What’s your cognitive currency?
Leaders worldwide are cognitively ahead in their thinking with accuracy and precise vision.
At the same time, most C-Suite leaders are 7-10 years ahead. Yes, 2029 to 2032.
Our brain represents 2% of our total body weight, and it also accounts for 20% of the body’s energy use.
On a typical day, we utilize about 320 calories for thinking.
We feel, in our thinking, given the current climate around the world and the continuance of leading unprecedented times.
Adam Grant has published the blah feeling as languishing. He coined it “the middle child of mental health.”
Other leaders have shared with me that they feel malaise or even melancholy.
Leaders allow the space, time, and feelings to “BE.”
They honour all these feelings, yet a business must look ahead and continue to survive in the current pandemic climate.
Leadership keeps the ship pointed to the north star and at the helm.
They lead with all the elements of their talent and the attributes they bring to business acumen.
I’ve had the chance to witness and be of help to leaders on both sides of “VUCA.”
As you may already know, VUCA is an acronym first used in 1987 and introduced by the U.S. Army War College to describe the more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world we’d entered at the end of the Cold War.
By early 2017, Bill George, a prominent executive and board member, wrote in Forbes that our uncertainties had increased so much that we’d entered VUCA 2.0. And that was long before the disruptions of COVID.
Bob Johansen from the Institute of the Future suggested that leaders transform VUCA into Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.
C-Suite leaders who’ve successfully shifted their focus have achieved the shift by reviewing, repositioning, and reassessing their organizations.
In following this shift as part of my executive coaching practice, I’ve enjoyed seeing specific leadership challenges developed by Center for Creative Leadership:
- Honing effectiveness
- Inspiring others
- Developing employees
- Leading a team
- Guiding change
- Managing stakeholders
The connection between all six of these leadership challenges is people.
My definition of leading these challenges is simple—heart-centered leadership (VUCA 2.0).
Heart-Centered Leadership is honouring your connection with people.
I have a personal mission on this quest. I spent 21 years managing disability claims and lost five executives (3 VPs and 2 C-Suites) to cancer twelve years ago. I vowed to them that I would leave the generalist space and become a preventionist to ensure that leaders could lead without jeopardizing their health and emotional wellbeing.
Now in my 12th year, I know I made the right decision. 💜