TRANSFORMINGNEXTGEN LEADERS: Leading in a VUCA World

Executive Briefing

“It is evident that conventional leadership development practices are no longer adequate. Organisations globally need to incorporate the next generation leadership competencies in order to address the development needs of their rising leaders. This expanded group of upcoming leaders need to have a broader skillset, one that equips them to think critically and act globally in a VUCA business environment. They must do so while embracing cross-cultural diversity and cultivating collaborative relationships within and outside their walls. These are the hallmarks of the mindset needed to develop effective global leaders.”

Prof Sattar Bawany (2016)Co-Author of ‘2016 Trends in Executive Development: A Benchmark Report’

The rapidly evolving demands of the 21st century include everything from climate change to demography, shifting customer requirements and expectations, the rise of technology, globalization, new markets, and new attitudes to work. Leaders must now operate in a way that inspires and engages people, while simultaneously addressing changing customer requirements and delivering results. Finally, all of these needs to be achieved with a sense of urgency, as the experienced leaders of the “Baby Boomer” generation continue to retire at pace.

A company’s leadership pipeline is expected to deliver its “next generation” of leaders who are capable of leading now. The payoff is a supply of leadership talent that simultaneously achieves targets, strengthens and protects ethical reputation, and navigates transformational change in pursuit of a bright, competitive future. Because customers’ changing requirements are so significant, and customer focus is a “hot topic” for executive development leaders, investing an appropriate amount of time, energy, and other resources to develop the capabilities of high potential leaders in these areas will be very important. Mentoring, feedback and coaching, and training programs are all potentially valuable ways to address this need.

In essence, the heart of the managerial challenge that confronts today’s managers is learning how to lead in situations of ever greater volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous globalised business environment, allied with the needs to deal with scale, complexity and new organisational forms that often break with the traditional organisational models and structures within which many have learned their ‘managerial trade’. So the basic assumption that past experience is the key for future managerial success is more open to scrutiny than ever.

Leading in a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) not only provide a challenging environment for leaders to operate and for executive development programmes to have an impact: it also provides a much-needed range of new competencies. The new reality is resulting in the realization that new and different capabilities are needed to succeed.

In particular, leaders today must deal with

• Volatility in economic conditions, including a slowly recovering economy and looming interest rate increases, and changing customer requirements.

• Uncertainty brought about by increasing globalisation, as well as regulatory and legislative changes.

• Complexity driven by revolutionary technology changes impacting organisational products, and ongoing demand for increased innovation in a climate of rapid technological evolution.

• Ambiguity brought about by the generational shift accompanied by Baby Boomer retirements and NextGen Leaders rising to take more and more senior roles. All of these factors combine to create an extremely dynamic climate that puts pressure on leaders to excel.

Overview Leading in a VUCA World

Volatility

Complexity

UncertaintyAmbiguity

We are operating in a hypercompetitive VUCA business environment. The world moves faster today when compared to 20-30 years ago. Companies feel the pressure to decrease time to market and improve the quality of products while delivering on ever-changing customer expectations to maintain competitive posture – that is, be adaptive and nimble. Driving results in High Performance Organisations (HPOs) is difficult even for companies who have the benefit of dedicated and knowledgeable employees and business leaders to leverage.

Traditional Critical Thinking is the ability to recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments and draw conclusions. The mental tool set typically includes the following:

• Strategic thinking,• Creative thinking,• Problem-solving and• Decision-making.

Overall, heightened Cognitive Readiness allows leaders to maintain a better sense of self-control in stressful situations.

Cognitive Readiness, on the other hand, is the mental, emotional, and interpersonal preparedness for uncertainty and risk. It complements Critical Thinking by emphasizing non-rational, non-logical skills. Its tool set typically includes:

Development of High Performance Organisation (HPO)

Critical Thinking vs. Cognitive Readiness

Leadership in a VUCA World is all about the ability to have impact and influence on your followers so as to engagethem towards achieving results of your organisation which is operating in an ever greater fast paced globalised

business environment which is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

Today, people often point to the importance of various leadership competencies including emotional & social intelligence, managerial coaching and leading team for performance, effective negotiation & conflict management and cross cultural communication & diversity management in driving results and achieving organisational success in a high performance organisation.

Chief among the new VUCA-related competencies that leaders need to develop is a high level of Cognitive Readiness, which is the mental, emotional, and interpersonal preparedness for uncertainty and risk.

• Situational awareness,• Attentional control,• Metacognition

(thinking about your thinking),• Sensemaking (connecting the dots),

• Intuition,• Learning agility,• Adaptability,• Dealing with ambiguity, and• Managing emotions.

Putting the customer first has been the mantra of many companies for a long time. But however correct the mantra may be, perhaps it’s time to question the wisdom of it. Some companies already have, that is, put the customer second, after employees. The results are surprising and enlightening – engaged and contented employees and companies cited for their best practices. Moreover, customers are satisfied. The CEE Results-based Leadership (RBL) presents an operating model and proven approach for putting employees first.

