The New Leadership

Leading and Leadership in the Age of Chaos, Confusion, and Change

Dr J. Martin Hays Dr Jae Myoung Kim

The New Age

The New Age is characterised worldwide by:

Global Concerns Complex Challenges Increased Competition Unprecedented Opportunities Multiple Bottom Lines Sophisticated Employee Demands Increasingly Diverse Markets Increasingly Higher Value for Money Demands
i.e., tailored specifications, quality, service, reliability, responsiveness

The New Age

Not to mention:
Boundaryless Organisation. Virtual modes of working. Complex networks. Alliances, partnerships, and collaborations. Outsourcing. Flexible working arrangements. Around the clock / around the globe working arrangements.

Implications

Leaders, today, face challenges that are larger and more complex than ever before.
They are not prepared. Conventional and traditional strategies for leader development and succession are not adequate to meet the needs of todays leaders. This holds true for business, government, schools, churches, and other institutions, and volunteer organisations.

Implications
The whole way we look at leaders and leadership must change, including how we develop leadership for the New Age.

Leadership can no longer be looked at as one person (or small minority) at the top directing the activities of subordinates confined by space and time. No one person or executive team, and no amount of layers of management below, can know what to do and coordinate and control efforts in this chaotic, confusing, and changing world.

Implications
While there remain examples of successful leaders from the old school, their leadership styles will become increasingly less effective. Command and control, top-down, power-based, positional leadership works (perhaps) in crisis situations and in the short-term. This is the kind of leadership that assumes the leader knows best, knows all, and must not be questioned; leadership that assumes the worst of workers, not the best.
(See paper, McGregors Theory X.)

Implications

Old School leadership will ultimately fail because it fails to enlist and engage employees in ways that tap their individual and collective intelligence, abilities, and passion. On the contrary, such leadership alienates people from their work, the organisation, and its leaders.

Implications

Worst of all, Old School leadership has within it the seeds of its own demise it undermines the organisations future and impedes development of enlightened leadership.

Implications

Old School leadership will ultimately fail because it imposes an inflexible structure on human behaviour that is inherently organic and adaptive. Human beings progress through organic [psychosocial] processes such as communication, learning, experimentation, risk-taking, and creative impulse.

Implications

Old models of leadership based on antiquated ideas of organisation, traditional sources of power, and assumptions of workers (uneducated, undisciplined, etc.) cannot work in the New Age.

At the Same Time

Leaders rightly and wrongly are being criticised for ineptitude and unethical behaviour. Organisations constantly seek to find and leaders who can lead, as if one great leader were all any organisation needed to succeed. The world still seeks the one great leader, and few are to be found.

What We Know

Leaders and leadership do make a difference.

There is a shortage of leaders.

Leadership development programs often fail because they still try to develop leaders the way they used to, based on false assumptions and built around irrelevant skills.

What We Know

The best leaders develop their people as leaders. Adults dont want or need to be led. Most are capable of leading themselves (self-direction) and of working effectively and productively in teams.

What We Know

The most creative, innovative, and productive collaborative groups and teams are comprised of people who lead themselves.
Their managers / leaders create the conditions wherein they can succeed, including helping them learn to work together. These individuals are ready, willing, and able to lead when called upon.

A Conceptual Model
Performance of 11 Person Team Working toward Common Purpose

Performance of 10 Person Team Told What to do by One Leader

Leader Vertical Growth

Collaborative Team

Lateral Synergy / Creative Breadth

1 Person 10 Times

11 People

The New Leader

The New Leader has and demonstrates at least the following:

Consummate facilitation skills. Exemplary teamwork and collaboration skills. A passion for his or her own learning and professional development, and for that of peers and subordinates. A dedication to serve all stakeholders, including the community, customers, employees, and shareholders.

The New Leader

The New Leader has and demonstrates at least the following:
Courage and ability to lead up. The idea of courageous followership. The ability to transform ideas, others, and self. Wisdom
Commitment to doing the right thing for the greater good within appreciation of the fullness of context. Judicious and prudent response to complex problems in contentious circumstances, with due care about and preparation for a future that matters.

