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LEADERSHIP MODELS AND TODAY’S WORKPLACE

The history of leadership models for development purposes is

fascinating. When we look carefully at the broad timeline of the

various leadership models and theories that the business and

academic communities have promoted, we’ll find a relatively

accurate reflection of the core business models at work in corporate

America. Leadership theories and models are developed in a definite

social and economic context. So the models reflect the attitudes and

approaches to business management and leadership of the times in

which the various theories and models emerged.

The dramatic changes we are witnessing today in our economy

brought about by innovative technology, demographics, shifting

economic realities and a myriad of other factors are forcing the

business and academic communities to look at wide range of

business issues, including leadership. We are seeing a new leadership

model emerge. Social leadership is taking root in successful

organizations across every industry and in organizations of every size.

Will the social leadership model replace current models? Probably

not. But we can be fairly certain traditional business models,

methodologies and leadership models will need to evolve to meet

the challenges of this marketplace.

Great Man Theories: leaders are born, not

made.

Group Theories: leadership emerges in

small group settings.

Trait Theories : there are universal

leadership traits that can be taught and

learned.

Behavior Theories: behavior patterns that

result in leadership success.

Contingency/Situational Theories:

leadership behaviors in specific situations.

Excellence Theories: the interactions

between traits, behaviors, key situations

and group facilitation that allow people to

lead organizations.

Transformational Theories: motivation,

alignment and sometimes values.

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LEADERSHIP MODELS AND TODAY’S WORKPLACE

We’ve learned that organizations thrive when they adopt leadership

models that work best for themselves. Each organization has its own

culture and needs, so while leadership models help provide a great

framework for development, the models themselves are no substitute

for the development of a leadership strategy that fits the needs,

culture, and goals of each organization. Successful organizations

adopt leadership models that meet two critical types of leadership

challenges: current and future.

Great leadership development programs are rooted in the realities of

the marketplace and the anticipated future needs of the

organization.

In this marketplace and the changing demographics of the

workforce, we believe a leadership approach based upon a fixed

point world view, unchanged and inflexible will not be effective.

Whether social leadership is right for your organization or not, a

careful and deliberate re-examination of your leadership needs will

prove beneficial no matter what strategic leadership approach is

best for your organization.

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• The social leadership model.

• Influential factors that may

mitigate in favor of adopting this

model or even parts of this

leadership model for your

organization.

• The characteristics and traits

common in effective social

leaders.

• Emerging competencies that

might be important to develop

in social leaders in your

organization.

Management is

doing things right.

Leadership is doing

the right things. Peter Drucker

Exactly what are the “right things” our leaders need to do? For most organizations the most basic answer is promote organizational goals and objectives. As we stated in the introduction, great leadership development programs focus on multiple factors to answer this foundational question. It’s nearly impossible to effectively set goals for our organization if we do not account for the various factors impacting our organization from the outside.

So – what are the “right things”? How do you make this decision for your organization? 1. What do you need your leaders to do today? 2. What will you need your leaders to do tomorrow? You cannot develop effective leaders if you are looking only at short-term or immediate success. You have to ALSO look at the future!

A great method to answer these vitally important questions is to conduct a SWOT analysis. This analysis is a great way to start to figure out EXACTLY what your leaders need to do! Strengths: what do we do well today, and can we take these strengths forward? Will our current strengths prepare us for future success? Weaknesses: what do we do poorly and why? Can we do LESS of this? If not, why and what steps must we take to either improve or minimize the risks? Opportunities: what are our greatest opportunities for growth? Are our strengths aligned to take advantage of them? Or, do our weaknesses stand in the way? Threats: where are we vulnerable? Are our biggest threats external or internal? Market driven or competition? Lack of talent or not the right talent?

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WHAT ARE THE RIGHT THINGS?

“The leaders who work most

effectively, it seems to me, never

say ‘I’. And that’s not because

they have trained themselves not

to say ‘I’ . They don’t think ‘I’. They

think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They

understand their job to be to

make the team function. They

accept responsibility and don’t

sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the

credit…This is what creates trusts,

what enables you to get the task

done.”

Peter Drucker

In an effective SWOT analysis, what will you find when you look at the current marketplace and economy? Stability? Simplicity? Predictability? Clarity? Or, will you find something else entirely?

