The Executives Of Tomorrow

Do you think your present organizational structure is enough in your
drive towards the future? Have you ever thought of opening
positions for Leaders who could give your organizations a “futuristic”
perspective? And what could be their skills and attributes?

Let us first explore these necessities…

While we all know that we can not possibly know everything about
the future, one of the main guides to the future are “trends”; or
anticipating what comes NEXT after the NEXT one comes along.
Like IQ, it’s like sequencing. How far one could see gives an
impression on one’s potential for creating the future.

This is one reason why Great Leadership and High IQ correlate well
as even pointed out in the book, “Executive Intelligence.”

Still, IQ alone is not enough.

Leaders need a great degree of Emotional Intelligence, specially
in times of economic instability to overcome any kind of difficulty.

As the saying goes…
“Adversity does not create Leaders, it reveals them.”

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan.” - Jeremiah 12.5

What about Education?
Well, what is “education” anyway?

“Education is that which remains,
if one has forgotten everything one learned in school.” - Albert Einstein

Come to think of it then, “education” can be offset by IQ.

Consider this…

“The difference between great and ordinary leaders is rarely formal
intellect but insight. The great man understands the essence of the
problem – the ordinary leader grasps only the symptoms.
The great man focuses on the relationship of events to each other –
the ordinary leader sees only a series of seemingly disconnected events.
The great man has a vision of the future which enables him to place
obstacles into perspective: the ordinary leader turns pebbles in the
road into boulders.” - Henry Kissinger

How about Experience?
And what about “experience”?

“Experience is as to intensity not duration.” - Thomas Hardy

See, for those who have not realized, Experience is simply repetition.
Kindly see my blog “Secrets To Mastering YOUR Field” (10.22.08).

As we can see, all “experience” does is make a habit out of one’s
engagement… it’s good ONLY when “everything” is certain.
Therefore, it would be potentially disastrous to take “experience”
on face value.

As Deming says, “Experience teaches nothing without theory.”

Yet the growing of knowledge in this case can quickly fill up the “jar”
and turn to mediocrity IF NOT applied with Creative Thinking.

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my Imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” - Albert Einstein

…

With these qualifications taken into account, we now come up with
the Executives of Tomorrow and their “basic” job descriptions.

CRITICAL EXECUTIVE OFFICER (C2)

• Could be an “outsider” or chosen from among the board of directors.
• Would act as a “direct” adviser to the CEO with a fixed term of 3 years before returning to the board; if s/he is an “outsider”, s/he would be given a special seat at the board after a satisfactory tenure.
• Would make sure the organization is on track by doing the unpopular for productivity; fact-based decision making in favor of “getting along”; and if spotted, declaring that there IS an elephant in the room (Al Henry) without worry of being “fired” (or humiliated) unless proven irresponsibly using his/her position.
• Would take the lead in “Leadership Building”… includes identifying, hiring, investing, developing or retaining Leaders; as well as organizational conflict/crisis management and the promotion of synergy.

VP – GLOBAL AFFAIRS

• Could be an “outsider” or chosen from within the organization.
• Would be responsible for the socio-economic, environmental, political, and cultural affairs of the organization, internationally.
• Would take the lead in “Relationship Building”... among various organizations and internationally.

VP – INNOVATION

• Could be an “outsider” or chosen from within the organization.
• Would be responsible for long-term, new product and/or service development… for inventing new appropriate business models to meet changing customer scenarios (Jayashree Patnaik) for the long-term… and for advancing creativity.
• Would take the lead in “Talent Pooling”… being unconventional, s/he is expected to recognize REAL talent, leaders or creative thinkers (regardless of age, education, nationality, experience, etc.) better than anyone in the organization; therefore, would identify, hire, train, retain or recommend Talents for better positions.

All three Executives would be “status quo free”, options to succeed
a replaceable CEO, and would have a hand in Corporate Strategy,
giving the organization different futuristic angles to work on.

“Sustainable, profitable growth will not be the product of a deal…
it will be the product of foresight and foresight will not be the product
of perspicuity… but unconventional, out-of-the-box thinking.
Leaders will need to build themselves and their organizations to
develop innovation, foresight, and out-of-the-box thinking.
If we had this skill today, we perhaps would not have gotten into
this financial crisis at all.” - Nitin Kumar

Courage, confidence… are signs of Strong Leadership; and
that would do well for the future.

And again, as Nitin Kumar logically suggests in my LinkedIn question,
“Who Are The Leaders Of Tomorrow?”

Leaders will need to build a belief that the best way to win is to re-write
the rules, be unafraid to challenge orthodoxy, be more inclined to
build than cut, be more concerned with making a difference, be
absolutely committed to shaking out the future first and execute on
these beliefs and values. There will be no room for people who want
to follow the status quo and this is going to be a paradigm shift from
the traditional leadership which is set to follow set rules.

This transformation in itself is going to be a much more complex
change management and will be painful, but organizations will build
resilience and adaptability as some of this unfolds.

"You can not manage change;
you can only be ahead of it." - Peter Drucker

Remember…
Tomorrow's Executives won’t just sit at the office but CREATES THE FUTURE.