These six intelligences will drive smart leadership in disrupted times

Sometimes it takes a crisis to reveal gaps and discontinuities. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed how some leaders are challenged by the unexpected and the need to innovate “ahead of the curve.” The crisis heightens our need to re-evaluate prevailing models of leadership that have sometimes been found wanting.

Coronavirus is an extreme wakeup call, but it is emblematic of an era whose very essence is disruption. Even before the current pandemic, we lived in a perfect storm of accelerated innovation, geopolitical uncertainty and black swans. Noted science fiction author William Gibson captured the singular nature of our times with one comment, “We have no future, because our present is so disrupted.”

Unfortunately, our leadership playbooks often remain largely frozen in time, originally designed for the authority and control needed to keep industrial bureaucracies functioning efficiently. But we are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution that requires agility, rapid innovation and fluid, networked organizational designs. The commandant must give way to the orchestrator, the machine to the network. We are all navigating in uncertainty now, and new approaches to leadership have become an imperative. Not to do so carries risks: the existential threat of disease at an extreme, as well as the more obvious costs of tired strategies, technology illiteracy and stasis.

The kind of leadership proficiencies we need in an era of disruption cannot simply be read from books, gleaned from PowerPoint presentations or acquired in brief executive programs. They require new forms of pedagogy that are personal, experiential, and intimate. Learning leadership is not simply a matter of knowing which items to check off on a list of tasks or acquiring some tactical skills related to communication or agenda setting.

The bottom line is that today’s leaders, armed with yesterday’s tools, are frequently ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we face both today and tomorrow. Leadership, it appears, is due for a review made more urgent by the scale of our current woes. But what are the new standards by which we should judge leadership? What is a model of leadership that fits with this age of disruption?

Psychologists refer to cognitive complexity as the ability to draw on multiple frames of reference or intelligences at the same time. This enables nuance and sophistication in addressing new situations and is essential in dealing with the disruption of black swans. Drawing from three decades of experience as a trusted advisor to leaders of both companies and governments, I’ve developed a framework of “Six Intelligences” that are the building blocks of the new “smart” leadership.

The ultimate test of a framework such as the Six Intelligences is utility. Imagine applying them in the current pandemic. We count on our leaders to:

Whether for coronavirus or other (inevitable) black swans to come, it is the responsibility of leaders to hone these intelligences and cultivate cognitive complexity. Each of these intelligences is essential; it is their artful combination that generates the real power of smart leadership.

For example, without an understanding of context, there can be no journey. In the immortal words of Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Moral intelligence creates the “why” of the journey and enhances our ability to connect with and motivate others. Generative intelligence amplifies the power of ideas and unleashes the power of technology. And the blending and mashing up of these intelligences into a nuanced perspective and leadership style results in an ability to drive transformational agendas, which is the ultimate responsibility of all leaders.

The Six Intelligences also shape organizational agendas. Context intelligence must be supported by meaningful foresight processes. Values must be disseminated in an impactful way. Agile innovation processes must be implemented. New learning processes must be designed for social/emotional intelligence. New technologies must be titrated into existing workflow. A bias for constructive change must be communicated to drive transformation. Organizations must consider these intelligences in a holistic, not piecemeal, way and must cultivate them in a way that ultimately benefits everyone.

These are the standards to which we must hold our leaders in a time of crisis: We need our current leaders to step up. And we need a new generation of leaders to do better.