an ebook brought to you bypages.bizlibrary.com/rs/bizlibrary/images/the... · the vuca world...
TRANSCRIPT
AN EBOOK Brought to you by:
LEADERSHIP MODELS AND TODAY’S WORKPLACE
The history of leadership models for development purposes is
fascinating. When we look carefully at the broad timeline of the
various leadership models and theories that the business and
academic communities have promoted, we’ll find a relatively
accurate reflection of the core business models at work in corporate
America. Leadership theories and models are developed in a definite
social and economic context. So the models reflect the attitudes and
approaches to business management and leadership of the times in
which the various theories and models emerged.
The dramatic changes we are witnessing today in our economy
brought about by innovative technology, demographics, shifting
economic realities and a myriad of other factors are forcing the
business and academic communities to look at wide range of
business issues, including leadership. We are seeing a new leadership
model emerge. Social leadership is taking root in successful
organizations across every industry and in organizations of every size.
Will the social leadership model replace current models? Probably
not. But we can be fairly certain traditional business models,
methodologies and leadership models will need to evolve to meet
the challenges of this marketplace.
Great Man Theories: leaders are born, not
made.
Group Theories: leadership emerges in
small group settings.
Trait Theories : there are universal
leadership traits that can be taught and
learned.
Behavior Theories: behavior patterns that
result in leadership success.
Contingency/Situational Theories:
leadership behaviors in specific situations.
Excellence Theories: the interactions
between traits, behaviors, key situations
and group facilitation that allow people to
lead organizations.
Transformational Theories: motivation,
alignment and sometimes values.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
LEADERSHIP MODELS AND TODAY’S WORKPLACE
We’ve learned that organizations thrive when they adopt leadership
models that work best for themselves. Each organization has its own
culture and needs, so while leadership models help provide a great
framework for development, the models themselves are no substitute
for the development of a leadership strategy that fits the needs,
culture, and goals of each organization. Successful organizations
adopt leadership models that meet two critical types of leadership
challenges: current and future.
Great leadership development programs are rooted in the realities of
the marketplace and the anticipated future needs of the
organization.
In this marketplace and the changing demographics of the
workforce, we believe a leadership approach based upon a fixed
point world view, unchanged and inflexible will not be effective.
Whether social leadership is right for your organization or not, a
careful and deliberate re-examination of your leadership needs will
prove beneficial no matter what strategic leadership approach is
best for your organization.
$1,195
BIZLIBRARY.COM
• The social leadership model.
• Influential factors that may
mitigate in favor of adopting this
model or even parts of this
leadership model for your
organization.
• The characteristics and traits
common in effective social
leaders.
• Emerging competencies that
might be important to develop
in social leaders in your
organization.
Management is
doing things right.
Leadership is doing
the right things. Peter Drucker
Exactly what are the “right things” our leaders need to do? For most organizations the most basic answer is promote organizational goals and objectives. As we stated in the introduction, great leadership development programs focus on multiple factors to answer this foundational question. It’s nearly impossible to effectively set goals for our organization if we do not account for the various factors impacting our organization from the outside.
So – what are the “right things”? How do you make this decision for your organization? 1. What do you need your leaders to do today? 2. What will you need your leaders to do tomorrow? You cannot develop effective leaders if you are looking only at short-term or immediate success. You have to ALSO look at the future!
A great method to answer these vitally important questions is to conduct a SWOT analysis. This analysis is a great way to start to figure out EXACTLY what your leaders need to do! Strengths: what do we do well today, and can we take these strengths forward? Will our current strengths prepare us for future success? Weaknesses: what do we do poorly and why? Can we do LESS of this? If not, why and what steps must we take to either improve or minimize the risks? Opportunities: what are our greatest opportunities for growth? Are our strengths aligned to take advantage of them? Or, do our weaknesses stand in the way? Threats: where are we vulnerable? Are our biggest threats external or internal? Market driven or competition? Lack of talent or not the right talent?
BIZLIBRARY.COM
WHAT ARE THE RIGHT THINGS?
“The leaders who work most
effectively, it seems to me, never
say ‘I’. And that’s not because
they have trained themselves not
to say ‘I’ . They don’t think ‘I’. They
think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They
understand their job to be to
make the team function. They
accept responsibility and don’t
sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the
credit…This is what creates trusts,
what enables you to get the task
done.”
Peter Drucker
In an effective SWOT analysis, what will you find when you look at the current marketplace and economy? Stability? Simplicity? Predictability? Clarity? Or, will you find something else entirely?
