In the exponential age, leadership has to be analogous

Understanding the risks, remedies, and sense of leadership in today and tomorrow is essential.

It is impossible to talk about the future without talking about who will lead us to it. The more I study leadership, however, the more I realize that this is a living science that we can never
stop rethinking concepts – and undo our common sense.

Deal with change, set course, align, motivate and inspire toward a goal. This is how John Kotter defines leadership. It contrasts it with what it is to manage: plan, organize, hire, control and solve problems. According to him, it is very difficult to fulfill these two roles at the same time.

In Leadership on the Line, we learn that to lead is to share your best with the world. That’s what INNITI Day’s speakers did when they took the stage and introduced how they are transforming their markets, and that’s what electrician Zé Carlos does when he serves his customers. He’s the one I call whenever I need some office repair, and having such incredible energy, I’m happy every time I need his service.

According to Daniel Goleman, there are six styles of leadership: affiliation, coercive authoritarian, visionary authoritative, coaching, democratic and pacemaker. Among them, Goleman explains that the visionary authoritative leadership style is generally the best for organizations. At first glance, this strikes us as we tend to relate the authoritative word to another term, authoritarianism.

Authority is the authorization to use tools, resources and power to achieve results. A leader
An authoritarian and authoritative leader actually uses his authority differently. While the authoritarian uses the power to impose respect and obedience, the authoritative expresses his authority in a participatory manner and encouraging dialogue, as parents talking to their children.

What we can deduce from all these definitions is that leading is a verb, not a position. So when we say that there is a leadership gap, we are saying that people who hold certain positions of authority are not behaving as leaders, they are not leading.

What is expected of a leader, then, glimpsing today and tomorrow?

Occupying the leader’s chair generates the thorny expectation that you will have the answers to every problem. This is not true as there are two types of challenges:

1 – The technical challenge is one for which there is already an answer, because it has already happened and was resolved in the past.

2 – The adaptive challenge is a new challenge that requires trial and error to reach everyone’s solution and engagement, not just the boss.

For this reason, future-relevant leadership needs to understand this and explain to their followers, making it clear from the outset that they will not have all the answers. The leader’s role is to deal with an intangible idea about the future, to get people through painful and unwanted challenges, and to lead those on a journey where only loss is seen at first.

When I studied this, I couldn’t help but think of the Social Security Reform. Something that needs to happen
in our country, but it involves giving bad news to the population. And politicians must do this: show that we are going to undergo a painful, losing adjustment to get a better future outlook than we have today.

The risks in leading

For leaders, however, it is precisely when losses begin that risks become greatest. These could include: being ridiculed, having a reputation attacked, scapegoating or having the style
criticized. And there’s an even bigger risk I met reading Leadership on the Line. In the book there is the example
from a reverend who always warned seminarians saying “don’t get confused with the Savior, or you might end up like him.”

When I turned to the dictionary to delve into leadership, I found that “leading” is a term
originated in the English language, “to lead”. In turn, this word has an ancient Indo-European root.
which means “to go forth and die”. “Going forward and dying” gave rise to the term leadership because of the
fighters who took the lead in medieval battles, literally risking their lives for being
in this role.

It is no coincidence that we have so many leaders who have been attacked or murdered in our history. In the United States, four presidents were killed during the term – the first of them was Abraham Lincoln and the last, John F. Kennedy. Another leader murdered during power exercise
it was Yitzhak Rabin, who took another important risk: confusing himself with his role. From his military background, when he became head of state, Rabin ignored the security measures necessary for his position – such as putting on a bulletproof vest that would have prevented his death.

Find your antidotes

Surviving all these risks, however, is not enough. Still, there is a chance to reach the
end, and in reaching what I wanted so much (money, job, success), find a great void. Therefore, I could not fail to recommend some remedies so that this does not happen.

The first is self-knowledge: therapy, coaching or whatever makes sense so that you can live well with yourself. The second is Memento Mori – remember that you are mortal, as the ancient Romans taught, who warned their generals with this phrase after the victorious battles. The third, in turn, is to maintain a sense of humor. We cannot take ourselves so seriously.

Lastly, there is a great remedy that is to participate in life in many ways, delivering your best. Like Bill Gates, who discovered early on that it wasn’t worth having more billions in his bank account and created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to do good for the world. I have no doubt that he feels full and fulfilled – much more than if he accumulated more billions.

Warren Buffett made this discovery a little older, but even before needing to deal with any emptiness. Buffett teamed up with Bill Gates to found The Giving Pledge, which in Brazil has a fan I really admire, Cyrela founder Ellie Horn. Before this initiative existed, he had already decided that he would donate 60% of his fortune. For him, who has the ability to do good and does not do it is a coward.

I have also tried to contribute to the human endeavor with my best. I am a board member of IFL, FAAP and WNutritional, I hold events such as INNITI Day, I give talks and I am a founding partner of INNITI – where all this is, as well as encouraging me to study so much about leadership.

By delivering my best and seeing so many leaders, regardless of position, do the same,
I believe more than ever that the future of leadership is analogous. Technology can do a lot, but it cannot replace a leader when it comes to proximity, inspiration, and human contact. This is undoubtedly delivering the best to society and becoming indispensable for tomorrow.