In this special episode of The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Adam Pacifico sits down with Dr. Regis Chasse, who leads leadership development solutions initiatives for Heidrick Consulting. Adam and Regis discuss the five imperatives Heidrick has identified through which leaders can focus their capabilities and, over time, become what we call connecting leaders. These imperatives are: envision the future, deliver today, act with purpose and courage, harness the power of others, orchestrate ecosystems, and cultivate a learning mindset.

For more on the connecting leader, see “The connecting leader: Five imperatives for leaders today.”

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Welcome to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of diversified solutions across senior-level executive search, leadership assessment and development, team and organizational effectiveness, and culture shaping. Every day, we speak with leaders around the world about how they are meeting rising expectations and managing through volatile times, thinking about individual leaders, teams, organizations, and society. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Adam Pacifico: Listen, I want to talk to you about the connecting leader model because it's a point of view that is now part and parcel of the DNA of Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership development. It's something I know you've been working on passionately. Before I get there, I've always had a strong point of view about why it's now so important for people to connect, reconnect, and stay connected, especially when we've had the experience of the pandemic.

Why do people-to-people connections matter so much, Regis, and the work you're doing and the research and the people you're talking to—why is this so important? 

Regis Chasse: Well, as work in organizations is shifting, we all know that technology and AI are being embedded everywhere in organizations. Humans have to become more human within the organizations.

Connecting people to people is very critical to elevating the roles that humans can play within organizations. If a colleague does transactional work within an organization, that transactional work will disappear soon or later; it will be automated. How do we elevate the level of activities and the humanity of our workforce?

We ask our workforce to be more creative, more collaborative, to serve more complex problems, so humans have to become more human. And connection among humans is critical, but connection to ourselves first, connection to the team, connection to the organization, but also connection to the external world, and ultimately connection to the trends that are going on in terms of innovation and AI and technology. 

Being connected, for us, is very important and you know, when we started the research, we started by saying the connected leader [I remember] and we shifted that to the connecting leader. Being connected is a state, but connecting is actively connecting every day to all the different actors of your own ecosystem. So, that's why connecting, for us, is so important.

Adam Pacifico: Well, there's a fluidity to that, isn't there? Rather than, as you say, a static state. It's a constant state. I'm glad you used the word humanity. Perhaps that's something that we could all do a little bit more of in a world that has gone slightly mad. You talked about research. Research is behind this particular point of view. Help us understand a little bit about what you mean by research. 

Regis Chasse: So first of all, I joined Heidrick & Struggles two years ago, but well before that Heidrick & Struggles has been in the leadership space for many decades, and for the last 10 years especially, there has been quite a bit of research on leadership—leadership competencies, leadership performance, and the correlation between all those elements. But we were looking in the rear-view mirror. We were looking behind us and observing what the leadership characteristics are that we observed that were leading to better performance. What we have done in recent years is we're trying to look forward—so how did we do that?

In order to understand the future of leadership, we need to understand, what the future of the enterprise is. Once we understand what the future of the enterprise is, then we can better understand what kind of leader is needed for that enterprise to succeed. So how do we come up with the future of the enterprise?

We step back and look at what we have today, and we surveyed organizations on the societal forces that affect organizations today and that organizations will have to adapt to. [Through that,] we have identified eight different forces. Environmental concern is one societal force. AI and technology, of course, are another societal force.

The lack of trust in institutions forces organizations to change, a little bit, how they are positioned in the marketplace and how they project their brand and values. Consumers now expect organizations to sometimes step in instead of the government, which they don't trust anymore. The changing expectations of the workforce. Demographics, but also post-Covid, you know, the work-life balance has become very important in the mind of people post-Covid. The workplace is no longer looking the same as it was pre-Covid, right? In addition to the generations that are coming in—I mean, my kids are 21 and 25, and they are already team leaders.

So, Gen Z is taking the leadership ranks within organizations without counting on the gig economy. By 2026, in the US, there will be more contractors and freelancers than full-time employees in the workforce. So the gig economy is here.

Adam Pacifico: It's all shifting. 

Regis Chasse: So we have taken all those societal forces and then projected that in the future for the organization.

