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Predictions for the World in 2050: Top Ten Opportunities and Challenges – Are You Ready?

A colleague sent me U.S. Census Bureau projections of the world in the year 2050. For those of us building institutions, communities, and businesses, this is important stuff.

Too often, leaders plan for the present based on the past while ignoring the future. What do the demographic shifts mean for your current work? What do they mean for new products, policies, and services for the global marketplace?

Population shifts in a nutshell: India will be the most populous nation, surpassing China around 2025. The U.S. will remain in third place, despite its projected growth of 115 million people.

Declining birth rates for two current economic and political powers, Japan and Russia, will lead to a fall from current spots as the 9th and 10th most populous nations, respectively, to 16th and 17th.

Russia will suffer most: the nation has been undergoing steady depopulation since 1992, not only from declining birth rates but low life expectancy due to alcoholism and poor diet. Russia’s population will drop another 21% by 2050.

Western Europe’s long-declining birth rate is reversing, and Spain and Italy are on track for a population “uptick" thanks to that and to immigration.

Africa’s poised for a boom, with Nigeria and Ethiopia on track for the biggest gains. Nigeria’s population will jump from 166 million to 402 million by 2050. Ethiopia’s is predicted to triple from 91 million to 278 million, placing it on the list of the top 10 most populous countries in the world.

Most of the changes for the U.S. will be internal. More than half of children under age 2 currently are ethnic minorities. That percentage will grow; and the aging of the non-Hispanic white population, immigration, and differing birth rates among races and cultures will lead to big shifts in the country’s ethnic composition.

So what does all this mean for you? You’ll need to figure the specifics for your work. My crystal ball sees things like:

1.  An increasing need for and use of clean, affordable alternative energies 

2.  The need for new ways to make sustainability everyone’s responsibility – we learned from China that managing the impact on the planet of population booms like those predicted for India and Africa will not be easy

3.  Attention to global water policies and usage 

4.  Rising markets in the U.S. and abroad for more diverse and ethno-centric products and services

5.  New national and global policies that anticipate shifts in world power and economic dominance – and deep diplomacy skills and negotiation-based strategies to handle strife, manage diversity, and deal with the realities of increasing competition for the world’s resources and markets

6.  Global attention to health and welfare issues and the need for new ways to understand diet, nutrition, mental health, addiction, the spread or eradication of disease, healthcare, and more

7. Advances in food production, transportation, and storage: Africa’s expected population growth, for example, significantly compounds current food-supply issues in many of its nations

8. Increases in global travel with all its ramifications

9. The internationalization of higher education

10. More internet-based businesses and services to respond to the realities of an increasingly global marketplace. 

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Hiring a Leader or Hiring a Stereotype?

The Chronicle of Higher Education Online had a piece on hiring that gave me pause. It tells the story of three candidates interviewing for a senior campus leadership position. Two played it safe and maintained distance from their audience with formal titles and podiums during their public forums. The third – who had tremendous support after a day of interviews and the strongest scholarly record among the three candidates – tried to demonstrate the values that would underpin her inclusive leadership style by suggesting more informality. Guess which two candidates were seen as real leaders?

[Skip to the text under the dotted line below if you want more case details before reading my comments.]

As a leadership scholar, I am struck by three things in the story. First, the power of the implicit leadership models we all carry – and how quickly and effortlessly they surface. If a candidate looks like what we think a leader should, acts like we think a leader would, then we must be seeing a leader, right? Maybe. Or we might be mindlessly projecting assumptions that have more to do with history and stereotypes than real leadership.

Second, our tacit models are often very traditional. In an increasingly complex, global world with serious challenges that we seem unable to resolve – war, poverty, violence, disease, oppression, threat of nuclear holocaust, destruction of the environment, and more – we need diverse ways of leading that capture collective wisdom and mobilize action like never before. Real leadership is about shared purpose and innovative problem solving, not blind adherence to hierarchy and protocol. To quote Einstein: We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Substitute leadership for thinking in the quotation, and you get my point.

Third, gender’s at play one more time. “Acting like a girl” wasn’t intended as a compliment, I’m sure – even though I love the free spiritedness and exuberance implied in a non-evaluative use of that imagery. Nor was it an objective way to describe that the informal introduction and chair moving didn’t accomplish their intended purpose. A different framing of the event might have seen risk taking, an attempt to create real dialogue, and authenticity.

