Leadership of 21st Century Organizations isn’t a Walk in the Park
Comparing
the 21st vs. the 20th century leader: an overall perspective
Listed
below are some points that 21st century leaders need to be cognizant
of; points that were neither widely acknowledged nor considered important
enough, in the previous century.
·
Be open-minded and
open-hearted; be authentically generous in giving and receiving feedback.
·
Be deliberate in
building inclusive and diverse teams.
·
Enhance gender
diversity through design vs default; as this century progresses, perhaps transcending
gender itself may become a leadership aspiration?
·
Nurture like-minded
individuals in your teams; help them articulate and achieve their personal and professional
goals because in their success is your success.
·
Elicit viewpoints from
people who are unlike-minded or contrarian, but if those people are obnoxious, disrespectful,
and narcissistic (within the garb of contrarianism), then ignore their
viewpoints.
·
Be
mission/vision/purpose-driven; work towards something that is much bigger than
yourself that shall help you contribute to the ‘music of the universe’.
·
Do not encourage
incentivization models that merely focus on short-term gratifications, to the
detriment of the individual’s growth and detracts from organizational long-term
vision/strategy.
·
Encourage critical,
creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial thinking in your teams. Offer them
safe spaces for ideation or for venting if/when needed; spaces that are
non-judgmental and non-hierarchical.
·
Be data-driven -
however, recall that data is not necessarily knowledge nor wisdom. In striving
for data, do not forget to listen to people - empathize with them and their
needs. Recall that technology/data can be your friend, but it is simply a means
to an end; it should not end up controlling you - the leader - nor your
subordinates/teams.
· Accountability, transparency, and organizational ethical frameworks are key. Impartial internal and external audits can ensure higher work quality and staff satisfaction.
Taking on a new leadership role, assessing your team, and openly communicating with it
Before taking on a new leadership role, consider asking several of the following questions, with the caveat that you may not get all the answers. The answers that you do get would not only help you make a decision, but also to assess your new team and how to remain transparent with it.
·
What will be my
governance structure, organogram, or reporting line?
·
To achieve my goals, would
I be allowed to function autonomously through adequate resources and calculated
risk taking?
·
What are the
organizational core values (or guiding principles); but more than that, is the
prevalent culture close to or far from those putative values?
·
Does the organization believe
that I have the expertise or skillset for the new leadership role, what are its
expectations of me, and how will my success be gauged?
·
Who will be my team
and who are the enablers and disablers within that team?
·
What are the lines of organizational
communication, internal as well as external,
and how clear and transparent
are they?
Leadership perspective on collaborating, inspiring and governing
There are some excellent concepts of creative workplaces’ collaboration,
two of which I describe here. David Kelley's approach through IDEO1 is
reminiscent of human-centered design thinking emphasizing your team’s crazy/wild
ideas with unclear or unexpected outcomes (for complex 'messy' problems) - a
strategy likely to work for mavericks (aka risk-takers). The Mass Animation2
approach of crowdsourcing independent creativity within a framework is also
quite intriguing; given the pre-determined scope vis-a-vis outcome, the ability
of collaborative group work through cooperation creates its own leadership
challenges and opportunities. Personally, as a leader, I would like to try out
and contextualize IDEO’s approach for my own team of ideators, innovators, and
entrepreneurs. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose can be strongly motivational
for people in 21st century organizations. Respecting people and
their ideas, not judging those ideas, and not always pushing for that single
best idea amongst a lot of ideas, are additional points to consider. With
respect to effective governance impacting organizational transformation, revising the board of governors towards a
leaner and more flexible and agile group will ensure that it has more skin in
the game.
Managing talented people through diversity, inclusion and
innovation
The ‘dandelion
principle’ 3 for
managing talent inspires inclusion and diversity at the workplace, and although
it may require a paradigm shift, it is quite worth it for the 21st-century.
