August 14th 2014 was a very special day for our
team. We celebrated our Chairman of the
Board’s 60th birthday and the launch of our latest book in a celebratory
seminar around the theme “leadership of the future”. During this day, my dear colleague David
and I tried to tackle this exciting question:
How to build a global, agile and intelligent organization?
We agreed that in our current business environment of constant
change the answer to build this type of organization rests in the
leadership. The changing nature of our
current business environment requires different language, behaviors, and thinking
in our leaders. By leaders we mean the
people responsible for implementing the strategy i.e. everyone in the organization.
In addition, recognizing that the whole human being comes to work, intelligent
leaders have a holistic appreciation of the
employee. Therefore it is intelligent
leaders, able to use their five sources of intelligence (practical, rational,
emotional, spiritual, and cultural), who will be the most successful leaders.
What will be the most important
characteristics for leaders to lead towards the vision of 2020? In addition to
recognizing that the whole human being comes to work and utilizing their five
sources of intelligence, these leaders are inspiring. They
understand what is the starting point for inspiration,
how to inspire others and how to nurture their own inspiration. For them, imagination and dreams are
important. A positive view of the future
is a requirement. These leaders have
moved away from command, control, correct as a leadership style and coach their colleagues to Involve, Inspire, and Innovate.
They are also collaborative. They share the leadership as everyone has a leadership role to take and leadership is everyone’s
responsibility. They can tap
into their emotional intelligence to create connections and network. They
enable, support and celebrate success. They coach their colleagues and ask open
questions rather than give answers: they collaborate to find the best answer
together. Self-leadership is their
strength.
Our leaders also have a global mindset.
They network, persuade, influence and collaborate at many different
points inside and outside the organization with people they have no direct
authority over. They lead upwards and downwards, across the matrix. Command, control and correct really do not work
in this global organization. Leaders in the future will have increasingly complex relationships and
these relationships are increasingly with different cultures so their cultural
intelligence is essential. To develop
their cultural intelligence, they need self-awareness.
Finally, these leaders are responsible. They are responsible to their
clients, their people, shareholders, results, their values, the community and
the environment. They are also responsible to themselves and their own
learning. They are future-minded and
work for an inspiring purpose. This responsibility driven by a purpose will
distinguish exceptional leaders.
In conclusion, building global, agile and intelligent organizations
require intelligent leaders who are inspiring, collaborative, responsible and
have a global mindset. How are you
supporting the development of these leadership characteristics, in yourself and
others?
+ 358 45 319 2330
Senior Partner at Pertec Consulting
