New Kind of Business Leadership

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As the business environment is transforming, a new kind of business leadership is emerging. Contemporary organisations are seeking solutionists, activists, relationists, imperfectionists all with the curiosity and a mindset necessary for a fragmented, uncertain and non-linear future.

SETTING THE SCENE

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” - Peter Drucker
“The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” - Willian Arthur Ward

Questions to consider

What does it take to join the new generation of entrepreneurs, CEOs and leaders transforming business to create a more sustainable society?
How can executives reinvent collective performance across organisations in a post-pandemic world?
What are the strategic mindsets for solving our tough problems in these uncertain times?
Can thinking like an activist have a transformative impact on your business?
How do you build an open mindset that allows leaders to create flexible, adaptive cultures capable of naturally responding to change?

Happy reading and stay curious!

Here is more information about this selection of books.

The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix the Future (Kogan Page; April 2023) by Solitaire Townsend. What does it take to join the new generation of entrepreneurs, CEOs and leaders transforming business to create a more sustainable society? Using a change blueprint, this book coaches you through the steps, mindsets and strategies that will put your organisation at the forefront and take personal ownership of sustainability solutions. With an inspiring selection of stories from leading entrepreneurs and organisations, this book illustrates how sustainability solutionists are paving the way to solving the biggest crisis our planet has ever faced whilst driving business innovation and growth. Including plant-based food sources, net-zero technologies and circular platforms, these stories demonstrate how sustainable disruption can transform your business, regardless of size or industry. Solitaire Townsend has been inspiring the world's top brands for over two decades and, along with some of the world's leading solutionists, she invites you to join the answer activists and grow your business while co-creating a better world.

Dare to Un-Lead: The Art of Relational Leadership in a Fragmented World (Figure 1 Publishing; August 2022) by Celine Schillinger. This book will challenge the way you think and feel about the role of leadership in your life. Dare to Un-Lead explores how contemporary organisations can transform leadership from a top-down hegemony to one that empowers people to lead together through the concepts of liberty, equality, and community. How can executives reinvent collective performance across organisations in a post-pandemic world? From large corporations to small businesses, the lessons learned in this book, implemented individually and collectively over time, will make our workplaces more equal, our jobs more gratifying, and our economies more profitable. And that will make the world a better place.

Leader as Healer: A New Paradigm for 21st-Century Leadership (LID Publishing; June 2023) by Nicholas Janni. The book outlines both a theoretical and practical map towards a new form of leadership, one that embodies the 'skill, heart, and wisdom' that the current moment demands. The pathway Janni describes is one of integration and restoration, which is designed to reawaken the innate human capacities that were previously discarded and forgotten during our perilous journey towards profit-maximisation and "infinite" economic growth. It offers a way to grow ourselves as leaders and to heal our organisations.

The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times (Wiley; May 2023) by Robert McLean and Charles Conn. Posits a dynamic approach to developing organisational direction under uncertainty based on harnessing six reinforcing strategic mindsets, which they call curiosity, dragonfly eye, occurrent behaviour, collective wisdom, imperfectionism, and show and tell. Imperfectionists are curious, they look at problems from several perspectives, and gather new data and approaches, including from outside their current industry. They deliberately step into risk, proceeding through trial and error, utilising nimble low consequence and reversible moves to deepen their understanding of the unfolding game being played, and to build capabilities. They accept ambiguity and some apparent failures in exchange for improved learning and market position. Imperfectionists succeed with dynamic, real time strategic problem solving, confidently moving forward while others wait for certainty, or make impetuous and foolish bets. These strategic mindsets for solving tough problems in uncertain times help you fight decision biases and give you the data to develop informed strategies to win. In the fast changing world we all find ourselves in, being an imperfectionist is a critical advantage for you and your organisation.

The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business (William Collins; January 2023) by Lucy Parker and Jon Miller. This book argues that the world needs a new kind of business leader, one that thinks differently about their role in today’s challenges. From climate change to inequality, the major crises facing society have become critical issues for business, and the world expects companies to step up. This is a pragmatic book. Jon Miller and Lucy Parker show what it takes to do business in these challenging times, taking a close look at companies such as Apple, Mastercard, Nestle, Maersk, JP Morgan Chase and Walmart. Most people feel powerless when they look at the problems facing the world – but if you’re a leader in a big business, you’re not powerless. Whether you’re a top executive or earlier in your working life, this book shows that thinking like an activist can have a transformative impact – for yourself, for your businesses, and for broader society.

Leading in a Non-Linear World: Building Wellbeing, Strategic and Innovation Mindsets for the Future (Wiley; February 2023) by Jean Gomes. Takes readers through a groundbreaking set of science-based strategies to help them face rising demand, uncertainty and change posed by disruptive technologies and seismic shifts in globalisation. The book shows how our mindset, more than our knowledge and expertise, has the potential to be our greatest asset in facing the future. Jean Gomes reviews the latest brain research revealing that our mindset is the interplay of feeling, thinking, and seeing, and how we can build it to significantly increase our wellbeing and performance. It explores how to build an open mindset that allows leaders to create flexible, adaptive cultures capable of naturally responding to change.

New Kind of Business Leadership

As the business environment is transforming, a new kind of business leadership is emerging. Contemporary organisations are seeking solutionists, activists, relationists, imperfectionists all with the curiosity and a mindset necessary for a fragmented, uncertain and non-linear future.

SETTING THE SCENE

Questions to consider

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