The Power of Heart-Centered Leadership
Leaders across the globe have been significantly challenged by the events affecting our daily lives since March 2020. All this time, I have had a virtual front seat to get to know and observe how leaders have utilized both sides of “VUCA.”
As you may already know, VUCA is an acronym first used in 1987. The U.S. Army War College introduced it to describe today’s Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, which is the multi-lateral world we had entered at the end of the Cold War. By early 2017, Bill George — prominent executive and Board member — wrote in Forbes that our uncertainties had increased so much that we had entered VUCA 2.0. And that was long before the disruptions of COVID.
Bob Johansen of the Institute of the Future has suggested that leaders transform the VUCA acronym into Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility instead of its current meaning. Leaders from all levels who have successfully shifted their focus achieved that outcome by reviewing, repositioning, and reassessing their organizations.
In following this trend among leaders as part of my coaching practice, I have observed six specific current global leadership challenges:
- Being practical & encouraging effectiveness in others
- Inspiring all employees
- Developing employees
- Leading a team with heart-centered qualities
- Guiding change
- Managing stakeholders
