What it takes to be a leader in 2018 and beyond
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What it takes to be a leader in 2018 and beyond
Introduction: Leadership in an uncertain world
The Challenge Introduction
Leadership in an uncertain world
Leaders now live in a ‘VUCA’ world, and to remain
leaders they’ll have to learn to embrace it. This
document will outline a few of the prevailing winds VUCA The Personal
Leadership agility
we see in how a future-fit leader will be formed and
the ways of thinking to be embraced in order to ride Volatility, uncertainty, complexity,
and ambiguity Building effective followers
the wave, and not end up swirling in the surf.
VUCA is the current trendy management
The worlds of politics, economics, society are all undergoing tectonic acronym adapted from a phrase used The Organisation
shifts. Today’s leaders are expected to actively engage with uncertainty, originally by the US Army as a catch-all for Keeping a founder’s mentality
while continuing to build trust in their organisations and give stability to “It’s crazy out there!”. It’s useful for managers
their people. as a framework for the business environment New organisational structures
they’re in today and sums up the difficulty in - Holocracy
Digitisation and technological advancements are a key driver of this
creating sustainable growth in a constantly
accelerated pace of change and it is the responsibility of the incumbent
changing landscape.
leader to learn how to shift the direction in their favour, to take The Future
advantage of the prevailing wind and mitigate against potential storms.
Succession planning
The Big Interview
Source: Harvard Business ReviewIntroduction: Leadership in an uncertain world
Leading in a VUCA world Introduction
– What a leader needs Leadership in an uncertain world
The Personal
Leadership agility
A clear mission A consistent Anticipate, but don’t Look to the past Building effective followers
As the Kipling poem says message plan to extinction Old solutions won’t
‘If you can keep your head ‘No plan survives contact with provide answers to new
Team members will be
when all about you are losing
happier and more secure if
the enemy’ and your plan problems, but the thinking The Organisation
theirs’, leaders are capable of won’t survive contact with the behind them might. Don’t
they are getting a consistent
thinking clearly in a crisis.
message from their leaders.
real world either. discard everything in Keeping a founder’s mentality
It is important for a leader the past – a lot of clever
to have a solid foundation people have come before
New organisational structures
The road isn’t as scary when A plan is a starting point,
and clear mission on which but it is a roadmap to a road you – but realise they may - Holocracy
you can see the destination.
to base their decisions in a that will change on your need adaptation.
changing environment. journey – always be prepared
to shift and change with the The Future
circumstances.
Succession planning
The Big InterviewIntroduction: Leadership in an uncertain world
Leading in a VUCA world Introduction
– What a leader needs Leadership in an uncertain world
The Personal
Leadership agility
Embrace complexity Become your own Allow your people You’ll never be Building effective followers
Embrace complexity and you network freedom certain again
might find the answer quicker In this increasingly It is easy to try and create We hear it at so many
than everyone else - and then interconnected world, build certainty internally because conferences, lectures and The Organisation
be prepared for the question to connections beyond your of the whirling winds of articles that it’s almost
change. industry – it will help you uncertainty outside your become a cliché – the Keeping a founder’s mentality
to anticipate problems and organisation. Give your world is changing faster
New organisational structures
see new solutions your employees the same flexibility today than it ever has,
competitors might miss. you need yourself. and change will never - Holocracy
be as slow again as it is
today. To thrive as a leader,
being uncertain is the new The Future
normal.
Succession planning
47% The Big Interview
of all jobs
will be threatened by
automation by 2025.
Our value will be in
uniquely human skills
like collaboration and
emotional intelligence.Introduction: Leadership in an uncertain world
For leaders, the vital questions are often the ones you don’t
even know exist. The mission of a leader is to seek out the Introduction
right questions by looking at: Leadership in an uncertain world
The Personal
1. The Personal
Leadership agility
2. The Organisation Building effective followers
3. The Future
The Organisation
Keeping a founder’s mentality
In this document, we hope to point you down a few avenues New organisational structures
to begin discovering what you need to equip yourself and - Holocracy
your team as leaders of the future in 2018 and beyond.
