The five skills, in the author's words, are cross-cutting, collaborating, coaching, culture shaping, and connecting.

Cross-cutting: developing networks that extend to a diversity of people,
Collaborating: fostering psychological safety to increase team performance,
Coaching: having critical conversations that develop others’ potential,
Culture shaping: shaping organizational culture by molding corporate practices, and
Connecting: growing in empathy and authentic leadership.

The problems to be solved—and opportunities to be seized—increasingly present what Harvard Kennedy School professor Ronald Heifetz calls “adaptive challenges,” complex situations in which there isn’t an obvious answer or clear choice, and solving problems depends on the brainpower and engagement of everyone not just the top leaders.

Developing this kind of personal leadership capacity requires vulnerability and courageous self-exploration; the growing self-awareness that ensues allows leaders to extract valuable life lessons that increase their capacity to empathize, and therefore, connect to others who undoubtedly share some of the same struggles.

Often the toughest task for leaders is resisting the urge to provide leadership in the form of answers and instead mobilizing their people throughout the organization to tackle adaptive challenges together.

Herminia Ibarra

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