Paradigm Shift

I’ve been reflecting on the skills highlighted by Alvy and Robbins and its implications for the challenges faced by education. Our children need to understand the critical role they will play in the future as they inherit a 21st century with an interconnected set of problems. Schools play an essential role in providing them the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and wisdom necessary to deal with these tough problems, and to create solutions to responsibly and intelligently manage human evolution. We need 21st century leaders to build 21st century teaching and learning environments. I’ve started below a list of attributes of 21st century leaders. This is not a complete list; it’s the start of a long list as our complex world continues to evolve and change at rapid pace. While Lincoln’s legacy is a valuable guide for today’s education leaders, the complexities of this century add another dimension to the leadership challenge.

• Self-Learning

21st century leaders are self-learners. They have a tremendous capacity for growth through self-education. There are many qualities that define leadership in the 21st century, but as Alvy and Robbins tell us in Learning from Lincoln, all the qualities are connected to this one essential attribute for self-learning and self-education.

• Self-knowledge

21st century leaders understand themselves and know what motivates them. They know the causes they think and feel most passionately about. This is important to help develop a meaningful shared vision for an organization or institution. A shared vision goes beyond the present and defines a future reality. Without self-knowledge about one’s own values and vision, a leader will not be able to realize an organization’s mission.

• Tenacity

21st century leaders are tenacious and persistent through tough times when it is easy to waver and abandon a vision. Because they understand themselves, they are able to remain steadfast in the face of adversity.

• Effective Communication

21st century leaders are adept at communication using various forms of media. They can clearly and concisely in simple language communicate the vision of an organization to a range of stakeholders. They build structures to support information flows and continuously seek feedback for improvement. They respect others’ time and value efficiency and prompt responses to issues. They work to build professional learning communities with multiple forums for professional dialogue. They use storytelling as a tool to communicate important ideas and connect emotionally with their stakeholders.

• Risk-taking

21st century leaders are willing to make mistakes, and to advocate unconventional or unpopular positions. They are open to tackling challenging problems that don’t have an obvious solution. These problems test their personal and professional integrity and pushes them towards enhancing their own personal growth and accomplishments.

• Adaptability and Managing Complexity

In a world where change is the only constant, 21st century leaders are able to adapt to change quickly and calmly, without idealizing about the past. Our world continues to become more complex and this growing complexity requires leaders to plan, think, design, and manage in new ways. They are able to think about problems from multiple perspectives. They can stay focused under pressure bearing in mind the big picture. They can strive towards goals despite obstacles.

• Creative Thinking

Today’s fast-paced, knowledge-based society requires both divergent and convergent thinking. 21st century leaders are able to think in both these ways. They are able to think divergently and to create “what if” scenarios and ideas to consider as hypotheses.

• Teaming and Collaboration

21st century leaders are able to build highly functional teams to achieve an organization/institution’s vision and mission. They are able to recruit and develop team members with unique competencies. They use collaboration and teaming to develop the collective energy and a shared drive among team members to accomplish a shared goal.

• Interpersonal Communications

The teaming and collaboration necessitated by the complexity of today’s world has increased the importance of interpersonal skills. Teaming in today’s world likely brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds without common norms, alues, or vocabularies. 21st century leaders are able to read and manage their own and others emotions, motivations, and behaviors during social interactions. Interpersonal skills in today’s digital world are also more complex than in the past. E-mail, voice mail, social networking, microblogging, audio and videoconferencing, and other technologies require a heightened sensitivity to the nuances of interpersonal interactions. 21st century leaders are able to communicate effectively both face-to-face and virtually.

• Personal Responsibility

21st century leaders are able to manage and use technology to achieve balance, integrity, and quality of life as a citizen, a family and community member, a learner, and a worker. They understand the ethical and societal issues related to technology and its growing impact.

• Highly Productive

21st century leaders are able to organize to achieve the organization or institution’s vision and mission efficiently and effectively. They continually keep an eye on the big picture so as to guide and align all departments of an organization or institution toward the vision. They use digital tools to communicate, collaborate, solve problems, and accomplish tasks.

What are other attributes of a 21st century leader?