So the future of the organization then becomes a much more open platform for value creation. I talked about the gig economy—more and more, we have a core workforce that is full-time, but we bring in more and more contractors and freelancers to complement the capabilities that we need within the organization.

We bring in partners, not for 20 years or 10 years [like previously], to help us with our supply, but also on specific projects, specific services, and specific products—and those relationships can be just for the span of that product or that service to bring us some capabilities that we don't have. So, that open platform with many actors to create value towards a specific mission and purpose needs to be amplified.

So for the future of the enterprise, it's very important that the mission and purpose are very, very clear because we have so many actors and it's so open—the boundaries of the enterprise are becoming more and more open. If we don't have that purpose and mission and that focus, it could become chaos. We have so many actors, right, so we all need to really be laser focused on that. 

Adam Pacifico: We're seeing, aren't we, Regis, in our work that focus, leadership, and culture are three very important pillars for the success—the accelerated success—of any organization. And also interesting, I'm hearing from you, that when we talk about the connecting leader, it's very much forward-focused, not in the rearview mirror. Is that a fair summary just in relation to the direction of travel? 

Regis Chasse: Absolutely. So, as the connecting leader, we're trying to anticipate the leadership capabilities that will be needed today and tomorrow as enterprises and organizations are evolving. 

Adam Pacifico: Okay. Now there are five critical components: So, we've got “envision the future, deliver today.” We've got “orchestrate ecosystems” as the second one. Then, we've got “harness the power of others” and fourth, “act with purpose and courage.” But all of those four—which we'll touch on—are surrounding the [fifth component,] “learning mindset.” That seems to be, if this was a wheel, that's the hub of the wheel. So let's start with the learning mindset. What do we mean by that, in relation to this point of view about the connecting leader, Regis? 

Regis Chasse: Satya Nadella, I think, said it first you know, it's a world and an age where it's run-it-all, not know-it-all anymore, right?

So, the ability of leaders to learn and to experiment is so critical nowadays. The world is changing so fast. You need to, not only individually, but also your organization, has to flex and experiment and learn from those experiments and plan those experiments. We don't want to talk about failures anymore.

We want to talk about learning as we experiment and growing our maturity. and that applies to us individually. “Oh, my leadership style needs to be improved this way. That person is an extrovert; I am more of an introvert. I am a bit shy. How do I approach that?” So I push myself out of my comfort zone and I experiment a little bit and see how these new behaviors that I try to apply impact others.

So, that applies to me as an individual, but that also applies to a team that can experiment together and then apply that to the organization, as well. So learning mindset is really front and center of the connecting leader. 

Adam Pacifico: Absolutely. [When we hear from] leaders from heavily regulated sectors, you know, when we're working with the legal sector, the pharmaceutical sector, the insurance sector—and they very commonly say, this is a struggle.

To try and embrace that failure fast or learn from failure. Failure isn't in many people's vocabularies and understand why. What's your advice to those people who are working in highly regulated, or what they feel are quite rigid, environments when it comes to “You need to have a learning mindset. You need to really learn from failure.”

Regis Chasse: Planned experiments are the key. Planning those experiments. Look at SpaceX. I mean, that is regulated, right? That is a highly regulated industry for the safety of people, both on the ground and astronauts and look at the acceleration of producing new boosters through planned experiments. So when they were launching some boosters initially, they were meant to fail, but they were learning and capturing data, collecting data as they were failing.

So planned experiments is really, for me, the way to, within a very constrained environment, still be able to accelerate innovation and learn through experiment that way. 

Adam Pacifico: And this is absolutely essential, isn't it? Because I think most CEO's biggest fear is becoming irrelevant and so if one is standing still and everybody else is moving forward and learning and innovating, that's when organizations and individuals get left behind.

So we've got learning mindset in the middle of the other four components. Let's go to envision the future, deliver today. Now, I know this is something that a lot of leaders struggle with because it's asking them to simultaneously deliver high-performance day-to-day, but also spend enough time exploring perhaps both opportunity and challenge as yet not even identifiable sometime in the future.

So, tell us how you landed on envision the future, deliver today, and what does that mean to the connecting leader. 

