Leadership Lounge: How to Future-Proof Your Leadership

Summary

Redefiners Podcast Summary
Episode: Leadership Lounge: How to Future-Proof Your Leadership
Release Date: October 9, 2024
Hosts: Hoda Tahoun & Clarke Murphy
Guest Speakers: Erin Zollner, Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter, Dana Landis, Emma Coombe

---

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Redefiners, titled "Leadership Lounge: How to Future-Proof Your Leadership," host Emma Coombe welcomes leaders and experts to dissect the evolving landscape of leadership in today's dynamic world. The discussion centers around the essential skills and mindsets leaders must adopt to navigate complexities such as technological advancements, geopolitical uncertainties, and sustainability imperatives.

---

Changing Leadership Landscape

Emma Coombe sets the stage by highlighting the unprecedented challenges leaders face, from the pandemic to the surge in artificial intelligence and sustainability efforts. The central question revolves around identifying the key skills that enable leaders to stand out and how hiring managers can assess a candidate's readiness and potential for long-term success.

Erin Zollner, Leadership Advisor from Russell Reynolds Associates, emphasizes the shifting expectations of leadership:

“Leadership expectations today are changing with new technologies and geopolitical uncertainty. The complexity of CEO and senior roles is far, far more extreme and therefore the skills that are needed by those same leaders are shifting as well.”
(01:42)

---

Key Skills for Future-Ready Leaders

Erin Zollner outlines four critical factors essential for modern leaders:

1. Drive and Resilience: The capacity to persevere and remain stable under pressure.
2. System-Level Thinking: The ability to understand and navigate the broader ecosystem.
3. Agility and Adaptability: Flexibility and curiosity to evolve with changing roles.
4. Social Intelligence: Skill in reading and understanding others' motives and behaviors.

Emma Coombe adds to this by referencing Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo Cars, who discussed the eight Cs of leadership on the Redefiners podcast, particularly highlighting confidence and courage:

“How can we be confident in somebody if they aren't confident in themselves?” Rowan questioned, emphasizing the balance between confidence, courage, humility, and self-awareness.
(02:53)

---

Importance of Self-Awareness and Legacy

Erin Zollner points out that while the four skills are foundational, self-awareness is equally crucial:

“They don't realize their potential unless they have a deep understanding of themselves.”
(04:16)

Emma Coombe shares a personal experience from a leadership retreat in the Swiss Alps, emphasizing the significance of reflecting on one's legacy and values to bolster resilience:

“Having a clear sense of their personal values and aspirations was important in preparing them for their current role.”
(04:42)

Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter further discusses how understanding one’s values aids in setting a clear leadership direction:

“When you are aware of these values, you can also act upon them more clearly... sets you up for sustainable performance in the future.”
(06:20)

---

Potential vs. Experience in Hiring Leaders

The conversation shifts to the hiring process, where Dana Landis underscores the pitfalls of prioritizing experience over potential:

“Research shows that women and other underrepresented people are less likely to be given high stakes financial and strategic roles on their way up.”
(11:39)

Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter advocates for considering potential alongside experience, explaining how it mitigates hiring risks and broadens the talent pool:

“Potential is about how far can someone develop and maybe how fast can someone adapt and evolve to new environments.”
(10:12)

---

Impact on Diversity

Dana Landis highlights the diversity implications of focusing solely on experience:

“We saw in our CEO Turnover index that in 2023, only 12% of the CEOs who are placed across the major global indices were women.”
(11:39)

She argues that embracing potential opens doors for underrepresented groups, fostering a more diverse and innovative leadership landscape.

---

Continuous Growth and Learning

Dana Landis emphasizes the necessity for leaders to maintain a growth mindset:

“It's important for leaders to recognize that they have to continuously lean in on their learning curve and that they're going to meet challenges they haven't seen before.”
(07:49)

Emma Coombe relates this to real-world scenarios, noting how even seasoned leaders benefit from mentorship and continuous development to stay relevant and effective.

