A Different Way of Looking at the Leadership Environment

Knowing What We don’t Know about Leadership

Bob Molenda, Likes to go from nothing to something

8 min readMay 10, 2024

Article 5 in a Series

By Two Guys From Stillwater, Minnesota

John Buettner and Bob Molenda

Have you ever worked on a problem and thought you had it solved? This happens with cars and computers a lot. So, knowing what you knew, you thought you fixed it, only to find out later that it was not fixed. Typically something changed, and what you “fixed” was just fine. You did not know about the changes that were made or it is very likely that something changed outside of your knowledge base. This seems to be a case of “Not knowing what we don’t know”.

It is a “Blind Spot” for most of us that got bigger during the last twenty-five years or so. Now we have to spend time getting to “Know what we don’t know,” in order to fix anything from thermostats and nuclear reactors to Leaders and Followers.

There are some people that are pretty happy about not knowing what they don’t know. There are others who are satisfied with not knowing what they do know. If you are reading this article, you are probably not happy about knowing about leaders and followers who do not know what they know or don’t know. You could be one of those people who don’t know about leaders and followers who do not know what they know or don’t know. You might be thinking, “Yes Houston, we have a Problem!”

What do you suppose happened to cause the Leadership Problems during the past twenty-five years?

Surveys tell us that the Leadership Criteria still work, so something else is going on and affecting missions, followers, leaders and just about everything else including outcomes. Is the problem here or is it everywhere? Was it something we did? Did we screw up Leadership and Followership all by ourselves? Where do we begin and how do we really “fix” the problem if we don’t know about it?

What kind of funny things do you think happened that could have such an effect on followers, leaders, teams, across the globe? Have some fun with this and make a list of possibilities. Pretend you are a modern-day Aristotle, looking for some answers (Hint…we have tools that the old-timers never even thought about.)

Speaking about Aristotle, who has been gone for a long time, we asked this question of ChatGDP (an Artificial Intelligence web site) and the answer that came back was insightful to the humans who asked the question. We took what was given to us, added a few things that were not addressed, removed some that were not fully understood, did some research ourselves, snooped around to see what others are doing and reorganized it into something that had just three broad headings.

You ask, “Why Just Three?”

Again, the answer is that three is smaller than twenty. Like last time, we want to keep the Entropy low, so that we can more easily understand what is going on. These changes not only affect Leadership, but they also affect followers, missions and just about everything else on planet Earth.

External Changes That Affect Leadership

(Getting to Know What We Don’t Know)

The changes and shifts have been driven by various factors, including technological advancements, globalization, changing demographics and evolving societal expectations. This represents opportunity for Leadership and Followership to adapt to these changes. Yes, Virginia, we have a Leadership Problem if we choose to ignore what has happened fairly recently in the past 2,574 years.

The Three Overall Changes are:

a. Technological Change: Rapid technological advancements have increased the need for leaders who can navigate and lead through changes brought about by these advancements. The ability to adapt to new circumstances and manage change is now a critical leadership criterion. These changes take place rapidly and leadership must be agile to handle these situations. The advent of computers, social media, web-based services have changed the speed of interactions and responses, but have also changed the way leaders and followers work. Artificial Intelligence will also have another effect that will impact the role of leadership in the near future. The dynamics of social media and billions of users, for example creates a tip in the balance between the popularity of a leader in one field and their competence in another.

The digital revolution has transformed the landscape, requiring leaders to possess digital literacy and interact and lead in a technology-driven environment. This includes leveraging data, understanding digital marketing and adapting to virtual workspaces in different time zones and cultures. This also means managing and searching for Truth as well as ethical behavior in a place where there are no formal rules or guidelines. Global organizations are sending false information, stolen information, industrial secrets, scams and hacking of financial, personal and state information.

