Wired for Possibility?
Leadership Is a Creative Act - But Not Always in the Way You Think.
Here’s the interesting thing: the creative power leaders hold can be used in two ways, constructively or obstructively. Think back on the leaders you have had or watched from the sidelines. How did they use their creative power?
Early in my career, I would have simply called the constructive ones “leaders” and the obstructive ones… well, a few less-flattering names. I didn’t pause to consider their motivation very much.
But over time, I have learned something else: it’s not always about intent. It’s also about wiring.
Some of us are wired to expand possibilities; it’s our inclination. Others of us are wired to limit them, or at least throw some creative inertia into the mix.
Can we be rewired? Sure, for better and worse. My inclination is expansive – creating change, founding things, designing, innovating, but when I burnt out a few years ago, I was rewired overnight for the worst. Until I rediscovered my creative self and my belief in it.
It’s also about where our heads are at, or oriented, on the time horizon. In a post last week, I said ‘throw an anchor into the future.’
Some of us are anchored in the NOW: maybe looking slightly ahead at possible changes we may drive or support.
Some of us have thrown that anchor into the future and are in the NEXT: our minds are already living there. What’s more, we are directing energy towards creating it.
I created a simple model so leadership teams can map where they are based on their ‘possibilities wiring’ and ‘time orientation' stances. I call it the Leadership Futurescape™.
In it, I have called out four distinct leadership stances: Future Makers | Future Shapers | Future Blockers | Future Hoarders
Stances in the Leadership Futurescape™
Let me introduce you to them. Maybe you will identify with one or see them around you.
1. The Future Makers
Harnessing their passion, talent, and energy to improve today and create a better tomorrow. They can’t help but to change things up.
They are often your emerging leaders; they stand in the present but keep imagining how it could be better. They experiment, test, and try, because they can’t help but improve and create. When consistently blocked, they will take their energy elsewhere.
Why they matter: Future Makers are your pipeline of innovative leaders. Invest early, and they’ll help shift your culture and performance. Ignore them, and they’ll walk.
2. The Future Shapers
Designing the conditions for others to lead in a better tomorrow. They are in the service of a bigger Why, something beyond them.
Future Shapers know their most valuable asset isn’t money—it’s experiential wealth and relationships. Their scars, wins, and lessons only grow in value when shared forward. They are thinking about legacy and future impact, and measure success across two timelines: what they’ve delivered now and the capability they have built for next.
Why they matter: They turn leadership transitions from risk points into growth moments. From capability cliffs into exchanges. They are designing forward, for performance and innovation to continue long after they’ve moved on.
A while ago, I was facilitating a strategic conversation with tribal leaders in North America. They recognised the future they had just imagined would take many years to create, and made a profound choice - to treat their youth as future elders and design a flow of leadership beyond them.
3. The Future Blockers
Preserving today to protect against the risks tomorrow might bring. They can’t help but to resist change.
Future Blockers often mean well. They have seen enough failure to want to avoid it, but in doing so, they can unintentionally suppress progress or inject inertia into it, including that of the future makers. They are often well-intentioned, protecting their teams from failure instead of teaching them how to fail safely.
Why they matter: In his insightful book Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono once said, people who default to black hat mode can be beneficial as they can build robustness into future thinking. With the right design for risk-smart innovation, they can shift from sceptical protectors of the present to creative builders of the future.
4. The Future Hoarders
Guarding knowledge, networks, and experience for personal advantage, and to ‘own’ tomorrow. They are in the service of their big ME, and can’t think of a ‘beyond’ without them.
They measure success by their indispensability rather than the capability of the team that comes after them. This creates single points of failure, disincentivises talented people and often creates a capability chasm. They see their knowledge, networks, and experience as personal competitive advantage rather than collective assets.
Why they matter: If they leave without transferring their experiential and relational wealth, performance falls off the cliff. The future becomes harder to design when you are missing this, or it is simply hidden from your view.
I remember a conversation one night with a young African bartender whose country had undergone a lot of turmoil. He told me his country had moved from darkness into light through strong leadership. Then he paused for a few seconds. When he spoke again, he said quietly, “But I do fear what may come next. I fear a leadership vacuum." He was foreseeing a possible cliff.
What to do?
Start with the material at hand.
The key is knowing where each person in your leadership team sits in the Leadership Futurescape™ (DM me for a diagnostic), then figuring out actions that help them shift. Here are some action ideas to start with:
Makers - Provide a platform for them to express their passion, talent and energy. Give them access to wise guides and ‘shapers’.
Shapers - Design spaces and exchanges, to pass their experience forward and equip others.
Blockers - Show safe ways to experiment without risking stability. Provide mentoring and intentionally designed programs such as Leading for Innovation.
Hoarders - Recognise their experience, and design accountability in, so knowledge transfer is intentional and the cliff is avoided.
We can all be rewired for possibility.
Designing the future is a creative act. Let’s make it more constructive, impactful and game-changing too. Know your leadership team’s stances, help them understand their own possibilities ‘wiring’ and ‘time’ orientation.
As the Cheshire Cat said in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take." I would add, also know where you are starting from.
If we can’t imagine a better future, we can’t make and shape it.
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Every time, I put my thoughts out into the world, my hope is to be useful to at least one person!
If you would like to dive a bit deeper or complete my diagnostic, please DM me or catch up for a coffee(in person or virtual)!
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