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Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock described the
blazing pace of change being experienced in the year 1980. But the
ensuing two decades have seen the pace of change escalate, as if someone were
pressing the corporate world's accelerator to the floorboard. Quality of
manufactured products has risen dramatically. The internet has brought a
remarkably quick ability for people to communicate instantaneously and
inexpensively. Skilled workers are in short supply, especially those with
computer oriented technical knowledge.
Business has changed
Indeed, if a business executive imitating Rip Van Winkle were to awake
from a 50 year nap and go back to visit his company, there would be
extraordinary differences. Every desk would now have a computer terminal,
including the executives. Gone would be the secretary transcribing a
dictated letter, typing it with multiple sheets of carbon paper
interleaved between sheets of stationery. The language heard would be
different---vision, mission, supply chain management, boundaryless
organizations, Six Sigma, e-commerce, self-directed teams, lean
manufacturing, customer intimacy, EVA, and the list of new terms would go
on. In short, the visitor would be bewildered by the way people talked,
the machines they worked with, and especially how they were dressed!
Leadership development has not changed
But some elements of business have remained the same. Some would say they
have been stuck. One of those is how we go about developing leaders.
Fifty years ago we developed leaders by bringing them into classrooms,
having university professors lecture to them, engaged them in complex
case studies of organizations, assigned books and articles to them, and
put them into small groups to discuss important issues. We did occasional
role plays, watched films and had some team competition. Those were
classic university and corporate sponsored executive development
sessions.
And if you visited the typical leadership session of today, guess
what? They would be doing exactly the same things. Yes, the books would
have changed. Some cases may be the same ones. The films would now be
videos. But our visitor from 50 years ago would sit down and comfortably
participate. Some of the content would be different, but the methods for
learning would be nearly identical. It is as if in the past 50 years
nothing new had been learned about learning to be a leader.
Change must occur
But that is not the case. In fact, we've learned a good deal about learning. We
know that there are more powerful ways for people to become more skilled.
A few organizations are breaking out of the pack and availing themselves
of powerful new learning methods. They are also radically changing the
content they provide to leaders.
New learning methods
Here are some of the powerful new learning methods that some are using
to develop leaders for their firm:
· Simulations that realistically
create situations the leader faces
· Action learning projects that
have leaders working on real issues the organization faces
· Mentoring relationships that give
the leader personal coaching from a senior leader of the organization
· "Blended" learning
solutions that combine instructor led sessions with e-learning delivered
over the internet or the company intranet. From these self-study elements
come important concepts and information. The instructor led sessions are
used as a "gaiting" mechanism to insure that work is moving
forward and as an incentive to complete the program
· Sessions with senior leaders
telling stories of the ways they successfully completed challenging
assignments
· Highly interactive sessions with
senior management in which the participants are asked to propose steps
they would take if they were "king"
· Instruments that give
participants a 360 degree view of how they are perceived---usually coming
from subordinates, peers, bosses,----and in some cases from customers and
suppliers
· Challenging assignments, task
forces, action teams with responsibility for the implementation of their
ideas
Note the difference in these from the techniques of 50 years ago. The
latter are practical, concrete, highly engaging, results oriented,
personal, and have some measure of accountability or measurement built
into them. They move way beyond theory. They also move past simply
gaining self-insight and awareness.
New content
In a similar way, the content of leadership development needs to evolve.
The old content was taken from the course materials of universities.
Common themes were planning, organizing, controlling staffing and
directing. Again, we see a few organizations breaking out of that mold
and presenting content that meets the needs of our day:
· How to create and communicate
vision
· Balancing the competing interests
within the organization
· Responding to global competition
· Introducing e-commerce into the
way the firm goes to market
· The leader's responsibility to
develop leaders at every level in the organization
· Keys to attract and retain top
talent
· Producing balanced results for
all stakeholders---employees, customers and shareholders
· Creating customer loyalty
· Becoming a "total"
leader, in work, community and personal dimensions of life
· Understanding how the firm
creates value and profits
· Developing "emotional
intelligence"
· Championing change
· Discovering and maximizing
strengths, versus a major focus on weaknesses
I predict that during the next few years we will see remarkable
progress made in developing leaders. Effective leaders are of such
enormous value to the firm. Research by my colleague, Dr. Joe Folkman of
BT.Novations, shows that in one large insurance firm, the top ten percent
of leaders produced twice as much net revenue per year, per manager, as
the 80% in the middle.
Nothing is more important to the long-term success of organizations
than the quality of the leadership. It is time for us to bring our
leadership development practices into alignment with the important needs
we're trying to fulfill.
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