Leadership

  

We have learned that leadership is not limited to businesses. Parents, relatives, students, friends, neighbors, and volunteers represent a small example of those who lead. You may find that there is a person, or group, that looks to you for direction, or as a role model. This makes you a leader. On the other hand, you may be actively pursuing a position of leadership within your workplace. Either way, with your viewpoint, take the Self-Assessment in the Casse (2014) New drivers of leadership reading (see attached document for reading.) Present your results in the homework this week, along with the following:

· Describe how you understand yourself through the strongest drivers and weakest drivers (highest and lowest scores)

· Think of one challenge, past or present (personally or professionally), and diagnose your ability to resolve the challenge through the drivers.

300-450 word excluding references, APA format, and a minimum of 3 references

The new drivers of leadership

Pierre Casse sets out what leaders must do to make a difference in today’s “turnaround world”

“T new. What’s new?”

he world we are getting into is

Anonymous

“Turnaround world? It has always been a turnaround world!”

Anonymous

As a result of my dealings with hundreds of executives from many different sectors, I conclude that, in order to perform and enjoy in today’s fast changing business world, leaders must consider three critical requirements.

Firstly, they must have a good grasp of the

leadership fundamentals. In other words, they must understand the basic requirements of leadership practice, such as the ability to:

· provide a clear direction to those with whom they collaborate

· mobilise their people by focusing on selected key priorities

· transform ideas into actions

· co-ordinate appropriate actions to generate tangible results.

Furthermore, they must also appreciate the following three key dimensions of leadership:

· leading oneself – the ability to be an effective role model

		LEADERSHIP

· leading the team – the ability to help people in a team to achieve together what they would have been unable to achieve alone

· leading the organisation – the ability to move the organisation forward while making sure continued performance improvement is beneficial to all those involved, as well as to the wider society.

Secondly, leaders must understand that different roles within the organisation require different ways of thinking and behaving. For instance, the leadership requirements at the top of the organisation are not the same as those required in the field. Leaders at board level will need to take a more strategic perspective and focus more on the long term, whereas leaders in the field must necessarily be more short-term focused.

Moreover, the leadership requirements will

differ from one function to another and this will inevitably be a determining factor in how people perform as leaders. To illustrate, leaders in the finance function will arguably require greater proficiency in their analytical and computational skills than those leaders in marketing, who will need a level of intuition more finely tuned to trends in customer preference. The point is that, while there will be overlap in some leadership requirements, there will also be function-specific ones to consider.

Thirdly, my research shows clearly that the

leadership fundamentals also comprise the following four key drivers:

· idea The ability to project oneself into the future and anticipate what would be necessary to improve on what currently exists

The nature of the situation in which leaders find themselves today requires a step beyond the traditional

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	I think I am good at:		Choice
																																																							1	Stimulating others’ views and actions
	2	Setting up clear objectives
	3	Avoiding procrastination or delay
	4	Questioning the way things are done
	5	Not taking anything for granted
	6	Being selective in choosing my options
	7	Moving things around
	8	Adapting myself to evolving situations
	9	Concentrating my actions on what can make the difference
	10	Communicating with passion
	11	Checking my assumptions from time to time
	12	Responding quickly to opportunities
	13	Avoiding being side-tracked
	14	Appreciating healthy competition
	15	Exploring new ways to get things done
	16	Overriding others in implementation
	17	Looking for quick wins
	18	Getting people excited about new projects
	19	Acting first and thinking next
	20	Disagreeing with others openly and, when needed, forcefully

Driver 1

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Driver 3

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Driver 4

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· process The ability to organise scarce resources so that ideas can be released effectively and efficiently

· people The ability to generate commitment and engagement among others around ideas, strategies and action plans

· action The ability to transform ideas, strategies and plans into concrete results.

The point that I am trying to make is that the traditional leadership fundamentals are no longer sufficient. The nature of the situation in which leaders find themselves today requires a step beyond the traditional. There are specific leadership requirements more appropriate for the modern era that we must not ignore.

28 February 2014 www.trainingjournal.com

Before highlighting some of the ‘new’ leadership

drivers, I would like you to go through the selfassessment exercise set out on the left, tabulate the results as advised and consider the de-brief, which will explain the potential implications of the results.

A leadership self-assessment exercise

Please choose in each pair of items, in the boxes above left and right, the one that you think is quite typical of you at work (ie which one you prefer while working). You will decide at the end whether or not the outcome makes sense for you.

Then, in the table bottom left, circle the

LEADERSHIP

numbers you have chosen, add up the number of circles for each driver and record this in the box in the column on the right. The higher the score, the more comfortable you are with that driver.

De-brief

Driver one – energy

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life” Aristotle

The rationale underlying the ‘energy’ driver is that dealing with the challenges that abound in today’s world requires a high level of energy. This driver is all about the ability to cope with adverse conditions. It suggests the ability to stand up and fight for one’s ideas and values. It is an indication of the extent of one’s stamina and the ability to mobilise one’s own personal resources in order to persevere and overcome resistance in the pursuit of one’s beliefs.

Reflect on your score for driver one. Do

you think it is a fair reflection of your current predisposition with respect to the ‘energy’ driver? Driver two – focus

“The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to focus” A G Bell

The second driver is about ‘focus’. In a turnaround world full of unexpected surprises and demands, leaders must be able to prioritise and, in so doing, focus on what is important at the moment in question. Since leaders must allocate resources that are scarce, they must focus their attention on the pertinent and avoid inhibiting distractions.

