Vijay K. Luthra

The teams that deal with disruption the best, are the most diverse teams as research from organisations such as BCG demonstrates. As well as being diverse from a gender, race, age, disability and neurodiversity perspective; having multidisciplinary teams is also important as having people with different professional experiences is also important to the modern organisation The outcome of having a diverse, multidisciplinary team will be a better ability to understand factors impacting the organisation and to generate actionable insight in order to the steering the right course for the organisation.

Humility is at the centre of cultivating a growth set as we need to minimise ego and understand that we are not the finished article and probably never will be. This includes being open to the idea that you are not always right and you do make mistakes. Many leaders do not allow themselves to believe this. However, it is actually a sign of weakness, not strength if a leader is unable to accept they are imperfect. Being vulnerable is important not only for your own sense of wellbeing but also because it will build your credibility amongst your people and with other leaders.

Humility is at the centre of cultivating a growth set as we need to minimise ego and understand that we are not the finished article and probably never will be. This includes being open to the idea that you are not always right and you do make mistakes. Many leaders do not allow themselves to believe this. However, it is actually a sign of weakness, not strength if a leader is unable to accept they are imperfect. Being vulnerable is important not only for your own sense of wellbeing but also because it will build your credibility amongst your people and with other leaders.

Every executive should be committed to lifelong learning. Learning is not just about building technical and professional mastery but also about personal growth. This must include considerable self-reflection including gathering honest feedback from peers and juniors. Some of this feedback may not reconcile with your own view of yourself but it’s important to not let ego get in the way of understanding what the feedback tells you about how you might need to do things differently. Being open to doing things differently is also key. Approaches that have got you this far may not necessarily be good enough for the boardroom.

You often hear the mantra of ‘fail fast’. The problem is that in most organisations, this is merely a sentiment and nothing more. If the principle of ‘fail fast’ is not lived, then an organisation will fail to innovate. The very essence of innovation is about tolerating and in fact, actively championing the idea that failure as part of innovation is OK. This cuts to organisation’s risk appetite and it is important that boards and executives are clear about the level of risk appetite they will accept.

We often consider personal growth to be confined to accreditations, technical prowess or success in competitive endeavours such as winning awards. However, personal growth is equally, if not more so, about emotional growth of the individual. Emotional growth is about achieving greater and greater self awareness, not just of oneself but also of one’s impact on others. This is increasingly an important trait for leaders who as those who create the conditions for success, must be aware of their impact on others and how that might affect individuals and teams.