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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
WINNER OF CMI MANAGEMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 Are you a future-ready leader? Based on exclusive interviews with over 140 of the world's top CEOs and a survey of nearly 14,000 people. Do you have the right mindsets and skills to be able to lead effectively in the next ten years and beyond? Most individuals and organizations don't even know what leadership will look like in the future. Until now. There has been a lot written about leadership for the present day, but the world is changing quickly. What worked in the past won't work in the future. We need to know how to prepare leaders who can successfully navigate and guide us through the next decade and beyond. How is leadership changing, and why? How ready are leaders today for these changes? What should leaders do now? To answer these questions, Jacob interviewed over 140 CEOs from companies like Unilever, Mastercard, Best Buy, Oracle, Verizon, Kaiser, KPMG, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Yum! Brands, Saint-Gobain, Dominos, Philip Morris International, and over a hundred others. Jacob also partnered with Linkedin to survey almost 14,000 of their members around the globe to see how CEO insights align with employee perspectives The majority of the world's top business leaders that Jacob interviewed believe that while some core aspects of leadership will remain the same, such as creating a vision and executing on strategy, leaders of the future will need a new arsenal of skills and mindsets to succeed. What emerged from all of this research is the most accurate groundbreaking book on the future of leadership, which shares exclusive insights from the world's top CEOs and never before seen research. After reading it, you will: * Learn the greatest trends impacting the future of leadership and their implications * Understand the top skills and mindsets that leaders of the future will need to possess and how to learn them * Change your perception of who a leader is and what leadership means * Tackle the greatest challenges that leaders of the future will face * See the gap that exists between what CEOs identified versus what employees are actually experiencing * Become a future-ready leader This is the book that you, your team, and your organization must read in order to lead in the future of work.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Table of Contents
Cover
Introduction
PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE LEADER
1 The Leadership Gap
Leaders Today Are Struggling
It's Time to Change
2 Three Essential Leadership Questions
What Is Leadership and Who Is a Leader?
How CEOs Define Leadership
What Are Your Leadership Filters?
Define Leadership
Leader or Manager?
Is the Leader of 2030 Really That Different Than the Leader of Today?
3 The Impact of a Leader
How Great and Bad Leaders Influence You and Your Organization
We Need More Great Leaders
PART 2: TRENDS AND CHALLENGES SHAPING FUTURE LEADERS
4 Artificial Intelligence and Technology
Are the Machines Going to Take Over?
Automating a Job Is Not Replacing a Human
What Leaders Do
How AI Will Impact Leadership
5 Pace of Change
Leading in a Future That Doesn't Yet Exist
6 Purpose and Meaning
Job, Purpose, Impact, Meaning
Creating Purpose and Meaning
7 New Talent Landscape
The Massive Talent Shortage
The Need to Upskill and Retrain
The Diversity and Inclusion Imperative
8 Morality, Ethics, and Transparency
Ethics versus Morals
The Impact of an Ethical Leader
Leaders Must Be Transparent
9 Globalization
Diversity and Curiosity Are Key
10 Are We Ready for These Trends?
We Need Less Talk and More Action
There's an Organizational Breakdown
Employees Are More Confident in Themselves Than in Those Around Them
11 Challenges
Futurize
Humanize
We Aren't Ready for These Challenges
Enter the Notable Nine
PART 3: THE FOUR MINDSETS OF THE NOTABLE NINE
12 The Explorer
An Overview of the Explorer
We Need More Curiosity
Super Perpetual Learning
A Family of Super Perpetual Learners
Growth Mindset
Adaptability and Agility
How Leaders Can Develop The Mindset of the Explorer
13 The Chef
We Need More HumanIT
Embracing Technology
Purpose-Driven and Caring
How Leaders Can Develop The Mindset of the Chef
14 The Servant
Service to Your Leaders
Service to Your Team
Service to Your Customers
Service to Yourself
Humility and Vulnerability
How Leaders Can Develop The Mindset of the Servant
15 The Global Citizen
The Benefits of a Global Citizen Mindset
How Leaders Can Develop The Mindset of the Global Citizen
16 How Well Are We Practicing These Mindsets Today?
Mind the Gaps
The Seniority Curse
Around the World
PART 4: THE FIVE SKILLS OF THE NOTABLE NINE
17 The Futurist
How a Futurist Thinks
How Leaders Can Develop The Skill of the Futurist
18 Yoda
Emotional Intelligence (Empathy and Self-Awareness)
Other Components of Emotional Intelligence
How Leaders Can Develop The Skill of Yoda
19 The Translator
Listening
Communication
How Leaders Can Develop The Skill of the Translator
20 The Coach
Motivating, Inspiring, and Engaging People
Creating Future Leaders
Working Across Generations and Cultures
Creating Effective Teams
How Leaders Can Develop The Skill of the Coach
21 The Technology Teenager
Understand How Technology Impacts Your Business
How Leaders Can Develop The Skill of the Technology Teenager
22 How Well Are We Practicing These Skills Today?
Mind the Gaps – Again!
