I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. ~Wayne Gretzky

The electrical grid is standing on the brink of a major overhaul, and the industry will need leaders who run businesses the way The Great One skates – spotting trends, and getting there first.

This is a very clever (read expensive) video, from Areva, the French energy conglomerate, called "Energy. One Powerful Story." Well worth the 61 seconds.
And it clearly is positioning, if subtly, nuclear energy as a solution to carbon emissions.

Wake up! The world has changed.  And it is not going back to the way it was.  Yet, there are many companies winning today, growing today.  Why?  Is it innovation?  Being purpose driven? Being service driven?  It could be any of those, think about your favorite local restaurant, a winning sports team, the recent election.  Win-ship follows leadership.  And today we all need to juice up our leadership.

What makes for successful leadership?  Why is it that certain companies and organizations are so well known, so successful?  So profitable? It is leadership.  There are probably more books about leadership than religion, yet leadership doesn't need a book (author's do).  Leadership is what sets an organization apart from the others in their crowded competitive space, and provides the fuel to continue to fulfill their purpose.

Leadership for the future is based on five key ingredients. Ingredients that can not be taught, but ingredients that can evolve and mature through life experience.

Leadership comes from 5 key drives:

Passionate commitment to purpose – Successful organizations are purpose driven.  Successful leadership keeps everyone’s focus on a singular purpose and doesn’t get side tracked by the everyday breakdowns that are part of our life.  When leaders lose sight of purpose, the organization begins to take a path of self destruction.  Create your purpose.  State your purpose.  Live your purpose.  Ignite others through your purpose.

Setting unachievable goals – Or at least very high goals.  Goals that are set to meet success, are set too low.  Leaders understand that organizations need inspiration, they need stretch-goals.  Stretch-goals create internal buy-in, excitement, passion, commitment and momentum.

Bigger picture perspective – Leaders hold the big picture while adjusting the strategies to move forward. Leaders have the ability to see the underlying challenges,  hold the ever increasing amount of data points and understand the ramifications of action and inaction.

Self confidence balanced with self awareness – Too often leaders implode because of their lack of self awareness.  The ego runs afoul because of the lack of one’s own moral compass.  Leaders need strong enough egos to be self confident as they head into the winds of challenge.  And successful leaders have a high self awareness of themselves.  This awareness comes over many years of breakdowns that ultimately lead to greater understanding of who one is as a person.

Balance of intelligence with emotion – The greater the emotional capacity the greater the chance of leadership success.  Rational intelligence is necessary, it is the cost of entry.  And emotional understanding and connectivity is what leap frogs one into successful forward moving leadership.

Leadership is the most important component for your organization.  And the challenge every organization has, is to make sure they have the right leadership in place for the times.  Organizations must be much more intentional about leadership choices for today's new economic environment.

When an organization makes the wrong leadership choice it sets itself on a path that is often hard to recover from.

Last week we looked at Jevons' Paradox, a topic in The New Yorker’s last issue of 2010.
“If the only available vehicle today were a 1920 Model T, how many miles do you think you’d drive each year? How far do you think you’d live from where you work?”

The New Yorker’s last issue of the year examines "The Efficiency Dilemma", also known as Jevons’ Paradox:
Gains in energy efficiency simply serve to increase energy consumption above where it would be without those gains.

Prediction: the rising star of commercial-side energy efficiency has a bright year ahead. Mike Dauber's recent post at Greentech Media digs into the details.
Dauber cites a recent survey of over 1400 executives and facilities managers in North America. Seventy-one percent of respondents say they’re paying more attention to energy efficiency than they did a year ago.

We blogged last week about KSV advisor Jeffrey Hollender and his recent comments on insuring the value of your brand through transparency. People are using social media to discuss your brand, and it’s possible to seize the momentum in that discussion by candidly and openly engaging with customers and influencers in that space.
Vermont business leaders met with KSV execs last week to brainstorm ways in which businesses can use social media in the era of heightened corporate social responsibility. Their conclusions have particular relevance for utilities.

Most of the value of a company is in its brand, says Jeffrey Hollender. He’s the founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, a maker of environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home, and he spoke recently to a group of business leaders here at KSV.
There’s huge value in how people feel about – and what they “know” about – your brand. And these opinions can be very different from the message you think you’re putting out.

Monday night’s stunning performance by the New England Patriots should be turned into the next runaway best-selling book on management and leadership. And I say that as a Jets fan.

If you’re the parent of a teen, you’ve been hearing a lot about the enormous amount of time kids are spending with social media. One study estimates that teens are spending an average of one hour and 50 minutes per day, on social media alone.
Now EPA’s Energy Star has teamed up with virtual world Meez and non-profit DoSomething.org to leverage the power of that trend. The result: a Facebook social game called eMission that encourages teens to take offline actions to help save energy and reduce their carbon footprint.