Wanted: new definition and new beliefs

 

Stand still and you will be left in the dust…leading no one…not even yourself.  Recall the wise words from Bob Dylan: “you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone…oh, the times they are a’ changin’…”.  Look around.  You know the deal.  If you need any additional evidence that the world is changing under your feet, check this fresh survey data from the Center for Creative Leadership: in a survey conducted in April 2007, 76% of the respondents believe that the definition of leadership has changed over the past 5 years.  Challenges are more complex, talent is scarcer, and business is more dynamic than any time in our history. Yes, thanks to technology the definition of “surfing” has changed and consequently most of us are master “surfers” these days.  Now the definition of “leadership” has changed and consequently most of us are…?

 

Got your MBA five, ten, fifteen years ago?  Been leading teams for ten years?  Fahgeddaboudit! The question of the day, day in and day out for leaders is becoming obvious: “what do I need to learn today?” Consider what the great teacher of leadership, Marshall Goldsmith, states in his new book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: “…we get positive reinforcement from our past successes, and, in a mental leap that’s easy to justify, we think our past success is predictive of great things for our future.”  Goldsmith goes on to say that the paradox of success is that the very beliefs that carried us to success may be holding us back from changing so we can “take it to the next level and get even better”.  

 

In short, the definition has changed and what got us here won’t get us where we want to go.  Perhaps this is why Tom Peters reminds us “leaders are great learners”.  Seems we have some changing and some learning to do.

 

 

What is happening in your world that is reshaping the definition of leadership?  What is your next move?