The old command and control style of Leadership has been under attack for many years, but now we are facing the perfect storm, one that will consign it to the trash can of history.
Today’s Digital Economy is driving the pace of change, the need to respond rapidly to respond to the needs of customers, who now have more choice than any before.
In today’s workforce, Millennials are now the largest group, and they are demanding a much more collaborate, flexible and autonomous way of working.
Together these have the old ‘command and control’ style of leadership trapped in a pincer movement.
The speed of decision-making required means that you can no longer wait for everything to go through management approvals, decisions often need to be made on the spot by the front line troops.
The war for talent means that to attract the best resources, you need to have a leadership style which appeals to, and meets the demands of the workforce.
The Digital Revolution is not just disrupting business, it’s also disrupting leadership and to survive leaders are going to have to adapt to the new paradigm, or they too will be consigned to history.
Leaders need to focus on three key elements, not only for them to thrive but also to drive performance and results within their companies.
Leaders must be able to:
Engage:
Create compelling visions with their staff can buy into. They need to show a strong purpose as to why this vision is important, and they need to involve their teams in helping to define. We all know that involvement leads to commitment, and when teams are committed they are automatically engaged.
Empower:
Building accountability is great, but getting teams to take ownership is the next level and helps drive amazing results. The best way to get teams to take ownership is to empower them. To give them the tools they need to do the job, and the freedom to best determine how to achieve the outcome. You cannot just insist that people will follow a process and hope it will generate great results. You need to give them some autonomy to make changes to not only achieve the desired resultsbut also to improve on them.
Excite:
Lastly, you need to be able to excite your teams, building enthusiasm for the task athand. There are two ways to do this, the first is to show them what they need to do in order to be successful. This helps to build belief and confidence which are critical to success. The second is to to provide feedback. Make sure that they can see the progress that’s building made and that they are being recognized for it. What gets recognized gets repeated, and this will help to create a culture of continuous improvement.
Any leader that can master all three will be in demand, both from companies needing great leadership, and from employees looking for a great boss to work for.
