The Changing Face

of Leadership
Posted by: Justin on: July 20, 2012
In: HR Article

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Social and economic circumstances in todays business
environment have redefined what it takes to lead and who is
considered a leader. These often opposing forces are
disrupting organizations at all levels and are challenging the
established roles, responsibilities and competencies leaders
require.
Empowered by technology, employees have changed the
traditional corporate workflow. Now individuals are free to
structure their work around their lives rather than the other
way around. According to the 2011 Cisco Connected World
Technology Report, 56 percent of workers feel most
productive away from their office. While three out of 10
college students view working remotely as a right rather than
a privilege, this newfound freedom may not really be free.
Trust is earned, not given. If learning leaders ask managers
of mobile workers off the record whether they believe their
employees are actually working eight hours a day, they will
likely get a few blank stares.
The mobile workforce is just one example of a growing
gap between workers expectations and organizational
requirements, and this impacts leadership and leadership
development.
Front-line leaders competencies are changing.
According to the same Cisco study, cyber-security is another
growing gap between younger and older workers. Three out
of five young professionals surveyed claimed they do not
consider themselves responsible for protecting corporate
informationand devices. Front-line leaders are caught in the
middle of this growing divide and will need skills and support
to reconcile the imbalance.
Social media also may have a role in driving a wedge
between the manager and his or her team. Though it has not
necessarily found a home in corporate boardrooms, social
media is influencing how workers think about involvement.
Social technologies have given the individual a voice,
allowing thoughts and ideas to flow without qualification or
restriction. In the traditional workplace, opinions were
tapered, but the expectations of social-savvy workers may
not be. Front-line leaders will be asked to balance the
competing expectations of their teams and the business.
Learning leaders have to equip them to meet the challenge,
and this is central to the competency discussion moving
forward.
Use collaboration to align team expectations and
organizational requirements. Coaching and collaboration are
key tools to engage social-savvy workers, according to Hallie
Janssen, CEO of Anvil Media, a social media marketing firm.
Leading social-savvy workers is about creating appropriate
expectations and establishing boundaries, she said. Front-
line leaders need to help employees translate their
expectations from their online interactions into the
workplace.
Janssen recommends that managers use
the collaborative process to help workers understand their
span of credibility and get to the right result. Validation in
the social media world occurs through the recognition of
peers. A blog post, for example, is validated when it is
shared, liked or retweeted. In social media, interactions and
opinions are shaped through the informal peer-review
process. Janssen suggests using the same technique at work
to engage ideas, validate opinions and vet solutions.
Use focused response to meet market demands.
Changing social expectations, however, is not confined to
workers; expectations extend to the marketplace as well.
Consumers are at home and at work, and they expect
immediate, direct and appropriate responses to their needs.
The market is engaged in dialogue. Customers and would-be
buyers have infinite opportunity to rate products and
services, blog their opinions or seek advice from peers as
they engage in the buying process. Consequently, market
expectations are growing, and customer-facing teams and
their managers must be prepared to respond.
So how do organizations cultivate front-line leaders who
can meet expectations? The answer lies in the timing and
training, according to Sharon Daniels, CEO of AchieveGlobal,
a leadership, sales and service development firm.
The key for highly effective sales and service associates
is to have them uncover and meet customers needs at
crucial defining moments, the times when a current customer
or prospective buyer has the opportunity to judge an
organization, Daniels said. Activities that lead to successful
service outcomes involve both strategy and skills that add
value at every defining moment. This takes a focus on
leadership.
Daniels said that front-line leaders should be developed
through coaching and training programs that elevate skills
from transaction-based client interactions to experience-
focused service.
Informal leaders are important. Just as prevailing social
forces have expanded the expectations for both worker and
customer, the harsh economic realities of scarcity may make
them equal. Time will tell whether the worst has passed, but
either way it is unlikely that corporate coffers will open
anytime soon. Many leaders are just getting comfortable with
the new economic reality and starting to understand how it
affects the organization and how they need to adapt their
business strategy accordingly.
Layers tend to fall off of organization charts during lean
times. That affects how work gets done and how teams are
managed. For instance, managers will have a greater span of
control, and consequently, so do those beneath them.
