The Era of the Right Brain Thinker

Creativity and innovation will guide tomorrow’s leaders.

Tomorrow’s leaders can’t know for sure what the world will look like when their time to lead arises. No one can. But as we all strive to manage the economic, technological, and social shifts revolutionizing every facet of business, we must take tangible steps to prepare the new crop of leaders for the reality that awaits them.

Where do we start? We must first identify the challenges they will face, starting with the magnification of a burden today’s leaders know too well: increasing complexity. There are more forces affecting every decision than ever before, and infinitely more decisions to make—from social media strategy to the implications of new global power centers. According to IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study, not only do today’s CEOs expect this complexity to continue to grow, but they feel ill-equipped to handle it.

Another tough issue will be attracting and retaining talent. Workers know they can’t depend on a company for lifelong salary and stability. The best talent wants more than that, anyway—they want to be fulfilled and inspired by their work. It’s no longer enough to say, “I work at a big-name company.” Smart, driven professionals want to say, “I’m working on this incredibly interesting project, and it’s going to change the world.”

It becomes evident that creativity and innovation are critical capabilities for leaders in a future characterized by constant change, created and sustained by employees who seek inspiration and meaning. In fact, IBM’s study found that today’s CEOs are already identifying creativity as the most important leadership characteristic.

To those of us who practice and teach the art of innovation, this makes perfect sense. Creative leaders are more agile, open to change, and highly adaptable. They are better at finding new ways to approach and solve problems. Creative leaders depend less on “the way things were,” and instead are excited to imagine entirely new realities.

These findings dovetail nicely with the case Daniel Pink made in his book, A Whole New Mind. He suggests that the era of the “left-brain” thinker is over. Logical, linear thinking—while still necessary—is no longer a differentiator. “Right-brain” skills such as synthesis, the ability to tell a story, and big-picture thinking will be the hallmarks of success in what Pink calls the new “Conceptual Age.” These capabilities retain value in an era where technological and economic factors can quickly commoditize even the best rule-based thought processes.

To harness and develop right-brain skills in the workforce, tomorrow’s creative leaders will need to be visionaries. The idea of visionary leadership is not new, but a heightened emphasis is necessary to invoke the passion and dedication of future workers. A captivating leader who embodies the best aspects of an organization’s purpose is a uniquely attractive motivator. The new generation of professionals wants this kind of leadership, as they seek inspiration and fulfillment from work in ways that earlier generations did not always demand.

Power “Steering”

Tomorrow’s leaders will be responsible for “steering” more than anything. Whether it’s steering organizations through the never-ending swirl of complexity, or steering employees toward inspirational work that adds value to the company and their own lives, the leaders of tomorrow must leverage creativity and innovation to move forward.

By Lisa Bodell - CEO of futurethink (futurethink.com), an innovation research and training firm.