Today’s coffee companion is a writer and consultant.
We talked about what we have been up to since we last met.
We also talked about how management, leadership and organisations are changing, sometimes against their will.
The conversation led to an interesting hypothesis, which starts with an assumption – that the skills that one requires to traverse a large organisation and get promoted into senior roles are not the same skills that one requires to perform those roles. The intersection between those skillsets is therefore random to individuals and many leaders therefore are out of their depth (the Peter Principle amongst other theories points in this direction).
The hypothesis is that the skills that will be required to traverse a large remote organisations will:
a) be different from the ones required to do so in person
b) be closer to the skills required to then perform those senior roles
For example, to do well in a remote organisation, you need to foster trust and psychological safety – you can’t just be directive and use power and physical presence to impose your way. To do well in a remote organisation you need to work transparently. To do well in an remote organisation you need to focus on outputs and outcomes.
This is all conjecture – but it’s a very interesting hypothesis.
I’m thoroughly enjoying this #100Coffees experiment. Why not join me by booking a slot at https://calendly.com/matt-ballantine?
Numerical analysis…
mmitII 