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SWOT ANALYSIS

DEMOGRAPHIC TSUNAMI BIG DATA

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND RETENTION

Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion

bytes of data…so much that 90%

of the data in the world today has

been created in the last two years

alone.

IBM’s Understanding Big Data:

Analytics for Enterprise Class

Hadoop and Streaming Data

In the four generation workplace,

Millennials will make up almost 36%

of the 2014 U.S. workforce and

become almost half by 2020.

Boomers are retiring at record

numbers.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Technologies can change the game

for businesses, creating entirely new

products and services, as well as

shifting pools of value between

producers and consumers.

McKinsey Global Institute

10% of US workers are disengaged

and 60% are actively disengaged.

Gallup State of the American

Workforce 2013

Nearly 26% of the US workforce is going to change jobs this year, and these

are typically the most highly skilled and motivated people.

Why Companies Fail to Engage Today’s Workforce: The

Overwhelmed Employee, Forbes, by Josh Bersin

SWOT analysis is a simple tool that

can function in two ways: as an

ice breaker to get conversations

started or in a more sophisticated

way for strategy development.

S – strengths: internal strengths of an

organization based upon things the

organization does very well.

W – weaknesses: internal

improvements needed to be

successful or things to avoid.

O – opportunities: improve results by

leveraging strengths or eliminating

weaknesses.

T – threats: obstacles to success,

external factors such as competitors or

broad market changes.

The acronym VUCA describes this market. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. How do we prepare our organizations for success in such a world, and what do we need our leaders to do? Traditional leadership models will not work. In this world, we can find a whole new

set of strengths in our changing demographics with young professionals ready to adapt to and utilize technology differently. We will need a different leadership model to help bring a sense of order to the chaos “big data” can create. As new markets emerge, we’ll need a more agile and rapidly moving innovative culture to be more opportunistic. And we’ll need a leadership model that can provide a framework for effective action and decision-making in the face of complexity and ambiguity. What skills, knowledge and competencies are needed to:

• Leverage strengths

• Overcome weaknesses

• Take advantage of opportunities

• Address/meet threats

Then – WHERE is the CURRENT level of leadership capability? Or, at what level do our leaders currently perform? What level of capacity do we need in the future and where are our gaps? Is there a leadership model that can provide a framework for success? We believe the answer is, “Yes.”

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A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS

The VUCA world requires a new set

of skills and competencies from

both organizations and leaders to

effectively respond.

Success in a VUCA world will

require successful organizations

and leaders to be highly engaged

with change, complexity and

ambiguity.

We are going to shift from problem

solving to working our way through

dilemmas.

Traditional leadership models provide a framework for behaviors and development that focuses on the individual leader. Even the most advanced models such as the Transformational Leadership model define leadership success in terms of what the leader does for, and sometimes to, the people he or she leads. According to Bernard Bass, Leadership and Development, NY Free Press, 1985, one of the foremost early researchers on the concept of transformational leaders, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. So these leaders garner trust, respect, and admiration from their followers.

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SOCIAL LEADERSHIP COMPARED TO OTHER MODELS

NEXT GENERATION LEARNING STRATEGIES:

Alignment with organizational goals.

A sharp focus and clarity of thinking on the specific way our employee

learning efforts align with and support organizational goals.

Awareness of organization’s current learning culture.

Understanding your culture will help to achieve the desired behavior and

performance changes sought through the learning program.

Performance analysis.

The performance analysis helps you focus on the business challenges

that can be met through a learning program.

Content strategy.

Make sure you have a content strategy that meets the needs, behaviors,

expectations and technology availability of your entire workforce .

Evaluation and success criteria.

What will success look like? How will we know?

Marketing and communication.

Inform your employees about the program, motivate them to

participate, explain how the program will help them.

Social leadership shifts focus away from the impact on immediate followers to a broader context. Social

leaders influence entire organizations and exert influence beyond the organization itself. WHAT IS SOCIAL LEADERSHIP? An emerging model of leadership built around three central principles:

• Leadership is collaborative

• Leadership is a process

• Leadership should be value based When we think of social leadership in this broader context, the model starts

to look a lot more like a behavior and competency model that might be more effective in this VUCA world, and it revolves around learning.

