What the “Leader of the Future” really looks like

"What does the leader of the future look like in professional services?"

It's a question I get asked often. CEOs frequently ask me to speak to their leadership teams in hopes of better preparing them to lead the organization to success.

I understand the question because if you're paying even minimal attention to the headlines, it feels like everything is changing all the time.

And it is!

So, the leader of the future must need new skills to adapt and lead effectively, right?

Well, yes and no.

While there are two skill I believe leaders need to prioritize, those are in addition to the foundation of effective leadership—a foundation that doesn't change based on technology or new innovations.

Has the way we lead evolved?

For us to have a productive conversation about the leader of the future, we've got to arrive at a common definition of leadership.

I suppose it's a bit unfair that this is my newsletter and we don't get to have a back-and-forth conversation, so I'll state my definition and hope we see eye to eye.

The way I see it, effective leaders need to do three things:

1. Establish a vision and strategy

2. Select the right people

3. Enable those people to execute the strategy to progress toward the vision

And if we could agree that's the case, I'd argue that leadership has not evolved to a great extent.

What made an effective leader 20 years ago will still make an effective leader today and will likely still make them effective 20 years from now.

Effective leadership is predicated on things like communication, transparency, coaching, inclusion, inspiration, support, and collaboration.

I'd suggest that any leader needs to get those things right in order to help their organization thrive.

But what about things like AI and rapidly evolving technologies? Don't future leaders need to be well-versed in these things in order to succeed?

Understanding the Latest Inputs

Part of leadership is making the decisions you believe are best for the organization.

You run various inputs through a decision-making tree and, based on certain criteria, decide to invest resources into things or not.

The act of considering any new input is the same as it's always been.

It's the things you put in the system that are different.

AI is the latest input for consideration.

Call it technology 2.0 or 3.0 or 10.0 or whatever the hell you want.

Although AI is like technology on steroids, it's still an input.

It's the latest tool to impact the way we do business and deliver service to clients.

Look, I've been in this game long enough to remember other inputs and trends that "changed everything", like offshoring, margin compression, globalization, etc.

Who here remembers when Lotus and Excel came around and "changed everything"?

Sure, those things changed the way we did business on a day-to-day basis and delivered service to clients, but does that alter the purpose of a leader and how they lead most effectively?

No, it doesn't.

Leaders still need to establish a vision and strategy, select the right people, and enable people to execute strategy.

So at its core, the principles of effective leadership remain largely the same.

There are, however, two additional things I believe you will need to lean into as a leader if you want to enable your organization to thrive.

Two Additional Things Leaders Must Get Right

If we could enter a lab and design the traits you need as a leader to keep your organization relevant and sustainable, these are the two I’d choose for you:

1) An appetite for seeking information outside your four walls.

This is the foundation behind BREAK THE MOLD™.

Embracing that "what got us here won't get us there."

As a leader, you can't bury your head in the sand.

You've got to be alert and aware of the trends, disruptors, and inputs that are rapidly changing within your industry and—sometimes more importantly—outside of it.

When something like AI comes along, you can't afford to ignore it and carry on with business as usual.

You've got to have a curiosity toward new technologies and opportunities and ask, "How could this make our business better?"

You don't have to be the one to master these new tools or processes, but it's your responsibility to be aware of them and ensure you have people or systems in place to evaluate and implement them if they'll be an enabler.

This week, I went to dinner with a former colleague.

We get together to compare notes and help each other by sharing what we are seeing in the marketplace. He mentioned that his son is an AI specialist—and at a pretty young age, I might add.

Mike, the son, is crushing it and leading the company in its AI acceleration journey. So much so that both the Global and US Sr Partners regularly check with Mike on all things AI.

Call those check-ins “sanity checks” or whatever you’d like; the point is that the two senior-most leaders rely on an up-and-comer for organizational direction.

Neither Sr Leader is an AI specialist, but they knew enough to engage the right AI SME and in doing so, the organization is staying in front of their competitive pack.

As a leader, you set the tone and expectation that you and your team should constantly be looking for ways to do things differently and better.

2) The ability to make decisions faster.

If things are evolving more rapidly, you have to make decisions with more speed than ever before.

You have to adopt technology more quickly. You have to pivot faster when things aren't working. You have to address underperformers sooner. You have to confront disruptors to your strategy earlier.

A critical component to more rapid decision making is developing the decision tree through which you filter all decisions.

When you're clear on your strategy, that's the lens through which you evaluate every decision or possible input that impacts your firm.

"Does this new input enable us to execute strategy?"

If the answer is yes, then your job is to evaluate the opportunity until it fits within a level of risk and cost you're willing to accept (you'll never be 100% certain) and take immediate action.

If the answer is no, it's not worth your time.

You can't afford to sit around and weigh decisions for months or years and you can't afford to turn a blind eye to the things evolving around you.

As many have said before, hope is not a strategy.

So, hoping decisions will work out isn’t either. Just because a leader wants something to work out doesn’t make it any more likely to succeed.

Interestingly, in today’s world of independent investors coming into professional services, we are experiencing accelerated decision requirements more than ever.

Investors, especially private equity, have a short investment horizon, so speed and velocity are critical.

The leader of the future needs to be aware of new inputs as they come along and act quickly.

Becoming the Leader of the Future

The foundation of effective leadership is not changing.

Effective leaders must:

1. Establish a vision and strategy

2. Select the right people

3. Enable those people to execute the strategy to progress toward the vision

While that's the case, as a leader, you need to prioritize being informed and making decisions with more speed if you want to build a thriving organization.

So, what will it take to ensure you embody these two skill sets?

Do you need to:

• Prioritize meeting with leaders outside of your industry?

• Assign research or learning about new technology to certain leaders on the team?

• Take action regarding a personnel situation?

• Gain clarity on your organization's strategy and build a decision tree so you can make decisions faster?

As an advisor, I help CEOs and their senior leadership teams do the things necessary to enable the organization to transform, grow, and enable scaling.

If you're serious about achieving your next stage of growth and want the perspective of someone who's successfully led an organization on the journey, book time on my calendar using the links below.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman