The Business Bulletin
The 7 steps to Frontier Leadership Today we are at a frontier that is challenging our received wisdoms about how to work, where to work and what to work on. The Coronavirus pandemic is a genuine, never before experienced event, that is disrupting everything.
All leaders are in uncharted territory.
we predicted. Here’s what else has
in the world. Or the face-to-face
How they respond will determine the
changed.
services you deliver, could be replaced
success of their ventures for the next
by an app. We challenged leaders to
decade or more. What is certain is
Pause
that leaders cannot wait for this crisis
It is too easy, when so much is
their beliefs about their operating
to be over before acting. They need to
changing, to feel the need to do
models and how they behaved as
start shaping the new normal.
something, anything. In fact, it
leaders were genuinely suited to
becomes even more critical to stop
these challenging times.
Our research two years ago into
critically examine the extent to which
how leaders were thinking, acting
and reflect first – to pause and really
and operating, led to the first version
challenge yourself and crucially to
this necessary moment of reflection
of The 7 Steps to Frontier Leadership.
examine your purpose.
– does your organisation’s purpose
We found too many leaders operating in their comfort zones, often because
Taking the time to really
But a new question has arisen in
still make sense in the emerging
understand the context of your
world? So many people have been
organisation and the challenges
forced to stop and pause and really
were far from the frontier where they
it faced was always important and
think about what they want from life.
needed to be.
two years’ ago we highlighted
Yes, there is huge pressure for the
how infrequently and narrowly
economy to re-start, but people don’t
needed to be at the ‘frontier’. The
organisations do this. Despite
want to work the way they did, they
pandemic has done nothing to
the pandemic, globalisation and
don’t want to buy the things they
change this view and in fact Covid
technology still mean your next
did, or interact the way they did. As
has accelerated some of the changes
competitor could be based anywhere
society re-examines its values and as
they didn’t know what else to do. They
Our contention was that leaders
Issue 8 – Strategy and Personal Development | 19
