ARE YOU A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE THINKER? | THE FUTURE OF WORK BLESSED OR CURSED? THE OPTIMISM/PESSIMISM ISSUE VOLUME 6 6 VOLUME 2015 www.KornFerryBriefings.com No. 25 $14.95 US / CAN / $14.95 US Transform your organization with real world leadership. Korn Ferry’s Leadership Development solutions not only help you identify and nurture brilliant talent, we use real world challenges within your business to anchor development, ignite imaginations, and unlock leadership abilities. Find out more: kornferry.com/realworldleadership #RealWorldLeadership Transform your organization with real world leadership. Korn Ferry’s Leadership Development solutions not only help you identify and nurture brilliant talent, we use real world challenges within your business to anchor development, ignite imaginations, and unlock leadership abilities. Find out more: kornferry.com/realworldleadership #RealWorldLeadership CAN YOU FEEL IT THE DESIRE FOR BOUNDLESS ADVENTURE www.jack-wolfskin.com 2 159000_095_IAZ_HW15_UK_8_25x10_75.indd 1 28.10.15 14:21 IN THIS ISSUE 4 CEO LETTER Features The Optimism Illusion Q&A: Clara Gaymard, President and CEO, 14 G.E. France 6 The Digital Natives The Are Restless Optimism-Pessimism How young directors are changing the boardroom. Continuum 22 10 Board Committees Where the action is. How (Will?) We Work 13 32 Tomorrow? Taking Off The Mask How being authentic accelerates women in leadership. 54 Office Of The Future: Q&A Sydney Finkelstein Where We’ll Work 40 Helping smart leaders succeed. 62 PROFILE Robert Rotella 50 A Meeting of Minds Big optimism. 69 Michelle ThompsonMichelle 25TH ISSUE SPECIAL by An incorrect prediction by someone who got most other things spectacularly right: 72 “I predict the Internet will PARTING THOUGHTS “Blessed or Cursed?” soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” —Robert Metcalfe Founder of 3Com, inventor of Ethernet, 1995. ON THE COVER COVER: TALENT+LEADERSHIP 25 3 The Gary Burnison Chief Executive Officer Optimism Michael Distefano Chief Marketing Officer & President, Korn Ferry Institute Joel Kurtzman Editor-In-Chief Illusion Creative Directors Robert Ross Roland K Madrid Marketing and Circulation Manager Stacy Levyn Project Manager Tiffany Sledzianowski Digital Marketing Manager Edward McLaurin M.C. Escher’s Contributing Editors Chris Bergonzi David Berreby “Circle Limit IV” Lawrence M. Fisher Hank Gilman Victoria Griffith Dana Landis Stephanie Mitchell ©2015 The M.C. Escher Company, The Netherlands. All rights reserved. Christopher R. O’Dea P.J. O’Rourke Glenn Rifkin Adrian Wooldridge BY GARY BURNISON Board of Advisors Sergio Averbach Cheryl Buxton hich do you look for: what’s right in what’s Dennis Carey wrong—or what’s wrong in what’s right? Joe Griesedieck Consider the M.C. Escher image (above). Even if the bats Robert Hallagan Katie Lahey Wjump out at you, do your eyes keep searching for the gentler, happier images Byrne Mulrooney of the angel? Indranil Roy The vast majority of people (about 80% according to researcher and au- Jane Stevenson thor of The Optimism Bias, Tali Sharot) gravitate toward the good outcome. They overestimate the likelihood of experiencing good events and underes- timate the likelihood of experiencing bad ones. Across all cultures, genders and ages, we are overwhelmingly optimistic. www.mcescher.com We acquire this “cognitive illusion” as part of our development to help us cope with (read: ignore) the ultimate outcome of being alive. We buy into the “happily ever after,” even in the face of such glaring statistics as the divorce rate (about 40-50 percent) or the likelihood of getting cancer (1 in 2 for men, and 1 in 3 for women). Even our memories are notoriously subjective— recalling our vacations as full of fun and relaxation, while ignoring the boring and mundane. 4 25 BRIEFINGS FROM THE CEO With optimism, we savor the anticipation of what least one blind spot—a trait or capability that they we think is going to be great. That’s why people overestimate. This selective myopia can derail their prefer Friday, even though it’s a workday, as they look career. Great leaders, however, are highly self-aware forward to the weekend over Sunday because of the and hyper focused on exposing their own blind spots prospect of going back to work on Monday. in order to more effectively lead others. Optimists tend to be healthier (less stress and anx- To lead a team, you need to tap into the optimism iety). And regardless of how things actually turn out, bias of your followers so that they believe the sky people with high expectations feel better in general. is the limit. Sometimes literally. In May 1961, in a When faced with failure, an optimist’s brain speech before Congress, President John F. Kennedy goes into high gear to figure out why and what went gave the entire country a