Rethinking our future selves

It's nice to think about and plan for the future we've plotted out for ourselves, isn't it? Well, it would be nice if not for (a) the vacuum of inspiration a fully predictable and mapped out future would create for many of us and (b) the fact that our sense of relative continuity into the future is actually almost completely illusionary, as Shankar Vedantam points out in one of the more elegantly composed and delivered TED Talks I've seen in some time.

If you want some proof for yourself that Shankar is really onto something with this, try the thought experiment on for size:

• Rewind exactly 10 years ago, establish where you were and what you were doing in your career at that point and -- critically -- the strong views you had about the world and what you thought at that time would be your future state or circumstance now (10 years later).
• Repeat for the 10 years prior to that, and (if you've done enough ripening on the vine like some of us have...) again for 10 years before that - as many times as you need to in order to hit your early teenage years.

Hopefully that's done enough to convince you that probably, right now, you have only the vaguest idea of what your future self is actually going to really want.

From a leadership perspective, we, our teams and organisations are all versions of Theseus' ship, with the planks in a continuous state of being swapped out and replaced (raising that fascinating question about identity). And, importantly, our teams are full of people probably banking on a certain sense of predictability and continuity into their futures that is, well, pretty blind and unaware of what it doesn't yet know. That of course has potential implications for individual career conversations, learning and development negotiation, attraction and retention, not to mention the flow on effects to team composition, character and capability.

Shankar's advice, then, about being curious (to constantly curate and architect ourselves, widening a range of experiences and horizons), humble (recognising that our future selves may have a somewhat different take on some of the things we have strong views on now) and courageous (knowing that we may in fact be capable of things in the future that we aren't right now) is as valid for ourselves as leaders as it is for the people we lead, and a potential source of some really interesting and helpful conversations.

This is a?Leader TWIG ?- the concept of (a)?growing something new?(a new awareness, skill or 'branch' to what you currently already know) but also (b) becoming equipped to 'catch on', realising or suddenly understanding something that is in fact right in front of you in the performative leadership moment (from the Gaelic 'tuig').

Access the?LeadRede self-coaching learning journey ?attached to this TWIG.