Never before has matching 9 coloured squares sent so many men in circles! Nine reflections on our 9th.

07 Oct Never before has matching 9 coloured squares sent so many men in circles! Nine reflections on our 9th.

We turn the Cube and it twists us.’ ~ Erno Rubik

Invented in 1974 by Hungarian Ernő Rubik, over 450 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold since its debut. What is fascinating is the astounding number of potential solution variations — over 43 quintillion of them. Yusheng Du holds the world’s speed-cubing record, at 3.47 secs.

Reflecting on TATE LC’s 9th, the Cube is an apt metaphor for our C-suite and just launched ‘off-the-C-suite’ search business. Matching nine coloured squares on each side, beckons everybody with its deceptive simplicity. It’s only when assignments kick off, that Ernő Rubik’s conundrum kicks in: ‘We turn the Cube and it twists us.’ Of course, it doesn’t quite take 43 quintillion searches. Nor do we attempt to beat Yusheng’s timing, but just saying.

Our ninth anniversary is an apt occasion to share nine attributes that qualify leaders who match our client’s mandates.

1. Embracing the Great Reflection

They’ve resolved the quintessential spiritual predicament or conflict between earning a living and having a life. During the lockdowns, while everybody questioned their purpose and how they used their talents and time; these leaders proactively helped their teams tap into their purpose, while navigating the uncertainty ahead.

2. Destination Configures

We are at the cusp of a new age for business, with no road ahead. Future- focused leaders have long abandoned ancient roadmaps to embrace re- configurable GPS destinations. They’re imbued with explorer leadership DNA. This impacts who they are, what they do and how they do things.

3. Seeing the Distant Landscape

The pandemic has reset horizons. Future-focused leaders don’t engage in building new ecosystems from scratch. They rework landscape mosaics, replacing the redundant, delivering impact by investing in people, the planet and prosperity. Not just rushing at every problem, but finding new, meaningful problems to solve.

4.  Rethinking Industry Doctrines

Unprecedented times demand unusual imagination. To leaders who own tomorrow, yesterday’s doctrines are untenable and are constantly being overturned. They realise stakeholder capitalism is fast replacing its classical predecessor. They’re busy imagineering other ways of work, reaching customers, developing products or creating results. 

5. Disrupting Disruptions

Pandemics other than Covid-19, job losses from AI, robotics, automation and cybersecurity are just a few of today’s disruptors. Which of these will impact business is anybody’s guess. Disruptive leaders don’t fall for the nostalgia trap, pining for the good old days. They are counter-disrupters, prepping their organisations for the unexpected. 

6. Deploying Breakthrough Technologies

They may not be millennials but they sure know their AI from their ML. They’re busy exploring exponential technologies to solve the stickiest business problems thereby giving their organisations the edge over the competition, pandemics and other possible disruptions.

7. Taking on Grey Elephants and Black Swans

Black swans are unpredicted events that have a major impact, e.g. pandemics. Grey elephants are large visible problems that nobody wants to address, e.g. growing inequality, climate change, job loss due to automation. Black swans and grey elephants are bounty for leaders with an explorer mind set. 

8. Moonshot Driven

Moonshots are audacious corporate adventures into the unexplored. They’re inspirational, catalysing and overcoming great technological, physical and perception barriers. They involve authentic heroism. Moonshot-inspired leaders live in an exponential universe. They aim for a 10x rather than a 5-10% improvement. They change people, organisations and the world.

9. People Always Matter

People want to be seen for who they are. They want to be supported and more importantly, they want to be inspired. People-focused leaders actually create followership who’re authentic, reflective, honest and committed. They’ve found within themselves the source of loving what they do, loving where they are and loving the people they work with. These passionate leaders and committed teams, can turn any Cube, without being twisted by it.

Nine years ago, TATE LC was founded to service the specialised need for C-suite leaders. We recently launched PepperTree People Solutions, a division specialising in ‘off-the-C-suite’ leadership search. We thank our clients, partners and associates for being the wind beneath our wings.