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the fractures and faults of organizations
and their inherent processes have become all the more obvious, hence utilizing
the dandelion metaphor to manage talent in these unprecedented times makes even
more sense. We need places and spaces (real and virtual) that are inclusive,
equitable, and respectful of people who are differently abled. Recognizing so
will help us manage people, keeping their authenticities in mind - and we will
be less likely to force them to conform to traditionally set ritualistic
attitudes and systems. Ultimately, I hope that we move closer to workplaces
that celebrate diversity in everything and everyone, and that will become the sine qua non for impactful innovation,
creativity and, entrepreneurship for 21st-century organizations globally with
transgenerational workforces. With diversely talented
people, innovation would become an easier call to action because of creative freedom through adequate spaces
(actual and virtual), with appropriate access to capital, time, and expertise.
Leading in crisis, execution of strategy, and
the role of organizational culture
‘Never waste a good
crisis’ is a very insightful statement for a leader,
because that is his/her opportunity to lead by example, walk the talk, and be a
real team player. The leader can loop in the most trustworthy people to engage
with the board members through one-to-one conversations to get them to agree to
her crisis mode strategy. In tandem recalling further that no matter how bad
things are, they will get worse would help her keep on her toes vis-a-vis
ongoing risk mitigation and damage control. No matter how brilliant the strategy may be, the proof of the
pudding lies in execution. In other words, weak execution eats great strategy
for breakfast. How not to lead in a crisis was evident from the lessons learnt from
the financial crisis of 2008, in which there were several failures of
leadership4. First and foremost it seemed like the Wall Street CEOs
and other high-powered bankers/investors/executives/politicians were more
driven by greed, self-interest, egos, etc. They demonstrated characteristics
that were reminiscent of the transactional and great man theories of
leadership. There was no higher purpose; they lacked a vision; other than
instant gratification, the huge amounts of bonuses that those folks collected,
while millions of individuals across the globe suffered. Moving away from the
transactional leadership theory and towards ethical and transformational styles
was the take home for me.
With regards to the ‘role of culture’ all
companies are not alike, but the dilemma of cultural change management is
likely the same. A non-hierarchical approach that is less dependent on approval
seeking vs. quick prototyping, experimenting, and fast failing/pivoting, will
also be indicative of a paradigm shift in culture: in other words, the ‘just
do it and ask for forgiveness later’ approach. Communication (both upward
and downward) is key and with both simple and complex tools of IT/tech, this
may be achieved relatively easily. For a leader who is an outsider, culture can
be beneficial by allowing agile innovative practices. The inbred leader is
unlikely to even consider the need for change, or instituting that sense of
urgency, since he/she may become more complacent because of biases. In the
final analysis, culture can be both a challenge and an opportunity for
transformation.
The 21st century leader’s public-
vs. private-life dilemma
Since there is a thin line dividing
personal/private from professional/public, whatever happens in one domain will likely
impact the other. A leader's private behavior is very relevant to his/her
leadership abilities and performance. One can argue that a leader’s private
life is of no one's concern but his, and I agree with that. But as we have observed
in real life such a clear distinction between public life-private life does not
really exist past a certain point, especially for high profile leaders. Our expectations
of our leaders in their so-called private matters should be held to a very high
moral/ethical ground; as high if not higher than that of their
public/professional matters. Having said that, we also need to be cognizant of
the famous proverb ‘to err is human to forgive divine’. While keeping
that in mind, we could practice compassion by giving the leader a chance to
rectify his/her mistake(s). Over time, as we grow as human beings, I think the
realization that our moral compass or moral obligation needs to be more inwards
directed rather than outwardly manifested, will help us become better leaders
of our own lives.
Conclusion
Given the chaotic 21st century I believe leadership
needs to be flexible and adaptive to the situation at hand. I find
transformational leadership most meaningful from the creativity and innovation
perspective; the kind of openness for trying new things, accepting failure as
part of the innovation process, facilitating your team members'
self-actualization, and so on, can be a powerful approach while in the ‘business
as usual’ mode. Going past leadership theory, the role of experiential learning
and having intimate knowledge of organizational culture in enhancing
performance cannot be ignored. Next time you find yourself in a difficult leadership
dilemma, consider concocting your personal leadership approach, albeit through
an evidence base while monitoring outcomes. That may help you pivot to the leadership
style that is most appropriate for the situation you find yourself in.
References
1. https://www.ideo.com/people/david-kelley
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHBiAEFen4
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008
from Rambling of an Itinerant.
Acknowledgment: First published by the Express Tribune's T-Magazine.
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