Book Review: Leadership Of The Future - Tina Moe

Two weeks ago when i was at IDA’s Industry 4.0 conference (http://brunothalmann.com/industry-4-0/) i watched a talk from Tina Moe. The talk was very interesting so i bought her book which she sold right after her talk. When i later at the conference talked to her i got more exciting to read her book. To find out how she defines her thoughts about the leadership of the future.

Overview

The book is divided into three main parts. The first part being the definition of knowledge and the view of society the book is based on. Based on research this part is meant for convincing the leaders that think everything is going fine and there needs no change to happen.
The second part is the definition of the seven core principles on getting a different leader. The seven principles go from having a purpose to removing barriers in the organisation and at last how to have the courage to do it.
The third part is kind of a coaching part. Where there is a section per core principle and how they can be applied in real life right now. It contains some thoughts and help on common problems one may encounter.

Part 1 – The Future

Defining the future for companies and the world is difficult. Especially with a very broad target audience for the book. For me, a more technical guy, i would have liked more numbers and more in depth analysis of each of the different ideas. That is why i have a bunch of articles and books on my reading list from this part. It is always important to have a good ground knowledge before drawing any conclusions.

This part could have been longer and would in that way have been a more fully covering analysis. But then again the target audience are leaders in big organisations that do not have a lot of time and will probably be fine with the short definition of the future. This part is very well referenced so there is plenty of opportunity to investigate more.

Part 2 – Leading Organizations

The seven core principles of leading an organisation are presented here. These seven principles are developed by Tina Moe and their headlines look as follows:

Establish a meaningful purpose
Lead the whole brain
Reduce fear
Increase energy
Redefine success
Create agility
Build courage to lead

The seven principles are very well explained with hands on examples and backtracking to the first part for reasoning. The more i got through the principles the more i was understanding the ideas behind what Tina Moe is trying to accomplish. To create an organisation based on a purpose that helps society. Lead employees that share that purpose and give them the opportunity to work freely. Work in an environment full of commitment and positive energy. Make sure to define success so that the organisation can flourish with the new purpose and trying to increase the product 10 times instead of 10%. How to have the courage to do the above and pass the courage on to every employee so she or he can feel free to deliver the best they can. That is a truly agile organisation.

I agree very much with seven principles. I think they make good sense and it is good to put it into a framework so we can discuss it. In the book big tech companies are mentioned as being true agile organisations. I agree with that point of view that we need to take the way the big tech organisations are lead. And apply it in every other sector. Because a true agile organisation will find its own way – if it is lead by the way the seven principles describe.

Part 4 – Personal Leadership

This part is what i would call a coaching part on how to apply the seven principles on a daily basis. Very practically and i like that a lot. There is a lot one can do on a personal level as well also without being a big leader. It combines the principles on a personal level and gives guidance which i found very useful already.

Final thoughts

Having a purpose of an organisation that solves one of the seventeen global goals is both meaningful for the employees you want to hire and it actually gives a higher profit. The studies presented in part 1 are very clear on that. I was delighted to read that and to me it also makes so much sense on a personal level. We do not just want to be part of an organisation that says “We want more customers” – we would rather be part of an organisation that says “Discover and innovate products that reduce paper usage throughout the world”. Or something like that. But you get the idea. That was a great eyeopening to me. And we can see it already the big organisations doing it. See Carlsberg developing their new six pack without plastic to hold the cans together. Why sell cans in the first place is then again a good question but that must be for another post..

There are many eyeopening experiences like the one above throughout the whole book which makes a really interesting read. I would definitely recommend it: https://www.tinamoe.dk/vare/leadership-of-the-future/