The advent of remote-work, caused by the COVID pandemic has necessitated a shift in leadership techniques and styles. Followers are now distributed across different time zones and cultures. Leaders now need to be effective in leading distributed teams, fostering connections and loyalties in a virtual setting. There are new technical tools that can be used, but new ways of handling critical relationships must be developed to ensure mission attainment. One way to look at this is to understand that our interpersonal distance has gone from about one meter to thousands of miles in just a very few years.

b. The World has become a Smaller, Limited Place : Because of technology and communication improvements, leaders must now deal with cultural differences, diverse perspectives and create an inclusive work environment in the remote locations of their team members. This means that the hierarchical, command and control leadership style has given way to a more collaborative and inclusive approach. This will appear as “Servant Leadership”, where the Leader is there to serve the needs of the team. Leaders are expected to be more open and transparent in their communication. Stakeholders, including employees, and customers value authenticity and honesty from leaders. There will a greater recognition of the importance of the well-being of the followers, who are looking for a balance of work-life, mental health and a supportive workplace culture. There also is a heightened awareness of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Leaders are expected to champion these values and create an atmosphere that encourages such behavior. This requires a heavy emphasis on just and fair treatment of followers.

There are other expectations that place demands on leaders not only for financial performance, but on their impact on communities, the environment and social issues. The world is more interconnected than ever before. Add to this the growing demand for leaders who are transparent and accountable for their actions in this world of constant scrutiny.

This may be where we have to maybe make some changes in our Triangle Model. What we have fallen into is the “Rabbit Hole” in the ground that hints strongly about everyone’s involvement with “Stakeholders”. Now how in the hell are we going to add another leg to the darn Triangle ?

The answer here is that we might want to start thinking about a “Third Dimension” that can be added to the Triangle. The question here is “Do we drop this into the bucket of Mission, or do we drop it into the bucket of Leadership Characteristics? How will this look ? How does anyone understand it. Is it low entropy or high entropy? Where the heck are we going ?

c. Mission Orientation: There is a growing interest in Purpose-Driven-Leadership, where leaders are expected to communicate a compelling vision and mission that goes beyond profit and includes a positive impact on society and the environment. Mission Statements are often missing in organizations and are “Musts” as teams of followers are expected to show loyalty toward the shared vision and mission.

Because of the pace of change, this brings the issue of lifetime learning, and adaptability into the ability to meet mission objectives. Another obligation involves mentoring followers, establishing new leaders and succession planning when team members move to other positions.

Many of today’s challenges are multifaceted and require leaders who excel at complex problem-solving, strategic thinking and innovation. There are no simple solutions and compromise is needed now more than ever. This is where the need for Low Entropy Leadership comes into play. Leaders need to go from the complex to the simple, from chaos to order in order to make timely and intelligent decisions.

Some industries face a shortage of leaders and followers with specialized skills and knowledge dealing with technology and cybersecurity, for example. All these pressures come with higher levels of stress and responsibility for leaders. Leadership Burnout can become an Endurance Issue for Mission Accomplishment.

To address these challenges, enterprises may need to re-define their leadership selection criteria, invest in leadership development programs, foster a culture of continuous learning, adaptation and actively seek diverse, inclusive leadership teams. In addition, the leadership selection process should align with the specific needs and goals of the enterprise.

In summary, in 2024 Leaders need to be “Data Driven”, “Technology Savvy”in addition to having character Ethics and Integrity. They need to be more like Servants to the Followers and Stakeholders while providing a Vision of their Destination.

They should be easy to recognize. Look for the Fair, Confident one with a Smart Device who uses Data, making sure their Team has what they need, listens and is sensitive to the needs of the Hidden Stakeholders wherever they may be and provides the same compelling Vision to all.

Are you sure that you want to be a Leader or a Follower in the future? What about the mission? You might think that Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas and even Harry Truman are gone and you are all alone out there. How does this all fit together when your own Leaders are having the same problems? It seems like we need to work from some kind of “internal guiding light” in this dark place where there are few or no guardrails. Sometimes I wonder if Houston knows about any of this.

Be a Hero and talk to everyone about the world being a smaller place, all this technology we have to use, mission orientation and leaders being servants, because it’s critical.

Besides that, It’s probably good therapy for all of us and might impress the boss!

Post-Script:

The references below are here for a reason. We used them and they represent examples of an institution that is taking some action on the matter of “Not Knowing what we don’t Know about Leadership”. Neither of us are graduates of Seton Hall University and we are not professionals, so we have no bias one way or the other. This is one place where we would go to stay on top of this game in 2024.