---

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a powerful takeaway: Future-proofing leadership involves a delicate balance of established competencies and the agility to grow and adapt. Key highlights include:

• Curiosity, resilience, systems thinking, and social intelligence are paramount for long-term leadership success.
• Leaders must maintain self-awareness and a clear sense of their values to endure and thrive amid challenges.
• Hiring managers should prioritize potential alongside experience to foster diversity and innovation.
• Continuous learning and adaptability are essential, regardless of a leader's tenure or position.

Emma Coombe invites listeners to engage with future episodes by submitting questions and emphasizes the importance of embracing both current readiness and future potential in leadership roles.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Erin Zollner: “Leadership expectations today are changing with new technologies and geopolitical uncertainty...” (01:42)
• Jim Rowan: “How can we be confident in somebody if they aren't confident in themselves?” (02:53)
• Erin Zollner: “They don't realize their potential unless they have a deep understanding of themselves.” (04:16)
• Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter: “Potential is about how far can someone develop and maybe how fast can someone adapt and evolve to new environments.” (10:12)
• Dana Landis: “Research shows that women and other underrepresented people are less likely to be given high stakes financial and strategic roles on their way up.” (11:39)

---

Final Thoughts:
In a world where the only constant is change, this episode of Redefiners serves as a crucial guide for current and aspiring leaders aiming to navigate the complexities of modern leadership. By embracing a balance of resilience, adaptability, social intelligence, and continuous self-improvement, leaders can ensure their effectiveness and legacy in an ever-evolving landscape.

Transcript

[Emma Coombe]

Welcome to the Leadership Lounge, a place to kick back and listen as our experts dissect some of the biggest questions leaders face today. I'm Emma Coombe, Leadership advisor in our London office and today we're talking about how leadership is changing and how you can become a future ready leader. We've had so many issues that have come upon us all at short notice. Whether it was the pandemic, now the big switch to artificial intelligence, the wave of sustainability priorities. It's been fascinating, but also deeply challenging for leaders. And embracing complexity and uncertainty has become the new normal. So what key skills will help you stand out in a fast changing world? How can hiring managers identify whether you're ready for the role today and and whether you're able to continue to evolve and develop to succeed in the role long term. But before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefinersusslernolds.com we would love to hear from you. And if you enjoy listening to our episodes, leave us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. So let's dive into this topic. We'd like to welcome Erin Zollner, Leadership advisor from Russell Reynolds Associates New York office into the conversation. She spent her career assessing and developing senior leaders to maximize their performance. So we're looking forward to getting her perspective on the topic. Erin, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.

[Erin Zollner]

Thank you. It's great to be here, Emma.

[Emma Coombe]

So, Erin, can you talk us through how leadership is changing and what some of the skills are that leaders need to succeed today?

[Erin Zollner]

Absolutely. So leadership expectations today are changing with new technologies and geopolitical uncertainty. The complexity of CEO and senior roles is far, far more extreme and therefore the skills that are needed by those same leaders are shifting as well. It's no longer enough to have the requisite experiences or even the leadership competencies that are needed for someone to be ready to perform a role. They also need to have the potential or the agility in order to flex and to change as the role changes with them. When we think about that agility or that potential, there's really four main factors that we focus on. The first is really drive and resilience. So one's ability to persevere, their stability, their ability to remain calm during difficult times. We also look at their system level thinking, their ability to think across the entire ecosystem and to take that more macro view as well as their agility or their adaptability and curiosity and flexibility. And then finally, it's also important to have social intelligence. So an ability to read others, to understand their motives and what drives them.

[Emma Coombe]

Erin, I think you've brought out some super points here. And in fact, we were lucky enough to have Jim Rowan, the CEO of Volvo Cars, on our podcast very recently, the Redefiners podcast. And he talked about the eight Cs of leadership. And the two that particularly struck me and that I think are closely linked to resilience were around confidence and courage. He asked the question, how can we be confident in somebody if they aren't confident in themselves? And talked about as a CEO, how he tries to develop confidence in others and then also the courage, the courage to do the right things, but the courage to take difficult decisions. I think these two need to be balanced, of course, with humility and self awareness. But it was quite striking for me that courage and confidence were particularly called out. And then to your point on social intelligence, of course this is really important and we've talked about it a lot on this podcast. Emotional awareness, social intelligence. Today, CEOs are talking to such a range of stakeholders. It's not just the shareholders, but it's increasingly the importance of your employees, the environment of other key stakeholders in your supply chain. And CEOs being able to listen to these different constituencies, to pick up on subtle signals and cues, and to flex their communication style based on who they're speaking to does set apart great leaders from the rest. So, Erin, we've established that these four skills are important, but are they enough on their own?