Reflect on your score for driver two and ask

yourself how good you are at selecting and focusing on that which is critical for success. Driver three – speed

“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed”

R W Emerson

The third driver is ‘speed’. In a world in which change is rapid and accelerating, leaders must be able to implement key actions quickly. This is not to say that leaders must be able to get everything done at break-neck speed but, certainly, the ability to make progress in vital areas without delay is a key leadership success factor.

When launching a project, leaders must be

decisive and have a clear idea of the pace with which the plan should be executed.

Looking to the leadership research, the

following findings are clear:

· time pressure can be a condition for ensuring high quality results provided the pressure is not unmanageable and becomes counter-productive

· high achievers are people who enjoy working to tight deadlines provided they have freedom over the way in which they design and organise their work

· everything cannot be urgent! Leaders must decide on what is critical. Leaders who claim that all projects and actions are critical, and should be implemented at high speed, soon lose their credibility.

Reflect on your score for driver three. Is it in line with the perception that you have of yourself? What could it mean for you as a leader?

Driver 4 – challenge

“A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to

him who challenges it” M Proust

The fourth driver is ‘challenge’. Leaders who make a real impact are usually those who refuse to accept the status quo. Such leaders are careful not to take anything for granted; they challenge our assumptions and provoke us out of our complacency.

Challenging leaders are those who can use

different reference points when looking at a situation. They continually question and probe to generate numerous potential options to problems at hand.

Reflect on your score for driver four. As you do

so, consider the following questions. How good are you at:

· accepting new and innovative ways of looking at the problems with which you are faced?

· recruiting people who think very differently to you?

· taking risks by listening to those proposals that may, at first sight, look esoteric and unsound?

I think I am good at:

Choice

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21	Enjoying moving at a fast pace
22	Mobilising people around some key tasks
23	Initiating lively discussions
24	Always looking for better ways to get things done
25	Being quick at solving problems
26	Accepting and exploiting conflicts
27	Achieving and then moving on
28	Inspiring people’s imagination
29	Investing time and effort in well-selected actions
30	Avoiding consensus and compromise
31	Leading by objectives
32	Getting bored with repetitive actions
33	Leading with stamina
34	Separating what’s critical from what’s trivial
35	Getting people to take initiative
36	Criticising traditional ways of performing
37	Avoiding the wait-and-see position
38	Making critical choices
39	Enjoying work pressure (up to a point)
40	Resenting any form of conditioning

Some leadership implications

The four drivers that I have outlined in this article imply that, in order to prove effective, leaders must make special efforts in the management of their teams, organisations and even countries. In doing so, they must bear in mind some implications when deciding on what they must do to ensure success.

Create a top team able to activate the four

drivers, in the right way and at the right time Leaders in close collaboration with the executive in charge must prove complementary. They must have the ability to look at any situation from the perspective of the four drivers and ask:

Leaders who make a real impact are usually those who refuse to accept the status quo

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However, generating buy-in will require a systematic approach from top leaders of which the most important component will be acting as a role model.

Assess the validity of the four drivers as well

as their effectiveness overall and in specific situations There is also a need for leaders to continually review and assess the validity and effectiveness of the four drivers. In fact, in some situations there is a good chance that the reverse of what is recommended in this article could be more relevant and effective. For instance:

· to shoot for different objectives simultaneously to increase the probability that one will prove to be the right one

· to let others take the big risk may prove wiser in some highly competitive situations

· to decrease the energy level and release collaborators so that they get the chance to grow from their own experiences

· to stop challenging the existing situation and just move with what we have can be the best way to succeed in some circumstances.

Conclusions

The best leadership models are those that leaders themselves invent. Having said that, leaders can,

· do we have the required stamina to face the of course, find inspiration from other executives, problems at hand or to take advantage of the academics and from the results of research in the existing opportunities? field. Nevertheless, the best route to success for

LEADERSHIP

· are we able to choose from all the options the any person in a leadership position is to come ones that will really make a difference? up with the mind-sets and behaviours that will

· how good are we at moving fast in some key provide a good match between the individual areas and making it happen before anybody leader and the requirements of the situation in else does? which he may find himself.

· do we have the courage to question our own This implies that the leader will need the perceptions and decisions while everything is ability to:

telling us that we are right? • know himself in terms of strengths and weaknesses

The organisational leader will also have to manage • make a diagnosis of the situation in which he the top team in such a way that the confrontations finds himself, in terms of the requirements and contradictions between the drivers are a source for success

of synergy, not destruction. • understand and measure the impact of his own Create a corporate culture that is conducive behaviours on the situation at hand.

Professor to using the four drivers This implies that the

Pierre organisation’s value system must support and Any diagnosis should then ideally lead to some Casse promote the application of the four drivers. People decisions regarding the leadership behaviour that is professor of should feel comfortable with ambiguity, paradox has been employed. The leader must determine leadership at and contradiction. Corporate key players will whether the behaviour is effective and, if not, how the Moscow have to understand that the traditional decision it might be improved. School of making based on ‘either/or’ is over. They will

Management-

Skolkovo. have to accept that the right way to decide is now He can be characterised by an ‘either/and’ approach! contacted This is not going to be easy to do. Many people via www.will resist the use of the four drivers and feel skolkovo.ruextremely ill at ease with the new behaviours.

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