Before the advent of the computer age and globalisation, there were only two certainties in life, namely death and taxes. Since we moved into the new millennium and the rate of technological development has sped up even more, there is now a third certainty and that certainty is constant change. This inevitable accelerated change is speeding up year after year, due to the on-going technological development, the explosion of knowledge, globalisation, the shift in economic power to Asia and the changing demographic majority in a number of first world countries.
Just look around your own environment and you will bear witness to the incredible strides made in technological development over the past few years. Remember those huge bricks; we called mobile phones in the 1990's. All those behemoths could do was make and receive phone calls and they had a battery life of only a few hours. Now only a few years later you have a smart phone in your pocket that weighs a few ounces, with a battery life of a couple of days, with more computing power than one of the space shuttles. All these changes have occurred in a little over ten years, astounding progress, when you consider that the first computer was only invented in the middle of the last century. Ray Kurzweil, in his essay, "The Law of Accelerating returns", which he published in 2001, states that technology will not only experience 100 years of progress during this century, he says that it will be more like 20 000 years of progress at the current rate.
Add the fact that knowledge is doubling at an ever increasing rate, every year and change becomes not only inevitable, but committing to a life time of learning and growth, is now more crucial than ever. At the turn of the last century, it is estimated that it took about 150 years for knowledge to double. Since the turn of this new century, it is estimated that knowledge is doubling every two years and astoundingly by 2020 the experts predict that knowledge will double every 72 days. This growth in knowledge will require more and more specialisation and focus on the part of everyone. The concept of a universal man or women that could know all the information available to mankind becomes more and more impossible as the years go by.
The very people that were born in the 1980's and 1990's (Millennial Generation) are the biggest group to enter the workforce, since the baby boomer generation. These people have grown up in a different era; their value systems are completely different. As they enter into the workforce and become the decision makers of the future they will most certainly change the way things are done. The key role they will play in changing workplace dynamics will be driven by the ever increasing expectation around instant gratification and their need for constant reinforcement and praise.
Leadership in most business organisations has been based on the premise that these organisations are purely there for economic reasons and to generate a profit for all stakeholders. Business was all about developing structures that could leverage the best control over resources so that capital could be managed and leveraged for maximum return. These structures were best served by pyramids of hierarchies that performed rigid and narrow tasks, within very narrow guidelines. These structures have become archaic and will no longer be effective in the new millennium.
Today it is no longer about managing people and processes. Effective leadership is all about building and supporting everyone in the organisation, to become leaders in their own right. Success is no longer about having leaders that create structure and systems that people blindly follow. It is about developing a leadership style, where everyone in the organisation builds their own self-confidence, self-awareness and becomes responsible for their own self-management.
This mind-set is best developed by encouraging everyone in the organisation to build their emotional intelligence, by improving their communication skills, encouraging the development of effective time management skills, building real connection through effective networking and a focus on building a culture of team participation and recognising the importance of each individual to the whole. These rapidly changing times have highlighted the need to do things differently and to commit to a lifetime of learning and growth. The need to be flexible and adaptable, has never been more necessary than it now is, open your mind and allow yourself to not only expect change, but to plan for change and to change the one thing you have control over, namely yourself, sooner rather than later. This shift will allow you to see new trends and changed circumstances early. This will give you a huge advantage going forward.
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