The Future
Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Personal
Leadership Agility Introduction
In today’s world, a leader does not just need to be Leadership in an uncertain world
agile, they need to be a contortionist. It is impossible
to track changes in your environment and immediately
understand them while also implementing internal The Personal
change to take advantage of these external factors. Leadership agility
However, what a leader can do is (ironically) put a Building effective followers
structure around themselves to constantly remind
themselves they need to be agile.
With practice comes brilliance. “Only about 10% The Organisation
of managers have Keeping a founder’s mentality
An organisation’s level of agility is highly linked to the agility of its leaders.
Therefore, in order for a company to be flexible and have the ability to shift
mastered the level New organisational structures
direction, their leaders have to do the same and, indeed, drive that change. A of agility needed - Holocracy
future-fit leader will see the environment that unsettles others and dive right into for consistently
it, seeing both the difficulties and the possibilities. And this is not a metaphorical effective leadership”
‘diving in’ but rather a practical, experimentational spirit that will test out ideas in The Future
the real world, discard the ones that don’t work and improve upon the answers
that show potential. Succession planning
Bill Joiner, The Big Interview
Author of Leadership AgilitySection: The Personal
Leadership Agility Factors Introduction
A 2010 survey found that the central factor for increasing an organisation’s agility is the level of agility exhibited by a Leadership in an uncertain world
company’s leaders and leadership culture. Over five years and by studying over 600 managers across industries, they
found four factors that could be used to determine a leader’s agility.
The Personal
Leadership agility
Building effective followers
Context - setting agility Stakeholder Agility Creative agility Self-leadership
How effectively a leader How well they work with How creative they are in agility The Organisation
frames their initiatives stakeholders solving complex problems How proactively they
seek and learn from
Keeping a founder’s mentality
feedback on their own New organisational structures
Derived from a research project by : ChangeWise
effectiveness. - Holocracy
“Life is 10 % The Future
what happens Succession planning
to me and 90
The Big Interview
percent of how
I react to it.”
Charles SwindollSection: The Personal
How to Develop Agility Introduction
How does a leader develop agility? With practice. Leadership in an uncertain world
In their seminal book, Leadership Agility, William
Joiner and Stephen Josephs, suggested that
The Personal
leadership agility should be measured around three “In a very real
distinct areas – leading change, leading teams, Leadership agility
sense we have
pivotal conversations – and suggested a new form
of assessment being used on leadership
two minds, Building effective followers
development programmes. one that thinks
and one that The Organisation
feels”
They found the most effective approach was to use well-planned action Keeping a founder’s mentality
learning programmes that combine multiple learning modules: workshops Daniel Goleman, Emotional New organisational structures
where participants apply new perspectives and skills to their real work, Intelligence: Why It Can Matter
More Than IQ - Holocracy
coaching based on 360-degree feedback, learning circles and individual
or group projects.
In essence, they use leaders to assess other leaders. The Future
Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Personal
Building Effective Followership in a VUCA world Introduction
The corner office, the suit and tie, the Leadership in an uncertain world
morning coffee and the lunchtime bourbon.
Gone are the executives that grace our HBO
boxsets, to be replaced by the contemporary The Personal
leader, but what does that leader of the Leadership agility
future look like? How do they interact Building effective followers
with those around them and how do they
communicate their ideas to their team to
create an environment of success? “In looking for the right places to make The Organisation
those tiny changes, there are three broad
areas of opportunity. You can tweak your
Keeping a founder’s mentality
There are a number of management theories offering up
solutions for executives looking for a way to navigate the beliefs—or what psychologists call your New organisational structures
leadership landscape. In reality, they are all part of the same mindset; you can tweak your motivations; - Holocracy
Venn diagram that asks the question - how do you build and you can tweak your habits. When we
effective followership? learn how to make small changes in each
of these areas, we set ourselves up to The Future
make profound, lasting change over the
course of our lives.”
Succession planning
The Big Interview
Susan David,
Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change,
and Thrive in Work and LifeSection: The Personal
Introduction
?