Around the World
Are We Future Leader Ready?
PART 5: BECOMING THE FUTURE LEADER
23 Knowing vs Doing
Define “Leader” and “Leadership”
Look at Your Present State
Practice the Skills and Mindsets
Build Your Tribe
Avoid a Typical Day
Guide Others
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Additional Resources
The Future Leader Assessment
Leadership Reset
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4.1 SIX TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6.1 CREATING MEANINGFUL WORK.
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10.1 TAKING ACTION ON LEADERSHIP TRENDS.
FIGURE 10.2 ARE YOU TAKING ACTIONS TO PREPARE FOR THE TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTUR...
FIGURE 10.3 GAP BETWEEN EMPLOYEES AND LEADERS.
FIGURE 10.4 GAP BETWEEN MANAGERS AND SENIOR EXECUTIVES.
FIGURE 10.5 GAPS IN TAKING ACTIONS ON LEADERSHIP TRENDS.
Chapter 11
FIGURE 11.1 TOP-THREE CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE LEADERS.
FIGURE 11.2 TOP CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE LEADERS.
FIGURE 11.3 “FUTURIZE” AND “HUMANIZE” CHALLENGES.
FIGURE 11.4 LACK OF READINESS FOR CHALLENGES FACING FUTURE LEADERS.
FIGURE 11.5 THE NOTABLE NINE: MINDSETS AND SKILLS.
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12.1 FOUR MINDSETS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER.
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13.1 HUMANIT.
FIGURE 13.2 TRAITS OF PURPOSE-DRIVEN AND CARING LEADERS.
Chapter 16
FIGURE 16.1 HOW WELL ARE COMPANIES PRACTICING THE MINDSETS FOR THE FUTURE LEAD...
FIGURE 16.2 PRACTICING THE MINDSETS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER: COMPARISONS.
FIGURE 16.3 PRACTICING THE MINDSETS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER: COMPARISONS BY COUN...
FIGURE 16.4 PRACTICING THE MINDSETS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER: FURTHER COMPARISONS...
Chapter 17
FIGURE 17.1 FIVE SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER.
FIGURE 17.2 CONE OF POSSIBILITIES.
Chapter 20
FIGURE 20.1 THREE WAYS LEADERS CAN UNLOCK HUMAN POTENTIAL.
Chapter 22
FIGURE 22.1 EVALUATING HOW COMPANIES ARE PRACTICING THE SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE ...
FIGURE 22.2 PRACTICING THE SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE LEADER: COMPARISONS.
FIGURE 22.3 HOW WELL ARE YOU, YOUR MANAGERS, AND SENIOR EXECUTIVES PRACTICING ...
FIGURE 22.4 HOW WELL ARE YOU, YOUR MANAGERS, AND SENIOR EXECUTIVES PRACTICING ...
Chapter 23
FIGURE 23.1 THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE OF LEADERSHIP.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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“The Future Leader isn't just a book, it's a blueprint for great leadership. Backed by unique research, this book is essential reading for leaders and aspiring leaders.”
—Jon Gordon, bestselling author of The Power of Positive Leadership
“What if you could sit down with the people who actually lead some of the best companies in the world and ask them what really makes a great leader? What if you could tap the wisdom born of experience? Jacob Morgan has enviable access to this wisdom, and he's shared it with all of us. This is one of the best compasses on 21st-century leadership I know.”
—Michael Bungay Stanier, author of the WSJ bestseller, The Coaching Habit
“Jacob Morgan's book offers a compelling look into the future of leadership—the challenges leaders will face and the mindsets and skills that will be needed to overcome them. Do you want to be a future-ready leader? You need this book!”
—Horst Schulze, founder and CEO, The Ritz-CarltonHotel Company
“The Future Leader takes a fresh and original look at a timeless topic. By combining insightful stories from the world's top business leaders with hard data and extensive research, this book will help its readers better understand how to inspire teams and what it really means to be a leader.”
—Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens US
“A fresh and original book that tackles a challenging topic with insightful stories from CEOs along with hard data. It's impossible to read this book and not think differently about leadership and who you are as a leader. A truly must-read!”
