Good morning.
Leadership is an art, not a science, and many of its principles remain unchanged over generations, but most CEOs I speak with today also believe that something has changed in the last decade. The rapid pace of technological change, the wants and needs of a new generation of talent, the demands of a global pandemic, the complexity of reestablishing office work, and the fissures of an increasingly polarized society have combined to create a new template for effective business leadership.
What does that new template look like? That’s the question I explored in a virtual session yesterday with two top human resource leaders—Ellyn Shook, the chief leadership and human resource officer at consulting giant Accenture, and Pat Wadors, chief people officer at UKG, the human resource management company. (UKG sponsored yesterday’s event.)
Here’s how Shook characterized the change:
“There are three leadership characteristics that I think really have been dialed up. The first is compassion, being able to show compassion, which to me simply is empathy in action. It's not just being empathetic, but actually doing something about it.
“The second is learning. Leaders really need to learn. The pace of change is happening at such an accelerated rate. Probably every single person on this call is thinking about the implications of generative AI, but cloud technology, data security, everything around technology. Leaders need to be learners in order to be successful in staying out in front.
“And finally, humility is super important in this time. Really recognizing that the voices in your organizations of your customers or clients and communities really need to be a driving force for you to be successful as a leader and an organization.”
Pat Wadors adding “listening” to the list:
“I think it's in your day job as a leader to always be listening. I don't think you turn that off. If I know my employees and I care about them, I should be doing a check in on a regular basis. How are you? How's your family? How can I better support you? I think that's just normal great hygiene that we should be doing, regardless of what's transpiring in the world.”
She also reinforced a point made many times in this column about how a clear purpose provides a glue for successful leadership, as well as a guide for leaders trying to navigate their way through controversial social and geopolitical issues.
‘What is the purpose of the company? What do you stand for? Then when things occur that impact your purpose, you know you're going to speak out more loudly. Organizations will figure out those three or four things and then stick to that because you cannot as an organization speak on everything that's happening around the world all the time.”
Other news below. And check out Jessica Mathews's story on the alleged toxic culture swirling around Carta, the equity management unicorn last valued at $7.4 billion.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