Regis Chasse: So, shaping the strategy of the organization is, of course, a strong requirement of leaders, and driving impact delivering—is also something that is very important. Doing both at the same time is the challenge that we are trying to resolve here.

How do you prioritize interesting data points? Taking on too much and overcommitting are the most frequent derailers that we have captured through our assessment data of leaders. Another one is setting too many strategic priorities that overwhelm and confuse—the third most common derailer.

So, that is definitely something that we need to train people on and really provide the tools for clarity of direction and for clarity of prioritization so that both can be done at the same time. Too often, we hear leaders say, “Yes, but I'm so busy every day. I don't have the time to take some space and distance from the situation and think.”

So that's really where we are trying to go. That capability for us is critical in the future because the world will not stop moving. The world will not stop moving, and you need to be able to anticipate and outline your strategy while still delivering value every day. 

Adam Pacifico: Simplicity is part and parcel of that element as well, isn't it? Just tell us a little bit about how that fits together.

Regis Chasse: Absolutely. Again, too many priorities; and too many directions. If we can simplify the organization and if we can simplify the number of priorities, we can simplify the organization. Uh, it's not only processes, then that becomes much easier to do both at the same time. 

Adam Pacifico: Gotcha. Orchestrate ecosystems—help people understand what we mean by that, because that could mean a multitude of things. Orchestrate ecosystems, Regis. 

Regis Chasse: Yes. So this is an extension of what we just covered: Envision the future, deliver today. You can do that within the organization, but more and more, the world—first, is moving very fast. And second, the problems that we're trying to resolve are becoming more and more complex.

We need to have more and more capabilities to be able to resolve those complex problems, and sometimes, and more and more often because the problems are becoming more and more complex, we need to reach out outside of the enterprise to bring those capabilities that we don't have, so that we can deliver the services and products to our customers.

So, here we're talking about business ecosystems. Sometimes those are as simple as one partner, and one relationship, but sometimes those business ecosystems can be quite complex. And the key there is to make sure that we find a win-win-win among all the actors of that ecosystem, for ourselves, and for the ecosystem itself.

So during Covid, look at Pfizer and biotech, and look at the regulators in the countries and the governments supporting that initiative to accelerate, first the research, and then the manufacturing of that vaccine, in record time. This is an example of a very complex ecosystem that was created to resolve that very, very complex problem.

Adam Pacifico: So, when we talk about orchestrate ecosystems, I think, for a lot of people that's complicated, a little bit like spinning plates on sticks and you’re forever trying to ensure that one of those plates doesn't drop and break. What is your standout advice to a leader now, trying to identify and manage the spinning plates to understand both the internal and the external ecosystems—which are forever changing.

Where do they even start, Regis, on this? 

Regis Chasse: Yeah. So, that can be overwhelming, right? When you look at the outside world, I mean, that can be absolutely overwhelming. So that's very important that you really understand the problem that we're trying to resolve. What problem are you trying to resolve?

Is it a new need that customers have expressed and you want to address that need—but to address that need you can provide 70% of the capabilities to do it, but there are 30% that are not there? Let's take the automotive industry, those car manufacturers, the traditional car manufacturers, were excellent in terms of all the different mechanical aspects of the car, but they didn't know the battery technology, right?

That's the capability that they needed to find somewhere else. And actually, it's not only the battery technology but also the electronics to be able to manage the power, et cetera, et cetera. So they had 70% of the answer with all the mechanical parts, but they didn't have the battery experience, knowledge, and expertise.

So that's where they reached out to different players in that space to create an ecosystem that allows them to address the EV market, ultimately. This is a big example that can be also replicated at a much smaller scale when you think about your local markets and your own capabilities. This is a way to accelerate innovation.

This is a way to scale faster through partnering, and the mindset to have is one plus one equals three. None of us individually could do it on our own, right? But, if we combine our forces, we can resolve those complex problems. 

Adam Pacifico: So, it's about leveraging the collective. So Regis, before I go onto the other two. Envision the future, deliver today and orchestrate ecosystems—do you put those together in any way to what they're applying to or focused on?

