One of the many interesting things that I’ve learned from delivering business simulation-centric leadership development programs for some of the largest companies around the world is to listen to and pick up on weak signals and trends that business leaders are thinking about and talking about.  Over the past few weeks some of these week signals have turned into strong requests for help in an emerging area of leadership I will call “Keeping-it-Simple-Leadership-Strategy” for now.

What does it take to lead through the current challenges and opportunities at the same time thinking about the future disruptions that are going to shape the future markets well beyond your leadership tenure?

It takes the ability to think beyond the incremental and a focus on the data that will uncover the weak signals that provide the insights and ideas to develop innovative solutions that will disrupt the existing market.  It also takes leadership courage to drive change and think in new ways that nobody wants to hear or talk about.

Most business professionals have grown up thinking and believing “The customer is always right.” In his groundbreaking book, “Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage” Wharton School Professor Peter Fader presents methods and approaches for companies to focus on the right customer and deliver a value proposition that exceeds their expectations.  True Customer Intimacy means that you understand your customer’s business as well as if, or not better than they understand it themselves, and you provide them with products and services that help them execute their strategies and achieve their business goals and results.

Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, and DeMarcus Cousins.  An all-star basketball team ready for a game?  Well, not exactly.  These are five NBA players who participate in new phenomenon called “load management.” Load management is part of an evolving part of “sports science” that is utilizing data and data analytics to prepare elite athletes for high performance and injury prevention.  Basically, it is the science of preserving the time athletes can perform at their peak by managing the amount of time they train, practice, and play.  Cynics of this new approach, however, will say that keeping athletes out of games and managing the amount of time they practice and play makes them soft, deprives people paying good money access to the stars, and is helping to create a new generation of “snowflakes” afraid to put in the time and effort to be successful.

A business leader in today’s complex business environment is facing challenges that are coming at the speed of light.  Never before in the history of business has there been this much change so quickly on the global stage. Many of the leaders I work with are on the brink of total exhaustion as a result of the 24/7 day that starts in Asia, migrates to Europe, and ends on the West Coast of the US.

This week, I am working with a group of emerging global leaders to develop their business leadership skills that will enable them to work in this chaotic world.  One of the tools that we are using for development is a business leadership simulation where teams of participants are running their own global company making all of the decisions ranging from setting strategy to executing that strategy through tactical and operational decisions.