It’s a critical part of good presenting too, obviously. Smarts…

Leadership in Chaos: 12th edition. bad habits, storytelling, the / era. "Remembering that you're going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." Steve Jobs Rala Choi Leadership: bad habits. A new year brings new motivations. A great time to reflect about your intentions as a leader in 2024. You’ll want to do more of the unquestionable fundamentals like: a clear vision; a well-defined and aligned strategy; an inclusive, intellectually stimulating, and creative work environment; and a commitment to developing employees to their full potential. And you’ll want to avoid bad habits. So here’s three “Bad Boss” Habits to Avoid in 2024. Mindset traps that undermine effectiveness and erode trust within teams. The self-protector: driven by a need for self-preservation. Emotionally detached. The controller: tries to control results and drives people hard. Self-oriented, narcissistic. The complier: spends time managing “up”. Fears making hard decisions. A thought for leaders: We start the year with the best intentions, but bad habits can creep in and take control. Great leaders ensure they continually align their actions with their intentions to avoid falling into bad habits. Are you making sure that you: Lead, don’t manage - don’t mistake productivity for leadership. Seek feedback, don’t avoid it - create and support a feedback culture. Dedicate time for introspection and self-evaluation - don’t sleepwalk through it all. Re-engage your curiosity - continue to learn, develop and grow. Rala Choi Communication: storytelling. Most leaders right now, are facing change. It’s everywhere. But it’s often said, depending on the measurement used, up to 70% of organizational change efforts fail. And one of the big reasons for failure, is communication. That's why storytelling that drives bold change, matters. Research has shown that humans think in metaphors and stories, so creating a compelling story can transform your organization, by shaping attitudes and beliefs. To do that, here are four key steps you can take: understand your story so well that you can describe it in simple terms; honor the past; articulate a mandate for change; and lay out a rigorous and optimistic path forward. Simple. But not easy. A thought for leaders: if we’re navigating a sea of change, and leaders are at the helm, then increasing your chances of success is important. The right story will help you succeed. And as a leader, it begins with the story you tell yourself. This sets the tone and the stage for everyone else. Your emotions are contagious, and they’re connected to your story. So get it right. Your story, will become their reality. Rala Choi Change: the / era. People have a different relationship with work today. Young people in particular. And it will continue to evolve. For example, many don’t like to be defined as just one thing and have multiple talents (e.g. writer / DJ / lawyer) in what can be described as the forward-slash era. Jodie Foster recently called Gen Z's "annoying" in the workplace. It was a sweeping generalism, and her comments reflect broader criticism of Gen Z, who’ve been called entitled and lazy workers. Here a Gen Z…

Leadership in Chaos: 11th edition. reframe reviews, the value of values, meaning-full days. “The leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask”. Peter Drucker Justin Bettman Performance: reframe reviews.  Maintaining a culture of high performance isn’t easy. And despite the challenges, reviews are obviously a critical part of that. Harvard professor and co-author of Thanks for the Feedback and Difficult Conversations, Shiela Heen discussed how to master the difficult art of receiving and giving feedback on the Tim Ferriss podcast. She outlines that reviews aren't just about performance. More importantly, they’re about listening and making people feel seen. Listening to understand “how to get the best out of me.” She says, “It’s not just that we have difficult conversations in our most important relationships; those conversations ARE our relationships”. A great way to reframe reviews. A thought for leaders: Like any good relationship, feedback always has a past and a future. When we see feedback and reviews as future opportunities, the process and experience of giving and receiving them shifts. And that, according to Shiela, is about focussing on three kinds of feedback to learn and grow: Appreciation (encourage me to keep going). Coaching (help me be better - learn, change, improve). Evaluation (tell me what’s good and bad, rank it). Justin Bettman Culture: the value of values.  Company values are important to a business. We like to believe they give the company a unique culture. But do employees live or uphold them? A recent study by MIT actually revealed no correlation between the cultural values published by companies and how those values are viewed by their employees. A good example is Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater. His book Principles rose to fame, promoting a positive culture of radical transparency. People scored each other after every meeting, and the scores were updated on a company league table. Turns out the company was "a kaleidoscope of contradictions and a barely veiled weapon for abuse” that “created a climate of fear”. Zero correlation between values and behaviour. A thought for leaders: If values matter, then be clear about them. People can’t deliver against values (or culture) if they don’t know or understand them. Here’s four simple steps you can take to avoid values being hollow or, worse, contradictory to behaviour. Communicate what the values are (it’s likely most don’t even know). Provide specific behavioural guidelines (e.g. integrity means this, not that). Avoid generic values or make them distinct (make them unique, human and local). Explain why they matter (why they help us succeed e.g. by doing this, we ___ ). Justin Bettman Leadership: meaning-full days.  The 5 day office week might be dead. But how many days are enough to keep people engaged? Gallup’s workplace research found that remote-ready employees in collaborative jobs, who work on-site 2-3 days a week, are more engaged and have higher wellbeing. But (and it’s a big but) they also found that 80% of employees who said they received meaningful feedback in the past week were fully engaged in their jobs. Regardless of how many days they worked in the office. Meaningful feedback gives a x4…

