Moving beyond military metaphors, leaders must create conditions where strengths align and unpredictability becomes an asset.
The traditional paradigm of managers as distant commanders is giving way to a richer image—that of the enabler and servant leader (The Death of the Manager: The Rise of the Enabler). Inspired by that, we might consider a radical reimagining: what if managing an organisation were more like orchestrating a mega-event…of cat management?[…]
We are living longer, which should be a cause for celebration. But in fairness, the lede is being buried deeply.
Over the past thirty years or so, life expectancy has increased significantly. For example, Canada now approaches 83 years, the U.S. is just under 80, and the European Union is close to 82 years. While it’s wonderful to see us living longer, beneath this lies a minefield of sober issues that few leaders are ready to face. […]
I watched a CEO fire 300 people last month using an AI recommendation engine.
Clean. Efficient. Optimized for cost savings. Three weeks later, his remaining team quit en masse. The algorithm was perfect. The leadership was absent.[…]
In every boardroom today, agility is the leadership buzzword. Move faster. Pivot sooner. Outpace the market.
But agility is often equated with speed, and speed alone is not enough. In Peter Drucker’s words, it risks becoming “doing efficiently what should not be done at all.”
Today’s leaders need five distinct agilities that align speed with insight, creativity, vision, and meaning: Analytical (seeing differently), Operational (reconfiguring rapidly), Inventive (creating under constraint), Communicative (shaping narratives), and Visionary (anticipating futures). Without them, agility becomes mere motion — impressive in pace, aimless in direction; “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” […]
Everyone recognizes the rapidly evolving world of work with social, technology, economic, political, environmental, and demographic (STEPED) disruptions. While it might have been possible before to focus on customer or strategy or technology or culture or people or leadership or new HR operating models, today’s complex and rapidly changing business context requires alignment, integration, and simplicity in the face of complexity. Let me suggest three simple (not easy!) principles shaping the new world of work. […]
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast becoming a core element of business performance. From generating content to automating workflows, generative and agentive AI are changing how organizations operate. Yet amid the media buzz and market hype, it’s important to separate substance from sensation. AI is not a force that will replace human leadership—it’s a tool that, when used well, will enhance decision-making, improve effectiveness and efficiency, and empower transformation.[…]
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The Global Peter Drucker Forum 2025 in Vienna is dedicated to the topic of “Next Era Leadership,” or the challenge to leadership in our times of multiple crises and upheavals. Peter Drucker warned us in his day: “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”[…]
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We are not living in a time of change. We are living in a change of times. What unfolds before us is a fundamental renegotiation of how organizations create value and how leadership functions within them.[…]
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