It is not simply a matter of knowledge, but how to apply
the knowledge you have to real-life situations, extract the
Leadership in an uncertain world
knowledge from those around you and have the ability to
sublimate your own ego to choose answers that might
not necessarily fit into your own worldview.
The Personal
How does a leader Leadership agility
build a followership
around themselves, Building effective followers
communicate with
In a world full of uncertainty, it is increasingly them effectively
important for leaders to focus on the following and, ultimately, GET The Organisation
RESULTS for the
three concepts: organisation? Keeping a founder’s mentality
New organisational structures
- Holocracy
Authentic Executive Emotional The Future
Leadership Presence Intelligence Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Personal
Authentic Leadership
Introduction
Authentic leadership is an approach to leadership that emphasizes building Leadership in an uncertain world
the leader’s legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which
value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. Generally, authentic
leaders are positive people with a truthful sense of self who promote
The Personal
openness with those around them.
Leadership agility
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Herminia Ibarra tackled why leaders
often struggle with authenticity and often it is simply due to the misinterpretation Building effective followers
of ‘authentic’.
‘When used to describe leadership, ‘authenticity’ has other meanings—and they The Organisation
can be problematic. For example, the notion of adhering to one “true self” flies
in the face of much research on how people evolve with experience, discovering Herminia Ibarra
Keeping a founder’s mentality
facets of themselves they would never have unearthed through introspection New organisational structures
alone. And being utterly transparent—disclosing every single thought and - Holocracy
feeling—is both unrealistic and risky’.
The solution? Look outwards and don’t stick to your own rigid thinking, learn
from diverse role models, learn experimentally and be prepared to fail, and move The Future
beyond ‘your story’. In other words, be agile in thought and action. Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Personal
Executive Presence
Introduction
According to economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, whose research team surveyed
Leadership in an uncertain world
nearly 4,000 college-educated professionals to help solve the riddle of the
modern leader, executive presence lies in three crucial factors: how you
act (otherwise known as gravitas, the most important quality), how you
The Personal
communicate, and how you look.
Leadership agility
In a recent survey of 268 senior executives, it showed that gravitas attributed
to 26% of what it took to get that senior management promotion. Building effective followers
Gravitas is more than just the words you use - it is your tone, presence, body
language, facial expressions, attire and confidence that are all subconsciously The Organisation
being scrutinised by your audience. Indeed, studies show only 7% of the first Sylvia Ann Hewlett
impression you make has anything to do with the words that you say. Keeping a founder’s mentality
New organisational structures
- Holocracy
“.....gravitas attributed to 26% of what it took The Future
to get that senior management promotion.” Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Personal
Emotional Intelligence
Introduction
According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who Focussing, and
Leadership in an uncertain world
helped to popularise emotional intelligence, there are five improving, yourself as
key elements to emotional intelligence: a leader will have great
personal benefits, but
what about the benefits
The Personal
Self-awareness
to your organisation? Leadership agility
Self-regulation
In this next section, Building effective followers
Motivation we’ll look at how
Empathy leaders can help shape
their organisation to be The Organisation
Social skills future-fit, and how to
begin looking at their Keeping a founder’s mentality
The more that you, as a leader, manage each organisations so they New organisational structures
of these areas, the higher your emotional can operate better in - Holocracy
intelligence and the more effective leader you the modern business
can become. environment.
The Future
Succession planning
Daniel Goleman The Big InterviewSection: The Organisation
Introduction
It is imperative for an organisation Leadership in an uncertain world
looking to achieve sustainable
growth to regularly ask The Personal
Leadership agility
themselves....
Building effective followers
‘Have we lost our way?’
