Leadership is in crisis the world over ~ 1
Your leadership matters now more than ever before.
The world today has all the hallmarks of living through an International Conflict, and when we emerge on the other side, we’ll not simply find a new normal, we will be living in a new era; never have leadership skills been in greater demand, and yet seemingly in such short supply.
Effective Leadership can be defined as seeing beyond the horizon, plotting a course to get there, and inspiring people to 'want-to' go there with you. So, what can we see as we start to look beyond the horizon? Here are some of my thoughts.
As in all periods of large-scale conflict, technology has accelerated at an enormous rate. We've probably seen a generation's worth of change happen in just a couple of years, especially in terms of communication via zoom and teams. No longer do we all have to meet in the same physical space; now a 1-hour meeting takes ... 1 hour. I have a regular 3-hour board meeting with people from around the country, and it used to be a very long day with 6 hours of travel included to get to the meeting and back. Now it takes 3 hours in total, and I get the rest of the day to do something else.
I want to explore some of the hallmarks of the world we’re living in today in this blog post, and then look at the implications in a subsequent blog post.
Hallmarks of International Conflict
Here are some of the features of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and they bear many of the hallmarks of a period of intense International Conflict.
Health & Wellbeing
Massive civilian casualties,
Overloaded health services & overcrowded hospitals
Significant deterioration of physical health, mental health and personal wellbeing
Scarcity of important resources
eg in the UK we have:
Fuel supplies running low
Fuel prices rising, and many fuel suppliers going out of business,
Labour is in short supply - lorry drivers, crop pickers (fruit etc),
Resulting in:
Supply chains suffering severe delays
Low stocks at gas stations
Perishable goods being destroyed (Milk, fruit, animals etc)
Working patterns changing significantly
eg working from home, resulting in city centres being deserted, leaving retail support industries such as shops and cafes having to close down
Global Issues
Global Warming becoming increasingly evident
Equality and Diversity issues - George Floyd, non-binary gender issues
Rapid advances in technology
Obvious examples are use of Zoom & Teams
Transport moving to Electric Vehicles
Recent International Conflicts
Compare this with innovations and advances emerging from previous International Conflicts. According to history.com, in WW2, in addition to massive civilian casualties, we had the following rapid advances in technology:
World War 2
Flu vaccines
Penicillin
Jet Engines
Blood Plasma Transfusion
Electronic Computers
Radar
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-innovations
Konosuke Matsushita
For example, take a look at this quote from Konosuke Matsushita about the dawn of a new era as Panasonic emerged from the war:
“When World War II ended in 1945, Konosuke demonstrated his strong resolve for peace and national recovery to employees and the general public who were feeling weary and dejected after the war. "Production is the very foundation of our recovery." Sensing the dawn of a new era, he set out on a trip to the United States. He returned to Japan with determination to bring prosperity to the people of his country.”
https://news.panasonic.com/global/stories/2020/84755.html
World War 1
WW1 brought with it the following advances:
Trench Coats
Daylight Savings Time
Blood Banks
Kleenex (to prevent the spread of germs)
Pilates
Stainless Steel
Zippers
WristWatches
Drones
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-inventions-pilates-drones-kleenex
Development of Flight
As an example: consider the development of flight during the two world wars. At the start of WW1, we had primitive biplanes, by the end, we had aerial reconnaissance and bombers; at the start of WW2, we had propellor driven planes, and by the end, we had jet engines.
So, what can we make of all this? I will explore that in my next blog post.
Invitation to the Global Leadership Summit 2021
In the meantime, here’s a link to find out more about the Global Leadership Summit events that are being held through October and November this year, and please join me at one of these events; I’d love to see you there and say “hi”.
