Key characteristics of long-term thinking leaders in the workplace

Take it from the marshmallow experiment: place a single marshmallow in front of a child and tell them that if they resist eating it for 15 minutes, they’ll get a second one. As you might expect, very few children hold out that long.

It’s very easy to fall into the traps of what author Roman Krznaric calls ‘marshmallow brain’. In business, this often means the temptation of instant results. The modern world of work constantly incentivises short-term thinking, from daily problem-solving to quarterly budgets. For example, research has shown that more than 80% of financial executives would trade long-term performance to hit quarterly targets.

No one gives you credit for doing what is slow, hard, and sometimes invisible. So how do cultivate a leadership mindset that thinks 10 years ahead, 20 years ahead and beyond?

Let’s take a look at three characteristics you’ll need as a long-term thinking leader. 

Independent thinking

There’s a lot of pressure in the workplace to be a people-pleaser, committing ourselves to short-term achievements with easy validation from stakeholders.

Being a long-term thinking leader takes courage. It needs you to reject the cycle of external validation, move beyond the doubts of others, and be brave enough to trust in your decisions. As explained by best-selling author Dorie Clark: “You’re not just doing things to show other people you’re doing things. You have a much greater margin to think about what really matters.”

Once you have your plan, it’s equally important to communicate it to the organisation clearly. Being seen as a stubborn stick-in-the-mud isn’t productive, but being the person everyone trusts to make the right call is.

Curiosity and adaptability

Unfortunately, there’s no crystal ball to reveal the future of your organisation. No one has perfect foresight, and even if you know what you want to achieve, you might not know how to get there.

This is where a healthy dose of curiosity can help.

By asking the right questions, challenging your assumptions, and monitoring the environment for new information, you can discover new opportunities and adjust your strategy as needed. Remember to turn your eye inward as well, as a deeper understanding of your organisation and the challenges it faces will better maintain your competitive edge.

However, curiosity can only help if you are flexible enough to respond to feedback. Effective long-term planning needs to factor in room for change. The most successful companies are often those that can pivot and jump on the best trends.

Resilience and perseverance

While it’s important to account for flexibility in long-term planning, you should also keep in mind the importance of perseverance. As Tom Cheesewright explains: “Keep your eyes solely on the horizon and you’re likely to trip over a curb, while not looking up at all means you’ll end up at the wrong destination.”

In the end, it comes back to the marshmallow problem. Dorie Clark has observed the most common trait in long-term thinking leaders is the ability to delay gratification and have faith in their decisions – even when they don’t yield immediate results. Big goals are often impossible in the short term, and it can be easy to get dissuaded when facing failure.

Leaders need to build the strength to persist, the willingness to be patient, and most importantly the resilience to not let failure hold them back. If we do hard things today, we can enjoy the benefits tomorrow.

Final thoughts

As we enter the next quarter of the twenty-first century, long-term thinking leadership has never been more important.

You can learn more about why businesses need to start planning for the long term (and how you can put long-term thinking into action) in this article published in The Telegraph.

If you’re looking for more key tips to embrace a long-term mindset, register now for the World of Work 2050 webinar series with applied futurist Tom Cheesewright. The first instalment will discuss the need for a mindset shift in leadership and how it can start to filter down through your organisation.