Print

8 Future-­Ready Leadership aesthetic health care? And how ­will society carry on if automation continues to eliminate minimum-­wage—­and middle-­class—­jobs? The gap between ­people with access to good jobs and new technologies may well accelerate as automation and artificial intelligence make many blue-­ collar and white-­collar jobs obsolete. Increasing unemployment or unequal employment could feed growing public distrust of institutions, government, global corporations, and the leaders who govern them. And even if ­ these dras- tic employment challenges are overcome, leaders ­will still have to shift their digital strategies and their ­ people strategies to create collaborative advantage over their competition and respond to changing customer demands. Consequently, leaders across public, private, and social sectors must learn to create collaborative advantage through new means of attracting, developing, redeveloping, and retaining their employees. Teams ­ will need leaders who can facilitate innovation and collaboration at faster rates, and with greater impact, as strategies and structures through which work in the digital age change. Deci- sion making ­ will have to become more local, workforces more agile, and lead- ership more human-­centered and consultative than ever before. On an individual level, future-­ready leaders and followers must become smarter, faster, and more connected. Similarly, organ­izations must become more agile and optimize learning from failure and big data analytics. And if leaders want access to employees’ best ideas, talents, and skills—­assuming that organ­ izations ­will still need ­humans, just smarter ones—­then leaders must get very good, very quickly, at meeting the wants and needs of a highly connected workforce. How do we know that leaders ­will need to adapt to ­these changing demands? ­ Because it’s already taking place. Smart, Connected Leadership: A Strategy for Collaborative Advantage This brave new world, defined by 4IR mega trends, requires a brave new leadership mindset and approach. Although no one can predict the ­ future with absolute certainty, the early macro-­economic and behavioral economic indi- cators suggest the following: • The ­ people side of organ­izations ­will be impacted by 4IR technologies in a major way. • Jobs ­will change and ­will involve more automation and ­human–­machine collaboration. • The pace of change ­will increase rather than decrease. • Demand for talents fit for new jobs ­ will outstrip the supply of that talent. • Collaboration, consolidation, and convergence ­will become strategic differentiators.