I have had lots of experience in academia and seen differential treatment of male and female candidates in searches of all kinds over the years. That leads me to posit that a male candidate trying the same seating circle might have been praised for his frame-breaking behavior and his humble expression of his humanity. If not praised, I doubt anyone would have pejoratively said he’s “acting like a boy” for trying it.

It’s time to expand how we see and think about leadership.

Holding onto stereotypes and traditional views – the leader as superman, the white knight on his trusty steed, the valiant warrior, the lone hero in search of the holy grail – clouds our perspectives toward leadership and wastes energy holding onto an outdated fantasy. It makes it hard to understand how ordinary people – those who differ from the stereotype because of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other reasons – can successfully wear the leadership mantle. It also blinds us from looking below the surface of leadership’s perceived aura to identify what leadership really is and how it works.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

From What Does a Leader Look Like?[1]

Quick, when I say “leader,” what comes to mind? The question is prompted by a story a colleague shared about her university’s recent search for a senior leadership position during which one candidate had an amazing day on campus and then went down in flames in the final hour.

As is the case in many senior searches, candidates spent the day meeting and meeting and meeting. At the end of their day on campus, members of the campus community were invited to a large room with theater-style seating to hear each of the candidates speak. The format was to be the same for each meeting. The search chair would introduce the candidate, the candidate would speak for 20 minutes, and the audience would be invited to ask questions for the remainder of the hour.

Candidate No. 1, a man, came to campus first. Said candidate was introduced as “Dr. Candidate,” he spoke and then took questions.

Candidate No. 2, also a man, came to campus second. He was introduced as “Dr. Candidate,” he spoke and then took questions.

Candidate No. 3, a woman, came to campus last. As he had during each visit, the search-committee chair approached the podium. This time, he said to the audience, “While I would normally introduce today’s guest as ‘Dr. Candidate,’ she specifically asked me to introduce her as ‘first name,’ so let me introduce you to ‘first name last name.’” This prompted smiles from some and raised eyebrows from others. And then it was time for the talk. Did Candidate Three stand up and begin with her prepared remarks? No, she asked everyone to move chairs into a circle “so we can really talk.” Ten chairs in a circle might not be hard. Fifty plus? Apparently awkward.

Candidate No. 3 was clearly trying to demonstrate her commitment to inclusion and show that she is a good listener, and her supporters argued that she would introduce a consensus-style form of leadership that would bring the campus together. While not disputing that she was the most accomplished scholar, her opponents criticized her for failing to behave like a leader. Some even criticized her for “acting like a girl.”

Clearly, many people have views about how a leader is expected to behave, and candidates take a risk when acting outside of expected norms. What do you think? Are we holding on to old mental models of leadership?

[1] Allison M. Vaillancourt (2011). What Does a Leader Look Like? Chronicle of Higher Education Online.

June 20, 2011, 10:40 am

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10 Tips for Finding a Sponsor, Part 2: Managing the Sponsorship Relationship

Doing your homework is an important first step in securing the sponsor you need. To recap the last post, you’ll want to:

1. Clarify your preferred career path.

2. Decide what you want from a sponsor.

3. Define your personal style and communications preferences.

4. Determine your assets and demonstrate your contributions.

5. Identify possible sponsor candidates.

Once you know who you are, who and what you want, and why, you’ll need strategies for building and sustaining a sponsorship relationship. The final five tips, provided below, should help.

6. Think small, go slow, and test the waters. You may be ready to dive into the surf, but your potential sponsor may not be considering a swim or be a very good swimmer. How can you find ways to test whether the fit is right? One strategy is to ask for advice on a specific topic or project. The response will give you helpful data about the quality of the counsel and the way it was delivered. Did the interaction energize you? Empower you? Fit your need? Did it make you want to continue the conversation?

7. Be clear and direct. This should be easy if you’ve done your homework (see above). Be prepared to make a compelling and brief request. Think elevator speech!  Busy people appreciate your respect for their time. Be specific about what you want and why you want the person you are approaching. Flattery – sincere and tastefully done, with specifics, and in small doses, as in “I asked for this meeting because I so admire your ability to do X, Y, Z …” – works. Bring a resume or written materials to leave. Be sure to say thank you, whether the sponsor signs on or not.

8. Don’t be a drag. You may want weekly meetings, long emails, regular lunches, or monthly phone calls. The key is to find out what works for your sponsor. Ask – and always remember, this is a favor!