The Organisation
Keeping a founder’s mentality
New organisational structures
In a massive organisation, it is - Holocracy
easy to become swept up on the
tide (or be hired into it) and never
stop to ask those fundamental The Future
questions but, if your company
is to be surviving and thriving in Succession planning
decades to come, it is through The Big Interview
the reaffirmation on what your
business does best that will keep
the focus on the right direction.Section: The Organisation
Keeping a Founder’s Mentality Introduction
The danger in a constantly changing environment Leadership in an uncertain world
is focussing on the wrong things. It’s easy to get
distracted, to go after the latest trend and end
up building layers upon layers of bureaucracy in The Personal
your organisation that are obstacles to success, “ Organisations that Leadership agility
not springboards. For large organisations it is a were able to retain
Building effective followers
particular challenge - growth creates complexity, their entrepreneurial
and complexity kills growth. ethos account for
50% or more of the The Organisation
Diversification, for example, is generally seen as a positive thing. It creates net value creation
new revenue streams, allows you a more wide-ranging portfolio and on the stock market, Keeping a founder’s mentality
generally spreads the risk. However, what happens when a company although only 6-7% New organisational structures
diversifies beyond their core competencies? For every Nokia and HMV that of companies keep - Holocracy
should have diversified and modernised, there are countless organisations
who have cannibalised themselves by investing people and money in the
that entrepreneurial
wrong area because the internal complexity of the company made them mindset’’ The Future
lose their focus on what was important.
Succession planning
The Big Interview
Bain and CompanySection: The Organisation
One solution to keep your focus has been proposed by Chris Zook, Partner
at Bain and Company, in the form of keeping your ‘founder’s mentality’. The Introduction
founder’s mentality is the ethos that drove the company from its inception to
its current success – the ability to be flexible, spot and fill gaps in the market Leadership in an uncertain world
and deliver real value to customers again and again.
Founder-led companies consistently outperform other companies. Bain’s The Personal
research shows between 1990 and 2014, companies on the S&P led by a
founder outperformed their rivals by 3.1 times for total shareholder returns. Leadership agility
“...companies Building effective followers
The bottom line value is clear.
on the S&P led
by a founder
outperformed The Organisation
Measuring your Founder’s Mentality
their rivals by Keeping a founder’s mentality
Bain and Company proposes a model to begin measuring, and tackling, a company 3.1 times...” New organisational structures
and how close they are to their founder’s mentality using three key criteria.
- Holocracy
The Future
Insurgency Frontline Owner Succession planning
Obsession Mindset The Big InterviewSection: The Organisation
Insurgency Frontline Obsession Owner’s Mindset
Introduction
Insurgency is what drove the The frontline obsession is inherent The owner mindset is
business at the beginning in all founders – that belief that where the public envisions Leadership in an uncertain world
– the belief they could do the coal face is where the true entrepreneurs – their aversion
something better than the value of the business lies. Chris to bureaucracy, a bias towards
market currently provided. Zook gave an example of Mohan action and risk, and a strong The Personal
Singh Oberoi, an Indian hotelier focus on the cash flow and
Diversification often leads Leadership agility
that built his business from the fundamentals of the business.
to losing market share in ground up, founding the luxury In many ways, it is simply Building effective followers
their original product line, Oberai Hotel chain. At 92, his son somebody taking responsibility;
while also encouraging new (who replaced him as CEO) would instead of the bureaucracy you
insurgents. meet his father and find him with will find in large organisations The Organisation
a stack of comment cards from where employees are only
customers, making notes as he worried about ‘their patch’, Keeping a founder’s mentality
went along. the owner’s mindset means New organisational structures
taking responsibility for all the - Holocracy
business and taking actions to
reflect that.
The Future
Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Organisation
Why do companies lose their Introduction
founder’s mentality? Leadership in an uncertain world
A prime reason for companies losing their founder’s It’s sometimes The Personal
mentality is a redefining of the core mission of the not easy to
company. Moving away from that core mission is be perceived Leadership agility
especially tempting over time, often due to the success to be going Building effective followers
that your company has experienced.
backwards
– a great The Organisation
When the founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, left the company, Starbucks
began to drift. It began to sell new (and numerous) items in the store, concentrated leader will
just see that Keeping a founder’s mentality
on a music partnership for its brand, made the baristas less central to the customer
experience, and generally moved away from the core offerings that had made it’s the right New organisational structures
Starbucks great in the first place. direction. - Holocracy
When he returned in 2008, Schultz saw all this. Soon, the clutter was gone, the
customer experience was put front and central once again, the baristas and
The Future
employees became truly valued again and the company skyrocketed all over again.
Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Organisation
A Future-Fit Organisational Structure Introduction
Organisational structures have stayed broadly Leadership in an uncertain world
similar for the last century – a top-down approach
where information flows in two directions. In Job Design
the digital age, this structure begins to crumble The Personal
/ Work design
under the mass of incoming information and the Leadership agility
speed of change. For large organisations this Job design or work design
Building effective followers
leads to gaps in market delivery and encourages refers to the content,
disrupters to come in and fill that gap with a new, structure, and organisation
of tasks and activities. It is
innovative service. The Organisation
mostly studied in terms of
job characteristics, such as Keeping a founder’s mentality
To remain innovative, you do not just have to be agile personally, your autonomy, workload, role
organisation needs to be agile too. A huge amount of work in recent problems, and feedback.
New organisational structures
years has gone into making people’s working life different than it was Throughout history, job - Holocracy
20 years ago, with the knowledge that a happy worker is a better design has moved away
worker. From open-plan offices to hammocks and computer games, from a sole focus on
the workplace of today looks different than yesterday, but is it truly efficiency and productivity The Future
organised differently? Does the modern business and the modern to more motivational job Succession planning
worker need a new structure to work within? designs, including the social
approach toward work. The Big Interview
Source : Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of PsychologySection: The Organisation
One proposed new structure is ‘Holocracy’. Holacracy is a management
practice that democratises change within an organisation by looking for Introduction
‘tensions’ and proposing solutions on an ongoing basis. In practice, this
means that new ideas are shared throughout the organisation easier and Leadership in an uncertain world
continuously improve in increments over time.
Holocracy doesn’t focus on making operational decisions like how to The Personal
launch the next product, but is a way of stepping back from working in the
organisation to working on the organisation itself. In a world where everything Leadership agility
your business does is changing, why shouldn’t your business change too? Building effective followers
“If everyone had The Organisation
‘In the middle of the last century as an executive, to think outside Keeping a founder’s mentality
how many messages did you get a day? How many the box, maybe New organisational structures
demands on your attention? Probably not that many. it was the box - Holocracy
But today? How many emails before breakfast? It’s that needed
at least an order of magnitude. And it’s not just the fixing”
high-powered executive, it’s every knowledge worker
The Future
in that building’.
An Malcolm Gladwell,
Introduction Succession planning
to Holocracy What the Dog Saw
The Big Interview
Brian Robertson,
Founder of HolocracySection: The Future
Now that we’ve looked at the personal Introduction
and organisational aspects of modern Leadership in an uncertain world
leadership, it is time to begin preparing
for a future you can’t possibly predict. The Personal
Sounds easy, right? Leadership agility
Building effective followers
The Organisation
Keeping a founder’s mentality
While we can’t predict the future,
we can protect ourselves against
New organisational structures
“The best its most dangerous aspects. By - Holocracy
way to creating future leaders with new
predict the ideas and thinking differently about
The Future
future is to change, a modern leader can set up
create it.” their organisation with sustainable
growth and success.
Succession planning
The Big Interview
Peter DruckerSection: The Future
Succession Planning “A star wants to
see himself rise Introduction
= Planning for Success to the top. Leadership in an uncertain world
A leader wants
The most difficult thing to achieve isn’t to see those
success, it’s success over time. Today’s
The Personal
brilliance is tomorrow’s folly, and one of the
around him rise Leadership agility
key roles of any leader is helping create those to the top.”
Building effective followers
that follow. In this way, their organisation can Simon Sinek
remain brilliant.
The Organisation
You can fill the leadership pipeline through the hiring process, “You don’t hire for Keeping a founder’s mentality
but that will lead to gaps in productivity. There is a variation in the
numbers, but studies suggest that it can take up to 2 years for an
skills, you hire for New organisational structures
employee to be as productive as the person they are replacing. Even attitude. You can - Holocracy
if this is in the longer scale of how quickly we expect new hires to always teach skills.”
get up to speed, it demonstrates how more efficient it is to build a
Simon Sinek, Start with Why:
leadership pipeline internally.
