At VIM Executive Coaching we are always fascinated by trends and 2021 will be no exception to the ever forward march of progress. The technology website Techjury.net, recently listed (January 4, 2021) several “New Technology Trends for 2021.”
We were fascinated by the continuing evolution of what is termed The Internet of Things, or IoT. The technology talks to how everything will soon be connected to everything else.
For example, suppose you are on the interstate, and on your way to an important meeting to try and secure funding for a new business venture. The meeting is set-up, and you are the only missing ingredient.
You are hopelessly late and the investors must catch flights to various locales. Instead of losing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fund your proposed chain of virtual cat grooming salons, you have your digital device (with its new 5G network capabilities) send a message to your computer to download a presentation to the hotel projector and voila! Though you are 40 minutes late to arrive, the investors, who have by now seen the presentation, are so impressed they clamor to fund your project.
The Internet of Things?
The point here is that we are becoming increasing connected to everything. It is not science fiction but true: surgeons can perform remote surgery, a night watchman can secure a building from five miles away, a driverless truck can deliver goods to a factory where robots unload the cargo.
The problem here is that mistakes can – and do occur. Some mistakes are amusing. At a major hardware store chain (this is true), the “smart refrigerators were hacked,” and you can just imagine the look on the shopper’s faces when obscene images flashed across the screens. In other examples, far more serious events have been documented; for example, chemical and sewage leaks because the order to open certain valves was improperly relayed from a remote location.
Indeed, one of the abuses of the Internet of Things is that safeguards are not always in place to ensure the absence of serious errors.
This leads us not to the Internet of Things, but the Authenticity of Things in leadership. Clearly, VIM Executive Coaching is solidly committed to progress. We celebrate the advances in our ability to connect with one another, or the developments enabling a surgeon in Boston to remotely save the life of a child in Ethiopia.
However, we fear that far too many executive leaders are willing to worship at the feet of technology over people, and lead through technology rather than leading with mindfulness and compassion.
We can connect to others if we are authentic and mindful. We cannot connect to others if we are closed off and “robotic,” or process people rather than relate to them.
The Pandemic
Strangely, in this time of solving vaccine distribution, developing better drugs and moving toward the economic resolution of the problems related to the pandemic, remote meetings and virtual training are not the biggest leadership challenges.
The biggest challenges are caused when leaders believe that authenticity stops because oftechnology. Technology is all the more reason to be authentic.
Mindfulness is more important now than ever. The ultimate goal for any leader must be to overcome the artificiality of remote leadership due to those little video boxes. The ultimate goal is to go far above those restrictions and to lead with the heart rather than the internet.
As we again approach normalcy, let us not defer authenticity. Let us not think, “I’ll be more mindful when all of this is over,” rather to understand that virtual or in-person, mindfulness is unchanging.