9. Reciprocate and show your appreciation. For this to work, it’s got to be a two-way street. That requires you to listen and to be savvy about how you can support your sponsor and demonstrate your gratitude. Keep your sponsor updated with a quick email when good things happen. Send an occasional small gift – maybe flowers, a book, or a bottle of wine (if appropriate) to mark a special occasion or accomplishment. When you can, find ways to promote your sponsor to important others.

10. NEVER LET YOUR SPONSOR DOWN. This may go without saying, but it’s important enough to say loud and clear. Deliver as promised. Better yet: deliver more than promised – and behave in ways that reflect positively on someone who has faith in you.

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10 Tips for Finding a Sponsor, Part 1: Doing Your Homework

Previous posts explored the importance of a good sponsor for accelerating your career. How do you find one?

To over-simplify, there are four steps: (1) figure out what you need and want from a sponsor, (2) find someone who matches your needs, (3) find ways to demonstrate your competencies, and (4) ask persuasively for his or her support.

A sponsor is different from a mentor. Mentors offer informal advice and coaching, while sponsors are high-power, high-credibility people in positions to open doors for you. Both can be important for career success, but you’re asking a sponsor to lay his or her reputation on the line for you.

For that reason, sponsors are harder to come by. Don’t let that discourage you. With preparation, time, and effort you can find one – or more – and the process of proactively cultivating a sponsor itself can be helpful and growth-filled. Research [see preceding posts] indicates it’s worth the investment.

I’ve got ten tips for facilitating the process. Five outline the homework you’ll need to do to get things started. Those are discussed below.

Five others help build and sustain a mutually satisfying sponsorship relationship. Those will be discussed in my next post.

Let’s get started. You have everything to gain – and little to lose – if you approach the process thoughtfully and professionally.

Part 1: Doing Your Homework

1. Get clarity about your preferred career path. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What jobs and organizations best fit your needs? It’ll be easier to identify significant others and talk with them persuasively when you have clarity about where you’re heading.

2. Decide what you want from a sponsor. Are you looking toward a job in someone’s department? Do you want a broader perspective on your industry? Do you seek a recommendation from a power player? Do you want access or an introduction to some movers and shakers? It’ll be easier to ask when you know what you are asking for.

3. Define your personal style and communications strategy. The more you know about how you relate to others and how others see you, the better your chance of finding a sponsor with whom you easily click. Mentors and sponsors can take pleasure in helping someone whom they see as like them.

4. Define your assets and demonstrate your contributions. Where are your skills? What career experiences best demonstrate your capacities? Where are your competitive advantages? You’ll need to develop a compelling narrative about yourself before approaching a sponsor, and you’ll only be able to do that after you’ve taken an honest inventory of what you’ve done, what you enjoy doing, and what you bring to the table. It’ll help if your sponsor has already seen you in action at work or in the volunteer community or if someone your intended sponsor trusts has already sung your praise. How can you make that happen?

And remember, all relationships are reciprocal: what are the professional benefits for a sponsor in supporting you? That’s something you’ll want to share.

5. Develop a broad list of possible sponsor candidates. Who do you know that you admire? Who has the clout or contacts you seek? Who could serve as a role model? Who exhibits the values you respect? Think broadly and beyond a boss or people you already know well. Finding a sponsor is a good way to network with powerful people – and that in itself is valuable.

Be prepared to approach multiple people. Not everyone may be ready or willing to help. You might even want multiple sponsors in different parts of your life – a workplace sponsor, for example, and one to provide connections to important civic boards and key volunteer activities. Expect refusals – and don’t take them personally! Good sponsors are busy people – and can be terrific sources of referrals.

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Sponsors, Salaries, and Gender: Hitting the Glass Ceiling Hurts?

Evidence mounts on the importance of a good sponsor. MBAs entering the work force with the recommendation of a strong advocate benefitted when negotiating compensation for starting salaries, a recent Catalyst study found.

Sadly, the research also demonstrates that the glass ceiling hurts – and is increasingly costly for women over the course of their career.

Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on equity and fairness for women in the business world, surveyed more than 4,000 MBA who graduated between 1996 and 2007 from different programs around the world. Women MBAs, on average, earned $4,600 less initially than their male counterparts. The data holds across industries.

Women start with lower salaries and have fewer opportunities to increase their earnings. Statistics for 2008, for example, saw promotions resulting in an extra 21 percent in compensation for men. Promotions for women during the same period netted them an additional 2 percent. Calculations conclude that over the course of a 40-year career, women lose more than $400,000 in salary.

That’s huge for the women and for their families.

