A VUCA world — one of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — presents leaders with new challenges every day. What are the skills that leaders need in today’s rapidly changing business environment?
Gautam Kumra, Director, McKinsey & Co, and founder of the McKinsey Leadership Institute in India, believes some of the evergreen qualities that leaders need are: skills and character, problem-solving strengths, decisiveness and a result orientation.
“There are a few more in the sphere of character which are increasingly important today, and one of them is resilience. Leaders can invariably fail, and the willingness to pick yourself up and move on defines one’s resilience.”
Being centred
Kumra says the ability to be centred and being able to lead yourself is key.
“Many times, you get too influenced by what happens around you and by people, but doing what you are good at is important. One also needs a soft touch to get the best out of the people you lead. You need to get them to achieve their full potential.”
Speaking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the annual convention of the Madras Management Association, Kumra said no leader is complete in everything; leaders should therefore be self-aware and complement themselves with people who fill in for what they are not good at.
“The biggest frustration I find is when leaders are not self-aware and don’t make the right adjustments, and that leads to costly mistakes,” he says.
Less to do with age
Today’s younger leaders are a reflection of the world we live in, says Kumra. New industries such as digital and retail don’t have seasoned leaders to lean on.
“I believe the time-frame in which you can develop leaders is getting compressed. With the kind of challenges, experiences and global exposure to different roles and opportunities, people are getting ready earlier [rather] than later. It’s less about age, and more about the kinds of experiences you get.
Earlier, you took 20 years to go through experiences which, today, you can get in 10 years. Companies and people who reach out for those opportunities can progress faster,” he elaborates.
A leadership inventory
Developing a leadership pipeline for an organisation is no trivial challenge. If the CEOs are not convinced about the need to develop leaders, they will not lead the organisation well.
“Leadership is about breakthrough performances, meeting stretch targets and supporting your people. You have to match people with the right opportunities. Leaders have to build a culture where people understand and have a common vocabulary around developing leadership and putting it on the senior management’s agenda. Like you review performance, do you spend time to review the leadership pipeline?” he asks.
Here's a video of McKinsey’s Gautam Kumra expounding on the skills today’s leaders need.