How the Global Generation will Influence the Future of Leadership

Leadership and The Global Generation

Last week we mentioned that the “fifth generation” that will soon enter the workforce is the Global Generation (aka the Globes) and described some of their key characteristics. This generation represents those who are born after 2001. Now we’re going to take a look at how the Globes will influence the future of leadership.

There are sociological, political and economic factors that are applying constant pressure on organizations. Leaders must continue to think forward. Maintaining the status quo will not be successful in the future and organizations that don’t adapt their leadership style will suffer in recruiting and engaging the Global generation. This means that leaders will have to unlearn outdated practices and will have to be increasingly flexible in order to successfully manage in a dynamic workplace.

Competencies that Leaders of the Future will Need

Even though left-brain competencies are currently the most highly valued and are seen as the most operationally relevant, it will be the right-brain competencies (such as intuition and reflection) that will give the edge to leaders when managing the future workforce.

There are six competencies that leaders will need to refine or develop to be high performing in the future:

• Information Management
  • Given that the future workforce will be accessing and producing content, leaders will have to embrace the concept that information cannot be controlled.
• Ethics and Integrity
  • As ethics in business become increasingly important, the behaviour of leaders will play a significant role. The Global Generation will likely be influenced by their skeptical and cynical Gen X parents, who are bound to explicitly or implicitly teach their children to hold leaders accountable.
• Win-Win Outcomes
  • The notion of viewing every employee as an investor in the organization and building a win-win relationship with each employee will be fundamental to engaging, retaining and managing employees. For younger generations, the value of work-life balance will be so high that they will often opt out of a job if their balance is threatened.
• Engaging a Global Workforce
  • Leaders will need to be prepared to recruit, engage and manage a diverse workplace. Leaders will have to increase their cultural competency as well as understand the intersection between cultural and generational identities.
• Intellectual Curiosity
  • The leaders who will be the most successful in the future will be those who are constantly open to learning new things, unlearning old patterns and upgrading their skills. Leaders will also have to disseminate that responsibility to all levels, thus generating fresh new ideas from the ground up.
• Complex Processing of Information into Action
  • It will no longer be acceptable to work in silos. Leaders will have to understand the interrelationship between stakeholders, departments and business units and they will need to translate them into actions. Successful leaders will have to predict what reactions are likely to occur tomorrow as a result of the actions they take today.

For more information on the Global Generation and the future of leadership, please see Upgrade Now: 9 Advanced Leadership Skills available at www.ngenperformance.com/book.