Sometimes leadership feels very lonely and isolating. It's not easy to be a leader in tough, turbulent times. Considering global challenges - economic, societal, and organizational what is the role of today's leader?
How does a leader stay engaged and motivate the people he or she leads?
How does a leader have a positive impact in times of uncertainty?
What support does the leader rely on to remain optimistic? Lots of questions...and certainly hoping to engage some interesting comments.
9 comments:
Hi Shelagh,
A true leader in turbulent times should have the following qualities:
Accountability: A true leader excels for his/her integrity and his/her bold sense of purpose in virtue of which he/she becomes in an ethical reference for the whole organization; he/she stands as a role model to be admired and followed in times of crisis and uncertainty; he/she will assume his/her responsibility about the repercussions, effects and consequences regarding to whatever decision he/she has taken. He/she is a faithful guardian of the values, beliefs and principles that are inherent to the corporate culture.
Discipline and Perseverance: When a courageous leader take decisions in an highly conflictive context, he/she is concious not only regarding to the different repercussions, courses of action and consequences that such decisions can bring to his/her organization or community. He/she has the right mix of working experience, professional knowledge and emotional intelligence required to overcome any kind of difficulties that may be raised during his/her tenure, by designing alternative courses of action if needed, making the required adjustments when convenient and motivating continuously to his/her team, workgroup and/organization although he/she may have reasonable doubts about what to do, how to do it and when to do it.
Interpersonal skills: When a leader realizes that is relevant, pertinent and necessary he/she will identify the convenience of being supported by strategic coaching and helped by initiatives in change management to mitigate the negative repercussions of disruptive change and thereby ensure that this initiative will be successful by assuming that the leadership have the willingness to learn from this experience, to communicate effectively to others and to recognize that such a change is an opportunity for encouraging professional growth and assure long-term enterprise viability.
Humility: When a courageous leader has taken a mistaken decision, he/she is the first one in recognizing such mistakes and in assuming the consequences and repercussions of his/her decisions. Conversely, when this leader excels and succeeds after making a crucial business decision, he/she is humble enough to recognize the merits and commitment of his/her team instead of recognizing his/her own merits.
The premise of hiring an emergent outsider to save a company that could face a likely bankruptcy is perfectly valid, when corporate culture is an obstacle and its leadership is unable to assume its role effectively.
When Louis Gerstner arrived as IBM's chairman and CEO on 1993, IBM was facing the a critical financial perspective that was generating great fears and apprehension regarding to its future viability. For the first time in the company's history, IBM had found a leader from outside its ranks, because Gerstner had been chairman and CEO of Nabisco for four years, and had been previously for 11 years a top executive at American Express. The influence and leadership of Louis Gerstner like an outsider was decisive to rejuvenate the business’s practices of IBM when its focus was changed from a seller of hardware to a world-class enterprise fully dedicated to technology services and consultancy.
Octavio Ballesta
Re-Posted with Permission
Josh Chernin
General Manager, Itinerant Writer, and Decent Little League Coach
Location
Greater Boston Area
Hi Shelagh,
Wow, you've asked a lot of very large questions.
I stay engaged and motivated simply by the challenge of it all and because I really enjoy my customers, my staff, and my job.
Leaders have positive impact in many ways: by staying positive themselves; by communicating openly and honestly; by recognizing good work; and by charting an exciting course for the business.
It's kind of like sailing a boat in a storm--which I've done more than once--it's scary, but it's exciting, too. Sailing only on sunny, beautiful days would get boring pretty fast.
Josh.
Re-posted with Permission
Nitin Kumar,
Senior Vice President at Deloitte & Touche
USA
There are many things one can learn from the recent mayhem that occurred on wall street that created ripples in all parts of the globe.
Prepare yourself to anticipate, recognize, and lead in times of crisis. Today, we are increasingly at risk of aggressive legal action, negative media coverage, social pressure, and political and regulatory risks.
All pain is growth, and how we handle the difficult times tells a lot about us. Leadership challenges naturally bring out the best and worst in all of us. Let us not hide from the experience; bring our full self to the table. I once heard from a leader, "Have the courage to reinvent your leadership every day." We should develop a capacity for living in the moment. Let us experience the full emotional range - the excitement and adrenalin as well as the distress, frustration, and fear.
We need to keep up honesty, integrity, courage, resilience, and commitment to excellence are critical values that can guide you through uncertain times. When times get tough, and the world gets confusing, relying on these steadfast principles can go a long way toward preventing stupid mistakes.
When faced with uncertainty, it’s important to keep perspective - to know where you come from, what your current situation is, and where you are going. I have found that cultivating "realistic optimism" goes a long way. This involves keeping one foot in the present and one foot in the future, bridging hope and reality. We must be honest and forthright about our current situation while being painfully truthful about what’s working and not working. But we must always stay optimistic, imaginative, and passionate about a better future.
