A unique and groundbreaking research project into the Thai Leader of the Future is now under way. It is being done by my company (the APM Group, a leading organisational and people development firm) with Prof Bruce McKenzie, one of the world's pre-eminent systems thinkers and a long term collaborator with leading Thai institutions.
Our world is changing at a faster and faster pace. If we want Thailand to survive and thrive in the future, we will need leaders able to lead in a new and fast-changing world. Today, companies are facing challenges they would never have imagined 10 years ago. Economic problems in Greece, a small country on the other side of the world, can affect Thai markets. There is no such thing as an independent country or economy any more. Our world is very complex, and it is only becoming more so.
Leaders in Thailand need to have the skills to deal with this new reality. Traditionally, we look to "experts" to show us how to lead. Many of these experts are not Thai, and their solutions do not fit the reality in Thailand. Thailand has a unique culture, and leaders here have unique strengths and weaknesses. We need to identify the weaknesses and replace them with skills we will need in the future.
Our "Thai Leader of the Future" research project hopes to find ways to do just that.
Hundreds of Thais of different ages, different positions and from around the world were all asked to share their experiences. The shared experiences of many people, in situations both good and bad, give us a rich picture of leadership in the real world. Strengths, problems and concerns based on actual experience by those who were there can tell us a lot. Though the research project is still under way, we already have some useful results we can share.
The clearest need is the ability to handle ambiguity. Future leaders need to make sure they take the unknown into account. Many of the shared experiences were about problems caused by issues that were not foreseen but could have been handled if addressed earlier or differently. Resilience, the ability to recover from a setback, is a similar skill. Future leaders need to be able to assess change and be unafraid of risk.
Another need is flexibility. The ability to improvise and innovate is a strength in Thailand but is mostly seen as a response to a crisis. It does not seem to be seen as a leadership skill. Future leaders need to harness the Thai ability to innovate.
Communication between generations is decreasing. Younger generations are comfortable with instant messaging and social media. Older generations communicate in more traditional ways. Even the vocabulary is becoming more different. Worse, these communication paths overlap only a little. But cross-generational communication is vital. Older people have vast experience and wisdom they can give to younger people. Younger people understand the changing world in ways the older cannot and can teach older people about new changes and coming trends.
This lack of communication is also causing mistrust between generations. Open communication builds trust, but closed communication builds distrust. Leaders that are not trusted by their people cannot be effective leaders _ their people are unwilling to take risks, do not contribute ideas and are less effective.
Future leaders will need to learn continually. In the past, changes would happen over years. Today change happens much more quickly, and it is only speeding up. To keep up, leaders will need to keep learning new ideas. In a changing world, experts quickly become ex-experts if they do not keep up.
Finally, leaders need to think in the short and the long term. It is human nature to fix problems quickly. But if the fix causes harm in the future, it was not a good fix. Future leaders need to be able to look for solutions that work now and will still be good in the future.
These are just some of the initial results. Our goal is to not only identify what we need to do better but also identify specific skills that will meet these needs and design specific ways to teach these skills. We may not know what tomorrow may bring, but we can equip our future leaders with the tools they need to face that tomorrow and thrive.
Arinya Talerngsri is the managing director of the APM Group, Thailand's leading organisational and people development consultancy. Write to her at arinyat@apm.co.th