Association for Coaching and Institute of Coaching, ‘Coaching in the Workplace’ conference, 24-26 June
Leadership development needs to change to meet the different challenges of our times, said David Peterson, director, executive coaching and leadership, at Google.
Leaders should be encouraged to actively seek out diverse, novel and challenging experiences to help them get better at operating in VUCA conditions, he said.
“The best way to prepare leaders gradually for working with complexity and disruption is for them to get a lot of experience, and we help them get proactive experiences so they learn how to think, prepare, engage other people, so the fifth time they’ll know what to do.
“It’s hard for me to say to leaders – go put yourself into awkward, painful experiences, it’ll help you grow – but it’s very much what athletes do. They push themselves to the limit and challenge themselves. There’s a resilience that comes from working at the edge of your comfort zone. There’s no learning in the comfort zone and no comfort in the learning zone,” said Peterson.
But just having a diverse experience isn’t sufficient, he said. “Leaders need to reflect – what happened, what was the meaning, how do I want to approach that next time? Sense-making is really essential to get the value out of these experiences.
“Reflection requires curiosity, humility – [thinking] ‘I could be wrong’, and meta-reflection – seeing the bigger picture.
“Finally, we need community and connection, encouragement, psychological support and safety so we can take risks and try crazy things.
We need dialogue, and coaching and mentoring for ourselves, and others.”
He said there are two fundamental drivers in VUCA conditions: complexity (multiple interconnected, interdependent variables interact in unpredictable ways) and constant change (volatility, new variables and dynamic evolving context). Ambiguity, uncertainty and unpredictability are side-effects, he said.
When working with leaders around VUCA, he said, “Volatility – complexity and constant change – are best understood rationally, whereas the side-effects – uncertainty and ambiguity – are best understood emotionally so need to be addressed with leaders in tandem.”