The Leadership Dipstick: Are you future-ready?

 

In the Mercedes-Benz Museum in the German city of Stuttgart stands a model of the world’s first automobile. This is an excerpt from the Museum’s narrative on the car: “The major features of the two-seater vehicle, which was completed in 1885, were the compact high-speed single-cylinder four-stroke engine installed horizontally at the rear, the tubular steel frame, the differential and three wire-spoked wheels. The engine output was 0.75 hp (0.55 kW)”. For comparison and to get an idea of how far mankind has come with the automobile, the 2017 Mercedes-Benz C300 carries a 241 hp engine. The Benz Patent Motorwagen which was once a technological wonder is now just a museum piece!

 

Leaders require a frame of mind that thinks and acts in the future. This future-ready mentality is not merely about having a vision, but expressing the future through the conduct of the present. It implies being a Motorwagen and wearing the body and mind of the C300. Leaders will display certain attributes to meet the leadership dipstick test of being future-ready.

 

Thinking about the future

Leaders should habitually think about the future if they are to pass the test of being future-ready. This future should be as long-term as possible and may or may not include the leader who is thinking about it. When future thinking becomes a personal habit, it can be translated to an organizational one. Indeed, only leaders that fuel the future from today that will see a desirable tomorrow unfold. Making future thinking a habit restrains leaders from getting stuck in the past.

Leadership authors, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, express it this way: “The focus of a leader’s attention should be less on the routine operations and much more on the untested and untried. Leaders should always be asking ‘What’s new?’ ‘What’s next?’ ‘What’s better? ”That’s where the future is.”Asking about newness invokes renewal. Asking about the next steps triggers further action especially after a great achievement. Improvement stems from looking for what’s better. The option for leaders if they don’t think about the future is to be regarded as museum pieces.

 

Recognising blind spots

All human beings have blind spots. I have them. You have them. Two days before I started writing this article, I tweeted, “It’s easier to identify someone else’s flaws than it is to identify yours. You see what others don’t see but others see what you don’t see”. We all have unproductive behaviours and thoughts that we are oblivious to but are obvious to others. Unfortunately, blind spots can shape our decision making, diminish our critical awareness, generate thinking silos and even alienate us from people. Blind spots can adversely affect a leader’s capacity to be future-ready.

 

Recognising blind spots and weaknesses enables a leader gain support in moments when clarity falls short. Blind spots might also include knowledge which leaders are either slow to acquire or consider irrelevant. Leaders should note Henry Ford’s words: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” Without consistent learning, leaders soon become mental museum artefacts.
Seeing sharp bends

I refer to sharp bends as those times in leadership when several events occur simultaneously and decisions have to be made speedily. When we encounter the sharp bends of leadership, it makes sense to recognize them and seek help from others in the form of counsel, experience, ideas, or guidance.

Leaders who don’t see sharp bends may not see the future unraveling and will not be future-ready. Pertinently, like sharp bends in road driving, one has to be alert to see them before the car navigates around them. Unless the driver sees the bend or the caution sign about it, the most likely outcome is an accident. Seeing sharp bends and knowing how to traverse them keeps leaders on track to their destinations.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

 

Enhancing creativity

 

One Sunday morning, as we got to church, I was holding my Bible and I asked my teenage son about his own. He replied, “It’s here”, flashing his mobile device. In my world, he needed a printed version. In his world, the printed version was old school. If I wanted to be a dinosaur parent, I could have insisted that he uses a print copy.

 

Similarly, leaders have to be aware of the creativity that is within and around them. It is the duty of leaders to engage the creativity of their constituents, both young and old. It follows that leaders should also be displaying measures of personal creativity or at least seeking creativity from those they lead.

 

Closing note

 

Leaders should not assume they are future-ready. The future-ready leader thinks about the future, recognizes blind spots, sees sharp bends and enhances personal and group creativity. Are you future-ready?

 

Weyinmi Jemide