The New Leader

Transformational Leadership
The New Leader is a Transformational Leader. Transformational Leaders:
Articulate a compelling vision of the future, and help people connect with it find their own piece of that vision and how they can contribute to it, while fulfilling their individual desires. Lead by role-modeling. They walk the talk, consistently demonstrating the kinds of behaviours that are needed by and valued in all employees. Inspire people to see new possibilities and to stretch themselves.

The New Leader

Transformational Leadership
Transformational Leaders:
Care about their people; treat them as valued individuals, respecting and treating them as adults. Provide a safe environment for people to take risks, make mistakes, show initiative, and reward them for doing so. Encourage people to question, challenge, dig; to go deeper, farther, and higher. Practice the belief that everyone is a leader, everyone is a follower; everyone one a teacher, everyone a learner.

The New Leader

In summary, The New Leadership is about working with, not over.

The New Leadership

Is not about being master

Of others Of technical or managerial skills

Yet, thats
What people expect How we train and develop leaders The basis on which we promote

The New Leader

To achieve a meaningful change in leadership requires

A change in attitudes and values about leadership and followership in all employees. Dramatic improvements and radical transformation in the way leaders are developed, including new ways to measure and reward leadership behaviour.

Summary

The New Leadership covers a lot of ground, and includes radical new understandings about leadership and who leads, and new and different skills and abilities. Conventional and traditional strategies for leader development and succession are not adequate to meet the needs of todays leaders.
This holds true for business, government, schools, churches, and other institutions, and volunteer organisations.

What to do about it?

A novel approach to leadership development is both needed and possible.

A proposed model follows, that is adaptable to most corporate / organisational environments and schedules. This approach incorporates best practice in leadership development programs and represents the leading edge of such programs.

Leadership Curriculum
In a Nutshell.
A one-year, comprehensive course in leadership, covering theory and practice. Six month intensive option. Flexible format options.
Weekend schedules (i.e., 4 weekends in 6-month period. Evenings one or two nights per week Holiday periods (e.g., two-week sessions)

Incorporates a required organisational / institutional project of the participants choosing, supervised by experienced management consultants. Built around individual and team projects.

Leadership Curriculum
In a Nutshell.
Incorporates a required organisational / institutional project of the participants choosing, supervised by experienced management consultants. Highly experiential learning activities enhanced through individual and group reflection. Tailored to the individual; starts each participant from where he or she is. Guaranteed to build skills and improve leadership capability. Equivalent to a 12 18 hour masters or MBA course.

Leadership Curriculum
Topic Overview.
Short Course in Leadership
An introduction to the theory and practice of leadership. Ancient wisdom, conventional thought, and new ideas.
Sequence and inclusion depending on organisational requirements.

Management Minds East and West

Whats different and why. What works the best of both worlds.

The New Leadership: Leading in the New Age Principled Leadership: Ethics, Morality, and Humanity Transformational Leadership: Transforming Self, Others, and Work The Organisation / Institution Project
A supervised leadership or change project (3 6 months).

Leadership Curriculum
Topic Overview.
Crash Course in Change Leadership
Conflict, collaboration, and change. Converting chaos to capability.

Managing Projects, Process, and People The Organisation as a Community Democracy and Citizenship at Work
The obligations and privileges of citizenship. Corporate citizenship and being a good neighbour.

Communities of Practice Learning and Change through Group Action

Leading High-Performance Teams

Sequence and inclusion depending on organisational requirements.

Leadership Curriculum
Topic Overview.
The Courageous Follower Leading Up! Organisational Learning and Wisdom
Change as if it mattered. Leadership for the learning organisation.

The CFO Chief Facilitation Officer

Service for Success
The Leader as Servant Public Service

Reflection and Reflective Practice Learning from Experience

Keys to professional development and performance improvement.
Sequence and inclusion depending on organisational requirements.