BIZLIBRARY.COM
SWOT ANALYSIS
DEMOGRAPHIC TSUNAMI BIG DATA
TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND RETENTION
Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion
bytes of data…so much that 90%
of the data in the world today has
been created in the last two years
alone.
IBM’s Understanding Big Data:
Analytics for Enterprise Class
Hadoop and Streaming Data
In the four generation workplace,
Millennials will make up almost 36%
of the 2014 U.S. workforce and
become almost half by 2020.
Boomers are retiring at record
numbers.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Technologies can change the game
for businesses, creating entirely new
products and services, as well as
shifting pools of value between
producers and consumers.
McKinsey Global Institute
10% of US workers are disengaged
and 60% are actively disengaged.
Gallup State of the American
Workforce 2013
Nearly 26% of the US workforce is going to change jobs this year, and these
are typically the most highly skilled and motivated people.
Why Companies Fail to Engage Today’s Workforce: The
Overwhelmed Employee, Forbes, by Josh Bersin
SWOT analysis is a simple tool that
can function in two ways: as an
ice breaker to get conversations
started or in a more sophisticated
way for strategy development.
S – strengths: internal strengths of an
organization based upon things the
organization does very well.
W – weaknesses: internal
improvements needed to be
successful or things to avoid.
O – opportunities: improve results by
leveraging strengths or eliminating
weaknesses.
T – threats: obstacles to success,
external factors such as competitors or
broad market changes.
The acronym VUCA describes this market. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. How do we prepare our organizations for success in such a world, and what do we need our leaders to do? Traditional leadership models will not work. In this world, we can find a whole new
set of strengths in our changing demographics with young professionals ready to adapt to and utilize technology differently. We will need a different leadership model to help bring a sense of order to the chaos “big data” can create. As new markets emerge, we’ll need a more agile and rapidly moving innovative culture to be more opportunistic. And we’ll need a leadership model that can provide a framework for effective action and decision-making in the face of complexity and ambiguity. What skills, knowledge and competencies are needed to:
• Leverage strengths
• Overcome weaknesses
• Take advantage of opportunities
• Address/meet threats
Then – WHERE is the CURRENT level of leadership capability? Or, at what level do our leaders currently perform? What level of capacity do we need in the future and where are our gaps? Is there a leadership model that can provide a framework for success? We believe the answer is, “Yes.”
BIZLIBRARY.COM
A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS
The VUCA world requires a new set
of skills and competencies from
both organizations and leaders to
effectively respond.
Success in a VUCA world will
require successful organizations
and leaders to be highly engaged
with change, complexity and
ambiguity.
We are going to shift from problem
solving to working our way through
dilemmas.
Traditional leadership models provide a framework for behaviors and development that focuses on the individual leader. Even the most advanced models such as the Transformational Leadership model define leadership success in terms of what the leader does for, and sometimes to, the people he or she leads. According to Bernard Bass, Leadership and Development, NY Free Press, 1985, one of the foremost early researchers on the concept of transformational leaders, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. So these leaders garner trust, respect, and admiration from their followers.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP COMPARED TO OTHER MODELS
NEXT GENERATION LEARNING STRATEGIES:
Alignment with organizational goals.
A sharp focus and clarity of thinking on the specific way our employee
learning efforts align with and support organizational goals.
Awareness of organization’s current learning culture.
Understanding your culture will help to achieve the desired behavior and
performance changes sought through the learning program.
Performance analysis.
The performance analysis helps you focus on the business challenges
that can be met through a learning program.
Content strategy.
Make sure you have a content strategy that meets the needs, behaviors,
expectations and technology availability of your entire workforce .
Evaluation and success criteria.
What will success look like? How will we know?
Marketing and communication.
Inform your employees about the program, motivate them to
participate, explain how the program will help them.
Social leadership shifts focus away from the impact on immediate followers to a broader context. Social
leaders influence entire organizations and exert influence beyond the organization itself. WHAT IS SOCIAL LEADERSHIP? An emerging model of leadership built around three central principles:
• Leadership is collaborative
• Leadership is a process
• Leadership should be value based When we think of social leadership in this broader context, the model starts
to look a lot more like a behavior and competency model that might be more effective in this VUCA world, and it revolves around learning.
