The New Competencies- Fluid, Shared, Agile Leadership
The New Competencies- Fluid, Shared, Agile Leadership
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In a recent meeting with a professional services firm, naturally we talked about leadership development. I was impressed by hearing that everyone in the firm saw themselves as a leader. Along with that self-image description of “everyone here is a leader” they shared a challenge… “How do we develop leaders when people already think of themselves that way?”
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), offers a new white paper, Future Trends in Leadership Development by Nick Petrie, in consultation with a “who’s who” list of experts, that provides some answers with context for the tried and (somewhat) true ways organizations develop leaders, and highlights emerging trends to match our times.To appreciate the high calling for leaders, CCL sums up the environment leaders today face with this acronym-“VUCA”
The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), offers a new white paper, Future Trends in Leadership Development by Nick Petrie, in consultation with a “who’s who” list of experts, that provides some answers with context for the tried and (somewhat) true ways organizations develop leaders, and highlights emerging trends to match our times.To appreciate the high calling for leaders, CCL sums up the environment leaders today face with this acronym-“VUCA”
- Volatile, rapid change
- Uncertain future which makes precise predictions unlikely
- Complex challenges which have few single causes or solutions
- Ambiguity about the significance and effect of events
How do we develop complex thinkers and adaptable leaders? Here are three take away ideas to embed in investment in today’s leaders and tomorrow’s up and coming leaders:
1. Don’t overlook what needs to be unlearned- it's essential to developing learning agility.
A new book, Reframing Leadership, to be published by Jossey Bass, previewed at a recent Boston University Executive Roundtable meeting, from co-authors Lee Bolman, from the Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Terrance Deal from the University of Southern California, Rossier School-- introduces the value of re-framing. “If you’re working on the wrong problem, even tireless effort and a high-quality solution won’t get you where you want to go.” Bolman and Deal explain the skill of “re-framing” so leaders can adapt their styles to what the organizational environment calls for; they use metaphors for different types of organizations, such as, “the factory/machine, the family, the jungle, and the temple." Which characterizes the organization(s) you are leading? Each type of organization requires agility on the part of the leader, and poses different leadership challenges. As Marshall Goldsmith says in his book by the same title, “What got you here won’t get you there,” which can help us understand what to do and re-frame to know what to stop doing. Dave Forman, HCI’s CLO, reminds us that re-framing helps ask the right questions before we jump into trying to measure progress towards desired results.
2. Distributed leadership is today's reality.
Increasingly leadership is distributed. And not just among the top team in the C-suite. Bolman and Deal say, “More business leaders recognize that organizations don’t work very well when they count on a few people at the top to provide the leadership they need.” CCL describes the highest level of leadership thinking as “interdependent collaborator”… and finds that only 8% of leaders function at this level. We have a long way to go to practice cultivating the experience of others and unlearn limiting ways of seeing a problem. “The world’s challenges are big enough now that we need to think about how to democratize leadership development, take it back to the masses, to the base and middle of the socio-economic pyramid, not only the peak,” states David Altman, EVP of Research and Innovation at CCL. Collaboration engages and accelerates success.
1. Don’t overlook what needs to be unlearned- it's essential to developing learning agility.
A new book, Reframing Leadership, to be published by Jossey Bass, previewed at a recent Boston University Executive Roundtable meeting, from co-authors Lee Bolman, from the Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Terrance Deal from the University of Southern California, Rossier School-- introduces the value of re-framing. “If you’re working on the wrong problem, even tireless effort and a high-quality solution won’t get you where you want to go.” Bolman and Deal explain the skill of “re-framing” so leaders can adapt their styles to what the organizational environment calls for; they use metaphors for different types of organizations, such as, “the factory/machine, the family, the jungle, and the temple." Which characterizes the organization(s) you are leading? Each type of organization requires agility on the part of the leader, and poses different leadership challenges. As Marshall Goldsmith says in his book by the same title, “What got you here won’t get you there,” which can help us understand what to do and re-frame to know what to stop doing. Dave Forman, HCI’s CLO, reminds us that re-framing helps ask the right questions before we jump into trying to measure progress towards desired results.