—Garry Ridge, CEO, WD-40 Company
“The Future Leader is an important resource for anyone who wants to make an impact on their organizations—and on the world.”
—Maynard Webb, NYT bestselling author, former chairman of the board of directors at Yahoo!, board member at Salesforce and Visa, founder of Webb Investment Network
“Finally, a book that looks to the future of leadership and what is needed. Incredible insight for all organizations.”
—Nigel Travis, former CEO of Dunkin' Brands and Papa John's Pizza, principal, Challenge Consulting LLC
“Based on 140 CEO interviews, this is an important book on an important subject. Jacob Morgan provokes us to think about what leadership is now and what it needs to be in the future.”
—L. David Marquet, bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around!
“Jacob surveys a massive list of effective CEOs to garner a peek into the attributes of tomorrow's successful leader. This book can help you be that leader.”
—John Venhuizen, CEO, Ace Hardware
“The imperative to read this book is simple. The world of work is everchanging, and the market continuously demands new types of leaders to guide organizations into the future. This book can help you become the best future leader you can be.”
—Arnold Donald, CEO, Carnival Corporation
“Jacob has written a book to help you understand how leadership is changing, why it's changing, and what you need to do about it. The Future Leader inspires you to rethink what leadership meant in the past and to embrace the skills and mindsets that will be needed to succeed going forward.”
—David Henshall, president and CEO, Citrix
“There's so much actionable insight in The Future Leader that I found relevant to the challenges and opportunities I face every day. Definitely worth reading.”
—Brad Jacobs, chairman and CEO, XPO Logistics
“Jacob has thoroughly examined how the leaders of some of the biggest brands see their roles and, more importantly, how their actions impact their employees and the world around them. This book offers an opportunity for today's leaders to learn from their peers and for the next generation of leaders to learn from our successes and failures.”
—Michel Combes, president and CEO, Sprint
“Do you want to know how to become a great leader? If so, read Jacob Morgan's book!”
—Gerhard Zeiler, chief revenue officer, WarnerMedia
“Being a leader is a tremendous honor and responsibility. You owe it to yourself and to your people to become the best possible leader you can be. You can start by reading this book and putting into practice the ideas that are explored in it. A valuable read!”
—David Novak, CEO of oGoLead, co-founder, retired chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc.
“Today's corporate leaders don't start from scratch. They build their leadership practice from the collective experience of those before them and apply that wisdom to drive transformation, build markets, and grow brands. Jacob Morgan's new book provides access to that insight and experience.”
—Michael Kneeland, chairman of the board, United Rentals
“This book is different from mainstream leadership books because it is based upon global macroeconomics of life at work. It has real content. The practice of management quit working 30 years ago. This book makes a rare, badly needed, grand contribution to leadership, teams, and human development.”
—Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO, Gallup
THE FUTURE LEADER
9 SKILLS AND MINDSETS TO SUCCEED IN THE NEXT DECADE
JACOB MORGAN
Copyright © 2020 by Jacob Morgan
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Morgan, Jacob, 1983- author.
Title: The future leader : 9 skills and mindsets to succeed in the next decade / Jacob Morgan.
Description: First Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019045915 (print) | LCCN 2019045916 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119518372 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119518303 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119518389 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Organizational change.
Classification: LCC HD57.7 .M663456 2020 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045915
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045916
Cover Design: Gerard Allen Mendoza
Cover Image: Lighthouse © Michael Rayback/Shutterstock, Clouds © markovka/Depositphotos.com
To my parents, David and Ella, who have always been my lighthouses, thank you for guiding me. And to my wife, Blake, whose love, support, and encouragement makes everything I do possible.
Introduction
Thousands of years ago, when mariners and explorers would set sail into uncharted waters, the only way they could find their way back home or to their destination would be to look for a landmark like a pile of rocks during the day, or to look for a fire at night. These not only served to lead sailors to their destinations, but also to warn them of any dangers that might wreck their ships. Perhaps the most famous lighthouse, and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was the Pharos of Alexandria, which was constructed in the third century BCE. The story is that this structure was over 450 feet tall and survived for 1,500 years before being destroyed by an earthquake.
Throughout history, lighthouses have served as beacons to lead us to our destinations while at the same time helping us avoid any dangers. This is why I chose to use a lighthouse as the cover of this book. I see current and future leaders as lighthouses who guide their employees and organizations to success while steering them away from the rocky shores that might crush them.