vision: “…I believe that this wrong so they can learn for the future and have a better outcome next time. This is very much aligned with what Korn Ferry calls learning agility—the ability and desire to learn from the past and apply those lessons to new and first-time challenges and events. Importantly, learning agility is also the No. 1 predictor of future success. Winston Churchill, who led Great Britain through one of its most dire periods in history, said “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every op- portunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” To that I would add, a realist sees it all—the angels and the bats. Like anything, too much of a good thing is still too much. Too much optimism is a danger. Optimism blindsides. You need pessimism—with all its doom and gloom—to warn you that objects really are closer than they appear. nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, be- For a leader it’s all about creating a common pur- fore this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon pose – transforming self-interest to shared interest. and returning him safely to the Earth.” This establishes the left and right out-of-bounds Even here, though, Kennedy injected the reality of lines and enables others to achieve more in pursuit of what it would take—a list of scientific developments organizational purpose. However, a leader must also that would make even the most optimistic NASA en- use pessimism not only to ensure the organization gineer doubtful: Advanced lunar space craft, alternate is grounded in today’s reality, but also to anticipate liquid and solid fuel boosters, engine development… events that could go wrong. But optimistic vision combined with the right During a difficult time in Korn Ferry’s history, I dose of pessimism was the E=MC2 of reality. In July started a leadership meeting by 1969, realism claimed victory. (As showing a picture and asked people Most people focused a young boy, I remember riding what they saw. Most people, with on a girl picking flowers. my bike and listening through their optimism bias, focused on A smaller number the neighbors’ screen doors to the a girl holding a flower blooming focused on urban decay. clapping and cheers of “We did it!”) in the spring. A smaller number Only 2 of 17 were Our optimism serves us well, said their focus was drawn to the drawn to both. changing our subjective reality as dilapidated buildings in the back- we work to make things better. But ground. Only 2 out of 17 said they focused on both. we can’t be blinded by that bias. After all the world is That’s what I was driving at—while there are opportu- not simple—cut and dry, one team wins and another nities (the flowers), there are always risks to overcome one loses. and challenges to confront (the urban decay). In the proper dosage, pessimism exposes what you For leaders personally, it’s all about self-awareness need to pay attention to and worry about. to reveal their own blind spots. Based on our Reach for the stars, worry about the clouds, and research, nearly 80 percent of executives have at keep your feet on the ground of reality. TALENT+LEADERSHIP 5 “There is a huge unmet need for board expertise in tech and the creative digital space.” — SUZANNE MUCHIN e tend to think of optimism and pessimism as ways of viewing the future, but they can be equally powerful THE OPTIMISM VS. prisms for looking at the past. It’s often s PESSIMISM ISSUE said that hindsight is 20/20, yet what we remember about a period in time may also be a product of our own outlook. 1950 Here’s a look back at some of the events TIMELINE that have shaped our world, for better Rosa Parks becomes “the first lady of civil rights,” triggering a or worse (or both). change in the decades ahead. 6 BRIEFINGS BY KAREN KANE The Digital Natives Are Restless How Young Directors Are Changing The Boardroom hey walk into the boardroom wearing jeans and carrying backpacks. As the Tmeeting stretches over hours, millennial directors convey with their body language that they are not used to sitting and listening; they’re programmed to interact. When the company serves plated lunches, some order out sushi. Those who have “grown up digitally” are the ultimate prize in the hunt for directors who can help boards and CEOs address the technology innovations that are fundamentally changing every business. A new digital industrial economy is emerging where every company is a technology company. It requires directors to develop a core understanding of how technology can impact the business, whether it’s lowering the costs, better connecting to customers or improving the company’s offerings. Toyota changes the Elvis Presley auto industry by implementing changes the music “lean manufacturing.” landscape and popularizes rock ‘n’ roll Sputnik I The Soviet Union around the world.