2. Distributed leadership is today's reality.
Increasingly leadership is distributed. And not just among the top team in the C-suite. Bolman and Deal say, “More business leaders recognize that organizations don’t work very well when they count on a few people at the top to provide the leadership they need.” CCL describes the highest level of leadership thinking as “interdependent collaborator”… and finds that only 8% of leaders function at this level. We have a long way to go to practice cultivating the experience of others and unlearn limiting ways of seeing a problem. “The world’s challenges are big enough now that we need to think about how to democratize leadership development, take it back to the masses, to the base and middle of the socio-economic pyramid, not only the peak,” states David Altman, EVP of Research and Innovation at CCL. Collaboration engages and accelerates success.
3. Leadership can have either a big “L” or a little “l”- both are situational and fluid.
The idea of dialing up and dialing down for mass career customization (MCC), first pioneered by Deloitte's work on The Corporate Lattice, is now a practice in many organizations. Applying MCC to the scope of leadership responsibilities gives leaders a break along their career path to develop parts of themselves that they want to focus on, without giving up the big “L” option in the future. Leadership with a little “l” may in fact be just what leaders need to have the option to develop depthbefore stepping up in the future. And, like Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership model, leading with a big "L" or a small "l" is task-specific to each person; when you examine leadership at a specific task level, we are all fluid in our leadership competencies, moving from small "l" to big "L" as confidence, competence and followership increases.
The idea of dialing up and dialing down for mass career customization (MCC), first pioneered by Deloitte's work on The Corporate Lattice, is now a practice in many organizations. Applying MCC to the scope of leadership responsibilities gives leaders a break along their career path to develop parts of themselves that they want to focus on, without giving up the big “L” option in the future. Leadership with a little “l” may in fact be just what leaders need to have the option to develop depthbefore stepping up in the future. And, like Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership model, leading with a big "L" or a small "l" is task-specific to each person; when you examine leadership at a specific task level, we are all fluid in our leadership competencies, moving from small "l" to big "L" as confidence, competence and followership increases.
4. Leadership is a social endeavor.
In the past we’ve heard leaders say that leadership is lonely experience. Yet leading doesn’t have to be a lone endeavor and perhaps shouldn’t be in order to be effective. Leadership, whether it’s upper or lower case “l,” includes influence and stimulating others’ thinking, learning and doing- when you have an organization where that describes everyone, then everyone is a leader. At W.L. Gore, leadership is defined by followers- CEO Terri Kelly and Debra France, who leads their Enterprise Leadership development, show how followership brings leadership to life.
In the past we’ve heard leaders say that leadership is lonely experience. Yet leading doesn’t have to be a lone endeavor and perhaps shouldn’t be in order to be effective. Leadership, whether it’s upper or lower case “l,” includes influence and stimulating others’ thinking, learning and doing- when you have an organization where that describes everyone, then everyone is a leader. At W.L. Gore, leadership is defined by followers- CEO Terri Kelly and Debra France, who leads their Enterprise Leadership development, show how followership brings leadership to life.
My big take away… social democratized leadership keeps leadership fluid and energized; re-framing keeps leaders agile and able to embrace future opportunities. I’m about to shift my role to doing more teaching with HCI’s faculty. Of all the roles I’ve had at HCI in six and a half years, engaging with our membership who grew from 10,000 to 200,000, co-creating learning has been my overarching passion. I hope you'll post and share your leadership on my human capital strategy blog; in my future focus, I look forward to sharing with all you practitioner members and topical experts, who together practice fluid leadership to advance best practices in talent management. And as we do so, we remember that followership is also a shared experience. Speaking of which, let’s follow each other on Twitter, too @joykosta
http://www.hci.org/blog/sub-optimizing-our-talent-investments-why-engagement-not-enough
posted by AcrosticGuy @ 8:38 PM
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