So, what does a social leader look like and how do they function? At the core of social leadership lies an outward looking individual far more interested in others than his or her own success. These are people either “hard-wired” to collaborate or people who have learned to collaborate effectively. But collaboration for this leader isn’t just a work mode. It’s a fully integrated part of who they are. They share information, learn all of the time, connect in meaningful ways with those around them. These are people who really understand that “crowd wisdom” is real. These are people who know the most valuable member of a team is the person other team members can count on to share information and connect other team members to other people who can help them. These are people who network –
all of the time, both internally and externally. In business, there used to be an axiom that “knowledge is power.” Social leaders do not believe that knowledge, standing alone is power. Social leaders believe that “shared knowledge” is power,” and that in today’s collaborative, innovation driven marketplace it’s the ability to influence outcomes that is the source of true business success.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
RETURN ON INVESTMENT – SOCIAL LEADERSHIP IN ACTION
COMMON TRAITS OF SOCIAL LEADERS
Pragmatic optimist Defaults to “yes”
Inspirational Co-create value and develop excellence
Forward looking Embrace change by asking “what if…?”
Open minded Solicit views from others
Proactive The first to follow, the first to lead
Trusting The only path to scale is empowerment
Accountable I’ve got it
Generous When celebrating, lead from the back
Authentic Open and honest communication
Collaborative No one of us is as smart as all of us
The Pursuit of
Social Business
Excellence
by Vala Ajshar
and Brad W.
Martin
How to compete, win and
grow market share - and
delight employees and
customers - though social
collaboration.
This model is much closer to something business organizations can apply and modify to meet their own unique needs. The elements of this model that work well and should prompt good thinking are: Outward focus : the leader is a hub for connecting other people to information and each other.
Technology literate: with rapid changes and innovations in technology in general, and social technology in particular, social leaders will need to be early adaptors to truly lead and stay with or a bit ahead of employees. Learning is important: we see the employee learning function becoming less and less centralized and less formal. Employees and front-line managers will be much
more involved in education and learning, and more learning will be informal and technology-based than ever before. Engagement focuses: we already know engaged employees drive a number of important business benefits, and social leadership will help drive higher levels of engagement. In other words, social leadership will be good for the bottom-line.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
ELEMENTS OF A SOCIAL LEADERSHIP MODEL
LEADERSHIP and LEARNING are
indispensable to each other.
John F. Kennedy
ENGAGES
FACILITATOR OF LEARNING
CONTINUOUS LEARNING
STRONG NETWORKS
SOCIALLYLITERATE
SHARING AND
INFLUENCE
Vision
Interpersonal Skills
Ability To Develop Others
Intelligence
Character
Anticipate The
Future
Collaboration
Skills
People
Development
Digital Literacy
Global Citizenship
Traditionally, here are a few of the core competencies
identified as important for leaders:
BIZLIBRARY.COM
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
These traits or competencies are still important, but a
modern view of leadership is emerging that adds or modifies some of these concepts in important ways. In the book, The 20/20 Workplace by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, a set of emerging competencies for employees and leaders are identified. These competencies will be essential for our leaders as our organizations continue to adapt and evolve.
The leadership competencies needed to effectively function in a social leadership model will evolve over time, but we are already seeing some critical competencies rise in importance. Collaboration. Collaboration will be a foundational skill for nearly every knowledge employee in
the most successful organizations in this marketplace. Big data isn’t just a trend that leads to e-mail overload, nor is it a trend that refers to the volume of funny cat videos loaded to YouTube each week. Big data is an overwhelming reality that means more information and knowledge is being generated and at a faster rate than ever before. It’s nearly impossible for a single organization to keep up, much less an individual. The only way people can stay informed about trends, market conditions, and industry developments is through collaboration, information sharing and cooperation. Collaboration will be critical to gather input from as many perspectives as possible and just about any sort of project, and this will be one of
those foundational skills just about every employee and certainly every leader will need to master at some level.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK
WHILE YOU LEARN
Job Rotation:
Move employees around and
challenge them to get out of their
comfort zones. A deliberate
disruption of routine puts new sets
of eyes on familiar task and
problems, and can lead to new
and better solutions.
Individuals acquire a better
understanding of how the entire
organization operates and how
different departments or units
other than their own operate and
interact.
Course Title: Ban the Hierarchy: Moving From
‘I’ to ‘We’
Banning the hierarchy means there are no
charts with up and down arrows.
