It is said tough times teach us to think differently as a crucial survival technique. Market dynamism has changed with refocusing on individual consumer approaches with enhanced digital reach. It means as people went home-bound, companies innovated newer approaches to reach and meet their expectations at home.
Leaders are behind the make or break of any company. A unique innovative idea may prove to be a lifeline for a recessing company that takes it to a new height. Adaptive leadership requires a few more elements in their character besides the basic qualities. These are essential to absorb market essence and design innovations for success. Companies, their approach, people, and products made all the difference when an intense leader gets involved.
Let me share those typical abilities that a future leader must adopt to bring all that difference in the market for them and their companies.
1. Technological Intelligence:
Millennials find technology as a way of life. Technology can be termed as the veins of the economy. With the shift from analytical reasoning to artificial intelligence, cloud computing to UX development, the leader needs to know how best to exploit these technologies and leverage them to create the best opportunities for business success.
This is an adoptive ability sometimes viewed as challenging for no so young population. This skill is a must for disruptive leaders who aspire to have dramatic changes in their organizations to achieve big.
2. Cohesive Collaboration:
Future leaders must charge up the team with their passion, vision, and purpose. Fuelling the team morale is extremely important when the leader drives the engine for success. The last thing a leader wants is for their team to lose momentum or fall apart from the target.
Tomorrow’s leaders must inculcate the ability to keep people together with the thread of a common mission & emit a feeling that they are very much part of the solution. In a transiting economic scenario, future leaders must acquire collaborative skills across disciplines to shape the dynamic circumstances impacting their organizations.
3. Adoptive thinking:
The disruptions caused by the Pandemic were never anticipated. Certain industries are impacted severely and still struggling to survive. In such a situation intuitive thinking that leads way for innovation and creative ideas are proved to be an essential ability for all future leaders with a forwarding vision.
Adoptive thinking does not start instantaneously, it is mastered with habits like reading, writing, discussing, storyboarding, etc. Regular practice of ideating & translating those ideas into action plans can turn a thought into a serious business.
4. Cognitive flexibility:
Cognitive flexibility is your ability to switch your focus and flow of thought from one idea to another. Change is a part of the game. Research may help us assess the probability of success in our plan, but multiple influencing factors may derail what we might have thought initially. The cognitive ability helps quick absorption of knowledge that helps us to keep our minds open for exploration of ideas for streaming success.
Leadership decisions are data-informed decisions. Dealing with multi-functions & varied priorities of the team at a time may seem like a colossal task, but these can be mastered with new learnings, following routine, and maintaining 80:20 principal.
5. Trend Assessing:
It is said one should follow the trend. Tomorrow’s leaders are expected to be aware of the market trends, be it shifts in consumer behavior, the introduction of new technology, or the adoption of new processes. Unless one keeps a tab on the shifts happening in the market, being successful in business becomes tough. A leader must assess the implications of embracing a trend considering organizational bandwidth & readiness. Leaders fail when they try going against the trend. If online shopping is a rising trend and a retail business ignores the same, it may fail to garner sales.
These five competencies help thrive future leadership in an ever-shifting business environment. One can drive sustainable growth & offering diversity when unique ideas flourish in the competitive marketplace. Do an evaluation of your competencies based on these traits, if you are serious enough to be on the journey of future leadership.
Comments