[Erin Zollner]

Unfortunately, they're not enough. The growth factors alone do not allow this potential to come to fruition. They don't realize their potential unless they have a deep understanding of themselves. So we also evaluate whether leaders understand their own strengths, their development areas, their potential derailers, and also if they have a good sense of their legacy and their impact and what they want to leave behind.

[Emma Coombe]

Thanks so much, Erin. I think that's super insightful. And actually I was privileged enough to go to the Swiss Alps for a two day retreat earlier this year. I went with a small group of our colleagues and we spent those two days really thinking exactly to your point, around legacy and what we want to stand for as the leader. And I think my reflection was being able to do that exercise actually creates a level of resilience that is critical given the pressure that you're under as a leader. It makes you really remember why you're doing what you're doing and really have in my mind, the sort of energy, drive, resilience, to see through the harder times. We actually did an exercise that was particularly poignant, which was writing from the perspective of our life partner, our spouse, a child, best friend and a work colleague. What we would once said about us at our funeral, it was deeply moving. It was really quite emotional at times. But as I said, it did create time and space for us to reflect on our values as a leader. And it was hugely impactful for all of us. Another factor in ensuring leaders can perform in the role long term is an acute understanding of their value system, their North Star, that will keep them going when times get tough. Our Global Leadership Monitor found that 95% of C Suite leaders agreed that having a clear sense of their personal values and aspirations was important in preparing them for their current role. I'd now like to welcome Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter into the conversation. Tobias, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.

[Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter]

Thank you very much, Emma. It's very good to be here.

[Emma Coombe]

Tobias, how does understanding your values help you as a leader?

[Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter]

Oh, it helps you, absolutely. When you think about long term and when you think about what leadership culture do I shape, it's important to really understand what your values are, what you're passionate about, because that's most likely what people, your direct team, your peers and others and even your clients will notice. They will see and they will feel what you're passionate about and what you value highly. It could be that you value high quality. It could be that you value trust and collaboration. And when you are aware of these values, you can also act upon them more clearly. You will also be able to set yourself up and knowing, okay, this is something that is important for me, that is driving me, and so definitely sets you up for sustainable performance in the future.

[Emma Coombe]

You're right, Tobias. It's so important that a leader is able to clearly articulate what their values are, what's their purpose as a leader, what do they stand by? And also being comfortable in that these values and purposes aren't rigid, that they can flex as they develop and evolve as a leader. To talk on this point, we'd now like to welcome back Dana Landis, leadership advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates San Francisco office. Dana, welcome back to the Leadership Lounge.

[Dana Landis]

Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.

[Emma Coombe]

Can you explain why having a fixed mindset to success can trip some leaders up when they ascend into an executive position? And why it's so important to ensure you. You're continuously growing in your role?

[Dana Landis]

It's very tempting for senior leaders to feel like they've arrived or that they can sort of trust their old playbooks and their pattern recognition and that they've seen this movie before. And so they lean on those when they're facing challenges. The problem is that those challenges continue to really change quickly and some of those problems will be very novel problems. And so it's important for leaders to recognize that they have to continuously lean in on their learning curve and that they're going to meet challenges they haven't seen before. And so that takes some humility, but also self awareness and really recognizing that you don't know some of this stuff. Bringing other people to the table, opening up the dialogue, reaching out of your tree, and leaning into new kinds of information will help keep that learning curve fresh. It's also common that senior leaders don't get a lot of feedback. The higher up in an organization you go, the less you're likely to think about yourself as someone who's continuously developing. But the fact is that you will be a different leader five years from now than you are today, and that you were five years before. And so to understand that you're on a learning trajectory really helps you stay curious and stay flexible and keep reaching for learning opportunities.