How Great Leaders Inspire
The Future
Everyone to Take Action Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Future
It is estimated that only 1 in 7 employees is a ‘star’ and, The Power Introduction
in this uncertain business environment, it is vital to attract,
retain and develop your star talent. The reason this is the of Mentoring Leadership in an uncertain world
case more so today than in the past is the rate of change
– almost every company is trying to evolve to be future-fit. Mentoring is one of the most
In a 2016 KPMG survey, the number 1 barrier for CEOs to
The Personal
powerful tools in your succession
the implementation of complex strategies is attracting new armoury. A major obstacle to future Leadership agility
strategic talent. leaders is simply not knowing
Building effective followers
what it takes, but that aura can be
removed through mentoring.
A formalised mentoring process The Organisation
“People who don’t can open both the mentor and
Keeping a founder’s mentality
upskill over the the mentee to new avenues of
thought, create real communication New organisational structures
next five years, within an organisation (or across - Holocracy
won’t have a job” organisations) and create a
pathway for leaders of the future
Professor Dana Minbaeva, from within your company. The Future
Copenhagen Business School
and IMI Talent Forum Speaker 2017 Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Future
Developing a Succession Plan – The Basics Introduction
Leadership in an uncertain world
1. Start with the business
strategy. Leverage the
business strategy by identifying
The Personal
developmental experiences that
are critical to achieving it.
4. Create a feedback-rich
environment. Ensure constructive
6. Build a principle-based
organisation. Reinforce Leadership agility
conversations that speak to current leadership as the living
strengths and weaknesses, but embodiment of your Building effective followers
also to one’s potential. company values, at all levels
2. Build a rigorous performance
management system and use
of the organisation.
The Organisation
it. Separate performance and
developmental, but ensure a 5. Focus on transitions. Create 7. Remember to focus on Keeping a founder’s mentality
heavy focus on both. opportunities for transition significance. Focus on the
within your business, and that outcomes that will make the New organisational structures
these are set up for success process sustainable. - Holocracy
as opposed to letting people
3. Create a learning culture.
Constantly ask the difficult
merely sink or swim.
The Future
questions of your organisation
that enables growth and the Succession planning
development of new skills. Source : Yost & Plunkett’s, 2009
The Big InterviewSection: The Future
Being a Future Fit Leader Introduction
Top executives estimate they spend only Leadership in an uncertain world
about 3 percent of their time thinking about,
and getting others on board with, the critical
issues that will shape their business 10 or The Personal
more years down the road. But if it’s not the Leadership agility
leaders job to think of the future, who’s is it? ...demands on Building effective followers
It is easy to see how a company can become
lost amongst the maelstrom and overtaken
our time today
by a competitor... means having The Organisation
blinkers about
Of course, there is no way to accurately predict the future, but the future. Keeping a founder’s mentality
there is a frame of mind that will allow you to think about future New organisational structures
possibilities, take advantage of your insight and, if you are Steve - Holocracy
Jobs, shape the future. If you are able to understand the questions
that the future is asking you, you can become ‘future literate’.
The Future
Succession planning
The Big InterviewSection: The Future
The Big Interview Introduction
We sat down with Colm Foster, IMI Leadership in an uncertain world
Director of Executive Education,
to talk about leadership in an
uncertain world and the challenges The Personal
and trends the leaders he works Leadership agility
with are worried and excited about. Building effective followers
Colm
Foster
Video
The Organisation
Keeping a founder’s mentality
New organisational structures
- Holocracy
The Future
Succession planning
The Big InterviewLEADERSHIP Whether you are looking to develop the capabilities of your
IN AN people in areas critical for growth or are considering a deeper
UNCERTAIN organisational transformation, the IMI customised solutions team
WORLD can partner with you at every step.
What it takes
to be a leader In this uncertain world, it is vital to give your people the tools they
in 2018 and need for your organisation to thrive. To learn more about how IMI
beyond can partner with you, please contact the team at
www.imi.ie/customisedYou can also read
