The Futurist role centres around customer experience and leveraging data to build a future proof business strategy. Forming part of Alchemist’s framework for leadership development, this profile is key in gaining the advantage over competitors. They are also vital for enhancing the way an organisation interacts with customers.  

If you feel like your organisation isn’t keeping ahead of the curve or maintaining a competitive edge, it could be because you need more Futurist skills in your leadership. Without the skills and knowledge to deliver an impactful customer experience, your clients can feel disengaged, weakening your relationships. Staying competitive also requires an awareness of market trends, your competitors and where the future of your business is headed. If your leadership don’t look at these areas with a strategic eye, you risk losing business to people who are a few steps ahead of you. 

Research shows that learning agility has a strong correlation with leader performance and potential¹, this is true of Futurists too. Their adaptive and agile approach to learning, technology and strategy propels them to be successful leaders. The way they analyse industry trends to inform their decision making keeps them ahead of the game. This awareness reshapes the way their team pushes towards its goals.  

Futurists also understand the value of the customer’s experience. How clients engage with a business, particularly in a rapidly evolving digital market, dictates the success of their relationship. By leveraging technology and using their analytical minds to find better solutions for their customers, a Futurist leader might be the one to unlock potential for existing accounts and those of tomorrow.  

What skills can you develop in your team to support futurist leadership? 

Customer Experience

Futurists enjoy unpicking the customer journey, which could refer to internal or external clients. They want to know what makes their customers tick. Taking the time to develop a deep understanding of the wants and needs of the customer allows the Futurist’s leadership style to be empathetic. They then carry this insight through into their leadership to generate more wins for their team.  

Balancing the customer’s needs against stakeholder expectations, these leaders are experts at creating extra value. Refining a customer experience strategy using their insights of both internal and external perspectives of the business, Futurists ensure that it stays relevant to the customer. Without this awareness, it’s easy to appear outdated and out-of-touch. Leveraging new technologies to transform the customer experience is crucial to avoid this. These leaders know exactly how to utilise tech to satisfy the evolving expectations of clients.  

Future Focused

With a label like ‘Futurist’ it’s no surprise that these leaders are future focused. They are quick to spot opportunities for modernisation in a business and are skilled at developing data informed strategies to drive success. Modelling a flexible approach, they remain adaptable and agile in an ever-changing landscape. They empower their teams with these skills so that they are able to take pre-emptive action and push ahead of the curve.  

Futurists embrace future technology in their team to develop a strategic vision that will boost overall growth. Using data and insights to inform their decision-making process, they are able to steer their team, and the business, on a path to success. This clear vision allows them to set definitive milestones to deliver strategies and measure results. Without a Futurist role in leadership, organisations risk missed opportunities for adopting technology that will set them apart. This can mean figuratively handing over the advantage to their competitors instead.  

Analysing Trends

Speaking of competitors, Futurists always have an eye on market trends. Understanding developments in their industry is crucial to their success. Excellent pattern recognition makes it easy for these leaders to spot trends and predict their trajectory. As a result of analysing trends in this way, they can respond ahead of time and implement meaningful action that delivers results.   

Always keeping a finger on the pulse, they will actively monitor relevant channels and have a keen awareness of their competitors. This can play a vital role in business strategy – keeping up with industry trends means remaining competitive. Without the Futurist leader’s knowledge of competitor activity, organisations can quickly fall behind. This can result in losing out on easy wins to their more advanced adversaries.  

Futurist leadership is key to developing a growth strategy. Their penchant for trend analysis and their ability to develop a future strategy informed by data and insights will transform the organisation’s growth trajectory for the better. By modelling robust learning agility within their team, they encourage everyone to adopt new technologies.  

Future proofing the business is their speciality and by cultivating a forward-thinking environment, they enable their team to transform the customer’s experience and keep them ahead of the game. Developing leadership skills against this profile will reshape the way your organisation thinks about the future, preparing you for greater success.  

Stay Competitive: Nurture Your Futurists with Alchemist 

Keeping a finger on the pulse of your industry is vital. If your leaders aren’t natural data analysts or market researchers, they may struggle to support the future focus of your organisation. So what can you do? Embark on a transformative leadership journey with Alchemist. Together we can build a learning journey that feels personal to your organisation and builds necessary skills in your leaders. We tailor our approach to help you build a well-rounded leadership team with diverse skills that cover a range of personas from our leadership enablement framework. Contact us today to find out what impact a learning programme like this could make on your business.  

¹De Meuse, 2019