The year 2020 has seen tremendous changes and disruption of every aspect of our life. Our day to day activities like children's education, health, working from home, even simple tasks like shopping, dining out have been upturned. New trends like virtual work, online education, remote health, e-commerce have grown exponentially. Changes that normally take years to get implemented have got established in a matter of weeks and many times days. Leaders have struggled to manage these simultaneous changes in the economy, health fields to name a few.
However, this is as not sudden as it may seem. Advancements in IT, automation, AI, network effects have created a sphere where change is rapid and ubiquitous. The changes have been marked by three dimensions
- Perpetual occurring all the time
- Pervasive atone affecting multiple areas of life
- Exponential accelerating at a rapid pace
The current leadership models were not designed for such three-dimensional change. We normally think linearly and locally and exponentially and systemically. This can never catch up with perpetual and exponential change, it is too fast and complex.
So a new form of leadership is required which can negotiate the rapid changes. Stanford University with a galaxy of leaders held discussions/ conversations and cam up with the concept of Sapient leadership.
Sapient leadership is characterised by being wise, intelligent in managing change at the same time be humane in the face of changes. This is a type of anti-heroic leader. They inspire trust and safety that triggers learning leading to better collective performance.
Limits of linear thinking
In a stable, predictable environment, linear thinking can be useful. Leaders focus on quality, skills and ability as a leader. But in a three-dimensional change, the leader has to manage multiple domains simultaneously. In this situation, linear thinking is of little help as it cannot manage the rapidly changing business environment.
Change by its inherent nature makes people and organisation confused, uncertain, vulnerable. In uncertain times, resilience, cohesion, collaboration are essential to get the work completed.
How to practice sapient leadership
The four pillars of sapient leadership that form the bedrock this new leadership style defined as
- Leader humility, authenticity
- Trust and psychological safety
- Continuous learning
- Shared purpose and values
Leader humility and authenticity
There is a need to build trust through openness and achieve collectively, collaboratively, with compassion and care. leaders must be willing to exhibit flexibility and humility and change according to the requirements. Leaders have to live it, authentic and be habitual.
Trust and psychological safety
The sudden, continuous change amplifies our tendencies to skew towards threat perception, anxiety, and divisiveness. Psychological safety is even more important under these circumstances and they help teams thrive. When teams feel safe to be vulnerable in front of each other and take risks they perform at their best.
Continuous learning
Ia a world where change is continuous, exponential teams, organisations must continuously learn, update, deploy new tools, adopt best ideas and practices. The leader must demonstrate different ways of continuous learning so others would replicate in their way and share throughout the organisation to improve processes and innovate new ones.
No single person can master all the information across domains or master enough skills to keep pace. Learning must be motivated by leadership, inspired by the culture and shared openly to create a broader picture.
Shared purpose and values
The purpose is the intention to accomplish something that is both meaningful and serves the world. It unites our inner world with our actions in a unique way in service o a vision. It increases organisational focus, team cohesion and amplifies resilience. They can mobilize a large number of people to solve complex problems together.
The future of leadership
Navigating perpetual, exponential change is the test of leadership in this era. Leaders who do not successfully manage change will fail. mastering this requires enhancing our capabilities.
This continuous change increases the pressure on the leaders to evolve faster, adapt or become irrelevant. Sapient leadership enables a framework for accelerate adaptation, builds into its structure the need for leaders to evolve continuously o overcome these challenges. In the process, sapient leadership can change with change itself.
What It Takes to Lead Through an Era of Exponential Change
by Aneel Chima and Ron Gutman HBR 2020/10
Comments
Post a Comment