SOUTH African leaders might be uniquely skilled at navigating volatility and complexity, but today’s barrage of economic and political pressures, institutional breakdowns, corruption scandals and digital disruption has created a leadership environment where playing it safe and tweaking what we have often feels like the only viable survival option in a sea of change.
It’s confidence in this ambiguity that leaders need to embody, and excellent leaders already know that success is becoming less about clarity and control, and more about confidently choosing change. Meaningfully driving growth and trust in our organisations, economy and society, will require confrontation, perhaps through our National Dialogue, with a few hard truths.
First, we need to reframe failure as curiosity at work. Not reckless failure, not ethical lapses, but bold, intelligent experimentation that pushes…
