Leaders should reskill themselves for the age of AI

The white line across the image above, what does it mean to you? Pause & reflect before you'd like to read on. ( I shall share my perspective below).

• "Poor placement records of engineering students to economists (and everyone in between, including MBAs) is due to the growing caution among employers that face multiple global uncertainties... Economic analysts now got to contend with AI." (And that is a small part of the global uncertainties) Mint Pramit Bhattacharya
• Research shows CEOs expect 'pandemic-like' disruptions to happen more frequently. Not a once-in-a-century event?
• Climate change, supply chain disruptions, wars, 'cold peace' (@Fareed Zakharia at India Today Conclave)
• Millennials and Gen Z can not be managed through the good-old command & control approaches.
• Leadership development can no longer be minimum man-days. When customer service is moving towards personalization, can leadership development remain one-size-fits-all?
• Leadership can not be based on assessment, enhanced by masterclasses, or even by going back to campus. These are glorified machine learning-type approaches—old wine in new bottles!
• 'Problems can not be solved at the same consciousness that created it'.

Mindset deserves a re-set. A re-set of pancha-kosa.

Leadership Styles

There are different styles of leadership. Then there is situational leadership to Level 5 leadership.

Leadership is also based on emotions (Dr Daniel Goleman).

But we are obsessed with our preferred style—as though one size fits all! It worked in the past, so we think it will work in the future, too. But the global uncertainties mean the goalposts have not just shifted, but disappeared.

Thinking out of the box is not enough. There is no box!

We miss the hero's journey (Joseph Campbell) of the leader in all these! It is very personal journey.

But not lonely, if you have

• managed relationships at work, in life, and in the community (#I2We2He)
• have mentors to go to
• have teachers and professors go to
• executive leadership coaches to discuss

The New Leadership Paradigm

A new leadership has to be at the confluence of

1. IQ,
2. EQ, and
3. SQ (Spiritual Quotient)

Social quotient, creative quotient, and other quotients are all part of it.

Upskilling at all levels:

It is a learned behaviour. Choose to upskill. Why tomorrow's C-Suite leaders need an intentional path to the top (@Fast Company)

Why Tomorrow C-suite leaders need an intentional path to the top

• Intentional path - hence, the masterclass and back2school have limited benefits. Also, mentoring by 'experts'. Expertise is debatable, as the environment is continuously shifting.
• Networking as point that is part of all our leadership development initiatives at Regal Unlimited - coaching for leaders, mentoring for coaches, and healing for all.

Thankfully, at INSEAD, we had a module on networking as part of our exe edu program.

• Personal Board
• Soft Skills are no longer 'soft'. And coaching & mentoring, or any of the six styles of leadership, is
• The Power of Coaching—I can't stress this enough. I have been doing that for a living for over 12 years :)

As a practising/aspiring leader, if executive coaching by a professional executive coach

A professional coach is

1. trained & certified by coaching schools like Regal Unlimited ,
2. credentialed, member of and subscribes to the code of ethics at International Coaching Federation (ICF) and
3. invests in deep work (a daily Sadhana, spiritual practice), and continued learning (beyond CCEU)

At INSEAD, along with all of the above, I discovered my true passion for coaching leaders.

Are you living your passion?

PS: The white line on the image reminds me that all coaching engagements have a meta goal. The goal of the engagement is not restricted to the session or even the engagement; it goes beyond that.

It is no different for leaders. Whether politicians fighting elections at all levels, cricketers playing at the T20 WC, corporate leaders facing the challenge of quarterly targets, business owners, entrepreneurs or professionals facing their challenges, ranging from surviving to scaling up.

The white line is the important part of your work, and thus life. Hence integrate, work & life!