[Emma Coombe]

Dana, I think this is an excellent point. And so often in these hiring processes of senior leaders, everybody feels that they're striving to find the perfect answer, but that never exists. And everybody recognizing that somebody will need support and development really does enable ongoing success. And actually I was really struck recently. I advised on the appointment of somebody well into their 70s to chair a very large and complex organization. And I was so surprised when this individual started talking to me about their mentor and the role that their mentor plays for them and helping them develop. Even somebody in their 70s looking to continuously learn. Now let's turn to the role of the board or the hiring manager in making the right leadership decisions. In today's fast paced business world, finding the right executive isn't just difficult, it's a high stakes decision where the wrong move can cost millions. Tobias, can you tell us what the benefits are for an organization when hiring managers expand their perspective from hiring based on experience and the competencies leaders hold today to also hiring for potential and the capacity for growth.

[Tobias Borte Hoichenreuter]

By adding potential to the mix, we also include the view towards the future. So remember, potential is about how far can someone develop and maybe how fast can someone adapt and evolve to new environments. So adding that to the mix helps de risking the hiring decision and gives you a more complete, more comprehensive picture in the end and helps you to feel more confident about the hiring decision you're going to make.

[Emma Coombe]

You're right, Tobias. The more information that can be provided as decisions are being made around appointing leaders, the better. And making the wrong decision can have a catastrophic impact. Indeed, our CEO Turnover Index found that failed CEO appointments, those who last less than two years in the role, accounted for over 15% of departing CEOs in the first quarter of 2024, compared to an average of less than 10% in 2019. High turnover can have a huge impact on the bottom line. Research from Harvard Business review found that $1 trillion a year of value was lost among the S&P 1500 alone due to high leadership turnover. This just shows how high stake these decisions are and how important it is that hiring managers get it right. Dana, we've just heard from Tobias about the benefits for organisations when hiring managers to consider experience and potential. What's the knock on impact on diversity if hiring managers choose this approach?

[Dana Landis]

I think it's important to understand that placing a senior executive is one of the most consequential decisions an organization is going to make. And so it's understandable that they're looking for people who have done this job for many years and bring a lot of relevant experience to the table. The problem is, is that that really narrows down the talent pool. Research shows that women and other underrepresented people are less likely to be given high stakes financial and strategic roles on their way up. So they often don't have as many years under their belts as some of the more traditional candidates. The problem with that is that you really narrow the talent pool when that's the lens that you bring. And we saw in our CEO Turnover index that in 2023, only 12% of the CEOs who are placed across the major global indices were women. What happens when you narrow the aperture like that is you miss a lot of high potential candidates who can drive change in the role and bring fresh eyes to the kinds of challenges that the organization will face. We also know that that role will look very different in three years than it does now. So all that experience that a traditional candidate brings to the table may not be as relevant. So bringing in talent, who can ramp up quickly, who will lean into the change, who can learn fast and bring new perspectives to the table will actually help in driving that change and sustaining the organization as you navigate the challenges ahead.

[Emma Coombe]

I think that's a really powerful statement, Dana. Experience is important, but having a capacity to grow, to be curious, to receive feedback is equally important. And no matter how senior a leader is, supporting themselves with a mentor, with a coach with trusted advisors is absolutely critical, even for a seasoned CEO. And so our time in the lounge today has come to an end in 30 seconds. This is what we've learned when hiring your next leader. Look at their readiness for the role today, but also their capacity to grow and evolve for when the operating environments inevitably shift. Curiosity, resilience, systems thinking and social intelligence are key skills that you will want to ramp up to succeed in the long term. The higher up you go in an organisation, the less likely you are to think about yourself as someone who is growing and developing. But it's critical to continue to look for learning opportunities and having a purpose and knowing your values as a leader is key to your longevity as well as the legacy you leave at an organisation. If you have any topics or burning questions you'd like us to cover in future episodes of Leadership Lounge, then please, please get in touch. Email your questions to redefinersusslerynolds.com youm can find us on LinkedIn and follow us on X raonleadership. You can also find us on Instagram Redefinerspodcast and you can now subscribe to our YouTube channel. Until next time, goodbye.