Tomorrow’s Leaders Selfless and Ready to Collaborate ?

Conventional wisdom holds that winning, whether in business or life, is a zero-sum game: One wins and the other loses. Yet when surveyed about the ideal modern leader, 64,000 people in 13 countries–from China to Canada–wished their leaders were slightly less polarizing and more collaborative. This desire for a more inclusive and flexible leader is a reflection of an increasingly social and transparent economy, says  author John Gerzema one of the coordinators of a recent survey on the subject in Fast Company. When asked of today’s challenges, 70% of people feel the world is becoming less fair, while 85% feel there is too much power in institutions. On a personal level, people feel greater skills in engaging others are necessary for career management. 84% say that “today a successful career requires greater collaboration and sharing credit with others.” And 77% believe “it’s more important to be practical than stick to one’s ideologies.” Read more  here. The idea of more collaborative behaviors  amongst leaders , companies and brands – and the emergence of new species in the business ecosystem- was first suggested in the book “Nice” Capitalism (2008) by Costas Kataras, together with related findings from Game Theory on collaborative behavior, including the so called Prisoner’s Dilemma and the work by Robert Axelrod  as in his book “The Evolution of Cooperation” (1984). See more here.