"A lot of people just suggest that if we just give it time, the gender gap will go away, but we see if you give it time the gap gets wider," says Christine Silva, a research director at Catalyst.[1] 

The Catalyst study also found that having a sponsor widens the gender pay gap: strong sponsors who advocated during the job search benefitted male students more. The men’s mentors were collectively higher up the corporate ladder. As a result, their sponsors had more clout and impact on decisions like hiring and compensation. Men with strong mentors earned on average $9,260 more in starting salary than women with the same.

So what can you do?   

Be tough. Be informed. Approach any salary negotiation with compensation information about the organization you’re talking with and about similar positions at other firms, advises Susan McTiernan, associate dean for graduate programs at Quinnipiac University School of Business.

Be realistic. Be savvy. Understand salary expectations before you begin negotiating so you’ll know when you’re being low-balled, advises Diana Bilimoria, Professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Believe that you’re worth it. This is particularly important for women.  Research by Deborah Kolb, Professor Emerita at Simmons College School of Management and author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating the Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success, finds women less willing than men to negotiate for their own success. If you don’t ask for what you want, I guarantee you reduce the odds dramatically of getting it.  

Try on new behaviors. Work with a coach to develop new skills if salary negotiations are new or hard for you. Enhance your capacities to present yourself with confidence and strong executive presence. Learn to present arguments persuasively – and role play with a trusted other to prepare for a range of responses from the individual you’ll face across the table. Develop skills in asking clearly and directly for what you need. Recognize a win-win is possible for all parties involved. 

You’ll help yourself and your career by improving your skills in negotiation. You’ll also demonstrate the kind of leadership skills in doing so that warrant the salary you request.

[1] Brian Burnsed (2011). Business Schools Hope to Shatter Sturdy Glass Ceiling. U.S. News & World Report Online. June 15, 10:06 am ET.

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Accelerate Your Career: Find a Sponsor

Joann Lublin in the Wall Street Journal got it right. Her message: for career advancement, mentors are nice, but sponsors are essential. What’s the difference?

Sponsors are powerful senior players who open doors by staking their reputations on you. Mentors, in contrast, support by offering informal advice and coaching. The distinction is huge.

Reflecting on my career, my biggest advancements came when someone senior said: she can do it, give her the opportunity to prove me right. [A shout out of appreciation to Marvin Querry, Eleanor Brantley Schwartz, Gordon Lamb, and Marjorie Smelstor.]

Bottom-line: recognize the difference between a sponsor and a mentor, and be proactive in finding a sponsor to support your career advancement. Research has shown that’s not intuitive – or easy – for everyone.

A study by the Center for Work-Life Policy, for example, found that men are 46% more likely to have sponsors than women. Human nature and the realities of the workplace would predict that: men still dominate senior management and sponsors are more apt to support people with skills and characteristics just like them, making the scarcity of women and minorities in high places a huge issue for those demographics.

To fix this, nine big businesses have created sponsorship initiatives that match promising leaders with sponsors or teach them how to find and earn one for themselves. Early results are promising.

At American Express, for example, half of 20 women in their pilot sponsorship program last year landed promotions or lateral moves. Of 45 emerging female technical leaders in an IBM sponsorship program begun last summer, five have already accepted new posts. Three women from Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP’s program have taken full charge of a region for the first time.

If your company doesn’t have a program, there are still things you can do to find a sponsor. Offer yourself for “stretch” work assignments and projects that provide visibility to those at the top. Volunteer for committees where you can broaden your contacts and show your skills. Network – and see establishing relationships across the organization as an important part of your job. When you find potential sponsors, seek and heed their feedback.

It also goes without saying, delivering for a sponsor is a must. 

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The Arts Can Teach Us to Lead, Part 4: Fiction as Great Teacher

What are you reading this summer? The question is important for your leadership development. I suggest fiction. It’s a powerful and enjoyable pedagogy.

When we read fiction, author Annie Dillard reminds us, we slow life down: study it and our reactions to it.

Good fiction lets us view events from multiple perspectives – our own, the writer’s, and the various characters in the story – increasing our understanding of human diversity; the impact of time, culture, and experience; and the frames of reference we use to make sense of all that.

It offers a behind-the-scenes look into the complexities of organizational life. In today’s world, educators and authors do a disservice when they convey the illusion of simplicity or control with models and theories that portray the workplace as linear, rational, neat, and tidy. Human nature is complicated, and social processes like leadership and management are steeped in ambiguity, confusion, and choice. Good literature acknowledges that and plays out human nature in its fullness.

