Future of leadership

Leadership skills of the future: I often think about this concept because the way in which the world adapts today is insane. An idea can take over the Internet for a day, if you’re lucky, and then never be thought of again. You could still go and find post years down the road but it wouldn’t mean anything. This can also be a metaphor for leadership skills of the future. The skills that are effective today, for me, may not be utilized at all down the road. With the Millennial generation hitting the workforce, the way in which we lead needs to adapt to accommodate for short attention spans and technology. I’ll be interested to see if the leaders of tomorrow are “leading” through their Facebook posts and tweets as a main way of communicating to their followers. I think this is already in effect to some extent. Regardless, the underlying principles of leadership will not change. We just need to understand our followership and determine the most effective means of communication with them. The VUCA acronym is trying to get ahead of a predicted trend that, in some senses, is coming to reality. The current presidential primaries might be enough support for Johansen’s claims as some of the views put forth by our countries “leaders” are shocking. I am able to understand the different perspectives but some of the comments seem to be lacking any sort of compassion for humanity.

Changing environment for high school sports: This is an important concept as we will be graduating and some of us will be working in high school sports. The concept of amateurism is trickling down to high school and even middle school. There is such a push nowadays to get kids specialized in one activity and ride it out in the hopes that they can turn it into a profession. High school sports have turned into a shade of the college game where athletes are being exploited and coaches are profiting off of the performance of teenagers. The concept of escalation also surfaces here as a major concern because high school students are now turning to steroids and other intensive lifestyle choices in an effort to get an advantage on the field of play. You have high school football games on the sport books in Vegas. Pretty soon, if we have not already, we will see the little league world series in the sports book. I think that the leaders of tomorrow need to start answering some difficult questions now so that they can have an answer when they are faced with these types of issues.

Fifa and Qatar: This Case Study came out at an interesting time. We now know that that FIFA officials have been convicted with upwards of 30+ bribery and corruption charges stemming from World Cup selections and other sponsor agreements. This topic speaks to the human condition as it relates to the treatment of employees in the workplace and the exploitation of impoverished communities of people. The construction taking place in Qatar has been categorized as deadly. The workers are not compensated adequately. This one instance is a microcosm of what has been happening with FIFA for years. It is a true shame because FIFA touts the tag line that soccer is the “world’s game” and that everyone around the world is united when a ball hits the pitch. Just as is the case in other areas of business, money and power are the two things that corrupt the minds of these executives and they don’t have to answer to anybody. Until recently that is. The United States has stepped up to police this behavior that has seen nations swindled out of millions of dollars promised to them for relief efforts and other necessary resources. The worst part about the FIFA scandal is that it is so deep and intense that there is no real solution. It would be better to dismantle the association all together because those next in line to take on the leadership positions are in the same conversations as those that have been convicted of corruption and bribery. We talk about it in Ben’s class all the time but everybody has a number. If you offer X amount of money, person Y will do whatever you want them to. The leaders of tomorrow need to be ready to stand up for their beliefs and not be swayed by the distractions and ailments that poison our sport organizations around the world.