Regis Chasse: Yes, yes. Because the direction, the purpose, and the strategy, are the guiding forces to create those ecosystems. Remember what is key is to understand the problem that we're trying to resolve and the direction that we want to take—that comes from the strategy. So, absolutely the orchestrate ecosystems is the way to extend the way we create value as an enterprise. 

Adam Pacifico: So act with purpose and courage, and harness the power of others. In fact, this came up in our client conversation only yesterday. Tell us why this was identified as one of the critical components of the connecting leader. 

Regis Chasse: So resilience is something that has been tested during Covid, right? And actually, leaders are—if we look at our assessment data—leaders have been better and better at resilience. But courage is the lowest-rated energizer of our assessment, consistently, and we looked at ‘all-time’ and then over the last two years.

So how do you find courage? And courage leads to taking smart risks and seizing opportunities. So courage really can be unlocked once you are very, very clear on your professional purpose and on your values. Once you have that foundation, I would say, then courage is really. It's anchored in that purpose.

That purpose gives you a line of sight or direction that makes you a lot more motivated, energized, and bold, and you are willing to fight for what you believe is right in order to achieve that purpose. 

Adam Pacifico: Now it's interesting, I've heard the word courage used by elite sportspeople, and I'll give you one example. Stevie Ward from London Rhinos talked about the requirement for them to be courageous in being themselves, both on and off the pitch.

Regis Chasse: Absolutely.

Adam Pacifico: So he talked about the courage of Iku. A masculine and gladiatorial environment to still be very authentic in. Are you seeing any links as well between that ability to be courageous, but also that ability to be highly authentic? 

Regis Chasse: Absolutely. Courage applies to ourselves to have the courage to look at ourselves in the mirror—with the good things that you see and the not-so-good things that you see, and do you want to do something about it? So it takes courage to look at that mirror and then process that? That's also important. But courage also can apply to you can apply also to the team and, you know, the team can be galvanized also with that purpose that we defined earlier, and that will unlock also the courage of the team as well. So, being yourself—es. If you are yourself and you feel deeply that you are fighting for the right reasons and the right solution, then suddenly the courage unlocks quite easily. 

Adam Pacifico: Tell me a little bit about where self-awareness fits in with this component, because you talked about looking in the mirror and seeing what you see—and you may not quite like what you see—but help me understand the importance of self-awareness. 

Regis Chasse: So, the way I picture it is, in order to find your personal and professional purpose, you have to be self-aware. You cannot just, as a check exercise, try to find a purpose, and [then decide], this is the one I select.

No, you have to really go deep into your own understanding and your own self-awareness. So for me, there is a dependency on self-awareness, which allows you to better find your purpose, which allows you to then build courage and resilience. 

Adam Pacifico: Okay, understood. Let me come across to harness the power of others.

And within this one is something that I've been banging on about for ages—and you and I both share a passion in relation to human-centered leadership. But again, help us understand why harness the power of others came out as one of the critical components of the connecting leader model. 

Regis Chasse: Well, I think we open with that: Organizations are becoming more human. We need to unlock the fullest potential of all our team members, and also the expectations of our team members are evolving. so harness the power of others is about empowering team members. I have a colleague, uh, our colleague TA, who talks about delegated leadership.

Maybe she has another word, but the vibe that we want is for the team to be so inclusive, so collaborative; we want to empower our team members to experiment themselves, to learn by themselves, and give them the space to do so, and all that creates a team that is more likely to become a high-performance team.

All our studies show that, in order to—we call it at Heidrick, accelerated teams, but high-performance teams, all those components need to be brought together in order to achieve that level of performance. 

Adam Pacifico: You and I have spoken before about a term that we hear a lot about: inclusive leadership. So tell me about your views on that. Where does that sit in all of this? 

Regis Chasse: So it is absolutely part of harness the power of others, and for me, this is the mindset of seeking—not accepting, but seeking—diversity of thought, diversity of thoughts. That means, different experiences, different backgrounds, different types of people, and different geographies. But how can you have a very diversified way of looking at problems that we are trying to resolve together? The more lenses you use to look at the problem, the more likely you are to resolve the problem effectively. And inclusive for me is seeking that diversity—it’s inviting the voice of even the people in the team that are maybe shy or timid, you know, but really, really encouraging that mindset of ‘everybody has a voice and actually the more diverse the voice, the better we can work together and resolve problem.’