Great leaders change the world, or perhaps more aptly, great leaders make the world. They help design the products and services that we use in our personal and professional lives; they create companies that provide jobs so that the people who work there can provide for their families; they fight for social causes and injustices to help make the world a better place; they support charities and nonprofits; and they shape the culture, attitude, and behavior of the people who work there, meaning they shape who we are as human beings. It's a tremendous responsibility but an enormous privilege.
In order to create a world we all want to work and live in, we need to make sure that we have the right leaders in place, now and especially in the future. In the context of this book, this means within a business environment, although the concepts here can be applied to any individual in any organization. This is a challenging thing to do because the world of work is changing quickly, and what worked in the past won't work in the future. Wayne Gretzky famously said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” I want to help leaders and organizations understand where the puck is going so that they can start moving there now.
Over the past ten years I've written five books, including this one. During that ten-year period I've been fortunate enough to work with hundreds of companies, travel the world, and get my work in front of millions of people. I've shared a lot of ideas and insights during my journey but I still consider myself to be a perpetual learner. Leadership is one of the areas I'm particularly fascinated by.
Every year (during non-pandemic times) I speak at around 40 conferences and events around the world, always on themes and topics related to leadership, the future of work, and employee experience. I started to notice a recurring trend from audience members and from executives that I would advise, meet, or interview. More and more I would get questions not on present-day leadership but on what leadership would look like in the next decade. I certainly had my ideas and theories around this, but I thought this was a rather interesting question to explore. I started digging around and realized that there is almost nothing out there that tackles this and certainly nothing with solid research behind it that actually incorporates the insights from global CEOs and employees.
It seems as though the business world is getting increasingly inundated with present-day leadership strategies and ideas. While some progress has been made toward creating great leaders, there's still a long way to go and things change quickly! Over the past decade, for example, it can be argued that leaders were predominantly obsessed with stock price, diversity and inclusion efforts were nascent, technology (especially artificial intelligence) was nowhere near as advanced or changing as quickly as it is today, hierarchy was being challenged but not to the degree we are seeing now, social media platforms were just getting off the ground, the iPhone was barely in existence, the phrase “employee experience” was rarely muttered, purpose and impact were laughable concepts, workforces weren't as distributed or as diverse as they are today, short-termism was rampant, and the emphasis on physical workspaces beyond the typical cubicle was weak, not to mention that we were dealing with the dramatic impact of the 2008 financial crisis.
Shortly before the financial crisis I had my first job out of college working for a technology company in Los Angeles. I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with honors and a dual B.A. in business management economics and psychology. I was ready to join the corporate world and took a job that required me to commute three hours a day in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I took the job because I was sold a story of what it was like to work there. A few months into my job I'm doing data entry, cold calling, PowerPoint presentations, and hating my life. One day the CEO yells my name from across the office and tells me he has a very important project for me to work on. Naturally I got excited and thought that after “paying my dues” I'd finally be able to contribute and have an impact. The CEO takes out his wallet, gives me $10 and says, “I'm late for a meeting, I need you to run down to Starbucks and get me a cup of coffee, and by the way get yourself something as well.” Ugh! This was one of the last jobs I've ever had working for anyone else and since then I've been passionate about creating organizations where we all want to show up to work. Leaders are a big part of that.
Most of us don't realize how much things have changed over the past decade because we have been “in it,” so to speak. Imagine that you boarded a train to go on a very long train ride, one that lasted ten years. While you are aboard the train things appear to remain as is, technologies remain the same, the attire that everyone wears is the same – nothing has changed. But ten years go by and you finally arrive at your destination. When you disembark you can hardly recognize the new world that surrounds you. Our organizations have collectively been on this long train ride. If you never make any stops along your journey to observe the world around you, you will never really see change happening, until one day you appear to be in an entirely new place.
In Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, there is a dialogue between two characters that goes like this: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
If you take an outside perspective, you quickly realize that leadership from ten years ago is not what it is today, and more importantly, leadership today will not be what it is ten years from now. But since we are so involved with the day-to-day aspects of our lives and careers, we rarely think about this change and what it might look like.
I wasn't sure how to go about answering this question on the future of leadership, so I decided to collect data. I interviewed over 140 CEOs at companies around the world, representing Turkey, France, India, Australia, Japan, Finland, the UK, the United States, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Ireland, Peru, and others. Industries include healthcare, food and beverage, nonprofits, automotive, financial services, equipment rental, software, real estate, and everything in between. The CEOs are from companies such as Mastercard, Best Buy, Unilever, Oracle, Verizon, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Philip Morris International, Itau Unibanco, InterContinental Hotels Group, Saint Gobain, ZF Friedrichshafen, Kaiser, Koç Holdings, and many others around the world. With the exception of a few, I held all the interviews either in person or via live one-on-one calls that lasted around 45 to 60 minutes. I specifically wanted to focus on CEOs because these are the ultimate leaders in the business world. They are the ones who are responsible for the decisions the organization makes, and the impact the organization has on the world and on the stakeholders, including employees and customers.
