Brains 3.0: Building Leaders in the 21st Century

With the world around us continuing to change ever more rapidly in the wake of the current global economic crisis, what will the impact be on today’s – and tomorrow’s – leaders?

This is a topic I discussed in a recent article, “Building Leaders in the 21st Century: Brains 3.0” and will be exploring further in a forthcoming book on leadership.

In the article, I assert that the demand for Whole Brain® Thinking is no longer limited to the CEO ranks of leadership. I believe our world now requires leaders at every level to possess the adaptive and integrative thinking that spans all four quadrants of the brain, as represented in the Whole Brain® Model. We simply don’t have the luxury to relegate ourselves to “limited brain bandwidth” in this environment.

The article is intended to provoke thinking, and I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and observations on the subject. Add your voice to the discussion by posting a comment.

Some questions to think about:
• How do you define the “new normal” we will see post recession, and what will be the impact on the leadership requirements?
• How will younger generations emerge as leaders? Do you think their very different life experiences influence their level of interest and capacity for this breadth of thinking?
• How will social learning and networks impact how we look at developing leaders and the leadership function?
• What are the most radical “pictures” you have of the new organizational models, which will, of course, require different leadership?
• Should we look for ways to devise a “leadership chip” to insert into peoples brains once we can do that safely? If so, what would be the characteristics? What we would want to keep? Let go of?

Download the full article here:

Building Leaders in the 21st Century: Brains 3.0

Read more and view a video “Learning Byte” on this topic in the March 2010 issue of the BrainBytes™ newsletter.