Internal struggles, confusion, ambiguity, and doubts of the soul are all par for the course. Leadership looks more like the gritty and human process that it is – and less glamorous and heroic – when seen through the difficult choices of compelling characters.

The health sciences have known this for a long time. They have a strong tradition of encouraging the use of literature – the reading and writing of it – for growth: the medical humanities are a well-established curricular tradition in medical education. Leadership education could borrow a page from their play book.

Harvard Professor of Medical Humanities and Psychiatry emeritus Robert Coles sees it like this: fiction and storytelling deepen the inner life of those who work at life’s harsh boundaries, offering insights into the role of learning and growth from disappointment and suffering, providing historical perspectives on the meaning of care and service, and more.

Reading fiction nurtures skills in observation, analysis, diagnosis, empathy, and self-reflection – capacities essential for good healthcare givers and for good leaders in any field.

Where to start? Anything that appeals to you – contemporary or classic. It’s the process of reflecting on the story, its characters, their struggles, and your reactions that matter.

Dip a toe in the water with business ethicist Joseph Badaracco’s Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership Through Literature. The book uses nine pieces of literature to examine challenges that test a leader’s soul. Read and think about a suggested work, and then use Badaracco’s chapter on it to stretch your own thinking.  The book offers its own self-study course, modeled on Badaracco’s long-term Harvard Business School course.

Or do something similar using On Leadership that captures lectures by organizational theorist James G. March  from his famous Stanford course on learning about leadership through the classics using works like Shakespeare’s Othello, Shaw’s Saint Joan, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Cervantes’s Don Quixote.

“Literature is an extension of life not only horizontally, bringing the reader into contact with events or locations or persons or problems he or she has not otherwise met,” reminds philosopher Martha Nussbaum, “but also vertically, giving the reader experience that is deeper, sharper, and more precise than much of what takes place in life.”[1] 

[1] Nussbaum, M. (1990). Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 48.

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Art Can Teach Us to Lead, Part 3: Teamwork and Dale Chihuly

We can learn about innovative leadership from Dale Chihuly. We can also see important links between innovation and collaboration by exploring his approach to his art.

Chihuly’s current exhibition, Through the Looking Glass, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston brings all this home.

I’ve been a Chihuly fan for twenty years, but this exhibit tops anything I’ve seen – and is a testament to how the artist has pushed the boundaries of his art and medium over his career. The Ikebana boat (below) was an Alice in Wonderland moment of pure pleasure and awe. It also spoke to the ongoing experimentation, learning from experience, passion for innovation, and teamwork at the core of Chihuly’s artistry.

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The story goes that Chihuly wanted to test the strength of some glass and see it in water. So he began throwing pieces over the side of a bridge and later asked some young men to retrieve them. The image of their boats filled with shapes and color gave birth to the Ikebana concept, now a staple in his exhibitions.

Equally inspiring are the videos shown in conjunction with the exhibit. Snippets are available online. Others and interviews with the artist can be found at the video screening room on Chihuly’s website.

Take a look. Watch Chihuly in action. Hear him and others talk about the innovative power of deep teamwork. Flora Mace, who began working with Chihuly in 1975 on the Blanket Cylinders (glass pieces of different size and shape inspired by native American baskets and weaving), explains the synergy this way: “When I work for Dale, I almost become him.”

The image of the solitary artist – the solitary leader – is forever shattered by Chihuly’s high-energy, high-engagement model of leader as visionary, director, catalyst, coach, choreographer, teacher, and partner. 

As Karen Chambers writes in Chihuly: Color, Glass, and Form:

“As director of the team, Chihuly makes the process a symbiotic relationship that draws on each individual’s expertise and energy. During a glassblowing session, the entire team is in sync, at one with Chihuly’s ideas and an integrated part of his creative process.

In creating the work, the team follows Chihuly’s instructions. He is like a choreographer who uses his dancers’ bodies to make tangible his ideas. Unlike teams in Europe, where production is the goal and each member has an assigned task, Chihuly’s team makes unique pieces and people exchange jobs. 

While a Chihuly team works together with apparent ease, the dynamic is complex. Chihuly acts much like a film director – creating the concept, initiating the action, and setting the scene – but the process requires something else, a special chemistry in which he works as catalyst. In this role, he manages a process in constant flux, harnessing the three key elements of fire, gravity, and spontaneity.

