The Next Hot Leadership Topic

We talk about leaders, followers, and the relationship between them, yet it’s our peers (the people we surround ourselves with), who so often are the most influential forces in our lives.   It is not only a compelling stand alone subject, it’s central to any meaningful discourse about strategy, organizational change, and leadership. Understanding deep peer relationships and the power of peer advisory groups simply makes too much sense in today’s world not to become the next hot topic of conversation. Let’s explore why:

1. Leaders of today’s companies are discovering that the world they are challenged to navigate is becoming increasingly complex. And as their challenges continue to cut across industry sectors, they’ll need more than trade groups, management consultants, and executive development programs to guide them.
2. Large companies’ continued inability to link training expenditures ($54 billion in 2012) to producing more competent leaders and delivering a stronger bottom-line will result in their seeking out a more practical way to accomplish both.
3. The demographic of today’s CEO is changing.   These CEOs are digital natives, not digital immigrants.  They grew up with social media and, as natural networkers, they are far more inclined than their predecessors to engage their peers for advice and counsel.
4. There’s been a fundamental shift in management education. It’s now aimed at leveraging the experience of the ever-increasing number of adult learners, in both traditional and online education environments.  These students are not competitors anymore; they are colleagues who are leveraging their collective talents to participate more effectively in teams. It’s what they want from their work environments as well.
5. We know that achieving excellence in business and in life is about working with others in a fashion that allows us to tap into our whole selves and help others do the same. As Leon Shapiro pointed out in his post last week, deep conversations that help us grow personally and professionally build character and create unbreakable team bonds.

We talk a lot about leadership, but it’s the people with whom we surround ourselves that will likely make the biggest difference to our success and happiness. What do you think?  How have your peers influenced your life? How will you contribute to the next big conversation?