Leadership in Chaos: 10th edition. the big ange effect, all boats, leadership levels. “Triangulate your view with believable people, who are willing to disagree”. Ray Dalio. Ellie Davis Communication: the big ange effect. The English premier league club Tottenham Hotspur, are doing quite well this year. In contrast to the last few. They put it down to the appointment of a new manager, Ange Postecoglou. Many (including Paddy Power) are calling it the Big Ange Effect. What’s interesting is how the manager has made language his most effective weapon. He’s a great communicator. One of his pre-match talks with the Australian team has been well shared. He admits “I like to tell stories, to say why we’re doing things. I love the detail behind it”. What makes his communication special is his authenticity. As one expert comments “What makes him a great communicator is that he knows who he’s talking to, so he’s always speaking with half of his mind thinking about who’s the audience”. A thought for leaders: There’s lots to take from this. Firstly, investing time in communication can have transformational impact on results. Secondly, understanding your audience, and setting the right tone, is key to creating that impact. And thirdly, humility, and vulnerability, is a big part of setting the right tone and establishing credibility as a leader. Ellie Davis Culture: all boats. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant recently wrote about what American schools get wrong. He references a global study on standardised testing, which has run since 2000. The big winners weren’t the obvious counties, but Finland and Estonia. Separate studies analysed why. They found that teachers were looped with students. They taught a class for more than one year. And in Finland and Estonia they go a step further, where frequently teachers take a class for up to 6 years. The teachers role often evolves from instructor, to coach and mentor. They grow together. Deeper relationships unlock hidden potential. And importantly, no student gets left behind. A thought for leaders: It’s easy to pick out the superstars. The “gifted and talented”. Great education systems though, create a culture of opportunity. They unlock the hidden potential in people, so all boats rise together. The system of excellence is shared, not dependent on the few. Successful organisations need different types of voices, ideas, perspectives. Remember diversity isn’t just colour, race or gender. Are you investing in everyone, or are you dependent on the few? Ellie Davis Leadership: leadership levels. Leadership and management are different. Obviously. Not better, but different. Management is about coping with complexity. Avoiding chaos. Bringing order and consistency. Leadership, is about preparing for change. And in a chaotic, competitive and volatile world, good leadership is critical. Management focusses on planning & budgeting, organising & staffing, controlling & problem solving. Leadership is about setting a direction and aligning, motivating and inspiring people. Both are essential. Without good management, lies chaos. Without good leadership, a company lacks vision, alignment and purpose. But most companies are over-managed and under-led. A thought for leaders: Leadership is critical. Great companies, ensure great leaders exist at every level. They spot, nurture and develop great leaders.…

Leadership in Chaos: 9th edition. the paradox of control, transformers, rugged flexibility. “Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower”. Alan Kay, Computer Scientist. Jyo John Mulloor Change: the paradox of control. Pandora’s Box is wide open. AI is spilling out. Everywhere. The question isn’t if, but how, to lean in. For leaders, this creates change and control anxiety. But that’s the paradox of control, sometimes you have to let go, to get it. When the U.S. Air Force made planes that could break the sound barrier, pilots kept dying. They couldn’t manoeuvre out of a tumble from thinner air in the upper atmosphere. Anything they did to control it, made it worse. One pilot though, passed out and woke up 25,000 feet lower, in denser air, where he was able to right the plane and land safely. It turned out that in the upper levels of our atmosphere, the most effective thing to do with an out-of-control plane, is to take your hands off the controls. A thought for leaders: Our brains have evolved to try to control our environment. To keep us safe. And because it’s been effective, we try to do it often. But often in the wrong places. Where it doesn’t work. Attempting to control the uncontrollable, is “misapplied control”, which isn’t good. In this era, leaders need to think less like a controlled hill climber, and more like an agile surfer. Reacting quickly to complex, chaotic and uncertain events. In real time. Without drowning. Jyo John Mulloor Culture: transformers. We’ve reached the end of the beginning of AI. Momentum, like it or not, is now exponential. This interactive FT article explains generative AI, and how a bit of tech called “the transformer” (created by Google’s Deep Mind in 2017), made a giant leap forward for AI. It enabled today’s reality, where we’re moving now from Generative, to a new era of Interactive AI. Chat GPT can now see, hear and speak, and AI will soon be able to access your apps, tools, and systems, to carry out tasks and get stuff done. Plus, with smart robotics fast improving, there’s a clear direction of travel. The future calls, and it’s co-piloted by AI. A thought for leaders: So, there’s no turning back. What comes next, will transform work. Productivity, roles, job specs, will all be reimagined. And just as digital first companies gained an advantage, AI native companies will too. But this leap forward will only be possible, with a culture willing to leap. A curious culture. Willing to learn. Willing to transform. Do you have a culture full of transformers? Jyo John Mulloor Resilience: rugged flexibility. In the 1980s, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania observed that in the vast majority of situations, healthy individuals and organisations don’t rigidly resist change; they adapt to it. But instead of returning to the status quo, they create a new normal. Whether it’s a species responding to a habitat shift, or an organisation dealing with AI,…