In total these CEOs represent over 7 million people, 35 industries, and 20 countries around the world. There are not many female CEOs out there, so getting them involved with my book was challenging, but I'm proud of how many I was able to include: 23% of all of the CEOs I interviewed were female. For comparison, less than 7% of all of the Fortune 500 CEOs are female (Zillman, 2019), and only 5% of the CEOs on the S&P 500 are female (Catalyst, 2019). In fact, women hold fewer than 5% of CEO positions in the United States and Europe (Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2018). I was fortunate to eclipse all of those numbers by several times.
All of the CEOs were asked a series of 12 questions:
What trends will impact the future of leadership?
What mindset(s) do you think the leader of the future will need to possess and why? (How should they think?)
What skills do you think the leader of the future will need to possess and why? (What should they need to know how to do?)
When you think of leaders today and in the next decade, what will be the main differences?
Imagine a day in the life of a leader in the next decade. What does that look like?
What will be some of the greatest challenges for the leader of the future?
Can you can point to any leaders today who illustrate what you think leaders will be like in ten years, and why?
Is your company thinking about this issue and/or working on it in some way?
Have you thought about what skills you will need to be a leader in another decade?
How do you define leadership?
Anything else you want to add about the future of leadership?
Do you have a leadership hack that has worked well for you? (Tips, techniques, or strategies you use on a regular basis to be a more effective leader.)
Prior to my asking these questions, I also provided context to the CEOs about the book and focusing on leadership over the next decade. All of these interviews were then transcribed and read through in order to pull key pieces of information. In this case I was looking for specific themes and ideas along with common responses to the list of questions. For example, what are the common skills and mindsets that CEOs keep identifying as being crucial to the future of leadership? All of these responses were then coded into a large Google Sheet that allowed me to filter by various criteria such as company size, gender of the CEO, and industry.
LOOK OUT for this image in the book! When you see it, the corresponding section will contain a quote directly from one of the many CEOs that I interviewed.
I also teamed up with LinkedIn, the world's largest professional social network, to survey almost 14,000 of their members around the world who self-identified as full-time employees to see if their perceptions lined up with what CEOs were saying. The survey was statistically significant at 95% confidence. The employees surveyed represented China, Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, India, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates. Here too the employees represented a variety of industries, with company sizes ranging from 50 employees to over 100,000, and seniority levels ranging from individual contributors all the way up to C-level executives. It was extremely comprehensive and global in nature.
The survey used the same 12 questions, with the addition of a few that asked survey respondents to evaluate themselves, their managers, and their senior executives across various areas that CEOs deemed as crucial for the future of leadership. As an example, for the question “What mindset(s) do you think the leader of the future will need to possess and why? (How should they think?),” survey respondents were also asked how they, their managers, and their senior executives were practicing those mindsets. This allowed me to capture a full leadership picture for organizations around the world and to really see if what CEOs were telling me was actually being practiced and how well. Employees were also able to select up to three responses for some of the questions; for example, when identifying the top mindsets for the future leader, they had the option to pick three responses, not just one.
Finally, I interviewed several academics, researchers, and coaches and combed through hundreds of case studies, books, articles, and reports on leadership and the future of leadership to see what else I might be able to learn. I believe this is the most comprehensive and perhaps one of the only projects of this kind specifically devoted to exploring the future leader and the future of leadership through 2030 and beyond. As you go through the book you will find many quotes that came directly from the CEOs I interviewed. I want you to read and hear exactly what the world's top business leaders are telling me, in their own words.
The book is divided into a few core parts, each of which is an essential element for the future leader to understand and master. In Part 1, I define leadership. Part 2 focuses on the trends shaping the future of leadership and the implications of those trends for future leaders. This section also explores the greatest challenges that leaders of the future will be faced with.
Part 3 discusses the most crucial mindsets that leaders of the future must possess in order to lead effectively. Part 4 examines skills that leaders of the future must possess, meaning specific things that leaders of the future need to know how to do. Part 5 looks at how to become the future leader and where to begin the journey.
To accompany this book, I also created two resources you can access. The first is an assessment that will evaluate you on the skills and mindsets outlined in this book which you can find at FutureLeaderSurvey.com. Second, if you want to be coached and mentored personally by me for a full month and get access to the unique leadership hacks from the world's top CEOs, go to LeadershipReset.com. I hope you find them useful!
