LEADERSHIP


is that people are increasingly defined by place, which clashes with the current narrative of global and social mobility. “The disconnect between the global people who are supposedly fit to lead and the rest is only growing bigger,” he explained. “And it’s not just an economic disconnect: it’s a relational and psychological disconnect. “The way leadership works is that


we celebrate the role models and then we move to them; they move us. If we have a society that celebrates the mobile professional but most people don’t have an opportunity to become one, you have a recipe for resentment, not for emulation.” Within this breakdown of trust and


opportunity, those most able to lead become among those least trusted. This represents a key paradox now for leadership. “The same thing that gives you access to opportunities to lead [mobility] is what makes it harder to exercise leadership,” Professor Petriglieri told me. Looked at in another way, people


expect consistency and commitment from leaders, while mobility requires them to be open-minded and ready to move on. Yet people want everything from their leaders except that readiness to move on. “People want to know their leaders


are there for them. So I think that those who have staked their career on being f lexible and mobile are often in a difficult situation,” says Professor Petriglieri.


No going back? For the professor, the central issue now is not how we return to trust, but how we make globalisation work better for more people. “Do we really want to return to a world that is extremely homogeneous, and you are in and like us or you are out? I hope not,” he says. “The question, then, is how we


make sure everyone benefits from the opportunity to be part of a mobile, f luid, diverse society. How can as many people as possible benefit, including those who can’t, or won’t, move much?” Both of these questions seem to


resonate well with the current diversity and inclusion agenda. Increasingly, people in business today will encounter difference in all its forms. For Professor Petriglieri, retreating from such diversity to a world of clear and homogeneous national cultures is not the only option, despite the surge of nationalism around the globe. “The important thing for leaders operating across national borders is to


find commonality,” he explains. “It isn’t enough to look the same way or be from the same place. You have to find what we have in common. You have to build what we have in common with words and facts.


“Leadership is about having one


foot in the present and one foot in the future”


“A lot of my work and research are


focused on high-potential people and preparing them for leadership roles, as well as independent workers outside organisations. A theme across all that research is that the most successful people cultivate attachments, even in circumstances that tempt them to stay loose, to travel light. “These days, you might not belong


geographically – fine. What other way can you claim belonging? It might be attachment to a community, a set of values, some specific place. But there is a sense in which they are able to say, ‘Yes, I do move around, yes, I do have this variety of experiences, but this is where I belong. In some way or other, we belong together’.


“If you reach the point where you are


trying to lead a group of people and cannot credibly say in some way, shape or form, ‘We belong together’, you are not going to lead. You cannot lead if you do not belong.”


Taking down walls For Professor Petriglieri, it is shared futures we look for in our leaders, not necessarily a shared past. “It doesn’t matter if you come from a different place than I come from. Where we are going, we will belong together, we will benefit together. If you can make that argument, then people will trust you. If you break that promise, they won’t,” he said. “Leadership is about having one foot


in the present and one foot in the future. It is often frustrating and about living in between. That’s what people want from the leaders: this sense of productive distress. They want them to say, ‘Yes, I get the anxiety, but there is hope’.” It is open to debate whether or not


Donald Trump can reconnect with all those he alienated during his election campaign, and deliver economically and socially for more people with his America First rhetoric. Nevertheless, for global managers and


leaders, this ability to connect with people, make a promise, deliver hope, and live with the tension is an equally challenging, and vitally important, task.


Gianpiero Petriglieri


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