This month, I dig into the widening personal and organisational gaps that need bridging in almost every leader and company I work with. Noticable gaps, hard to miss gulleys, and now and again, a chasm so deep you can only hear the echo of a once vibrant career or business from its depths.
It’s understandable. The context we’re all working in is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. The good news is, once we recognise where these gaps are in our own careers or in the companies we serve (or both), we can do something about them.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll also be sharing a short series of reflections on Bridging Strategy and People on LinkedIn. If this is of interest, join me there – I’d love to hear about and learn from your experience.
There is very little that feels certain today. There isn’t a week that goes by without at least one global situation or event causing us to (re)think about its impact on the people we care about, our careers, businesses, or even countries.
The one thing that remains reassuringly consistent is our enduring humanity, what drives us, our way of being in the world, and our need for connection with one another. Consistently human.
And being human means we also have Achilles heels. History (and today’s use of social and behavioural science) shows us that given the right set of conditions, we tend to react and respond in predictable ways. And as we all know, the current set of conditions (real or manipulated) and the context we’re working in isn’t necessarily bringing out the best in people. And it’s unlikely to get any easier.
By all estimations, we will experience more fundamental change across society, technology, the economy, and the natural world over the next decade than we have in the last century. That’s quite something.
When we recognise how the Industrial Revolution made human strength irrelevant, it’s easy to appreciate how AI is doing the same to human intelligence. It’s tricky because until now, our value in the workplace has been built on a combination of our intelligence, knowledge, expertise and experience.
Today, data, information, knowledge, and intelligence (and ways of synthesising it) are abundant and cheap – available to anyone with an internet connection.
Clearly, there’s a different future ahead of us. A future that requires us to intentionally build a bridge between where we are and the world we actually want to live and work in. And to do that, we need to focus on developing how we think, rather than what we think.
If you haven’t already, start building your bridge between where you are, and what’s to come. You don’t need to know what’s on the other side – no one does. That’s the beautiful thing about the future – it’s being created by you and me in the here and now.
Think of yourself as an intrepid explorer, full of purpose, curiosity, awe and wonder, knowing you’ll encounter a myriad of unexpected challenges and opportunities along the way.
And no, I don’t mean abandon all reason and caution. Rather, prepare yourself for all possibilities. Focus on yourself – knowing yourself well, making conscious choices, and being in the best possible shape (mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually) for the journey ahead.
Turn your attention to the agency you do have. And most importantly, assume everything is learnable.
Put the same type of effort into developing your *future-focused leadership thinking, skills and competencies as you would do with anything else you decide to master.
*If you’re in any doubt as to what future-focused thinking, skills, and competencies are, simply skim back over the articles I’ve published here over the last year or two. You’ll also find a summary on page 8 in my book.
I’ll be sharing a series of short reflections on Bridging Strategy and People on LinkedIn over the next few weeks, simply because it’s the most obvious place to start.
There’s a growing distance between strategic ambition and people readiness – and it’s rarely about capability or commitment. More often than not, it’s about timing.
The tempo between how fast strategy moves, and how quickly people, systems, and culture can adapt. That space, where strategy and people meet (or don’t), is where future‑focused leadership does its most valuable work.
Strategy is moving faster than ever before – out of necessity. Whereas people, the systems we work in, and the cultures that hold it all together, quite simply, don’t.
The greatest frustration I hear from clients with strategic responsibility is that the organisations they work for continue to hire and develop people for the world we are in, not for the one they are building.
You’ll recognise this is happening in your organisation if you’re hearing people saying:
“The people we need are hard to hire for.”
“We don’t have the right people to deliver.”
“Finding the right people is happening too slowly.”
“We’re short on the skills we need.”
“We know what to do, but can’t get it done.”
And when leaders with strategic responsibility have set up any of the following, the signals are clear:
🔸 Special Project: Leaders need to move faster than the normal system allows – they’re creating a side route to protect momentum and get important work done by stepping outside of the usual hiring and approval processes.
🔸 Task Force: Usually formed when the work is urgent, cross‑functional, and hard to push through standard teams or hiring. It’s a way to cut through delays, assemble the right people quickly, and keep momentum while the organisation catches up with finding, placing and developing people.
🔸 Rotation Scheme: A build-not-buy response to a lack of ready talent for strategic, future-focused work, where leaders need to shape capability internally – often because external hiring isn’t matching the brief.
🔸 Interim or Fractional Roles: Needing to improvise by filling gaps quickly to keep important initiatives moving while they look for the right people (or redefine the role) – signalling misalignment between what’s needed and people systems.
When we stop and take a look at what’s going on in our companies, we begin to see these types of gaps appearing everywhere. The distance between leaders’ strategic ambitions and organisational capability is widening.
You’ll also notice that it’s often evident in corporate narratives, played out across company values, job adverts and specs, and descriptions of offerings and customer support.
The words all signal situational relevance and a healthy future focus. Yet, when you peel back the veneer, there’s often little to support it.
One of my clients was recently headhunted for a senior role in a large organisation, and after the usual series of interviews and psychometrics, was offered the role. She decided to turn it down.
When I asked her why, she said they had a great pitch; however, the more people she met, the more she realised how stifling the role would be. She said: “There is no room to breathe in their culture - they say they’re looking for a strategic, innovative, visionary leader, yet the systemic resistance to change would be huge – it would take too long to actually make it work.”
The reality is that almost all of our current systems, cultures, hiring policies, and learning and development frameworks are based on what’s worked well for us in the past.
The only big Q worth asking is: “Are they still fit for purpose?” Or are they inadvertently creating obstacles, preventing the leadership we need in ourselves and others from emerging?
It seems like it’s time to build some bridges. Get in touch if you want to start building yours.
Is there someone you know who would benefit from reading this? If so, please share it with them.
Until next time, take good care of yourself.
Best, Louise
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