I specifically wanted to look at the future of leadership over the next ten years because it's not too far out to be unrealistic and it's close enough still to be practical. My hope is that you will read this book and understand what you, your team, and your organization should be working on now in order to be able to lead successfully in the coming years. You don't need to be a leader to apply the concepts in this book, but if you are or want to be a leader, then you absolutely must apply them. Everything in this book is applicable and important in today's business world but will become like air and water in the future.
This book came out around the time COVID-19 was reaching global pandemic proportions and Black Lives Matter protests were sweeping the world. One of the questions I get asked the most around leadership is how these events (and others in 2020) have impacted the research and the findings from the book. They shrunk the timeline!
This book was aimed at being future-focused but what the events of 2020 have done is made The Future Leader into The Present Leader. We need leaders and aspiring leaders to embrace the skills and mindsets explored in this book NOW.
A few years ago, I interviewed two very successful business leaders on my podcast, The Future of Work With Jacob Morgan. Both of them were running multi-billion dollar companies and were at the top of their game. Then 2020 happened. One of these executives was since fired from her company because hundreds of employees rose up against her because she didn’t take the issues of Black Lives Matter and diversity and inclusion seriously enough. Employees went to the leadership team and gave them an ultimatum, “either she goes, or we go.” The executive was promptly let go.
The other executive I interviewed was under the impression that his business and his industry were bullet proof. They were making tons of money and didn’t see the need to change, evolve, or adapt new ways of working or doing business. In less than a year, his company filed for bankruptcy.
You can’t afford to be passive and assume that you, your company, and your industry are immune to change because as the two examples above show... you’re not. Now is the time for action, now is the time for change, and now is the time for you to decide and commit to being the leader we all need and deserve. I strongly believe that with tremendous change also comes tremendous opportunity, if you are willing to seize it. The Future Leader is very much The Present Leader.
Leaders who embrace the skills and mindsets outlined in this book, and help others around them do the same, will find that not only are they able to create organizations where employees actually want to show up to work, but they will also create a world that all of us will be proud to live in. It's time to step off the train.
Jacob Morgan
Alameda, California
April 2021
PART 1UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE LEADER
1The Leadership Gap
How many leaders would you estimate are in your city? How about your country? What about all over the world? If we're going to look at the future leader, then it's important for us to know just how many of these individuals we have now, and how many we might have in the future.
In the United States alone there are roughly 25 million supervisors and managers, people who are responsible for others. This is about 1 in 6 Americans. In the UK this number is around 5 million, which also comes to 1 in 6 people. McKinsey predicts that in 2030 the global workforce will be around 3.5 billion people (McKinsey, 2012). In 2020 the International Labour Organization estimates a workforce that is 45% self-employed, which has actually been decreasing over the past few years (World Bank, 2019). If we assume that 50% of the total workforce will be self-employed by 2030, that leaves us with 1.75 billion employed people (OECD, n.d.). The number of employees per manager or supervisor is referred to as the “span of control,” and the suggested number of employees per manager varies from 4 employees per manager to upwards of 20. This means that around the world, there will be roughly between 87,500,000 and 437,500,000 leaders, which is actually a conservative range since many of the self-employed individuals also have full-time jobs. That is a lot of leaders! Leaders help make our world, so we’d better make sure we have the right people in those positions. We all deserve to like (or, dare I say, love) our jobs, and this starts with having the right leaders at the helm of our organizations.
Leaders Today Are Struggling
Unfortunately, most of our leaders are, bluntly speaking, not good. If they were, then we would see that reflected in the data. It doesn't mean they are bad people, but the way that we teach and talk about leadership is extremely antiquated and that's largely what leaders today are familiar with and practice. It's a bit like trying to fly a modern jet when you were only trained on an original Wright Brothers plane. You might get it in the air, but you aren't going to go far.
According to a study conducted by Ultimate Software and the Center for Generational Kinetics, 80% of employees say they can do their jobs without their managers and actually think that their managers are not necessary (Ultimate Software, 2017). Another study by Randstad found that almost half of the 2,257 survey respondents said they could do a better job than their boss (RandstadUSA, n.d.). A second Randstad study conducted in 2018 found that 60% of employees have left jobs or are considering leaving because they don't like their direct supervisors (RandstadUSA, 2018). These numbers alone paint a picture of current leaders that makes them seem nonessential. Let's be honest: we've all felt that way about our leaders at some point during our careers. I certainly have; in fact, there have been several occasions when I would see a leader at work and my inner voice would say, “What do you even do here?”
