Oct

23

Leadership’s New Rules

Filed Under Leadership Practices 

With the increasing complexity the roles and behaviours of leaders need to change to suite a complex environment. The Dannemiller Tyson Associates discusses three new rules for leaders in the 21st Century:

Old Rule #1: The leader’s job is to know, and to serve as a final authority in important decisions.

New Rule: The leader’s job (in the 21st Century) is to call people together whom we have typically kept apart, and to find ways to uncover and connect the collective wisdom of our people. When leaders follow this rule, we’ve seen that this shared wisdom emerges most effectively people are invited to come together and share “one-brain, one heart.” Here everyone in the organization, through accepting each others’ views, comes to see that we all know the same thing (”one brain”), and we are all connected around the same yearnings and vision of a preferred future for the organization (”one heart”).

Old Rule #2: The leader’s job is to control-information, people, risk, the future. The effective leader is in charge of everything that’s going on, both inside and outside the organization. The leader’s job is to ensure that people in the organization obey the rules, and people in the organization look to the leader to keep them safe (e.g., “If I obey, then I’ll have a job, and the company will survive).

New Rule: The leader’s job is to ask questions and facilitate conversations at ALL levels of the organization. An organization can achieve its goals quickly and successfully only when people’s energy is aligned and their commitment is focused, and we believe that this requires a leader to engage people at all levels of the organization in connected discussion.

Old Rule #3: The leader’s job is to drive and monitor organization performance by focusing on what is going wrong, and punishing mistakes.

New Rule: The leader’s job is to build and sustain high performance by noticing and appreciating when people do things right-especially when they act with courage, integrity, and accountability. Reinforcing courageous, right-minded action, especially when it turns out to be a mistake, is the only way to encourage people to take risks, and leaders who follow this rule typically build organizations with spirit and pride.

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