In times of disruption, leadership becomes the most critical business capability.
The very future of the organization depends on good leadership to survive and thrive. If you have business leaders who can inspire, motivate and engage their people, while making difficult business decisions, you’re well placed to adapt quickly to a changing landscape.
Because leader as hero is outdated
When we think about leadership many of us still think of the military concept of leadership, with the leader knowing what’s best and using command and control to execute their decisions. This was adapted in the 19th century as the mechanistic view of organizations became the norm, top-down leadership became the model used extensively post the industrial revolution.
However, in the 2020s with customer, employee and stakeholder expectations rapidly changing and markets being disrupted by AI and machine learning our thinking about leadership is changing fast.
In the crisis caused by COVID-19, leadership has been on trial and certain behavior has been exposed in a very stark way. Some leaders were prepared to put the health and safety of their people at risk on the altar of short-term profit, while others sought to protect both the business and their people for the long term.
What many companies have now realised is that in the age of intangibles it’s their people that create wealth. Great leaders unleash their people’s ability and enable creativity and innovation to flourish.
Today’s organizations seek to be responsive and adaptive with Silos and functions disappearing and being replaced by project working, virtual teams and disparate workforces. Along with the digital transformation of operating models and agile working these changes produce one common effect – increased pace. In today’s competitive landscape speed is all.
This is the context for leadership. Well-equipped leaders will thrive but those that are not fully prepared will be left behind.
For leaders to succeed in this new reality they will need to be:
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Flexible in their thinking
• Know themselves and be confident of their own ability in challenging situations
• Open to diverse views that challenge long-held truths
• Great developers of leaders
A magic combination: humility and professional will
Leaders that succeed in this fast-changing world seem to possess two personal traits; humility and an intense professional will to succeed. This new view of leadership is very different from previous generations who majored in direction, instruction, and control with power coming from a hierarchical position. Today’s leaders need to be able to actively listen, continuously learn and have the humility to know they do not have all the answers. The confidence to ask the right questions of themselves, their team and business is becoming ever more important.
Leaders must focus more on creating the right environment where people are encouraged to challenge and question the organization’s thinking, approach and assumptions. This humility, the willingness of leaders to admit they don’t know all the answers, requires resilience and openness. When followers describe their leaders as authentic it’s often this behavior that they are articulating.
However, combined with humility they also need to possess the strength of character to make tough decisions and the ability to ask big strategic questions about how the organization competes. This new kind of confidence doesn’t come from being a subject matter expert. It comes from a self- awareness and belief in their own abilities to succeed in challenging situations.
Business reinvention – the context for today’s leaders
We live in a world of disruption where business models change in response to new technology, new competitors or changing customer expectations. This requires leaders to create a culture that is adaptive and an organization that can pivot at speed.
This means that leaders who promote and facilitate organizational learning will be able to provide greater customer value and improve both productivity and performance at the same time, which is no mean feat. This new adaptive approach means that as businesses stretch to innovate they will, on occasions, fail and it’s the capture of learning without blame that will enable the organization to improve.
Many businesses have adopted an agile approach to business development with a fail-fast mentality – they pilot new approaches, build on those that work and eliminate those that don’t. Creating a culture of continuous learning based on data, metrics, and feedback is the best way for organizations to adapt to a fast-changing external environment. This world of experimentation and reinvention require leaders who are self-confident and can adapt their style to suit the situation.
Leaders who don’t just engage, but inspire
Consistently high-performing teams or organizations have leaders who don’t just communicate and engage people, they inspire. While leadership is context-specific, the organizations that consistently sustain success over many years or even decades often find leaders who can create a culture of inspiration. The capability to inspire is partly driven by an ability to create a compelling narrative and release energy by empowering people and giving them autonomy over their own work.
Recent research by the strategy consultancy Bain & Company shows that the single most important attribute of an inspirational leader, as identified by employees, was centredness, which was described as a state of mindfulness. It was described as important because it improves one’s ability to stay level-headed, cope with stress, empathize with others and listen more deeply.
The environment in which businesses operate is being transformed around us. Leaders must recognize that they need to operate differently to their predecessors as markets are disrupted and organizations seek to become more agile and responsive to survive. This turbulence will only accelerate as AI, machine learning and IoT become more widespread, never mind the complications of the current COVID-19 crisis. The leaders of tomorrow are going to have to be comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity and velocity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Green is the former CEO of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and HR Director of Royal Mail. He’s also the author of Competitive People Strategy: how to attract, develop and retain the staff you need for business success, published by Kogan Page