So, what does a social leader look like and how do they function? At the core of social leadership lies an outward looking individual far more interested in others than his or her own success. These are people either “hard-wired” to collaborate or people who have learned to collaborate effectively. But collaboration for this leader isn’t just a work mode. It’s a fully integrated part of who they are. They share information, learn all of the time, connect in meaningful ways with those around them. These are people who really understand that “crowd wisdom” is real. These are people who know the most valuable member of a team is the person other team members can count on to share information and connect other team members to other people who can help them. These are people who network –

all of the time, both internally and externally. In business, there used to be an axiom that “knowledge is power.” Social leaders do not believe that knowledge, standing alone is power. Social leaders believe that “shared knowledge” is power,” and that in today’s collaborative, innovation driven marketplace it’s the ability to influence outcomes that is the source of true business success.

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RETURN ON INVESTMENT – SOCIAL LEADERSHIP IN ACTION

COMMON TRAITS OF SOCIAL LEADERS

Pragmatic optimist Defaults to “yes”

Inspirational Co-create value and develop excellence

Forward looking Embrace change by asking “what if…?”

Open minded Solicit views from others

Proactive The first to follow, the first to lead

Trusting The only path to scale is empowerment

Accountable I’ve got it

Generous When celebrating, lead from the back

Authentic Open and honest communication

Collaborative No one of us is as smart as all of us

The Pursuit of

Social Business

Excellence

by Vala Ajshar

and Brad W.

Martin

How to compete, win and

grow market share - and

delight employees and

customers - though social

collaboration.

This model is much closer to something business organizations can apply and modify to meet their own unique needs. The elements of this model that work well and should prompt good thinking are: Outward focus : the leader is a hub for connecting other people to information and each other.

Technology literate: with rapid changes and innovations in technology in general, and social technology in particular, social leaders will need to be early adaptors to truly lead and stay with or a bit ahead of employees. Learning is important: we see the employee learning function becoming less and less centralized and less formal. Employees and front-line managers will be much

more involved in education and learning, and more learning will be informal and technology-based than ever before. Engagement focuses: we already know engaged employees drive a number of important business benefits, and social leadership will help drive higher levels of engagement. In other words, social leadership will be good for the bottom-line.

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ELEMENTS OF A SOCIAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

LEADERSHIP and LEARNING are

indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

ENGAGES

FACILITATOR OF LEARNING

CONTINUOUS LEARNING

STRONG NETWORKS

SOCIALLYLITERATE

SHARING AND

INFLUENCE

Vision

Interpersonal Skills

Ability To Develop Others

Intelligence

Character

Anticipate The

Future

Collaboration

Skills

People

Development

Digital Literacy

Global Citizenship

Traditionally, here are a few of the core competencies

identified as important for leaders:

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LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

These traits or competencies are still important, but a

modern view of leadership is emerging that adds or modifies some of these concepts in important ways. In the book, The 20/20 Workplace by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, a set of emerging competencies for employees and leaders are identified. These competencies will be essential for our leaders as our organizations continue to adapt and evolve.

The leadership competencies needed to effectively function in a social leadership model will evolve over time, but we are already seeing some critical competencies rise in importance. Collaboration. Collaboration will be a foundational skill for nearly every knowledge employee in

the most successful organizations in this marketplace. Big data isn’t just a trend that leads to e-mail overload, nor is it a trend that refers to the volume of funny cat videos loaded to YouTube each week. Big data is an overwhelming reality that means more information and knowledge is being generated and at a faster rate than ever before. It’s nearly impossible for a single organization to keep up, much less an individual. The only way people can stay informed about trends, market conditions, and industry developments is through collaboration, information sharing and cooperation. Collaboration will be critical to gather input from as many perspectives as possible and just about any sort of project, and this will be one of

those foundational skills just about every employee and certainly every leader will need to master at some level.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK

WHILE YOU LEARN

Job Rotation:

Move employees around and

challenge them to get out of their

comfort zones. A deliberate

disruption of routine puts new sets

of eyes on familiar task and

problems, and can lead to new

and better solutions.

Individuals acquire a better

understanding of how the entire

organization operates and how

different departments or units

other than their own operate and

interact.

