Thinking and Acting Differently

The Importance of Developing Future Leaders

The current and future business climate necessitates skilled executives capable of providing and generating strategic distinction (Betz, 2016). The importance of developing future leaders at the organizational level cannot be overstated. On that point, firms are devising strategies to out-think, out-execute, and out-innovate their competition. Creating and growing a well-connected system that is fostered in an organizational structure with the goal of accomplishing objectives and aims in a competitive business environment is one of the key issues that company leaders face. According to Neal & Conway (2013), the next decade’s transformational leadership calls for the re-ignition of innovation in order to create tangible and cost-effective improvement, as well as changing organizational structures into forms that enhance collaboration within business institutions. Instilling and practicing critical thinking in business leadership is at the center of such strategic differentiation. Future leaders need to have exceptional traits that will help their organizations remain competitive (Neal & Conway, 2013). The following section seeks to briefly explain three methods that are instrumental in thinking differently for future leaders. One of the methods will be selected to show how it can be applied in solving a practical issue observed in the stimulation process.

Multi-Modal Thinking Approach

Firstly, future global leaders will need to apply multi-modal thinking approach. According to Neal & Conway (2013), multi-modal thinking is a unique technique that shows leaders’ ability of absorbing, synthesizing, and organizing information. Application of this approach plays a pivotal role in understanding the business world, especially when strategic decisions are needed. Notably, such exceptional leaders use the new world views in not only determining the best way to lead an organization, but also how to change their leadership style at an individual level.

Experimental Mind

Although innovation is an important component for future global leaders, having an experimental mind is as well an essential trait (Neal & Conway, 2013). Experimental leadership calls for a willingness to try out new ideas and recognizing that failures are part of a learning process. Rather than taking setbacks as problems, an experimental mind will consider them as opportunities to improve and to do better.

Reconceptualization of the Problem

Another method of critical thinking is the reconceptualization of the problem at hand. Re-conceptualizing an issue facing a leader or an organization is the starting point towards making a well-informed decision (Morgan, 2014). In order to provide appropriate solutions, future global leaders will need to analyze and understand the interconnectedness of issues at their working places.

In the simulation, the main problem for the organization was to understand how operations relate to each other. The company’s sales and profit margins were affected due to poor prioritization of business strategies. For example, the company invested a lot in hiring new sales representatives instead of innovating new ways of improving product quality. Further, the company showed its weakness by trying to establish new markets instead of first solidifying the current market segments. In light of these weaknesses, it would be prudent if the multi-modal thinking approach was applied by the leadership. Under the multi-modal thinking approach, business leaders adopt a correct mental model that recognizes the basic aspects of system theory within organizations (Senge, Hamilton, & Kania, 2015). In applying this approach, for instance, the management in the organization would realize that since the company only controls a small portion of the market share, hiring new sales representatives will only increase the cost of labor and production, which further affects the sales and profit margins.

References

Betz, F. (2016). Strategic thinking: A comprehensive guide. United Kingdom: Emerald.

Morgan, J. (2014). The Future of Work: Attracting New Talents, Building Better Leaders, and

Creating a Competitive Organization. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Neal, A., & Conway, K. S. (2013). Leading from the edge: Global executives share strategies for

Success. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Senge, P., Hamilton, H., & Kania, J. (2015). The dawn of system leadership. Stanford Social

Innovation Reviews, 13(1), 26-33.