For me, 2020 will forever be known as “the year of the Covid-19 crystal ball”. It was a period that brought the future into our current reality and consolidated the risks and opportunities accordingly. It gave us a glimpse of the unknown and, as such, emphasised the extremes and polarities that have been slowly emerging but not fully adopted or understood.
In a recent article, Josh Bersin wrote “I don’t see this as a ‘black swan crisis’ – I see it as an accelerated global transformation”. It’s a moment in history that has brought tremendous suffering and pain, but is also an opportunity we aren’t likely to see again – a chance to re-learn and evolve the most important skill for the future: leadership.
The last 12 months, then, have possibly been the best case study in contrasting leadership we may ever have. It was an opportunity to see how different leadership styles, cultures and individuals react when faced with the same challenge, and how those different decisions created outcomes that will impact countries, organisations, citizens and economies for decades to come.
Issues of social justice, income inequality, politics, digital divide and climate change are just a few of the topics of note from 2020. While they appear to be very different subjects, they share one fundamental idea, that of polarities.
Polarities are the seemingly conflicting goals, messages and realities of individuals and stakeholders; the extreme sides of ideology, politics, and society that a leader must navigate to reach a successful outcome.
Age of extremes
Traditionally, leadership philosophy was driven by simpler or more binary thinking that focused on ideal competencies and result, such as the idea that in order to be future-focused we have to betray, invalidate or ignore history and traditions of the past. Leaders subscribed to the false narrative that polarities and paradoxes must be in conflict and, as such, created narrow definitions of success, eliminating the value-added opportunities of cooperation.
Modern shifts in the workforce culture, accelerated by Covid-19, demonstrate the flaws in this philosophy and make it clear that leaders must adapt rapidly or they will not survive.
Many leadership and business paradigms were developed and matured in the late 1800s early 1900s at the same time as the publication and adoption of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and its accompanying ideas around the “survival of the fittest”. The popular culture confusion and mis-interpretations of his work around the nature of conflict and competition have long guided leadership values and are now proving to be painfully obsolete if not overtly destructive.
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The last 12 months, then, have possibly been the best case study in contrasting leadership we may ever have.
Research shows that embracing seeming contradictions can make an individual more creative and improve results. Einstein used to embrace the technique of contemplating paradoxical ideas simultaneously which helped lead him to the theory of relativity. Nobel Prize winners and ground-breaking scientists all spend time “actively conceiving multiple opposites simultaneously” in order to expand their ideas and thinking.
Polar explorers
So how do we use the learning from 2020 and evolve our leadership styles to embrace polarities and evolve for the new needs of our organisations and our teams? What are these seeming paradoxes that are changing the face of business?
The following are examples of high-level polarities that are particularly relevant given the current circumstances:
– Caring for employees vs. organisational performance.- Respect for culture and tradition vs. innovation, ability and future focus.- Solving for immediate crisis vs. building for the future.- Immediate profit/return vs. corporate social responsibility.- Trusting employees vs. controlling behaviour.
According to Barry Johnson, the leading expert on polarity management, “where organisations have typically erred is by trying to ‘solve’ polarities or compromise one to the detriment of both and the organisation overall.”
Instead, he argues, “they should be treated as a dynamic system, like a wave. The ‘answer’ is part of a natural, ongoing oscillation between two poles. Therefore, what used to appear as a decision requiring an either/or selection now shows up as a dilemma to be leveraged through both/and thinking and discernment.”
Many organisations have been able to address these concepts with interim measures but are struggling with the desire to “get back to normal” vs. embrace the necessary changes that are part of the new reality. If leaders are willing to dig deeper and apply the insights into their policies and leadership styles there are long term strategic opportunities embedded within.
By identifying where leadership styles, organisation cultures, or competency models are over indexed on one side of a polarity there is the opportunity to create a more flexible model and thereby a more dynamic culture and leadership style which will lead to greater organisational and individual success.
Solveig Nicklos is an expert in operational start-up, turn-around and on-going management with a specialty in organisational culture and performance.
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