Course Title: Collaboration Creates
Value
Switch from consensus-based
collaboration to ideation. Do it early,
when the ideas are needed most.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FROM THE BIZLIBRARY COLLECTION:
CLICK HERE TO
TRY THESE
RESOURCES
AND MORE!
As the need for agility moves down the managerial chain and into the functional units, it can manifest itself in different
ways. At the level of an individual contributor, agility is demonstrated by the ability to quickly solve day-to-day business
problems, to identify new processes and frameworks for speed of delivery, to cross global and functional lines without
faltering, and to accept, respond, and initiate change. Employees who can identify opportunities, adapt, and thrive in the
reality of change have a propensity to be high performers. Given the right resources and investment in learning, these traits
are achievable across the entire organization.
The Impact of Work Force Agility on Business Performance
By John Ambrose
Learning Agility. The complex business world we live in requires a new set of skills and competencies for both organizations and leaders. The business world with a “fixed point” frame of reference simply does not exist. If we develop leaders using a leadership model that does not fully and completely embrace ambiguity and complexity, we are setting our leaders up to fail. This marketplace requires a new approach to leadership.
"All of those attributes that describe the business world of today are tailor-made for someone with learning agility," says Victoria Swisher, who's authored a new book, Becoming an Agile Leader. "The hallmark of someone with learning agility is that they learn lessons from diverse experiences and are able to distill those down to rules of thumb so that, when they're put in an unfamiliar situation, they aren't stumped by it. It's almost becomes a price of entry for success now, especially in leadership and executive roles.“ We need leaders who learn from experience, because those leaders can be
proven to be more successful than leaders who do not learn from experience and apply what they have learned. This research was summarized in a Korn/Ferry Institute white paper titled, “Using Learning Agility to Identify High Potentials Around the World”. So, generally speaking, learning agility is used to describe people who are open to new things, willing to learn, curious, possessing good people skills and have a high tolerance for ambiguity. These are behaviors which can be learned.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
We are moving from a world of
problems, which demand speed,
analysis and elimination of
uncertainty to solve – to a world of
dilemmas, which demand
patience, sense-making and an
engagement with uncertainty.
Denise Caron, It’s a VUCA World
People Development. Organizations have always needed leaders who could build the skills and competencies of the people around them, and this continues to be a critical competency for leaders. As we see members of the Millennial Generation join the workforce in greater numbers, the need for professional development will be more important than ever. Millennials value collaboration, meaningful work and
opportunities for development, among other things, in their jobs. So we are going to need managers and leaders with the ability to model, teach and develop these skills to others. Most leadership development programs provide lip service, at best, to coaching skills or people development. This has to change. Organizations really need to look at building the skills of the entire workforce as a critical aspect of every leaders’ role.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
CFO: What if we train
them and they leave?
CEO: What if we don’t
and they stay?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE Course Title:
Developing Others - Connect every employee's individual goals to the organization's vision and strategy.
CLICK HERE TO
TRY THIS
RESOURCE AND
MORE!
LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK
WHILE YOU LEARN
Task Force, Project Team or
Committee:
Employees participate two or
three times a month while still
working in their current positions.
For example a marketing
executive could be taken out of
her usual role and put into a team
that has been charged with
drawing up part of the company’s
budget. Just by being part of the
team, the executive improves her
financial acumen and improves
her planning and organizational
skills.
Digital Literacy. This is a leadership competency that is likely new to many readers. But it’s also a critically important leadership competency in today’s business environment. Can you name a single innovation or advancement in business processes or systems in the last 5 years that was not technology-based?
Take your time . . . . I can’t name one either. The fact of the matter is simple and straightforward. Social media, social media inspired tools and characteristics now permeate just about everything we touch that is technology-based. We touch technology in just about every aspect of our professional lives, and we need a population of leaders who function at nearly the digital native level in this world if we expect our organizations to compete.
It’s not optional.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK
WHILE YOU LEARN
Action Learning:
Action learning involves small
teams working together on real
workplace problems or tasks.
Learning through doing, reflecting
on the results and impact of those
actions and making necessary
adjustments is at the heart of the
natural learning process. Action
learning following formal learning
events is also effective at
transferring learning gained in the
classroom to the work employees
actually perform.
No matter what industry you’re in, things
are changing fast. New technologies and
products are coming to market faster than
ever before. Job roles are in demand that
didn’t even exist 3 or 4 years ago.
Are you, as an organization, prepared to
meet these new demands?
The BizLibrary Collection includes more than 3,000 desktop and IT videos that are
short, relevant, reliable and on-demand.
