For about 10 years now we have been talking about a VUCA world; talking about the need to be equal, to adapt to change, to be flexible.
The economic crisis has come with a new generation with many differences compared to the generations of those who are now in top management positions. A generation of people who seem to have no patience, who have learned to put themselves first, who want to be good right now or as quickly as possible, who want a different kind of management than the one that we were raised to (if we can say that we were raised to management). It is maybe natural, given the fact that they grew up with the internet; the access to so many applications, games that require quick thinking, fast action, give immediate access to so much information.
For things to be even more complicated, so many processes are automated, AI and VR no longer belong to the field of SF movies and books, they are here, we’ve already tested them.
The 10-15 year strategy plans are a thing of the past. The new long-term has become a maximum of 3 years.
Within this context in which everything moves around, in which we can no longer say that “we are at peace”, in which we always need to be alert, the only constant we have, the only thing we can rely on is our own self. It is up to us to do something to reposition, to adapt.
From my experience, this repositioning, this reinventing of the self can become more difficult after a certain age because of the habits we have formed, the beaten tracks in our brains, as well as the belief that “This is the way I’ve done things all my life, it’s good”.
I said it can be harder after a certain age, the more I think about it, I realize it is not just about age. I have seen young people (25-35 years old) who would say they had nothing else to learn, that they knew everything, that they had already learned everything there was to know about themselves and the things around them, about their job.
You can have a young mind at any age. A “well-furnished” mind is something that needs to be built up step by step. I strongly believe that you can not keep up with the times without such a young mind, ready to learn what is new without accepting that you have to change yourself.
The first step to doing this, however, is to know yourself, to understand what you are good at and what you are not good at, what your profound needs are, what makes you wake up in the morning, what you enjoy, what annoys you, what stresses you, what brings out the best or the worst in you.
I have noticed that this endeavor is all the more difficult when people are higher placed within an organization. Of course, when we talk about top management, we generally talk about people who have gone through many life experiences, have been to many courses, have studied a lot. The higher people are in the organization, the more influence they have more over the whole organization; they can make decisions that impact not only on figures but also on people.
We have created a programme called Journey to Your Inner Self addressed to top management in organizations. This programme aims to create more reflexive leaders, who know themselves better, who have the ability to empathise, to carefully listen to those around them.
Before starting this programme, we would insist on a 720 feedback (which includes not only colleagues, managers, clients, suppliers, but also friends and family). Then we would go on some kind of “initiation journey” to Delphi (where, in the old times, there was the Oracle, and on its frontispiece it was written Know Thyself – know yourself) http://www.i-interact.eu/.
Why have such a programme:
I strongly believe that beyond action, beyond what leaders do every day, it is very useful for them to stop and reflect, listen to others, ask for feedback. The arrogant, aggressive, authoritarian type of leader is no longer appropriate (if ever has been) within organizations.
The programme is a starting point, an experiment meant to questions in everyone’s mind, to place a mirror in front of the participants, here and there.
