Are Your Ideas About Leadership Stuck in the Past?

We’ve arrived in a new era of how companies work and how we should develop talent—yet we’re still operating as if we lived in the distant past. 

Back when most training and leadership development tools were designed, many people stuck with one or two companies for their entire career. Now, the average tenure for an individual worker is 4.1 years. It’s even less for younger workers. You can’t use the same tools you used when you expected a leader to stay for 20 years or more when you know they might only last for 3. 

You have impatient, younger generations who want to advance quickly. You have people who are more interested in work they’re passionate about than the money they earn. It’s a much less predictable environment. As a recent example, think about remote-hybrid work; just a few years ago, remote work was obscure. Now, it’s commonplace. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, maybe even into the 1990s, there was still a postindustrial frame of reference. The homogenous workforce back then both resulted from and reinforced a certain kind of management, which was very “top down.” People at the top determined if you had potential, period. 

Deep into this new era, we know it shouldn’t work this way. Our workforces and workplaces are very different from those in the past. So why are we still using ideas from a half-century ago, or longer? 

We need to let go of familiar leadership tropes and replace them with new, more refined, and more nuanced strategies. Let’s look for new ways to develop talent that’s faster and more impactful. Let’s figure out how to shape not just behavior but also mindsets. Let’s get past the top-down, one-size-fits-all, put-it-in-a-box systems and pursue strategies that are personalized and differentiated for individuals. 

The First Step Is Letting Go 

When you take a risk and change things up, there’s enormous uncertainty. There’s no guarantee of what the outcome will be. It takes being able to sit in that interim place for a little while and some time to realize, “OK, I’m not going to be doing it that old way. But I don’t know what the new way is yet.” 

The tempting alternative will be to fall back to the old, tried-and-true ways. That’s true for individuals, and it’s true for organizations. Even now, it’s so much easier for a company to default to traditional ideas of who “looks like” a leader. Take the highest leadership position in the United States. As we’ve seen, we still aren’t able to elect a female president. And a lot of that has to do with how people see leadership: it’s something in the vein of a Kennedy face. 

If you’re up-and-coming and ambitious in an organization—and you’re looking to be more visible—there are a lot of ways to go about it. You don’t have to get there by emulating an old-school paradigm and running down everybody in your way. You can zigzag. You can jump. You can go around. There are lots of ways to get to the goal. 

If you’re a leader, an executive, or anyone responsible for cultivating and promoting talent, then you must learn to adjust your lens. Here are some ideas on how to let go of what’s not helping anymore: 

1. Take note of what you’re tolerating. Pay attention to what you’re putting up with or tolerating. These things are usually tied to outdated beliefs.
2. Question your workload. Are you working too hard to create what you want? Your approach may simply be outdated.
3. Check your mindset.When you feel limited or can’t get what you want, don’t point the finger at a person or a situation. Instead, check your mindset.
4. Question your attachments.Ask why you’re so attached to an idea or approach. Chances are, you’re hanging on because it’s familiar.
5. Get comfortable with not knowing.You might need to let go of the old before you know what the new is. Embrace the feeling of not knowing. It’s how you grow.
6. Switch the channel.Give yourself permission to explore new ideas and novel ways of thinking.
7. Rewire your brain. Enjoy the revitalization and electric charge from getting “current.”
8. Believe in new approaches.Have confidence that you can replace outmoded thinking with new approaches that will be more successful in today’s environment.

Which one of these ideas would help you let go of the old most easily? 

Letting go of old ideas is the true path to unlocking potential in your leadership ranks and within yourself. Sticking with the familiar, previously tested, and easily scalable alternatives is certainly easier. But it’s unlikely to be the path to get what you want.

Written by Lori Mazan.

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