Global Citizenship. The Internet made the entire world one click away. “Local” stores aren’t really local anymore. We import manufactured goods of all types from Mexico, Korea, Japan and, of course, China. We import produce from all over the world, too. The corner supermarket is a terrific place to study the nature of today’s economy. You can find fruits and vegetables, year round, from South America, Central America and Africa.
Wine from Australia and France. Canned goods from Japan and Mexico. Everything we do touches people we cannot see or even imagine. We need a different sort of perspective on our businesses and how our businesses fit into a broader economy. We need leaders who can step beyond a simple world view and begin to understand how emerging competition in far flung global markets might impact our customers and products.
One of the interesting contributions to the social leadership model from the social change leadership academic space is this same global approach to change. With the interconnectedness of everyone through social media and social networks today, we can communicate immediately with both partners and competitors in every corner of the globe. Leaders need to both comprehend this reality but help guide our organizations through the implications of a true global marketplace to maintain market leadership and the health of our bottom lines.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
With each generation entering the
workplace, a greater emphasis is
placed on continual development
as these new employees know
that they are unlikely to stay more
than a few years; it’s about what
they can develop and acquire to
take to the next stop in the career
journey. We know that effective
leaders are one of the most
important influences on levels of
engagement.
Rebecca Ray, Employee
Engagement in a VUCA World
(research report), New York: The
Conference Board, 2011.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Course Title: QuickTalks: Rob Kaplan: Leadership Lesson: You Must Ask the Right Questions to Adapt
Anticipate the Future / Analytical Skills. In such a world, how is this even possible? We are not implying that we need to develop clairvoyance as a competency. Although, that would be nice . . . . Go back to the big factors and trends contributing to this VUCA business climate. One of the major issues is the prevalence of “big data.” Leaders who can make
critical connections within the information and data clutter, find the important threads and understand them from a narrative perspective will be invaluable. That’s what we mean by “anticipate the future.” We need leaders who are adept at and have the skill to analyze data to understand what is important and help the organization make intelligent strategic decisions.
BIZLIBRARY.COM
EMERGING COMPETENCIES
LEARN WHILE YOU WORK,
WORK WHILE YOU LEARN
Mentoring:
Mentoring is also a great
experiential tool for developing
your leadership talent. Mentoring
is the pairing of an employee with
a more senior person, or a mentor,
in the organization for general
workplace advice, information,
counseling, and even career
advice. The format for learning is
usually a meeting where the
mentor listens to the employee's
ideas or provides advice on how
to handle problems or gives
career direction.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FROM THE BIZLIBRARY COLLECTION:
Course Title: Consultant QuickTalks: Harold Sirkin: The 21st Century Leader
Course Title:
The Voice of Leadership: The Power of Leadership Messaging
Let’s return to the question that started this eBook. What are the “right things” we need our leaders to do? It really comes down to two high level, foundational things. We need our leaders to tell us where we are going (provide a vision) and help us understand how we will get there (provide a strategy). That’s really about it. If our leaders do those two things really well, our organization is probably in pretty good shape. The challenging
part of leadership comes in trying to figure out HOW leaders accomplish those two foundational “right things.” Ever since scholars started trying to explain leadership with models and theories in the mid-20th Century, we’ve seen a continuous parade of them. But what works for your organization? Ultimately, that’s the question you have to address carefully and answer thoughtfully. The social leadership model holds great promise for many organizations, because it’s a model that seems to encompass so much of what we see happening in the business environment today. It’s a development model that helps us focus on
leadership competencies and skills that push the leader to look to others and to define leadership success by the success others enjoy. It’s about collaboration, it’s a recognition that leadership is a process and a part of that process is continuous learning, and it’s value-based. If you build your social leadership model on these core principles, that model will serve as an effective foundation for three levels of success: organization, employee and leader. And that’s a leadership model that seems to hold real promise for delivering business benefits for all of the stakeholders involved.
WHAT ARE THE RIGHT THINGS?
BIZLIBRARY.COM
Training focuses on
best practices, while
development focuses
on next practices.
The #1 Reason Leadership
Development Fails
Mike Myatt, Forbes
BIZLIBRARY.COM
For a free 30-day trial of BizLibrary, click here.
http://www.bizlibrary.com/free-trial
5,000+ Courses. 25 Topic Areas.
Unlimited Access.
Improve your employees' performance with the
largest and fastest-growing library of on-demand
training videos and eLearning courses today!