Leadership Development In Today’s Ever-Changing World

“Learning,” the Chinese proverb says, “is like rowing upstream. Not to advance is to drop back.”

That perspective may be especially valid when it comes to leadership development. Our world is more global, more decentralized, and arguably more dynamic and diverse than ever. So aspiring leaders must prioritize their own development. They also must be constantly ready to reset and pivot to face ever-changing realities.

A welcome resource is a new book titled Modern Achievement: A New Approach to Timeless Lessons for Aspiring Leaders. Authors Asheesh Advani and Marshall Goldsmith provide a highly readable guide for emerging leaders who want to claim their individual power to grow and achieve. Advani is the CEO of Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the largest NGOs in the world dedicated to preparing youth for employment and entrepreneurship. Goldsmith is a Thinkers50 Management Hall of Famer who has advised hundreds of CEOs and management teams and authored three dozen books, including the classic bestseller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

Advani sat down for an interview and shared his views on today’s leadership development landscape.

So, in terms of achievement challenges and opportunities, what do people face today that’s different from 20 or 30 years ago?

Advanti says the achievement landscape of today is more diverse, more global, and more dynamic than in past decades.

“For example, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs reports tell us that more than 60% of jobs have not been invented yet,” he says. “Today’s graduates will have on average more than 20 different jobs and potentially more than seven different careers during their professional lives, requiring us to rethink the way we consider long-term goal setting and educational achievement. Not everyone will switch jobs and careers, but this will happen to most of us and our kids for the foreseeable future.”

Clearly, he points out, it’s no longer about getting into that one college or getting that one first job. It’s about developing a mindset and skillset that allows you to thrive in the job market of the future.

Advanti advocates a fixed-flexible-freestyle leadership framework. How does that help people—and organizations—achieve worthy goals?

“The fixed-flexible-freestyle leadership framework promotes adaptability which is crucial in today’s rapidly changing and less predictable world to help individuals and organizations to achieve goals,” he says. “This framework allows for a balance between principled guidance (fixed), adaptable strategies (flexible), and personal empowerment (freestyle). It’s quite simple. While some goals, rules, and lessons for your life and career are fixed, there are many that are flexible in that they must be adapted for changing circumstances such as time and place. And there are other goals, rules, and lessons that are unique to your own personal strengths and aptitudes—which we call freestyle.

Advanti says this framework is Junior Achievement used for its organizational collaboration and goal setting. “It’s allowed us to have globally fixed initiatives across the 100+ countries in which we operate, regionally flexible goals and programs which are adapted based on time and place (in Europe vs. Africa, for example), and most activities that are locally freestyle because individuals in most communities know what is best for the local students and school systems,” he says. “It’s helped us work together and set worthy and ambitious goals, but also to respect the diversity of paths and obstacles to achieve our goals.”

One of the early chapter titles in Advanti’s book is “Meritocracy is Not Dead.” Some of today’s social trends seem to undermine the notion of merit in favor of “equal outcomes.” So, a natural question is, “What can leaders do to champion meritocracy without running afoul of the self-appointed social police?”

Advanti says leaders can champion meritocracy by emphasizing the important value of merit and achievement while being mindful of social inequities. “There’s no doubt that inequities exist in the world. And there’s no doubt that hard work and effort are required for success and achievement. Encouraging individuals to develop internal standards for what constitutes merit helps maintain personal motivation and a clear sense of achievement.”

What role does optimism seem to play in a person’s ability to achieve?

“Optimistic individuals view setbacks as temporary and believe that roadblocks can be navigated, fostering a proactive and resilient mindset,” Advanti says. “Pessimists see setbacks as permanent and unbeatable. By not giving permanence to failures, optimists maintain energy and enthusiasm, build self-efficacy—the belief in their ability to succeed—and thereby increase their chances of achieving goals. I have good news for pessimists: optimism can be learned even by skeptics like you!”

Advanti advocates “meta-learning.” He explains what it is and how it can help a person achieve.

“Meta-learning (or ‘Going meta’ as we call it in Modern Achievement) involves stepping back from your role as a learner to ask critical questions such as, ‘What am I seeing or noticing’” and ‘What connections can I make to other things that I have experienced?’”

He says this process helps people gain deeper insights and reflect on what they have learned. “Top educators at schools and universities are doing this more and more after classes and lectures to help students internalize what they have learned,” he says. “We need to apply meta-learning in our personal and professional lives as well, allowing us to see opportunities for growth and improvement, ultimately enhancing our ability to achieve and continuously learn. It’s simple to do, does not cost anything, and has no negative side-effects.”

What are the keys to finding a good mentor and making the best use of the mentor’s counsel?

Advanti says finding good mentors is critical to professional achievement, particularly as job transitions and career shifts become more commonplace. “One of the most critical lessons in Modern Achievement is for young leaders is to be intentional about making friends who are five to ten years older than they are,” he says. “It’s easy to forget the importance of this in your 20s and 30s when you’re socially surrounded by peers the same age. Seek out friends and mentors among educators, colleagues, siblings’ classmates, teammates, and coaches. Like friendship, mentorship is a two-way street, so it’s important to understand how you can support the goals and interests of your mentors as well.”

Are you one of those folks who pride themselves on their handle multiple tasks at once? Advanti differentiates between sequential tasking and multitasking. He explains.

“Sequential tasking involves focusing on one task at a time, giving it your full attention and effort before moving on to the next. This approach allows for deeper engagement and quality outcomes compared to multitasking, where attention is divided among multiple tasks simultaneously. Multitasking works against your brain. Every time you shift your focus, you deplete your neural resources and lose focus.”

He says one advantage of sequential tasking is the ability to give each task and each person involved your undivided time and focus. “This can lead to increased productivity and better results,” he says.” To successfully implement sequential tasking, it’s crucial to eliminate distractions and barriers that hinder focus and productivity. For example, removing time-consuming apps like games or social media platforms from your phone can help create a more conducive environment for concentration.”

Also important, Advanti says, is taking breaks and allowing yourself (intentionally) to get bored. He says this can stimulate different parts of your brain, fostering creativity and innovative thinking. “These moments of downtime can lead to fresh perspectives and solutions that may not have emerged during constant task-switching or multitasking.”

Advanti advises people to think “and,” not “or.” He explains how that orientation applies to human achievement.

“Thinking ‘an’ instead of ‘or’ significantly enhances achievement by expanding our perspective and opening up more possibilities,” he says. “I often say that the words we use are essentially the choices we make before we even take action. By embracing an ‘and’ mindset, we remember that we have choices and can see multiple paths forward.”

For example, he says, “if we look at the world as a series of tradeoffs—reducing poverty or making technological progress, addressing inequality or investing in growth, eating chocolate or eating peanut butter—we ignore the possibility of innovation and creativity that comes from a perspective of abundance rather than scarcity. Changing ‘or’ to ‘and’ in each of these examples leads to new ways of thinking, new avenues for exploration, and perhaps some profitable product ideas.”

Balancing simplicity with complexity is one of the skills (and mindsets) Advanti advocates. He shares an example of what that looks like in actual practice.

“Schools and universities are not teaching young aspiring leaders to balance simplicity and complexity,” he says. “But I have found that this skill is essential to leadership. For example, whether you are running a small business or large global organization, it’s essential to be able to manage the complexity but distill the core of the products, services, and values of the organization to simple terms to communicate it to colleagues, customers, and investors.”