Chihuly is the catalyst that makes it all work. He brings together the best glass blowers according to their schedules and his needs, creates the most congenial ambience [through music, food, and setting], introduces a touch of glamour by moving the sessions from site to site and flying in his team, challenges the group with his ideas, and after an intense session of work, a few distinctively Chihuly pieces emerge.”

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The Arts Can Teach Us to Lead, Part 2: Poetry and Politics – They Go Hand and Hand

The late Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was a master politician. Political skills for him were all about enjoying and connecting with people.

Every interaction, O’Neill noted in his autobiography,[1] is an opportunity to leave a positive impression, connect with another around common interests, show respect, and learn something about someone and what he or she holds dear so as to someday be able to meet that person’s need in exchange for his or her support in advancing a larger goal or agenda. Sounds like the work of every good leader to me.

O’Neill passed along a wealth of suggestions for how to make sure that happens: avoid bunk, remember names, don’t forget the people who got you where you are, keep speeches short, keep your word ("in politics, your word is everything"[2]) – and never get introduced to a crowd at a sporting event.

My favorite tip from Tip: memorize poetry and use it to elevate issues – and O’Neill was not the only successful political leader to appreciate the power and possibility of poetry.

Less than a month before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy spoke at Amherst College to honor the late poet Robert Frost. [3]  His assessment of the functional nature of poetry:  

“When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.”

If classical poetry has never been your thing, try contemporary writers. I love National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver for her clean and poignant observations on nature. Her “Wild Geese” tops my list.

Dana Jennings in the New York Times recently recommended the pleasure of catching a good poet midcareer and suggests five whose work would be “a bracing warm-weather antidote” to thriller novels and those ultra-light summer movies.

My beach reading this year is University of Texas professor-poet Dean Young’s “Fall Higher.”  High energy. Great use of language. Imaginative. Humorous. Irreverence wedded with deep respect for the complexity of contemporary life. Powerful exploration of relationships. To wet your appetite, Young’s commentary on risk taking and the book’s title: “hark, dumb [expletive], the error is not to fall/but to fall from no height.”      

[1] O’Neill, T. (with William Novak). (1997). Man of the house: The life and political memoirs of speaker Tip O’Neill. New York: Random House

[2] O’Neill, T. & Hymel, G. (1994). All politics is local: And other rules of the game. Holbrook, MA, p. 125.

[3] John F. Kennedy’s speech on October 26, 1963 can be read or heard at http://arts.endow.gov/about/Kennedy.html  I’m sure Kennedy would have not used the historical term “man” to represent the experiences of both men and women had he been writing in more contemporary times.

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The Arts Can Teach Us to Lead, Part 1: Embracing Diversity Brings Innovation — The Compelling Case of Sissoko and Segal

I am a firm believer that we can learn much about how to lead from engaging with and in the arts. This post begins a series on the topic.

It’s a set of ideas I’ve been thinking and writing about for a long time. Quite simply, the arts “traffic in understanding,” in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard – and understanding one’s internal and external worlds is at the heart of leadership effectiveness. 

The major challenges in leading – understanding and working with those who are different from us, forging shared interests and common goals, motivating, influencing while remaining open to new learning, understanding the roots of competing interests and conflicts, finding lasting solutions to complex problems – echo life’s larger challenges.

The arts lay out these grand dilemmas in accessible form and invite us to reflect on and learn from them. I’ve been reminded of this by some recent events.

The first was a Ford Foundation conference held May 4, 2011 called "Fresh Angle on the Arts: Reimagining Culture in a Time of Transformation" – a day of discussions and performances exploring the role of art and artistic expression in times of social transformation and revolutionary global change.

Different cultures, ethnicities, and social traditions can separate us. But understanding our own history and heritage and then broadening our perspectives on other cultures through education and collaboration can take us to rich, new heights and toward common ground despite our differences.

Listen to excerpts from the CD called “Chamber Music” as performed by Ballaké Sissoko (an African musician playing a traditional lute-harp from Mali called the kora) and Vincent Segal (a French musician playing the classical cello) at the Ford Foundation conference.

Through the music of Sissoko and Segal, you’ll hear and experience quite simply and enjoyably exactly what I’m talking about – and chances are you’ll understand the importance of leading through and with diversity in today’s global world faster and deeper than you might from a lecture, essay, or class on the topic. 

“Chamber Music” has been reviewed as “one of Europe’s most buzzed-about world music recording.” It is also a clear and powerful illustration of fusion without loss, synergy without dominance, differences as the springboard to innovation, shared leadership through true collaboration, and globalization without fear.