Leading differently in a changing global landscape

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked our communities, devastated our economies, and even changed the way we work and our relationships with each other. We have also observed shifts in our geopolitical realities and seen growing urgency in response to climate change. Today more than ever, leaders need the skills and tools to navigate uncertain circumstances and pivot their strategies.

In collaboration with the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, 40 young global leaders completed a week-long executive education module. Drawing inspiration from their personal leadership journeys, these young leaders explored how they could manage teams in extreme circumstances, deal with unpredictability, and even unleash their creativity to lead more responsibly.

As leaders continue to navigate uncertainty, we asked four of our young global leaders to share their thoughts on how leaders need to lead differently to respond to our changing global landscape.

Arvan Chan, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, International, Centene Corporation

Workers are burning out, inflation is widening income inequality, and infectious and chronic diseases disproportionately affect underserved communities. As future leaders, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to define and execute new strategies capable of adapting to nonlinear uncertainties, restoring confidence in society and restoring stability to the system.

As we transition to a future of platforms, not products, industry boundaries will disappear. Therefore, it is critically important that our new business models are inclusive, that our “ageless” workforce is diverse, and that our big data and AI have ethical safeguards to ensure a more inclusive future for all.

Matthew Guilford, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Common Health

Leaders need to move the subject of uncertainty away from the risk committee and put it at the forefront of the organization’s strategy and implementation. At a time when people are hungry for a vision of a post-pandemic world, leaders have a responsibility to provide perspective on what they think the future holds.

But they must also take steps, every day, to build the resilience their teams need to thrive if the environment changes in a “non-linear” way. Empathy – with customers, employees, partners, and even competitors – is an essential enabler for this type of creative thinking.

Raju Narisetti, Director, Global Publishing, McKinsey & Company

As Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VCUA) soars – from the continued fallout from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and headwinds from the global economy – resilient leaders and organizations need to move from an “or” mindset to an “and” mindset. This means redoubling efforts to accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth to create impact on stakeholders and the ecosystem, creating value for customers, suppliers and the environment.

It is also about embracing technology to drive agile digital transformations within our organizations while continuing to build and strengthen our existing human capital and future workforce, reskilling, upskilling and motivating our teams to have a global impact.

Claudia Vergueiro Massei, Head of Executive Office and Transformation, Motion Control, Siemens AG

With so many parallel crises all over the world, it is increasingly imperative that leaders embrace new leadership tools and take action to transform today’s VUCA world into a super VUCA (vibrant, unreal, caring, amazing). Here are three change ideas that can make a difference in the future: