Andre Martin’s research report, The Changing Nature of Leadership from the Center for Creative Leadership provides interesting insights into the changing nature of leadership. The report explains how leadership is changing and what leadership will look like in the future. The reason for the change in leadership, according to the report are as follows:
- Challenges are becoming more complex. – It is clear that the challenges are becoming more complex and therefore more difficult to solve.
- Greater reliance on interdependent work. The challenges leaders are facing go beyond their individual capabilities, and that these challenges result in a greater reliance on interdependent work across boundaries.
- Shifting reward systems. – Leaders would like to see their organizations shift reward systems to a balance of rewarding short-term, individual production and collaboration to reach long-term objectives. Specifically, teamwork will need to be a greater focus in rewards.
- The rise of a new leadership skill set. – Asking leaders to focus more energy on creating an environment where others can help them succeed is another important trend. This becomes apparent when comparing the individual skills deemed most important in 2002 with those expected to be important two years in the future. Participative management, building and mending relationships, and change management rose to the top in the future, replacing skills such as resourcefulness, decisiveness and doing whatever it takes.
- Viewing leadership as a collective process. – When examining an organizations approach to leadership from the past to the future, we see movement from more individual approaches (i.e., leadership as a position) to those that are more collective (i.e., leadership as a process). Specifically, respondents believe organizations will continue to move towards viewing leadership as a process that happens throughout the organization through interdependent decision making.
The leadership need for the future will also be different:
“There are some notable differences between the skills respondents thought were important in 2002 and the skills they believe would be most important in the future. The most striking
difference is the rise of what we might call soft skills, such as building relationships and participative management. Building relationships moved from the fifth most important skill to the second most important. Additionally, change management moved from seventh to third, indicating leaders expect the unpredictability of late to continue.”
This can be clearly seen in the chart below:
In a follow-up article on the report the Center for Creative Leadership the top four competencies are expanded upon as follows:
Leading employees, managing change, building and mending relationships and employing participative leadership are requisite skills for the leader of the future.
Leading employees. The number one required skill for leaders. Leaders who are effective in this area do the following:
- Delegate and develop. They are willing to delegate important tasks and decision making. This is done as an effective management technique, but more importantly, as a means to develop employees. Providing challenge and opportunity builds skill, experience, and confidence. As a result, effective leaders surround themselves with talented people.
- Give feedback. They are honest and consistent in communicating expectations and results. They provide prompt feedback – both positive and negative.
- Motivate. They reward hard work and dedication to excellence. They willingly explain, answer questions and patiently listen to concerns.
Managing change. Effective leaders are skilled at facilitating organization change and overcoming resistance to change. They do this by:
- Being a role model. Leading change by example sets the tone and pace for others. Effective leaders approach change in a positive and realistic way.
- Adapting. They are flexible, adapting plans as necessary. This includes adjusting management or leadership style to changing situations.
- Including others. They involve key people in the design and implementation of change. Aware of the impact change can have, they take into account people’s concerns.
- Being direct. They are straightforward about the changes and consequences of an expected action or decision.
Building and mending relationships. Effective leaders are skilled at interpersonal relationships. They are able to negotiate and handle work problems without alienating people. They show they understand others’ perspectives and needs and are able to gain cooperation, trust and respect. Managers who are successful at building and maintaining relationships:
- Keep their cool. They avoid creating adversarial relationships. Conversely, they can handle an unfair attack from peers with poise.
- Are diplomats. They get things done by finding common ground. They use good timing and common sense in negotiating – make their points when the time is right.
- Relate to all. They can develop rapport and relationship with all kinds of individuals – from shop floor to top executives.
Employing a participative management style. Strong leaders use effective listening skills and communication to involve others, build consensus and influence decisions. They effectively:
- Engage before acting. They involve others in the beginning stages of an initiative and work to gain commitment of others before implementing changes.
- Inform. They keep individuals informed of future changes that may impact them.
- Listen. They encourage direct reports to share and listen to individuals at all levels in the organization. They consistently listen to employees – not only when things are going well.
In addition to the research done by the Center for Creative Leadership, a similar survey, commissioned by the American Management Association (AMA), on “Leading into the Future” found:
“that the number one driver of changes that will have an impact on leadership is ‘increased global competition,’ followed by ‘the need to focus on customers,’ then ‘assuring operational efficiency’ and, finally, to ‘adapt to the accelerating pace of change.’”
The results of this survey describe the leadership competencies required now and in 10 years time are:
“‘strategy development‘ and ‘communication skills.’ That is, leaders have to figure out how to deal with global competition and then communicate, communicate, communicate. The ability to execute strategy requires both flexibility and an openness to change.
The next most highly ranked leadership competencies are related to the ‘development and recruitment of talent‘ and to the ‘fostering of creativity and innovation.’ Indeed, the most impressive shift over the next 10 years is the fact that fostering innovation becomes an even more important competency than talent-related issues. Respondents think that innovation will be an absolute key to staying competitive in a fast-paced global marketplace.
Then there are two other overarching leadership competencies: ‘know the business well enough to drive results‘ and ‘model the values of the organization.‘ This means that leaders must be able to cope with those nitty-gritty business issues on the ground even while modeling the ideals-including the ethics-of the company. What’s more, the ability to model values and show ethical leadership will grow more important over the next 10 years, while the need to know the business will become a bit less important.
In addition to being excellent strategists and communicators-tomorrow’s leaders must be nurturers of creativity, expert developers and recruiters of talent, upholders of corporate values, and drivers of business results. In short, they’ll have to be well-rounded people characterized by a potent mixture of both soft and hard leadership skills, and they’ll need to know just how and when to move from one role to another.”
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Strategy, Business, Management, Innovation, Research, Future
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