In our earlier post, The Best Time to Be Born, we talked about how almost 20% of the richest people on the planet were born in a ten-year period in the US. Luck and good timing!
Warren Bennis picks up this theme in his classic leadership text, On Becoming a Leader. His opening chapter is titled ‘Mastering the Context’.
His view is that we are all born into a set of circumstances. Some more desirable than others. Either way, it is our response to this context that matters. We can either surrender to it or master it. This is the switch for turning on leadership. The willingness to fulfil your purpose – both individually and as an organisation – regardless of the starting point.
In our rapidly changing world, a leader is like a sailor with a compass. We need to be able to learn from the world around us, the ebbs and flows of the tide, the positions of the underlying currents and the directions of the prevailing winds. Without this knowledge of our environment we are doomed to be at it’s effect, instead of its master.
This set of articles is about the context we’re living in today. They’re about the big ideas shaping our individual and our organisational futures. They’re about the big opportunities that we can ride like a surfer to golden riches lying on the beach.
This book is provocatively called What the #$%?! Is Going On because this is the battle cry of our generation. It’s both a proclamation of anxiety that we don’t know what’s going on. And, it’s a statement of opportunity of the turbulent times in which we live.
It’s been written as fuel for those in business who want to lead the way, for those who want to explore new opportunities and for those who want to make informed business decisions.
It’s also for those people who want a first level of defence against disruption from direct competitors, previously anonymous global players and seemingly unrelated technologies.
The future leaves clues today and your challenge is to tackle these ideas as sparks to creating your future. Grab these trends, patterns and ideas today to create the future you want tomorrow.
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