(Photo courtesy lumaxart)

In this interesting post at Psychology Today, the author brings attention to the work of Bernard M. Bass. Bass – a leadership scholar – predicted correctly in 1967 many aspects of leadership in 2000.  Its only prudent to pay heed to what he has to say about leadership in 2034.  

• Leadership development efforts will continue, with ongoing training a requirement for leaders (much of the training will be web-based).
  [Hmmm …a second career idea.]
• Second careers will become commonplace, as will 85-year-old employees.
  [There go my dreams of retiring by 45!]
• Women will become the majority of leaders and directors in most organizations (he argued that this is due to their more transformational qualities and greater concern for equity, fairness, and social justice.)
  [Today, there are still write-ups aplenty about low percentage of women leaders in the corporate world. This will be an interesting one to watch.]
• Leaders will make regular use of artificial intelligence to aid in decision making.
• Biotechnology and genetics will play a part in both understanding leadership and in leader selection.
  [Wonder what impact this will have on the leaders are “born vs. made” debate. If it does supports the former, then the first prediction in this list will be up for question.]
• We will “outgrow” bureaucracies, and most organizations will be flexible and mission-driven.
  [Hallelujah!]
• With technological advancements, it will be much more difficult for dishonest leaders to emerge in organizations and greater transparency in organizational operations will be the norm.
  [Really hope this applies to political organizations as well. ]
• Virtual work (e.g., virtual teams; web-based collaboration) will be the rule rather than the exception.
  [Google will be glad to see this & the direction they are headed.]

Read the full blog post by Ronald E. Riggio here.