Course Title: Ban the Hierarchy: Moving From

‘I’ to ‘We’

Banning the hierarchy means there are no

charts with up and down arrows.

Course Title: Collaboration Creates

Value

Switch from consensus-based

collaboration to ideation. Do it early,

when the ideas are needed most.

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As the need for agility moves down the managerial chain and into the functional units, it can manifest itself in different

ways. At the level of an individual contributor, agility is demonstrated by the ability to quickly solve day-to-day business

problems, to identify new processes and frameworks for speed of delivery, to cross global and functional lines without

faltering, and to accept, respond, and initiate change. Employees who can identify opportunities, adapt, and thrive in the

reality of change have a propensity to be high performers. Given the right resources and investment in learning, these traits

are achievable across the entire organization.

The Impact of Work Force Agility on Business Performance

By John Ambrose

Learning Agility. The complex business world we live in requires a new set of skills and competencies for both organizations and leaders. The business world with a “fixed point” frame of reference simply does not exist. If we develop leaders using a leadership model that does not fully and completely embrace ambiguity and complexity, we are setting our leaders up to fail. This marketplace requires a new approach to leadership.

"All of those attributes that describe the business world of today are tailor-made for someone with learning agility," says Victoria Swisher, who's authored a new book, Becoming an Agile Leader. "The hallmark of someone with learning agility is that they learn lessons from diverse experiences and are able to distill those down to rules of thumb so that, when they're put in an unfamiliar situation, they aren't stumped by it. It's almost becomes a price of entry for success now, especially in leadership and executive roles.“ We need leaders who learn from experience, because those leaders can be

proven to be more successful than leaders who do not learn from experience and apply what they have learned. This research was summarized in a Korn/Ferry Institute white paper titled, “Using Learning Agility to Identify High Potentials Around the World”. So, generally speaking, learning agility is used to describe people who are open to new things, willing to learn, curious, possessing good people skills and have a high tolerance for ambiguity. These are behaviors which can be learned.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

We are moving from a world of

problems, which demand speed,

analysis and elimination of

uncertainty to solve – to a world of

dilemmas, which demand

patience, sense-making and an

engagement with uncertainty.

Denise Caron, It’s a VUCA World

People Development. Organizations have always needed leaders who could build the skills and competencies of the people around them, and this continues to be a critical competency for leaders. As we see members of the Millennial Generation join the workforce in greater numbers, the need for professional development will be more important than ever. Millennials value collaboration, meaningful work and

opportunities for development, among other things, in their jobs. So we are going to need managers and leaders with the ability to model, teach and develop these skills to others. Most leadership development programs provide lip service, at best, to coaching skills or people development. This has to change. Organizations really need to look at building the skills of the entire workforce as a critical aspect of every leaders’ role.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

CFO: What if we train

them and they leave?

CEO: What if we don’t

and they stay?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE Course Title:

Developing Others - Connect every employee's individual goals to the organization's vision and strategy.

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LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK

WHILE YOU LEARN

Task Force, Project Team or

Committee:

Employees participate two or

three times a month while still

working in their current positions.

For example a marketing

executive could be taken out of

her usual role and put into a team

that has been charged with

drawing up part of the company’s

budget. Just by being part of the

team, the executive improves her

financial acumen and improves

her planning and organizational

skills.

Digital Literacy. This is a leadership competency that is likely new to many readers. But it’s also a critically important leadership competency in today’s business environment. Can you name a single innovation or advancement in business processes or systems in the last 5 years that was not technology-based?

Take your time . . . . I can’t name one either. The fact of the matter is simple and straightforward. Social media, social media inspired tools and characteristics now permeate just about everything we touch that is technology-based. We touch technology in just about every aspect of our professional lives, and we need a population of leaders who function at nearly the digital native level in this world if we expect our organizations to compete.

It’s not optional.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

LEARN WHILE YOU WORK, WORK

WHILE YOU LEARN

Action Learning:

Action learning involves small

teams working together on real

workplace problems or tasks.

Learning through doing, reflecting

on the results and impact of those

actions and making necessary

adjustments is at the heart of the

natural learning process. Action

learning following formal learning

events is also effective at

transferring learning gained in the

classroom to the work employees

actually perform.

