The Futures of Learning and Leadership

The futures of learning and leadership are intertwined. That is one of the messages in the special issue number 100 of Leader to Leader (Spring 2021), where I’ve been managing editor since 2011.

This year marks 25 years of publication, and in preparation for writing their articles, we asked authors to consider the future of leadership in the next 25 years. I’ve drawn the following 7 insights from the articles for your learning and leadership journeys in the months and years ahead:

1. Leading is how to be, not how to do. Leader to Leader editor-in-chief Frances Hesselbein is a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, founding president of the Drucker Foundation and namesake to the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum–which is our journal’s co-publisher with Wiley/Jossey-Bass.
   
   During her leadership career (including as the longtime CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA), she was a frequent collaborator with Peter Drucker. “In my lifetime of leadership and service,” Frances writes in “A Call for Transformation,” “I formed my own definition of leadership: “Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do.”
   
   
2. Long life learning. That is the title of a recent book by Michelle R. Weise, senior advisor to Imaginable Futures, a global philanthropic investment firm.
   
   In our interview with her, Weise states that it's in the “lens of human longevity that our future of work becomes inextricably tied to the future of learning. Long-life learning is about anticipating that we will all need to navigate maybe 20 or 30 job transitions in the future (early baby boomers are already experiencing 12 job changes by the time they retire).”
   
   Weise also contends that too much of worker training is “more about compliance training or risk mitigation. So much of the burden of maintaining a skills edge in the workforce rests on the individual.”
   
   
3. Thrive through inclusion. LaShyra “Lash” Nolen recently made history at Harvard Medical School, as the first Black woman elected student council president.
   
   In her article “Student Government as a Vehicle for Social Justice,” Nolen writes that “After being elected president, I decided with the support of my team that we would use our funding to bring local grade school students onto campus for a 'Fall Fest' celebration instead of using the funds for our annual Halloween party.
   
   The kids left absolutely delighted, and many of them said it was the first time they had been on Harvard Medical School’s campus despite it being just a five-minute walk away from their school…it will be key that leaders of the future are cognizant to ask, “Who is here in our space and who feels like they can thrive in our space?”
   
   
4. The power of combinations. Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick is the president of Howard University, the renowned Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Washington, D.C.
   
   In his article “For Tomorrow’s Leaders, a Social Agenda is as Important as a Business Plan,” Dr. Frederick writes, “I am a surgeon by training, and, in addition to my duties as president, I continue to care for patients at Howard University Hospital.”
   
   A related power is combinations of people and technology. In our interview with Jeff Schwartz, founding partner of Deloitte Consulting's U.S. Future of Work practice, he notes that “in the context of the changing nature of work, both the shifts from process to projects and the combinations of humans and machines in superteams— complementing and extending the capabilities of humans, not just automating and substituting for labor—many of these trends provide a sense of the frontiers for leadership.”
   
   
5. The need for role models. John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman, and CEO of Operation HOPE, which he describes as “the largest nonprofit, best-in-class provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment services in the United States for youth and adults.”
   
   In “Leadership for a New Day,” Bryant writes that “Regardless of background, socioeconomic status or position, we all need role models and mentors. These people are placed in our lives to help guide us in deciding who we want to become and how we want to be in the world.”
   
   Similarly, Herminia Ibarra, the Charles Handy professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, notes in “5 Leadership Skills for the Future” that New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern “became a global role model for a more humane form of leadership by her compassionate and heartfelt support for victims of the mass shooting at mosques in the city of Christchurch that left 51 dead in 2019.”
   
   In their article “Delivered by Women, Led by Women - The Future of Global Health Leadership,” Roopa Dhatt and Ann Keeling write that “More female role models in leadership positions will encourage other women to join.” Dr. Dhatt co-founded Women in Global Health (WGH) in 2015, and is a practicing internal medicine physician in Washington, D.C. (Note the similarities to Dr. Frederick, above.) Keeling is the chair of Age International and senior fellow with Women in Global Health, and is the former CEO of the International Diabetes Federation.
   
   
6. Get past your blindspots. The psychologist/author Daniel Goleman introduced a global audience to the concept of emotional intelligence in his landmark 1995 book of the same name.
   
   In his article “Leadership Blindspots,” he writes about “crucial aspects of organizational reality that leaders fail to see or to regard as important.”
   
   He states that emotional intelligence “entails two varieties of a leader’s attention: on one’s self, and on others.” But there is another crucial factor: the system in which the leader operates. For instance, leaders “must unveil and then lead efforts to overcome systemic bias in your organization, whether against African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, or others.”
   
   
7. Soft skills are crucial. Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take the Lead, writes in “Intentioning: The Key to Reaching Gender Parity in Leadership,” that “conflict resolution, teamwork, creative thinking, empathy, and networking—the qualities often associated with “femaleness”—are just as or more important than “hard skills,” such as budgeting and computer coding. The so-called “soft skills” are essential skills that already exist within each and every person of good will.”

Each of the above points are challenging, and require continual care and attention. Specifically considering the point above about role models, perhaps one or more of the above leaders can inspire you as a role model, no matter what type of organization or sector you represent.