THE LEADERSHIP WE NEED TODAY: Judging from Outcomes, Leaders Are Massively Failing

Leadership is about delivering on promises. Promises that those under the shepherding of the leader will be protected physically, emotionally, and reputationally. Promises that the organization’s finances will be managed and optimized. Promises that products and services sold will work as advertised. Promises that those who invested in the organization will see a return. There are also the reasonable societal expectations that organizations’ impact will not be at the expense of communities and the environment.

Today’s headlines, and our own personal lived experiences, deliver a devastating performance review of today’s collective leadership in organizations across all sectors. We are experiencing an unprecedented scale in fires and floods, political polarization, government paralysis, geographic displacement of people, vast economic disparity, and wars. In organizations we are experiencing chronic and debilitating disengagement scores and tremendous uncertainty due to those external factors, as well as internal ones characterized by a minimalist approach to the care of employees’ holistic well-being .

No wonder we have an epidemic of mental health distress, addictions, rising suicides, mass shootings. In the US, these are referred to as the deaths of despair . There is also an increase in downstream acting out that is leading to greater vehicular accidents due to reckless driving , as well as disruptions in public spaces, such as on planes and at musical concerts .

The size of the chasm between reality and the outcomes that our society, young people, and employees want and deserve reflects the failure of overall leadership. This indictment of leaders, past and present, -- those who designed, implemented, and maintained systems that have proven to – let’s say unintentionally for now – be unsustainable an inequitable.

Unattended dam structures led to flooding that killed thousands in Libya; unregulated construction led to over two million people losing their homes and 50,000 losing their lives in their earthquake-unsafe buildings in Turkey. In the USA, the inability to collaborate leads to tragedies caused by the broken everyone-loses-immigration-system, as well as vulnerability to death by mass shooting at any place or time.

This is not for a lack of credentials and experiences. Look up leaders’ profiles on LinkedIn and they are damn impressive. Today’s leaders have plenty of financial acumen, strategic thinking, influence, stakeholder management, etc. Many punctuated by awards and recognition for said leadership qualities.? But these valuable skills have not been enough. Here we are, the most technologically advanced civilization ever with wondrous life extending and enhancing means and methods. Despite all this incredible peak human performance in all realms, we still default to the most primitive behaviors and short-term thinking. This is humanity’s core failure.

So, what's missing?

While there are stand out role models , there are not enough of them. Based on thousands of evaluations of leaders’ strengths and their developmental areas--here are some current key leadership elements we see in insufficient supply across the board for meeting the moment.

• Common Purpose
• Imagination
• Inspiration
• Courage

Common Purpose

Common purpose – driven by a vision and values – is the glue that keeps an entire organization focused on how they are going to work and succeed together.? Common purpose allows us to focus how we best use our time, energy, and finances. It enables us to listen intently, to make the hard decisions on how best to respond, or not, to the latest conflagration.

For all these benefits, current shorter-term thinking, self-interest, and ideological agendas are the enemies of common purpose. These three dynamics plug up our ears, shut our eyes, and close our minds to the pain and struggles of others. To retreat this way is to minimize people’s pain which in turn desensitizes us to others’ humanity and, in the process diminishes, our own.

?Short-term thinking, self-interest, and ideological agendas are the enemies of common purpose. They plug up our ears, shut our eyes, and close our minds to the pain and struggles of others.

For corporations, there is no getting around the fact that one well-established common purpose is the profit motive tied to the purchasing of their products and services. But then what? How will their products and services improve humanity’s lot, make life easier, equitable, healthier, safer? How will their working environment nurture people doing their best work? How can an organization enhance the wellbeing of the community they operate in? This type of profit-motivated common purpose has a longer reach and deeper impact. It can serve both the interests of others as well as a corporation’s self-interest since more engaged employees and communities enhance an organization’s brand and reputation, adding to its value. This is contemporary effective leadership.

Inspiration

Leaders inspire others to follow them and to work together for a common good. They motivate us to rise above polarized perspectives and stances that divide people. They remind us that we all face many of the same existential threats regardless of political stripe, function, income, and background, and that we are stronger together. With conviction and confidence, they convey that working together helps the organization not only overcome current challenges – it can come out stronger as all collectively face adversity.

This type of inspiration is not about feel-good platitudes. It’s about having the fortitude to not succumb to the ever-present currents of despair. It’s about appealing to our better natures and to the aspirations that so many have to win. These types of leaders call each of us to be part of building a better and more sustainable future.

This type of inspiration is not about feel-good platitudes. It’s about having the fortitude to not succumb to the ever-present currents of despair.

Imagination

Best practices are failing us. Clinging to the status quo sets us further back. The moment for bold, edgy innovation is now. Today’s leaders must call all to bust out of the traps of intractable dilemmas by taking WTF risks that break creaky paradigms. They allow for failure in the spirit of giving people the freedom to go for it.

This requires imagination. Imagination that wants to see, hear, taste, think, feel what we have closed ourselves to. To ignite our imagination, we need spaces where we can activate parts of our brain that remain dormant at work. Those are the parts that get activated through drawing, drumming, dancing, singing, humor, improv. Some may say this is inappropriate in the workplace – Sorry, creaky paradigm. Ciao. Goodbye. To imagine never-seen-before solutions to never-seen-before problems require never-seen-before approaches. It also demands that we escape our homogenous cocoons and seek out the electrifying surge of today’s unprecedented diversity. Today’s effective leaders call us to create the conditions to be with people who think, look, sound, and move differently. How else are people going to think and do differently?

Today’s effective leaders call us to create the conditions to be with people who think, look, sound, and move differently. How else are people going to think and do differently?

Courage

Risk-taking, providing the freedom to fail, embracing alternative methods to innovate, demanding? diversity, renouncing timidity, all require courage. Cancel culture, social media attacks, polarization also lurk posing dangers for those who dare to speak up. But if leaders allow themselves to be muzzled, then there’s no way forward into the new realities we must create to face our existential threats.?

?Inclusive leadership also requires courage to demonstrate empathy. It means we must stop and take into account the person in front of us. As leaders get trapped in navigating the tyranny of the urgent and keeping up with torrents of email messages, people’s pain and needs can seem like impediments to getting the work done.

Many leaders today are not accountable for their actions and their impacts on others. They do not face any consequences for their failures or misconducts. They do not admit their mistakes or apologize for their harms. They do not listen to feedback or criticism from their stakeholders or the public. They do not share information or data that are relevant to their decisions or policies. They do not respect the rule of law or human rights.

We need leaders who are courageous enough to be accountable for their actions and their impact on others. Courageous to be transparent about their decisions and policies. We need leaders today who can envision a better future for all and who can mobilize others to achieve it.

We need leaders courageous to envision and declare a better future for all and who can mobilize to achieve it.

Call to Action

Be that leader -- and be part of a movement of leaders -- who can lead an organization or team toward a common purpose, who inspires, who demands imagination, and is courageous. The world, your nation, your organization, your team, your family, your friends need this urgently.

?2024 Andrés T. Tapia