Developing leaders for a world of uncertainty

[Paul Natorp]

The economic crisis has given leaders a new kind of challenges. The speed, breadth and depth of change requires creative, innovative and adaptive responses. Andrew Day and Kevin Power from the Ashridge Business School interviewed 50 business executives and formulated three recommendations for future learning and development of leaders.

In an article they suggest that leaders in a world of uncertainty and ambiguity must develop the capacity to take an ecological perspective of their organization and the surrounding world, help people make sense together and understand and work constructively with anxiety states.

Day and Power resonate deeply with creative leadership by pointing towards the need of making sense and the importance of working with the inner states of the team. And we believe it is important not only to reduce anxiety but also tap into the passion and the longing of the team.

One thing I find particuarly inspiring in the article is the leap from analytical thinking to ecological thinking:

The analytical thinker identifies problems and solutions; assumes cause, effect and linear relationships and seeks to restore or improve on the status quo. The ecological thinker looks for patterns and interdependencies; values curiosity, insight and intuition and works creatively with paradox, uncertainty and contradiction.

Read the full article here