Informal leaders, who lack the title but shoulder the
responsibility, spring up to meet the challenge, but they may
not be prepared. Since they lead by default rather than
selection, informal leaders are often overlooked and dont
receive training and coaching commensurate with their
responsibilities. Skills training in business acumen, problem-
solving and negotiation as well as learning to work and
communicate in a matrix environment are recommended to
ensure informal leaders can face, and meet, challenges.
We should avoid the inevitable trial-by-fire and
understand their strengths, weaknesses and career goals
before we dump authority on them, said Maggie Walsh, vice
president of leadership practice at The Forum Corp., a
learning and strategic business firm.
The ability of an individual to step up and take on the
characteristics of a leader is not merely an issue of will and
skill; success depends on the commitment of their manager,
she said. Managers need to coach informal leaders through
the process. They need to be clear about expectations, let
them know that they dont have to be perfect, and most
importantly guide them through any performance challenges
they might encounter.
In flattened organizational structures, roles and
responsibilities tend to overlap as resources are load-
balanced and matrix teams emerge. Walsh said
communication is the key to avoid duplication of work and
the friction that occurs when responsibilities blur.
Managers must help formal and informal leaders
understand how to communicate more effectively in a matrix
environment, she said. Peers need to know how to contract
with colleagues to clearly establish and communicate the
alignment of terms, roles and responsibilities, and decision
rights. Ambiguity creates friction and so formal, as well as
informal, leaders need to invest in communication early and
often.
Commit senior management to efficiency. When
resources and work dont reconcile, then something has got
to give, said J. LeRoy Ward, executive vice president of
product strategy and management at ESI International, a
project-focused training organization. Ward said efficient
business processes and strong project and portfolio
methodology are good places for senior managers to
start. With limited resources, business leaders cannot afford
to continue performing the same functions in the same way if
they are going to survive in an environment of scarcity, he
said. They must be able to discern what is core to the needs
of the business, what is secondary and what is non-essential,
then redesign functional responsibilities and business
processes accordingly.
A focus on efficiency and steady-state processes is
important status quo does not tend to advance the
organization. As marketplace complexity grows due to
globalization and highly integrated solutions, todays
organizations are increasingly propelled forward by projects.
Research for a new product, development of a game-
changing software application or construction of enabling
infrastructure all require projects to make them happen, and
business leaders have an important role to play, Ward said.
Project sponsorship and portfolio management are two
of the primary functions senior managers fulfill in the
process, according to Ward. As a project sponsor, leaders
ensure that their projects are delivering on their stated
objectives, and that project management best practices are
being utilized from project planning to project closeout. As
portfolio managers, senior leaders rank and prioritize
projects based on the firms objectives and then ensure that
resources are allocated accordingly. Therefore,
understanding and utilizing best practices in these areas is a
critical competency for senior managers in todays
environment.
The L&D Response
Leaders at all levels are walking a thin line as they struggle
to balance employees and customers growing expectations
with the realities of constricted resources. Many of these
challenges are not new to the organization, but they are
often new to the leaders facing them. Learning and
development organizations will play a critical role in
supporting all levels of management as roles, responsibilities
and competency requirements shift to meet these evolving
challenges. L&D leaders need to assess their workforces
more often and adapt their learning and development
strategies to meet the changing requirements.
Front-line leaders are caught in the middle of competing
expectations and need strong business acumen,
communication skills and a collaborative mindset to
understand organizational goals, communicate effectively
with their teams and navigate expectations to reach desired
business outcomes. Increasing market demands mean that
client-facing teams and their front-line leaders will need to be
situationally aware and capable of uncovering and meeting
customer needs at the critical points of impact.
Informal leaders perhaps represent the greatest
opportunity for L&D engagement. They often go
unrecognized and are subjected to trial-by-fire development.
Given their neglect and their growing importance in the
organization, many will require foundational leadership
development, a better understanding of how to communicate
in a matrix environment and a broader understanding of the
business.
Out of necessity, senior leaders are recommitting
themselves to efficiency, and in many cases are revisiting
their skill sets. Though leaders at this level tend to have
strong business acumen and communication skills, many lack
some of the higher-function competencies in process
improvement, systems thinking and project and portfolio
management. These areas represent a great opportunity for
the L&D organization to re-engage with its senior leadership.
[About the Author: Mark Bashrum is vice president of
corporate marketing and strategic intelligence at ESI
International.]