A Gallup study of over 7,000 Americans concluded that one in two people had actually left a job at some point during their career to get away from their managers in order to improve their overall quality of life (Harter, 2015). Let that sink in for a moment. It's a very somber statistic, yet one that we can all relate to. The same study shows that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. Even in the UK, research published by the Independent found that nearly half of British workers believe they could do a better job than their boss (Bailey, 2017). Perhaps the more alarming finding was that 13% said that their bosses are dangerously incompetent at their jobs.
Let's also not forget the seminal Gallup study on global engagement, which found that only 15% of employees around the world are engaged in their jobs. According to the study, “employees everywhere don't necessarily hate the company or organization they work for as much as they do their boss. Employees—especially the stars—join a company and then quit their manager” (Clifton, 2017).
An entire book could be written about how leaders around the world are failing us. These are supposed to be the people whom we look up to, admire, and want to emulate? These are the people who are supposed to lead our organizations and help us shape and create the future? While these numbers paint a bleak picture of present-day leadership, the numbers don't look any better when we look toward the future.
In its most recent Global Leadership Forecast report, DDI surveyed over 25,000 leaders around the world and found that only 42% said that the overall quality of leadership inside their organizations was high (DDI, 2018). Perhaps more shocking was that only 14% of organizations have what DDI calls a strong “bench,” which is ready-now leaders who can step in to replace those who retire or move on. This means that if a “leadership virus” wiped out all the present-day leaders, we would have nobody to step in to take their place. Even sports teams have talented players on the bench who could step up when someone gets injured, but our companies do not. Perhaps this is because our models of leadership are not changing, meaning we are teaching leaders how to lead in a world that no longer exists.
In another DDI report exploring the “State of Leadership Development,” half of the organizations surveyed said their leaders are not skilled to lead their organizations effectively today (DDI, 2015), and 71% said their leaders are not ready to lead their organizations into the future. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found similar results in their aptly titled study “The Leadership Gap,” where the authors state, “Leaders are not adequately prepared for the future. Today's leadership capacity is insufficient to meet future leadership requirements. This finding is consistent across countries, organizations, and levels in the organization” (Leslie, 2015). Finally, in its report “Ready-Now Leaders,” the Conference Board in partnership with DDI found that 85% of executives are not confident in their own leadership pipelines. Here are a few more numbers for you to consider (DDI, 2014).
In Deloitte's most recent Millennial survey, which collected 10,000 responses from 36 countries, 71% of millennials said they are expecting to leave their employment in the next two years because they are unhappy with how their leadership skills are being developed (Deloitte, 2019). This is particularly disturbing because there is obviously a new generation of workers who want to step into leadership roles but organizations are not doing enough to make this possible.
Clearly something is wrong with leadership around the world, otherwise these numbers wouldn't be as abysmal as they are globally. Virtually every human indicator is telling us that we have a problem, yet most organizations and current leaders are doing nothing to address it. Just imagine for a moment that you're driving a car and in the middle of your trip the “check engine” light comes on, followed by the tire pressure warning, the low fuel light, and the battery light, all while your car temperature indicator is in the red. Now imagine your whole family is in the car with you. Would you really just keep on driving, hoping to make it to your destination? I would hope not. Yet in the business world we are on cruise control, and the worst part is that we are all sitting in the same car!
It's Time to Change
When I see all of the data presented in this chapter, I feel angry, frustrated, and just sad. We all should. This means that today and in the future we will live and work in a world where we have hundreds of millions of leaders globally who are quite simply bad leaders—unless we do something about it. It's not as though we just have millions of empty global leadership slots. As the numbers above show we actually have lots of people in leadership roles, just not all the right ones. But their days are numbered. I absolutely believe that leadership is a privilege that should be given to those who truly demonstrate the mindsets and skills outlined in this book. Make no mistake: there is a massive leadership gap inside of our organizations that will only continue to grow in the coming years. The organizations able to close this gap are the ones that will continue to exist and thrive in the future, and the individuals who are able to become future leaders are the ones who will lead these organizations. I know it sounds like all leaders are bad, but they aren't. We do have plenty of amazing leaders all over the world and I've interviewed many of them for this book, but we just don't have enough of them. My sincere hope is that this book and the research behind it will help change that but you are the one who has to make that change a reality.
