The Six Superchargers of Leadership

Many leaders are so busy doing the technical, practical and operational aspects of their jobs that they have little time to be strategic about their leadership. They are “running on empty” and aren’t able to focus on current and future expectations.?

But managing those expectations is critical to becoming great leaders. It’s time to start supercharging your leadership now.?

Leadership Continuously Evolves

Over the years, we have successfully predicted work and leadership trends that have aided our clients in preparing and equipping themselves.

The coronavirus pandemic changed how we work, and the subsequent high inflation and global unrest has challenged leaders in a way never seen in our lifetime. The aftermath will continue for years. How leaders respond, inspire hope, and engage in collaborative dialogue — or not — will become their legacy. Leadership is key to managing this worldwide reality.

We live in a VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — world. This can be perceived as threatening, or it can become part of a “new normal,” where it can generate hope and excitement and bring about positive transformation and innovative solutions to benefit everyone. Yes, the digital revolution, VUCA and the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) as well? as post-pandemic challenges will continue to shape the leadership agenda. This puts new, demanding expectations on leaders.

Leadership is continuously evolving. Looking forward, what will leaders who want to stay ahead need to focus on now to equip themselves for the foreseeable future? What mindsets and skill sets do leaders need to develop and utilize to build their careers and be successful? What behaviors do they need to demonstrate? How do they need to show up? And how do they develop them and supercharge their leadership??

We have identified The Six Superchargers?, a set of six attitudes and competencies that, when combined, will enable leaders to boldly face a workplace that is rapidly evolving and becoming more complicated. With the aid of these solutions, you can strengthen your long-term leadership capabilities and prepare yourself to handle situations that we are still unaware of: ?

1) Supercharged strategy, thinking and acting strategically

2) Supercharged inclusion, creating a workplace where everyone can contribute

3) Supercharged connectivity, building people networks and connecting digitally

4) Supercharged collective intelligence, igniting brainpower and innovation

5) Supercharged learning, drawing non-stop lessons from all results

6) Supercharged agility, responding to change and creating opportunities.

Full Circle Impact

We’ve identified these mindsets/skill sets through observation and experience, working strategically and tactically with leaders and organizations around the world for more than 25 years. Additionally, they are derived from our continuous research on new leadership trends and what is being uncovered and reported about leadership.

Each mindset and skill set are strengthened further as they build upon and benefit from one another. When employed in harmony, their combined impact increases.?

Developing a strategy mindset and skill set makes you more deliberate, conscious, considerate and productive. You have a broader, deeper and more complete perspective, understanding that to make the kind of effect necessary to produce results, you must constantly become more strategically minded in all that you do.?

As you become more strategic, you also become more conscious of your surroundings and other people, realizing the complete value and significance of diverse inclusion — knowing who to include and why, and figuring out how to create a welcoming, psychologically safe environment where people feel comfortable speaking up.

The more included and safe people feel, the easier it is to achieve connectivity, when people better understand? their own value, and that of others, more clearly.? And connectivity can contribute to the overall vision and purpose of the organization because? of the ecosystem of stakeholders? grows in a meaningful way.

The more effectively connected you and others are, the greater the opportunity for collective intelligence. Add in diversity of thought and style, and you increase the opportunity for innovation.

When people are smarter together, learning accelerates; people learn from each other, as well as test and try ideas. This leads to new insights and more innovation.

And with this level of accelerated learning, the need for agility grows, to adjust, adapt and redesign in line with the strategic ambitions. We have come full circle.?

By paying close attention to these Six Superchargers?, you can develop a comprehensive set of mindsets and skill sets that complement one another and enable you to not only adapt to a constantly changing environment, but also proactively lead into it with confidence and direction.?

While you should look back to learn from the past, you should also look forward to the future, to begin envisioning what is ahead for you and the people you lead. Be proactive, supercharge your leadership and be the leader the future needs.

We wrote this for ISM s magazine - take a look at the article