It’s one of my all-time favourite moments in a workshop. At a gathering for an organisation’s financial leaders, I asked everyone to identify a topic or skill they needed to understand better to prepare for what lies ahead.
Most of the Finance Directors in the room came up with complex subjects. They mentioned ‘things’ like the impact of taxation legislation changes, cryptocurrency exchanges, cost-cutting opportunities from offshoring…
And then we got to the Chief Financial Officer. The most senior person in the room. “What might you need to understand better in your work?” I asked. After a pause, he nervously replied:
“Could my ‘thing’ be Microsoft Excel?”
It was a beautiful moment of vulnerable leadership. He had admitted to a basic knowledge gap, and instantly, the atmosphere changed. Everyone else in the room felt permission to be completely honest about their own gaps too.
The most impactful areas for development are rarely the most complex. Sometimes mastering a core skill beats exploring the blockchain or NFTs. A little humble honesty about what we need to learn will always beat pretending we know everything.
Building a Future-Ready Mindset starts with having the confidence to admit what we do not know so we can begin the joyful task of learning again.
Get in touch if you’d like some Future-Ready Mindset magic for your team.