Leadership in Chaos: 8th edition. both sides now, candour in chaos, feel the stones. “To lead people, walk behind them.” Lao Tzu Margeaux Walter Change: both sides now. We live with the constant tension of today, vs tomorrow. Of what we are, vs what we might become. Of our roots, and our wings. This is life, and business. Great leaders accept this duality. Unsuccessful leaders don’t. They defeat themselves by not anticipating tomorrow. By failing to see alternative perspectives. And by living in a bubble. Great leaders avoid this, as Rishad Tobaccowala says, by insisting on seeing both sides now. They continually look at opposing strategies and recommendations that challenge the status quo. And they avoid the dangers of lazy group think and maintain an outsiders perspective, by ensuring that alternative perspectives are supported, and celebrated. A thought for leaders: Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” This is the job of a leader. This means that you can have a team focussed on optimising today, while another imagines a new tomorrow. Margeaux Walter Communication: candour in chaos. In chaotic times, building confidence as a leader is key. Pfizer’s executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer Sally Susman talks about building confidence by being transparent and authentic in communication. And having the courage of candour. This creates an authenticity that strengthens relationships. The public can tell when a company and it's leadership aren't being transparent. Disingenuous corporate speak doesn’t help. Same goes for employees and teams, who are often on the receiving end of bad news. Dumbing down complex issues, can make them feel frustrated or even angry. Whereas open, honest communication can help leaders speak more confidently in chaos. A thought for leaders: We often spend time thinking about and take time working on, communication. But do we spend enough time considering how it will make people feel? How it will support or undermine the culture of an organisation? And importantly, how it will affect the pervading and overwhelming feeling of chaos that people feel right now? Remember, leaders are the shore and the safety in this chaos. Margeaux Walter Resilience: feel the stones. In a world of change one thing we’re losing, as economist and tech historian W. Brian Arthur discusses in this McKinsey interview, is our trust in the certainty of events. Disruption from everywhere, including Generative AI, means the future is fundamentally uncertainty. When you don’t know what happens next, you rule out the rational decision making taught in business school. When we don’t trust the ground we stand on, what really counts is adaptation or resilience. He suggests we can learn a lot about these from surfers (agility), tech companies (iteration) and biology (diversity). A thought for leaders: Adaptation requires the right mindset to deal with uncertainty. One willing to let go of dearly held, constricting beliefs. And in the extreme, a mindset of survival. Survival stories often share an…

Leadership in Chaos: 7th edition. choices, the middle, self-beliefs. “I can’t understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ideas.” John Cage Émilie Mario Change: choices. Evolve or die. That’s the opener for PwC's recently released 26th Annual Global CEO Survey. They heard from 4,410 CEOs from 105 countries. The data, not unsurprisingly, reflects the chaos leaders face today. For starters, 40% of global CEOs think their organisation will no longer be economically viable in 10 years’ time, if it continues on its current course. Meanwhile they also face the chaos of today's global economy, which nearly 75% believe will see declining growth during the year ahead. Leaders are dealing with 5 broad chaotic forces: climate change, technological disruption, demographic shifts, a fracturing world and social instability. Chaotic change and uncertainty is the new normal. A thought for leaders: To thrive in a chaotic world of change, we have to embrace it. That means making tough choices. Choices driven by vision, imagination and passion, that will reinvent and reimagine. Change is choice (more on choices in our manifesto below). You can’t go left and right at the same time. You have to decide. Do you want to change? And, are you willing to do what is necessary to make it happen? Émilie Mario Performance: the middle. Middle management matters. A lot. A recent McKinsey study found that organisations with high performing middle management, deliver up to 21x total shareholder return over a 5 year period. So, creating the right atmosphere for them to be “force multipliers” in an organisation is critical because it pays off financially. According to McKinsey, these 5 practices will help: Setting them up to succeed (right structure & right span). Ensuring they focus on the right things (less bureaucracy & admin). Up-skilling them and building their capability (to grow). Supporting them and avoiding burnout (give them meaning and purpose). Measuring and managing success (focus, feedback and incentives). A thought for leaders: We hear a lot about leadership teams (right talent at the top etc) and too little about the middle. The engine of organisations. Leaders should be dedicated to ensuring their collective success. Organisations with good manager cohesion, who perform in similar ways, have x2 the organisational health of those that don’t. It’s not just for a month or with one or two managers. The key is system-wide consistency. Their success means a healthier, wealthier workplace. #Winning. Émilie Mario Resilience: self-beliefs. We all question ourselves, and struggle to silence the critics in our heads. The ones that tell us we don’t know anything, we’re not enough. It’s damaging, but it’s difficult to ignore. Beliefs can be self limiting and self sabotaging. But there are things we can do. One is called Functional Imagery Training (FIT), which includes; focussing on your values, engaging your senses to imagine better futures, thinking of best case scenarios and developing a cue (e.g. "stay in the light, get it done"). Another, as acclaimed performance coach and doctor of psychology Dr Julie Gurner discusses here, is breaking the imaginary rules we learned as children. Rules about what we’re capable of and what we deserve, that hold us back today. A thought for leaders: Remember as Dr Gurner says, confidence…