Uncertainty, ambiguity and chaos are a part of life and a reality of today. We just need to embrace it, cannot elude the chaos of life, especially now. Bullets come from all directions; people react in various ways; and life is simply unpredictable. Chaos is healthy. It’s about creativity and opportunity, about life restructuring itself. Face the chaos head on. Learn to live in a discontinuous world. Embrace the risk and loneliness of the leader’s chaotic journey.
Leadership is a lonely battle when circumstances get tough, yesterday’s friends turn today’s foes. Recognize these differences as you lead people through chaotic periods. Everyone experiences fear, sadness, anger, guilt, confusion, and commitment through his or her own lens to the world - yet everyone wants to avoid pain, find security, and retain his or her self-esteem. Some of us choose to hide; others plow right through to action. Others still will simply never stop talking about it. Listen deeply to where people are, and use your own personal experience to stay one step ahead of them.
Re-Posted with Permission
David North,
Real Estate Professional at Coldwell Banker Bain
Greater Seattle Area
Turbulent times require leaders, at all levels inside and outside of organizations. Turbulent times also largely identify and define leaders. After all, leading when everything is automatically going the way everyone wants it, isn't much of a test of leadership.
Motivating is dependent upon trust and confidence. Followers won't follow if the leader isn't trusted. Trust is earned by honesty and integrity and sharing the burden of effort, being invested in the goal to the same degree the followers are.
The best way to be optimistic, not merely delusional, is to continuously seek and understand the truth about the situation and the road ahead. Well founded optimism depends upon confidence that the leader is on a good path and understands where to turn and where to go straight.
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Jurgen Barthel,
Travel Trade Consulting
Location
Leipzig Area, Germany
Please see Jurgen's blog at
http://www.barthel.eu/blog/
I am impressed by David North's answer. Short. Precise! And very correct.
A side note: Leadership also sometimes require to decide which way to take on the crossroad WITHOUT knowledge of what truly lies ahead, but judged by his/her (sometimes very limited) knowledge. And readiness to adjust course if necessary. And not back down from difficulty. Think about the old explorers, leading their teams into the unknown, facing death, hunger, struggle, mutiny. Remember: Only the winner's are found in the history books ...
Re-posted with Permission
Athelene Gieseman,
Chief Information Officer at Stinson Morrison Hecker
Location
Kansas City, Missouri Area
How does a leader stay engaged and motivate the people he or she leads?
At what time would a true leader be more engaged or motivated? Leadership is what is needed most in times of trouble. If you can't be engaged when your organization needs you most, I would argue that you are not ever engaged and you should look for something else to do.
How does a leader have a positive impact in times of uncertainty?
The same characteristics that make a good leader at other times make a good leader in bad times. Many of those have been provided by others above. Perhaps, however, the emphasis needs to change. For example, realism, optimism and confidence are hugely important. The first two may seem to conflict with one another. But a good leader will look at what the true situation is and then provide the best plan possible from that perspective. People recognize when problems exist and look to a leader to see them too. It's not the fact that there is a problem that is so troubling. What troubles people is what leaders will (or will not) do about it. Thus, recognize the problems, come up with an optimistic plan to address them and demonstrate confidence in the organization and the people one leads to make the plan work.
What support does the leader rely on to remain optimistic?
This is the hardest of your questions to answer. For me, I look to those who work with me and think about what they need. It's the fact that my help is necessary at that time that keeps me moving forward. Besides, what is the alternative? You choose whether or not to be optimistic or pessimistic. What value do you accrue by being pessimistic? I've never seen pessimism make anything much better. A glass half empty has a zero percent chance of making things better. A glass half full has at least a 50 percent chance of making things better (it either will or it won't!) I like the odds of the glass half full much better. :)
Re-posted with Permission
Alexander Zeverijn
Leadership & Change Consultant at Phyleon
The Hague Area, Netherlands
Shelagh,
The great challenges of our time such as the globalization and downfall of financial markets,hunger, proliferation of terrorism and the ongoing international environmental crisis are larger and more daunting than any individual has the capacity to effectively address.
Instead of trying to respond to these tough challenges as an individual,the main task of leaders in turbulent times is to effectively mobilize others to collectively contribute to constructive change.
best wishes
Alexander
Re-posted with Permission
Murray Dalziel
Business Architect and Thought Leader
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Director at The University of Liverpool Management School
These reserves of inner strength can only be reinforced with real focus ... I write about this in my blog this week ... http://mdalziel.blogspot.com/
Re-posted with Permission
Luis Valdes
CEO, Trusted Advisor to Businesses and Organizations
Greater Atlanta Area
Founder and CEO at PerformanceVertical consulting LLC
Check out my blog, Leadership Pulse at: http://leadershippulse.blogspot.com
My entry on Sept. 30, 2008 discusses this very topic. Hope it helps.
Links:
http://leadershippulse.blogspot.com
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