LEADERSHIP TRENDS 2020 AND 2021

Among the most important leadership trends for 2020 and 2021 are the need to apply futurism and forward-thinking strategy more frequently, as well as exercise talents such as creativity and innovation more often. Noting this you want to become more of an anticipatory leader, it’s no surprise that you’ll have to start thinking like a futurist more often. And that not only means having to teach yourself to get better at weighing every decision. It also means having to craft more adaptable business plans as you go. Happily, asking yourself three simple questions can help as you go about considering how to build a more future-proof strategy, including:

– Financial gains aside, how can you always ensure you’re finding ways to win from every opportunity – i.e. by gaining new capabilities, insights, and resources that can be applied to other business ventures?

– What level of flexibility do potential ventures you choose to undertake allow – and just how readily can you repurpose tools, technologies, and insights from them in new and novel ways if needed… or use them to quickly pivot or springboard to new opportunities?

– How successfully and rapidly can resources and learnings garnered from your efforts in any given area translate to other contexts, industries, or areas of business opportunity?

In effect, the top leadership trends of 2020 and 20201 ask us as executives to look beyond balance sheets and research reports alone and always consider – how well does this investment bolster and augment my overall business strategy and/or holdings? And if sudden, unexpected developments call even the best-laid plans into question, how much room to maneuver do different opportunities truly afford me? As you may have noticed, no matter how much time and money you can afford to invest in any given venture, more often, if there’s one thing you can always bank on, it’s the benefits to be recognized by exercising start-up-level ingenuity at every turn.