Adam Pacifico: So, Regis, the connecting leader model is applicable both to the individual and to groups of people as well. Is that right? 

Regis Chasse: Yes. Originally, we really wanted to look at individual leadership characteristics that will help lead the future of the enterprise. But absolutely these capabilities that we just mentioned, can apply to groups of people—absolutely. 

Adam Pacifico: Are you seeing evidence of this being done well? Because a leader may look at these five components and think there are certain places and spaces that they are generally good at or resonate with, and others that are works in progress. We're always works in progress. As part and parcel of the work you are doing in the research that you've done, were you seeing really good examples of this being brought to life? 

Regis Chasse: So in all fairness, we see two, three, sometimes four, of the five dimensions that are well implemented, rarely all five—but that's okay. This connecting leader is intended to identify those areas that, yes we are excellent at, but also those areas that we need to work on to be future-ready. So that's really the way to use this connecting leader model, right? It’s to look at it in a way to have some type of diagnostic and decide, what do we want to work on. And those capabilities that we have listed are the ones that would prepare you for the future as a leader. 

Adam Pacifico: Now, Regis, I know how much work has gone into this and how many iterations, and I've been involved in some of those conversations, so thank you. But what's the hope for the connecting leader?

Regis Chasse: I really think, number one: We have a great response from clients and people we talk to about the connecting leader, and it really resonates with them and their aspirations. Second—so the fact that this resonates so well with the market—we want to help organizations elevate their game and become future-ready through this model, which seems to work for most. 

Adam Pacifico: And that's a critical piece. We're gonna come back to it. It's this future readiness piece, isn't it? As opposed to historic or “what got us here isn't gonna get us there.”
I know it's a bit of a cliche, but that's what this is about, isn't it? It's about future-proofing the skills and capabilities for a world that's ever-changing. Again, am I summarizing that okay? 

Regis Chasse: You are spot on. 

Adam Pacifico: Okay, well that's a first for me. I'll be honest with you. Let me ask you this final question. What's the best piece of leadership advice you've ever given or received? 

Regis Chasse: Wow. That's deep. That's deep. I was told—and then tried to apply it—to let your team members learn at their own pace. That was such an unlocking effect on me and the way I was perceived by my team to not provide the solution to my team that I thought was the right solution, given my experience and expertise, but to let the team members their own solutions, and once in a while guide them. And you know what? Their solution was not the solution I had picked and it was a better solution. So that was, for me, the best advice ever. 

Adam Pacifico: I've gotta ask you another question now because I've got you here. So give an inch, I'll take a mile. What's been your biggest “aha” moment whilst you've been at Heidrick & Struggles since you came in? Have you had an “aha” moment?

Regis Chasse: You know, I have traveled the world quite a bit. I have shifted organizations quite a bit and I value, so much, a corporate culture of empowerment and collaboration. I was in the Middle East for a little while, and culturally that can be different I had forgotten. I was in the Middle East for five years and I had forgotten how freeing it can be to have such a corporate environment compared to the environment I was in before. And that motivates me, actually, with the connecting leader and everything we have talked about, to have organizations, you know, unlock the potential of their team members that way. 

Adam Pacifico: Well then, let that be the aspiration. Let's have as many conversations with as many people as possible about leaders, leadership, and how the connecting leader fits into that puzzle as well. Listen, thanks so much, Regis, for taking the time out to chat with me.

Regis Chasse: Thank you for having me, Adam. Thank you. 

Thanks for listening to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. To make sure you don’t miss the next conversation, please subscribe to our channel on your preferred podcast app. And if you’re listening via LinkedIn or YouTube, why not share this with your connections? Until next time.

About the participants

Dr. Regis Chasse (rchasse@heidrick.com) is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Washington, DC, office and leads leadership development solutions initiatives for Heidrick Consulting.

Adam Pacifico (apacifico@heidrick.com)is a partner in the London office and a member of Heidrick Consulting.