These are chaotic times. Whether it is government unrest, economic uncertainty, severe dysfunction in families, or something potentially positive like high velocity changes in technology, leaders are being called upon to provide stability while simultaneously advancing mission and vision.
In this month’s edition of Fast Company magazine, Robert Safian takes a look at some of today’s most successful business pioneers. Safian calls these leaders Generation Flux. Not defined by age, these leaders embrace adaptability, flexibility, and decisiveness, but this is balanced by knowing change can happen every THREE months. The wisdom they provide can help leaders regardless of what area of discipline you operate within.
Aaron Levie, CEO of Box
- “The three month road map is about the best horizon you can think about coherently.”
- “You can’t prevent the chaos, only respond to it…quickly.”
- “If you don’t go to every level of your company, you distance yourself from the marketplace and your people.”
Mark Parker, CEO of Nike
- “Companies and people tend to look at chaos as an obstacle, a hurdle. We look at it as an opportunity: Get on the offense.”
- “I don’t think it’s true that size by definition limits adaptability.”
Padmasree Warrior, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Cisco
- “Leadership is about ambiguity. You need a balance between command-and-control and bottom-up. It’s not one or the other.”
Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay and youngest board member of Starbucks
- “The largest and slowest companies worldwide, they are realizing that they can’t shut down their employees when it comes to social.”
- “We need rules and hierarchy.”
Stanley McChrystal, Retired Four Star General, U.S. Army
- “We had to change our structure (against Al Qaeda), to become a network. We were required to react quickly. Instead of decisions being made by people who were more senior – the assumption that senior meant wiser – we found that the wisest decisions were usually made by those closest to the problem.”
- “Leaders want the best ideas, but they want to ensure that everyone across the organization understands its goals and strategies. How else can you ensure that your people will act as you would like, even when you are not there?’
- “My command team and I guided our values, strategy, and priorities. The leaders lower in the organization made tactical and operational decisions in line with those principles.”
John Landgraf, President and GM, FX Networks
- “When I say we need a smarter organization, I mean we need multiple, different kinds of brains, of intelligence, on topics, rather than specialists.”
- “As we’ve moved to an economy in which the adoption of new ideas happens so fast, you need all kinds of intelligence in all parts of a business. You can’t have people siloed in their participation areas of strength. You have to value all styles, because you will never know which type will solve a problem.”
- “Fear has no purpose in the current market phase. Deciders find it really hard to accept failure, but tinkerers and engineers are undeterred by it. Failure is part of the process. We can’t run from it.”
Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit
- “If you unlock the talents of 8,000 people, you’ve tapped into the best of everybody.”
Angela Blanchard, CEO of Neighborhood Centers
- “You move through the world in an opportunistic sense – what is possible given what is available.”
Terri Kelly, CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates
- “The maturity level of the organization – Some people want to see a road map. But we’re not going to do that. They have to take control of their own career.”
Pastors and leaders, what it one thing you can take from the 17 lessons above that you can implement today?
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