Thankfully, this book will guide you through doing just that by teaching you how to implement the Notable Nine. These are a collection of four mindsets and five skills that the world's top business leaders have identified as being most crucial for future leaders. These Notable Nine are the solution to the leadership crisis that so many organizations and individuals around the world are experiencing. At the end of the book you will also find a path forward for how to become the future leader that we all need and deserve. Let's begin.
2Three Essential Leadership Questions
In order to talk about the future leader, we must first answer three crucial questions about the present-day leader:
What is leadership and who is a leader?
Should someone be called a leader or a manager?
Is the leader of 2030 really going to be that different from the leader of today? And if so, how?
What Is Leadership and Who Is a Leader?
The hardest question for CEOs to answer by far was, “How do you define leadership?” When I asked this question over the phone I would usually get long pauses or comments like “That's a really good question.” But by far the most common response was, “Hmmm, nobody's ever asked me that before.” In my head I would be shouting, “What?! What do you mean, nobody's ever asked you that, you're leading a multibillion-dollar company with thousands of employees!” But of course, I never actually said that, otherwise it would be a rather short phone call. I thought about this for a while and then it started to make sense. We just take the concept of a leader for granted and assume that we all know what that looks like and who is a great leader. It's a bit like trying to define water; it sounds silly, because after all, we all know what water is, right? But how would you define water to someone who has never seen it? Would you just say it's a clear tasteless liquid? Dozens of liquids are clear and tasteless. Leadership is the same; it's everywhere in some form and we experience it daily, whether at work, playing sports, watching TV, or shopping. It's all around us like air, and as a result we never stop to question what it really is or who a leader is.
Think about it for a moment. How would you define leadership? Is it about doing the right thing? Achieving a certain level of performance or driving business results? Having followers? Inspiring and motivating others? Maybe it's about having a clear vision and aligning people? Or is it just one of those things where you know it when you see it?
Was Hitler a leader? How about Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Darth Vader, Genghis Khan, Queen Elizabeth I, Elon Musk, Rosa Parks, Jeffrey Skilling, LeBron James, or Al Capone? All of these people, whether good or bad, fictional or real, meet some of the criteria above.
The word “lead” can be traced back to the year 900 and means “to go before or with to show the way.” A leader is then someone who does this. With this definition, all of the above individuals can be described as leaders. What separates the people above isn't the fact that they guide others; it's the direction in which they guide others and the path they take. Hitler chose a direction of evil, war, and death. Mother Teresa chose a direction of kindness, service, and gratitude. Many leaders today are on the wrong path. If as leader your responsibility is to show others the way, what does that way look like?
From all of the business leaders I interviewed, I didn't receive a single duplicate answer to my question of how to define leadership. Of course there were some common elements, which will be explored in this book, but the explanations and definitions as a whole were each unique. CEOs assigned different attributes or characteristics to leaders. Some focused on more human qualities like empathy, diversity, and humility, whereas others focused more on business acumen such as achieving goals, knowing how to prioritize, and setting a vision. Of course, other CEOs tried to find a nice blend and balance of both sides.
Here we have over 140 CEOs from the world's top organizations and they all define leadership differently. How can that be?
I learned two things from asking this question. The first surprising thing is that leaders around the world rarely ask themselves what leadership means. Not only that, but this isn't even explored at an organizational level. It's completely taken for granted, or perhaps it's just assumed that everyone knows a good leader when they see one. The second thing I learned is that leadership is defined differently, depending on the leader and the organization. There is no common or universal definition of leadership. This would be completely fine if we all operated purely as individuals, but we don't; we are all part of groups, teams, and/or organizations. This means that the first step to becoming or to creating a great leader is to define what leadership means and how it comes to life inside your organization (and/or your personal life).
How CEOs Define Leadership
Consider for a moment how the following CEOs define leadership.
Judy Marks is the CEO of Otis Elevator and leads a team of over 70,000 employees around the world. According to Judy, “I think it's really the ability to drive results, and I'll leave that word results fairly generic. My role in terms of leadership is to set the vision and to share it. To create an environment where people can resonate not only with the mission but deliver it. To eliminate obstacles so my team can succeed. I think all of those are part of leadership.”
Marissa Mayer is the former CEO of Yahoo! When I met with her, she told me that her definition of leadership is “helping believe in a better tomorrow or a better outcome than you have today.”
Mark Hurd was the CEO of Oracle, an information technology and services company with over 137,000 employees globally. We met right after I keynoted their HCM World conference in Dallas, Texas. Sadly, he passed away a few months after we met but the time we spent together left a lasting impression on me. Here's what Mark had to say: “The most basic definition of leadership is you set the destination. You come up with a strategy to get to that destination and do your best to align and supply the resources to make that happen.”
