To be a future-ready leader, it’s useful to foresee coming trends, changes, and challenges. But it’s just as important to bring your team along on the change journey. It’s not enough to predict the future; you also need to create an environment where your people are open, willing, and excited to innovate and adapt.
I do a lot of work with leaders, teams, and organisations across many sectors – recently with primary school principals, people in the mining industry, healthcare leaders looking to embrace digital innovations, and people in the public sector.
Everybody, of course, has their own journey, but they also share many common challenges and opportunities.
As a futurist, I help them in two areas.
First, as a leader, it’s useful to understand what’s coming up in the future – to see over the horizon and around the corner – so you can make better, more well-informed, decisions now.
Second, and equally important, you need to bring your team along on that change journey. It’s one thing to know what’s coming, up but if your team can’t – or won’t – change, that knowledge is useless.
I remember more than 15 years, at the time of the GFC – the global financial crisis – I interviewed one of my long-term friends and speaker colleagues, Max Hitchins, for my podcast.
Max is a marketing expert, particularly in the hospitality industry, but he’s a marketing genius and his ideas apply anywhere. So we were talking about creative marketing ideas for business leaders and their teams to get new customers, generate more revenue, and so on.
Max shared many practical ideas for leaders and their teams. But I particularly remember what he said at the end:
“You know, Gihan, these are all good ideas, and they will work. But you can’t just snap your fingers and expect your team members to change overnight to be more creative and innovative. If you’ve already built that culture, then these ideas will work. But if you haven’t got that in place, then you can’t just assume people will immediately become more creative and innovative.”
Max has always been ahead of his time, and his advice applies just as much today.
We live in a time of constant change, and we need teams who are not just open to change but also willing to embrace and lead the change. That means actively building that culture, not just hoping it will happen by itself.
You take for granted that you get instant hot water in your home when you turn on the tap. But that happens only because of the pipes, plumbing, and other infrastructure behind the scenes.
So, should you prioritise knowing what’s coming up in the future, or should you prioritise bringing your team along on the journey?
The answer is Yes! Both are equally important. And when I work with leaders to help them be future-ready leaders, we talk about both aspects. Whatever you do in thinking and planning for the future, make sure you also invest time in bringing your people on that change journey.
And that means building that culture of change before you need it. So, when you do need to make a big change, people are ready.
I’m running a free public online presentation soon about the future of work. I’ll share the four key elements of the future of work for 2025 and beyond.
I’ll give you some strategic ideas in each area, and I’ll also share some practical, specific, tactical things you can do right now to help bring your people along on that journey. Join me for this presentation, and please invite others in your team and network.
