
Solving The Enduring Leadership Crisis
Things like integrity, honesty, and personal responsibility immediately come to mind. While those are all critical attributes, they’re not the leadership attributes I am currently discussing. According to Gallup, 7 out of 10 employees are disengaged and 1 our of 10 is actually working against your organization’s mission. This data point has been pretty constant for almost 20 years.
There is a new standard of trust leadership principle leaders must embrace if they want to be relevant and effective in today’s world of technology-enabled transformation and progress into the future.
You sometimes hear people refer to managers and leaders in comparable ways. The truth is they are fundamentally distinctive and unique. Managers control what tasks people execute and how they perform it. They can discharge this through rules, standard operating procedures, and by example. You’ve heard the term “micromanage,” but nobody ever proclaims “I am a micro-leader”. That is because leaders don’t operate in the same manner.
Leaders don’t alter how people behave; they alter how people think and they do it without ever advising them what to think. Leaders alter the way people think about the future, change, and opportunity. In principle, the way they think about the foundational beliefs that convey their ethics, actions, worldviews, and life tactics.

You’ve may have heard the axiom “show, don’t tell.” Well, a manager tells people to follow him; a leader shows people he or she is worthy of being followed.
Naturally, your capacity to lead is directly linked to your ability to inspire trust. To earn the relationship capital of your people in a rapidly changing world facilitated by digital and social technology, you need to master how to recognize the driving forces that are shaping the future.
Our Standard of Trust Leadership™ Model gives you the ideal method of achieving this as a leader. When you have shown an ability to make correct predictions, to plan by separating the Hard shift that will happen from the Soft Shift that may happen, it does more than indicate that you are effective at shepherding your people to success. It earns a relationship capital trust from your people. And produces a higher level of commitment to the mission that results in success.
Bear in mind that a confirmed track record of successful results only goes so far. From a leadership point of view, a successful track record does not assure a successful future, because the world is swiftly transforming at an accelerating speed. The capabilities that may have once brought great outcomes no longer hold the same guarantee. This has been recognized for a long time, but in the last few years the increased rate of change has surprised many leaders; even those with long track records of success.

Leadership Now Must Foresee and Envision
In recent times, leaders have emphasized agility; being able to swiftly change based on external pressures because the change from the outside in has been appearing at an ever faster speeds. To be an effective leader both today and into the future you must be able to become masterful not only at responding fast to occurrences but foreseeing change before it happens.
A few weeks ago, a CEO from a Fortune 50 technology corporation stated that:
The pace of change is now faster than our organization’s ability to respond to it.
I too hear this declaration quite often as I travel around the world speaking to and working with executives from some of the leading companies in the world. For those of you who are not directly involved the technology business, creating, manufacturing, marketing and selling various types of hardware, software, or both, I’m sure you would not imagine an expression like that from a tech firm. You might believe it from a financial services firm, or a consumer packaged goods company, but not a major technology corporate leader.
But the reality is that accelerating speed of change is disrupting all businesses, large and small, regardless of industry. As an industry leader, it is with all likelihood that you are already engaged with and educated about the alterations taking place in that sector. Nevertheless, by being so occupied in your industry, you may be unaware of what is occurring on the outside, where others have been transforming with breakthrough innovation.
Industries don’t change in a void. Look beyond your industry for a wider view for the answers you require. Find out about the latest technologies that have been created and implemented in other fields. How are they altering the way other companies conduct business? Also, how can you customize these innovations to fit your circumstance? How can you learn from the errors of those outside your industry so you don’t make the same mistake in the same manner? That is an excellent proactive approach to the disruptions you recognize are forthcoming.
Conclusion
So while we all know the timeless attributes of leadership, there’s no sustainable competitive advantage in being just like all others. This is why envisioning is so critical. What do you spot that is about to occur, and how can you utilize it to your benefit? Instead of getting roadblocked by ideas you do not understand, now is the time to leverage Hard Shifts to envision what’s approaching so you can spot the disruptions that are coming your way and be proactive about it before you are disrupted. This leadership capability is not restricted to the technology industry. No matter your background or functional expertise, you can learn to envision.
Don’t wait for your future to unfold haphazardly or be influenced by a competitor because if you do, you may find yourself in a situation you do not want to be in. Instead, identify the certitudes that lie ahead, spot the emerging upheavals so that you can decide to be the disruptor as opposed to being the disrupted. See what you are confident about and what you can act on instead of being vague about what you cannot do, and you’ll emerge a much more effective leader…a Standard of Trust Leader. Solving this enduring leadership crisis is good for your business organizations and good for society.
www.StandardofTrust.com

Sources:
http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Trust-Leadership-Transforming-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00IK1T6Z6
Originally Published on October 22nd, 2015 on Linkedin Pulse
