What does 2025 have in store for you and your organization?
The pace of change and volatility we’re experiencing today, in our world, makes foresight a tough ask. For all our well-laid plans, we cannot say with 100% confidence where we will be this time next year. This is especially so when well-documented external factors have brought so much uncertainty and volatility.
No doubt you’re headed into 2025 with a plan. Perhaps it’s organizational change. Maybe shaped by those external forces and a shifting landscape of risk. Your action plan for change, however, needs organization-wide buy-in. And, as people naturally look ahead at this time of year, now is a good time to consider one leadership role, in particular.
A leader of an organization has many roles to play to be effective. They need to be the calm, trusted Pilot, who can guide a team through troubled times. They are a Coach who gets the best performance of their people. The effective leader is a People Strategist, who can identity the best approach to achieving goals. And they are a Storyteller, who effectively communicates and engages with their people, using proof points and examples to keep people believing. These are all important parts to play for the modern leader in business to manage the here and now. The fifth role of Prophet is about the leader’s focus on future.
Imagine a bigger, better tomorrow
The leader as Prophet is a highly emotive role that requires visionary and inspirational attributes. It involves inspiring others, painting the vision of the future and what it will look like for the individual and team. In the role of Prophet, a leader imagines a bigger, better tomorrow and ignites emotions around how it will feel when reached.
So, let’s take a timely look at the different ways in which you can develop your ‘Prophet leader’ mindset, and then have an impact on others as a visionary:
1) Align your and your organization’s purpose: Dial into the emotional will to change by connecting the organizational purpose to the sense of purpose in yourself and others individually, in the teams you’re talking to, and at the organizational level. When people (yourself included) feel that sense of alignment, they will be able to invest more of themselves in achieving the purpose.
2) Embrace messy rather than linear: You can lead by example by adopting a mindset that is more ‘resilience than endurance’. We live in chaotic times. Nothing is certain. What we can control, however, is how we respond to the chaos, mess and unforeseen challenges. When you share your vision of the year ahead, lace it with realism but accentuate the opportunities ahead for everyone. Amidst the chaos, there is hope and plenty to look forward to, in the most positive sense.
3) Be a figurehead for what’s possible in the future, for where we’re going together: Create pride in individuals and teams about what’s coming next and their role in bringing it to pass. Paint an emotive picture of the future for others, so they can see what you see. If the long-term vision is too much to take in for some, a clear view of what the next few months has in store, will give them peace of mind and motivation for the immediate future, at least.
4) Use visionary language: A Prophet leader has a way of talking. They are confident and optimistic. More recently I’ve been talking to leaders about being realistically optimistic. Here is a list of tips for the language you could use:
• Be emotive – imagine when… I dream of…(or Based on what we see right now, I dream of … if it’s a bit murky)
• Be optimistic – phrases like ‘I see huge benefits from this…’
• Be forward-looking and sell the dream – phrases like ‘When we get there, we will…’
5) Empower your team to be visionaries, too: Remind your managers that they too can be visionaries. What does the vision for their specific team look like; this year, this month, this week? Encourage your people managers to set a vision they are confident about using with their team and remind them to keep it current. You and your management team can create a real sense of optimism around the organization. Helpful tip: highlight those proof points, those achievements along the way, that help your team to visualize the progress being made.
In 2025, expect context to continue changing. You know this; change is the only constant. So, keep being a believable Prophet. Celebrating the small wins and learnings will be key to helping people feel a sense of value and momentum.
By enabling your people to see a future with them in it, you will become a leader who can unlock high performance levels in challenging times.
All the best for 2025.