No matter what industry you’re in, things

are changing fast. New technologies and

products are coming to market faster than

ever before. Job roles are in demand that

didn’t even exist 3 or 4 years ago.

Are you, as an organization, prepared to

meet these new demands?

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Global Citizenship. The Internet made the entire world one click away. “Local” stores aren’t really local anymore. We import manufactured goods of all types from Mexico, Korea, Japan and, of course, China. We import produce from all over the world, too. The corner supermarket is a terrific place to study the nature of today’s economy. You can find fruits and vegetables, year round, from South America, Central America and Africa.

Wine from Australia and France. Canned goods from Japan and Mexico. Everything we do touches people we cannot see or even imagine. We need a different sort of perspective on our businesses and how our businesses fit into a broader economy. We need leaders who can step beyond a simple world view and begin to understand how emerging competition in far flung global markets might impact our customers and products.

One of the interesting contributions to the social leadership model from the social change leadership academic space is this same global approach to change. With the interconnectedness of everyone through social media and social networks today, we can communicate immediately with both partners and competitors in every corner of the globe. Leaders need to both comprehend this reality but help guide our organizations through the implications of a true global marketplace to maintain market leadership and the health of our bottom lines.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

With each generation entering the

workplace, a greater emphasis is

placed on continual development

as these new employees know

that they are unlikely to stay more

than a few years; it’s about what

they can develop and acquire to

take to the next stop in the career

journey. We know that effective

leaders are one of the most

important influences on levels of

engagement.

Rebecca Ray, Employee

Engagement in a VUCA World

(research report), New York: The

Conference Board, 2011.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Course Title: QuickTalks: Rob Kaplan: Leadership Lesson: You Must Ask the Right Questions to Adapt

Anticipate the Future / Analytical Skills. In such a world, how is this even possible? We are not implying that we need to develop clairvoyance as a competency. Although, that would be nice . . . . Go back to the big factors and trends contributing to this VUCA business climate. One of the major issues is the prevalence of “big data.” Leaders who can make

critical connections within the information and data clutter, find the important threads and understand them from a narrative perspective will be invaluable. That’s what we mean by “anticipate the future.” We need leaders who are adept at and have the skill to analyze data to understand what is important and help the organization make intelligent strategic decisions.

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EMERGING COMPETENCIES

LEARN WHILE YOU WORK,

WORK WHILE YOU LEARN

Mentoring:

Mentoring is also a great

experiential tool for developing

your leadership talent. Mentoring

is the pairing of an employee with

a more senior person, or a mentor,

in the organization for general

workplace advice, information,

counseling, and even career

advice. The format for learning is

usually a meeting where the

mentor listens to the employee's

ideas or provides advice on how

to handle problems or gives

career direction.

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Course Title: Consultant QuickTalks: Harold Sirkin: The 21st Century Leader

Course Title:

The Voice of Leadership: The Power of Leadership Messaging

Let’s return to the question that started this eBook. What are the “right things” we need our leaders to do? It really comes down to two high level, foundational things. We need our leaders to tell us where we are going (provide a vision) and help us understand how we will get there (provide a strategy). That’s really about it. If our leaders do those two things really well, our organization is probably in pretty good shape. The challenging

part of leadership comes in trying to figure out HOW leaders accomplish those two foundational “right things.” Ever since scholars started trying to explain leadership with models and theories in the mid-20th Century, we’ve seen a continuous parade of them. But what works for your organization? Ultimately, that’s the question you have to address carefully and answer thoughtfully. The social leadership model holds great promise for many organizations, because it’s a model that seems to encompass so much of what we see happening in the business environment today. It’s a development model that helps us focus on

leadership competencies and skills that push the leader to look to others and to define leadership success by the success others enjoy. It’s about collaboration, it’s a recognition that leadership is a process and a part of that process is continuous learning, and it’s value-based. If you build your social leadership model on these core principles, that model will serve as an effective foundation for three levels of success: organization, employee and leader. And that’s a leadership model that seems to hold real promise for delivering business benefits for all of the stakeholders involved.

WHAT ARE THE RIGHT THINGS?

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Training focuses on

best practices, while

development focuses

on next practices.

The #1 Reason Leadership

Development Fails

Mike Myatt, Forbes

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