How to improve employee loyalty is one of today’s most difficult problems that troubles business leaders. Research has consistently shows that by putting employees first you can actually deliver your promise of customers first. If you do not put the employee first – if the business of management and managers is not to put employee first – there is no way you can get the customer first.

We have consistently found that the Employees First approach produces far more passion than any motivational or recognition program. Why? Because it proves that management understands the importance of the work being done by the employees in the first place. It demonstrates that we are actively helping them in ways that make it easier for them to do their jobs. It shows that we trust them to do what needs to be done in the way they believe it should be done. And it shows that we respect them for the value they bring to the company.

An organisation’s employees have always made the difference between a truly successful organisation and a mediocre entity, but it’s amazing how often managers overlook or discount this fundamental recipe for economic survival. Organisations with cultures that focus on their people and that invest in their future will in the long-run, be more competitive than cultures that view employees as mere costs to be reduced in times of trouble.

There is growing evidence that the range of abilities that constitute what is now commonly known as emotional & social intelligence plays a key role in determining success in life and in the workplace. Extensive longitudinal research by Centre for Executive Education (CEE) has uncovered links between specific elements of emotional and social intelligence and specific behaviours associated with leadership effectiveness and ineffectiveness in developing an impactful organisational climate that is supportive in driving enhanced employee and customer engagement resulting in the achievement of the desired organisation results.

Development of High Performance Organisation (HPO)

The skills of creating a vision and engaging others around it can be powerfully developed through mentoring and coaching. The “hands-on” approach of mentoring can enable leaders to observe what someone who has mastered these important skills does, and to solicit advice, input, and coaching on how to transfer what they have observed into their own work. It may be more challenging to find a mentor who has also highly developed Cognitive Readiness skills, so being mindful of the mentor’s skillset will be a key to success.

Executive coaching also has significant potential for developing leaders’ capabilities around creating a vision, engaging others around it, and the Cognitive Readiness skills needed for a VUCA environment. This type of coaching would need to be focused on all of the skills in an integrated manner, and the executives, human resources partners, mentors, coaches, and others involved in the development program may agree on specific goals and followed by regular meetings to discuss progress.

Leading in a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) not only provide a challenging environment for leaders to operate and for executive development programs to have an impact: it also provides a much-needed range of new competencies. The new reality is resulting in the realization that new and different capabilities are needed to succeed.

Professor Sattar Bawany is the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Executive Education (CEE Global).

He is also the Managing Director as well as C-Suite Master Executive Coach & Facilitator with Executive Development Associates (EDA) Asia Pacific. Prof Bawany is also concurrently the Strategic Advisor & Member of International Professional Managers Association (IPMA) Board of Trustees and Governing Council.

Prof Bawany is an alumnus of both Golden Gate University and Curtin Business School. He currently assumes the role as the Adjunct Professor & Member of the Advisory Board of Curtin Graduate School of Business (CGSB). He has over 25 years’ international business management

experience, including 15 years in executive coaching, group facilitation, and leadership development and training with global management consulting firms. In addition to his business and consulting career, Prof Bawany has over 10 years of concurrent academic experience as an Adjunct Professor teaching senior executives international business strategies and human resource courses at various leading universities.

Prof Bawany has assumed various senior management roles including that of Managing Director and Talent Management & Executive Coaching Practice Leader for DBM Asia Pacific. He was also the Global Information Services (GIS) Business Unit Leader with Mercer HR Consulting. Prior to joining Mercer, he was the Head of Hay Learning Services and Senior Consultant of Organisational Effectiveness/Leadership Development with The Hay Group. He has also assumed senior leadership roles in business development and consulting with The Forum Corporation and Mercuri International with a focus on leadership development, customer service excellence and sales force effectiveness.

During his tenure with DBM, a global leader of Career Transition, Outplacement and Talent Development solutions provider (until it was acquired by Adecco in 2011), Prof Bawany has partnered with many organisations during the Global Financial Crisis (2009–2010 period in the depth of the economic crisis) towards sustaining employee engagement which were impacted by organizational change, including M&A, strategy transformation and restructuring.

He is especially skilled at helping executives work through leadership transition issues, whether individually or systemically. As a seasoned coach, he truly cares about others, listens with an open mind, and adds value in unexpected ways. His approach to executive coaching encourages new insights into the key capabilities and unique strengths needed to sustain practical behavioural change over time, resulting in the executive’s enhanced self-awareness, better decision making, and continuous performance improvement.

Prof Bawany is an astute advisor to executives who need to know how they are perceived and want to focus on what is most important in their professional and personal lives. He has coached a range of leaders, from CEOs, to senior vice presidents, and high potential managers. His current work in organisations focuses on encouraging individual initiative and leadership from a systemic perspective in order to achieve clearly defined business results. His specialty is effectively linking people processes to business outcomes.

Conclusion

PROFILE of keynote Speaker – Prof Sattar Bawany

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