Developing Leaders in a Transformative Time

Organizations invest millions in building their leadership talent to develop capacities and capabilities to be more inclusive, ethical, adaptive, human-centric, and purpose-driven. Each of these themes are dominant narratives for transformative leadership, leadership for the future (read now). So, logically, the content for such programs entails unique tools, models and frameworks. ?However, many times, these humble yet bold efforts do not lead to their intended outcomes because we have ignored a common factor in all these ‘modules’ that work in lockstep to unleash transformative leadership – systems thinking and a sustainability mindset. Limited time and money aside, usually the unconscious omission (or conscious avoidance!) of aligning individual’s development to the fundamentals of a systems and sustainability lens makes for insidious design decisions.

To me, systems thinking, and awareness of sustainability mindset are the key tenets of leadership development today. Irrespective of one’s level in the hierarchy or years of experience, everyone must be ready for this transformative time and make sense of the complexity at their individual levels, and not leave it only for top leaders. When the roots of systems thinking and sustainability mindset are put down, leaders (across levels) can think holistically about problems, exercise judgment, and make better decisions, leading us to achieve the fruits of growth and transformation. As idealistic as it may sound, let’s break it down.

Complex problems and scenarios are rife that require us to make near perfect decisions quickly. Often decisions go awry because we do not consider some factors in advance or have not been able to visualize consequences of those considered. Here is where systems thinking comes in, which helps us expand the boundaries of our mental models accounting for a wide range of issues when making decisions. Add to that, a sustainability mindset, a way of thinking that predisposes us to act for the good of the planet and people. It guides us toward living and promoting a more sustainable life, which is crucial for humanity in the 21st century. This is more real than ideal. Consider examples below.

An automotive company manufacturing new-age vehicles is constantly faced with huge dilemmas. Should the software of the car be built with the safety of the passenger in mind or the people crossing the road; what holds priority between reducing carbon emissions and increasing car performance and experience; in the case of developing and under-developed economies, how will the electric vehicle ecosystem operate; and the list is endless. A technology company is always thinking of aligning their codes such that their applications drive inclusive experiences for all consumers. All these decisions require adaptiveness, inclusiveness, human-centric focus, ethicality - and systems thinking, and a sustainability mindset lay that foundation.

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What do we need to do?

1. Democratize tools and skills of systems thinking and sustainability mindset awareness amongst all people managers (across levels) and individual contributors in key positions, to start with. Just like we teach feedback skills to new managers, we must teach better decision-making skills using these concepts to key talent. Later, cascade it to everyone in the organization
2. Ensure executive sponsorship and accountability measures to make this change in the development approach sticky, making it part of the organizational culture. This point is common to all development programs however extremely crucial in the case of incorporating unlikely tools of systems thinking and sustainability mindset in driving organizational transformation

It is just about shifting our mindset as strategic decision makers and program designers on what we want to develop our talent on. Get started, now!

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