Equipping Leaders for an Uncertain World

I often recall how over a decade ago I used to regularly stand on stage and present to hundreds (sometimes thousands) of senior leaders at business conferences about the VUCA context we now face. VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous – was still a new-niche phrase back then, now it’s the new-norm.  Back then, I’d say at-a-max only 10% of the audience really sensed what a VUCA world meant for themselves, their leadership teams and their organizations. Most were too engrossed in the immediacy of the day-to-day numbers, quarterly returns and market fluctuations to worry about something that seemed like it was about some distant future scenario.   But now, only ten or so years on (not a long time-window for the history of human consciousness), and I’d say most of the room would get what VUCA means and feels like – not just rationally understand but to really feel the difference this new way of leading demands.

And here comes the rub.

We can no longer rely on the very tools, frames, methods, models and mindsets that helped us climb the ladder to successful senior leadership positions. These ‘achiever’ tools don’t aid our embracement of the VUCA new-norm; often they stifle it.

The best that conventional leadership models can do – and even this is a real stretch for them – is to help a leader ‘cope amid complexity’.

But our leadership teams, employees, stakeholders, communities and social systems, don’t want leaders who can at best, on a good day, only ‘cope’.  Future-fit organizations need leaders who can ‘thrive amid complexity’.  Leaders who enable themselves to unlock their own brilliance (through self-and-systemic awareness) while helping their leadership team, their people and wider business ecosystem unlock their brilliance, so they too can thrive amid complexity.   The CEO – Chief Executive Officer – becomes Chef Ecosystem Officer, working across the system to enliven agility, creativity and flexibility.

A tall order amid so much turmoil and tension? 

Well actually, no.   It’s a simple case of re-awakening the natural way life works, and the natural way our human-nature works.

The good news is, this future-fit way of leading where we thrive amid complexity – which I refer to as ‘Regenerative Leadership & Organizational Development (Regenerative L&OD) – draws on the time-honoured wisdom of life. We can draw on 3.8bn years of R&D and also tap into the real wisdom of human nature beyond the system-limiting confines of mechanistic reductionism and egoic control-manage tendencies. Sure, we still need the project management and financial management tools of the rational-analytic left-hemispheric machine-mind. But on their own, these control-manage tendencies are no longer adequate for the fast-paced every-changing landscape of our new-norm. We need the right-hemisphere, the intuition, the insight and imagination, the curiosity, playfulness and ability to not-know and embrace ambiguity: the very qualities our deeper humanity yields in spades once we tap into our true nature.

Surely the leader needs to double-down on the basics, the numbers, hone the core value proposition and stick-to-the-knitting?  Surely the leader simply does not have the time or luxury to change the status-quo leadership logic amid stormy seas causing so much pressure for consistency, reliability and security?  

I’m afraid that hunkering down is not a recipe for success.  It’s a strategy for coping/struggling, not thriving/evolving. As management guru Peter Drucker knew all too well:

“In times of turmoil the danger lies not in the turmoil itself, but in facing it with yesterday’s logic.”

Today, all-too-often, we still face into the new-norm with yesterday’s machine logic. 

Its time to transform.  Not just our businesses, but our very mindsets need to upgrade.

This is what my latest book Leading by Nature – the Process of Becoming a Regenerative Leader delves into tools, coaching-frames, methods and case studies to equip the future-fit leader and the future-fit organization thrive amid the volatile times ahead.

Also, my Leading by Nature podcast series interviews pioneering leaders pushing the regenerative leadership envelope in their own unique ways, as they seek to cultivate developmental, agile, ever-learning organizations that thrive amid complexity.

I have the great pleasure of coaching leaders from great variety of organizations and sectors who dare to embark on the regenerative journey – whether it be the award-winning consumer good company Vivobarefoot, the insurance provider AXA Climate, the consultancy Greenheart, the global training provider Impact, or the many corporates from global food providers to pension funds to engineering organizations -the door is open for any leader and company regardless of shape and size to become future-fit.

This journey is not for the faint-hearted, as its easier to stick to the status quo.  But the next decade ahead will witness a new dawn of leaders and organizational cultures truly ‘getting it’ as we re-awaken to the Logic of Life with Regenerative L&OD.

For more on coaching with Giles, visit his website here.

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There is a special one-off overnighter immersion with Giles at Springwood Farm on 23/24th May, see here for more details.

“Leading by Nature is THE handbook for conscious leadership. A must-read for every business leader who genuinely cares about the future of humanity.’   Jayn Sterland, CEO of Weleda UK

“A truly exceptional and timely book that redefines the locus of power in relationship to leadership; leadership that seeks harmony and alignment with nature.    Giles reminds us to bring awareness/presence to everything that unfolds.    This book is the teacher we all need.” Sue Cheshire, Founder and former CEO of The Global Leaders Academy

Giles Hutchins is leadership coach and author of five books on Regenerative Leadership, and Business Inspired by Nature.  His latest book and podcast series Leading by Nature can be found here.