Significant societal, environmental, health and economic issues have to be addressed to ensure a prosperous future for the Earth’s inhabitants. Dealing with these issues also requires the support of many institutions, particularly those under the heading of “education.”
Education takes many forms and becomes increasingly fundamental to successfully managing and leading in today’s complex, progressively transparent, hyper-competitive commercial landscape. It’s also instrumental in creating effectual governmental and non-profit organizations.
While the adoption of high-caliber education is becoming ubiquitous, educational programs need to continually evolve to meaningfully empower people and tackle pressing and decisive issues today and tomorrow. Many successful and capable people are recognizing the changes they need to adroitly deal with to maintain, let alone boost, the success of the enterprises they’re involved with, as well as their personal success. That’s why these individuals are embracing lifelong learning.
Personal development allows people to be successful and reach ever-higher levels of achievement. Transformative, issues-focused education that emphasizes reflective awareness is what successful people are looking for.
There’s also a profound shift in the way successful individuals are choosing their curriculums and the way in which they learn them. The trend is solidly toward a much more customized, transdisciplinary educational experience.
Another trend is the critical and increasing importance of global stewardship.
The Rise Of Global Stewards
Many people talk about the need for global leaders. They’re positing the world’s requirement for individuals who can organize and motivate others as a common goal. As for leaders being “global,” this refers to their ability to influence others, taking into account the internationalization of business as well as the highly connected world that we all experience no matter where we’re located. Indeed, quite a number of business schools, consultancies, think tanks and training organizations are focused on providing the educational foundation global leaders require to be effective.
Educating global leaders, however, falls short of what is becoming necessary to not only garner exceptional business success, but to also create maximum wealth on a worldwide, regional, national, local and personal level. For wealth to be created on all these levels, global leaders may not be enough. There’s also a strong need for global stewards.
Stewardship is centered on the responsible and conscientious management of resources. Having the appropriate mental perspectives and insights to be a steward is not enough. Skills and competencies are also necessary to be effective.
Accepting responsibility is a core characteristic of global stewards. So is accountability. This is made all the more complicated by the multiple constituencies the global steward must work with in order to be successful.
The simplified framework for global stewardship starts with entrepreneurial capitalism. This embodies numerous attributes that result in business-related success, such as creativity, competitiveness and measurable results. Two key byproducts of entrepreneurial capitalism are sustainability and worldwide wealth creation.
Sustainability is the ability to last. It’s the careful, wise husbanding of resources to produce maximum benefit while making sure certain requisite resources are available in the future. The mindless pursuit of profit will not produce the long-lasting and needed results we all need to enhance the lives of all the people on the planet as well as every other living creature.
To the extent possible, people need to consider all interactions among business, government, non-profits, the environment and society. This doesn’t negate the need to create wealth, but it does set parameters on what actions are viable and acceptable. With the need to foster sustainability crucial to the role of global stewards, it’s essential to integrate this perspective into all educational programs.
While pursuing sustainability, entrepreneurial capitalism is also very tightly focused on significant wealth creation. At the corporate level, for example, the need to be strategically innovative can be instrumental to the business and all involved. This is the embodiment of constructive achievement. The ability for everyone to become seriously wealthier has the potential to transform the world for the better.
By focusing on sustainable growth in conjunction with universal wealth creation, a potent set of relationships is established. In effect, they powerfully reinforce each other. Moreover, what can and hopefully will evolve is a virtuous cycle where all the components reinforce each other. Ultimately, the goal is to make a better and more prosperous world for everyone.
This lofty goal doesn’t negate the fact that trade-offs and hard choices need to be made. What global stewards do is look for solutions incorporating well-reasoned and inclusive thinking. Critically, global stewards are global leaders possessing moral depth, ingenuity and cognitive sophistication in the service of the planet.
Helping to educate global stewards is an arduous task, yet essential. The pedagogical mechanics have to center on clearly articulating and actualizing the professional (and often personal) development of those aspiring to become global stewards.
Results-Driven Education
The requisite educational approach is geared intently around facilitating achievements. The focus of any viable educational program is to provide an extraordinary and highly actionable curriculum that will enable people to excel. It’s the very no-nonsense approach demanded by global stewards, as well as those seeking a faster track to greater accomplishments.
Global stewards are results driven and, consequently, their education must also yield results. Today, it’s not just aspiring global stewards who require discernable, consequential results. Time is a luxury few can afford. Education has to translate into accomplishments as fast as reasonably possible.
Theory, for instance, is nice and can certainly play a very important role in a person’s professional development. Theory can deliver insights and be effective in identifying opportunities and possibilities. But, for global stewards, theory alone is often quite limited and insufficient. For theory to have maximum value in today’s highly complicated and convoluted world, it must provide guidelines and backing for action. Thus, learning various theories without learning how to apply them is not as productive as possible. What global stewards require is for theories to be tightly bound with competencies.
The following equation lays out the nature of education that is required by global stewards and those looking to professionally excel:
Applicable + Practical = Capable
Let’s consider each of the components:
• Applicable: The educational content must be pertinent, relevant and appropriate to the issues, resources and situations faced by global stewards. Hence, there must be foundational material and more targeted content as part of a customizable curriculum, such as issue-oriented material.
• Practical: The educational content must prepare people to efficaciously handle complex and conflict-ridden important matters as well as enable them to take on the mantle of stewardship. Furthermore, the educational content, where possible, should promote creativity and constructive cleverness. The world is dynamically changing, requiring that people quickly adapt.
• Capable: By adroitly ensuring the curriculum is applicable and practical, dedicated individuals exit quite capable. They will have the knowledge and skills, the insights and proficiencies to more effectively achieve high degrees of success. They will be able to make a significant difference in their professional lives and in whatever endeavors they pursue.
Implications
When it comes to the super-rich, a sizable percentage of them are strongly interested in being global stewards. This is quite pronounced among those who created these fortunes, but it has an even greater appeal for inheritors.
By embracing global stewardship, the super-rich are very likely to have a dramatic and far-reaching impact on many facets of the lives and well being of all living things throughout the world. While some of the super-rich are or will be more than able to become global stewards based on their present positioning, expertise and abilities, others will look to enhance their knowledge, skills, capabilities and perceptions. They will turn to educational resources that are highly adaptable and designed to meet their needs, wants and parameters on multiple levels.
With respect to professionals catering to the super-rich as well as those less affluent, being able to deliver or facilitate the education and related support many of them are looking for will result in significant degrees of differentiation from peers. While being able to deliver high-end expertise is always essential, as all professionals are inherently fungible, to access and excel with the exceptionally wealthy often necessitates the ability to stand above the competition. Helping to educate global stewards is one way to do so.