Leadership in Motion
Five Key Trends for Leadership Development
The driving force behind the success of any organization is the leadership strength of its employees. In today’s rapidly changing business environment, the concept of leadership development is critical for the success of the businesses. Therefore, the article focuses on discovering and nurturing the seeds of leadership in an organization. We are highlighting here, a list of five trends for leadership development that business leaders need to focus on today.
Boot-camp Training
A recent study shows that 91% of the employees feel that they have too much work on their plate. When it comes to education, the beginners should be given a break and therefore “boot camp-style learning” is a perfect way. Educating employees has become, today, essential and the learning method needs to be practical and challenging. With training, the business leaders should also include chances for team bonding and team building activities, to allow for business beneficial brainstorming discussions with colleagues.
Engagement with Employees
Organizations with engaged workforces have higher productivity and profitability and it is a huge market advantage. In recent years, several studies have conducted that in an organization, mere 15% of the employees are highly engaged. More than 60% of the workforce was found to be only engaged with their particular tasks. Business leaders should know the important factors that engage their team members.
Investment in leadership development
As per recent studies, an organization should invest a particular budget to develop first-line employees. Developing the first level of workforce must be a priority on any organization’s agenda. These leaders are generally promoted to their post based on technical skills and knowledge; but it is their people skills, that determine their effectiveness and success in their new leadership role. Today high-impact corporates are creating leadership councils that are composed by senior leaders to motivate, engage and develop talent.
Technology is a key to leadership development
Technology plays a major role in leadership development. Technology savvy companies have rapidly become an integral aspect of today’s leadership effectiveness. With the latest technologies adapted by the corporations, communication between leaders and employees become easy and smooth. Technology will connect employees and clients making collaboration and information flow faster.
Transparency
The 2008 financial meltdown and the fall of some big businesses have emphasized the importance to maintain transparency in businesses. Recent studies show that 60% of CEOs in companies are now making more disclosures about their risks, strategy and financial performance. According to them, the pros of this practice are improved decision-making, innovation and better reputation. They have brought into focus the significance of transparency as a best practice.
Accepting new challenges and motivating other employees is what defines today’s leader. Therefore, keeping abreast of important leadership trends is the key to success. If organizations can implement these trends into their initiatives, they will achieve an even more productive year.
Climbing the Leadership Ladder…The other side of Corporate Governance
Hawkamah 7th Conference – Dubai, UAE (Nov 24th, 2013) – By Sheikh Hussein A. Al-Banawi
To characterize Corporate Governance as simply a tool to manage corporate risk and to coin it as such, falls way short of the true essence of what Corporate Governance is all about.
Surely, the enactment of Corporate Governance helps Shareowners to achieve organizational longevity, which in turn allows our enterprises to evolve and grow even when faced with the inevitable state of change at the helm.
Many of us agree that organizational longevity is a prerequisite to a sustainable economy. However, as passionate and prudent many of our Corporate Leaders are, countless organizations are still vulnerable and are not structured to survive change of stewardship without disruption. Invariably, anytime we experience as a society the demise of a flourishing business just because good Governance was not an integral part of its structure… We all lose.
Hence, the pursuit of enacting good governance as a pillar to an organization’s decision making process and modus operandi makes the case more compelling that Corporate Governance is first and foremost about effective leadership, and risk management is just one component of it.
Any present time leader aspiring to new highs on a personal or professional level, should look at instituting Corporate Governance as his or her ticket to be a better leader, a more effective leader. How???
Anyone who is in a leadership role, is faced with a choice; either keep doing what we do best exercising our authority and applying our leadership skills in one’s familiar organization, or embark on a mission to better prepare one’s organization for the future.
The goal is to create a work environment that even though we would not be the know it all, do it all, center of attention any more, as is in the first choice and yes, our authority won’t be as central or definitive anymore; however, an organization with Corporate Governance as part and parcel of its decision making structure with checks and balance, will make today’s leaders far better tomorrow.
Corporate Governance will provide the leader at the helm and executives within the senior ranks the ability to recognize the inner play of consensus building and the power of improved communication to sell a vision, a strategy, an opportunity, or a new course of action. Your leadership skills will be honed and tested as you work with a board of directors that establishes oversight and holds senior management accountable. And let’s not forget the personal learning we gain from bridging team differences, or the insight we acquire from reaching smart compromises. All of that and more while listening and recognizing others points of views dissimilar from our own.
Every accomplished leader can tell you plenty about the merit of having early on to apply their leadership skills in a work environment, where they had to work hard to negotiate with internal and external stakeholders, as a way to achieve and excel.
Taking others for granted and not appreciating that we cannot do what we aim to do without regard to internal corporate dynamics will not develop better leaders. I would go further and argue that we would grow to be less effective in a changed environment, because we will not be able to effectively cope with the ever increasing complexities of the corporate world of tomorrow.
An entity with Corporate Governance as central to its decision making structure is our ticket to leadership development; otherwise we risk maintaining our leadership skills at status-quo, and eventually with diminishing returns.
Obviously, we need to adjust to the fact that our authority and power will be scrutinized and placed in check, but that does not mean it is contained or put to question.
Effective leaders thrive in a work environment, where they have to navigate the unpredictable terrain towards achieving their goals and their abilities are enhanced as they manage diverse constituents.
So next time someone tries to sell you Corporate Governance as a tool for risk management, remember that not having Corporate Governance in our countless organizations presents an undefined risk to our credibility as corporate leaders and even a greater risk to the long term survival of our various organizations.
Start by putting together a proper board of directors, don’t pick friends for the sake of familiarity at the expense of expertise and wisdom, don’t make it a club, pick a board with diverse backgrounds and impeccable integrity. They have to be interested to join the company and are professionals in their own spheres. Start the transformational journey of instituting good Corporate Governance working hand in hand with your board. Don’t be afraid to discuss your innermost worries with the board; the biggest thing you have to worry about is what you don’t tell the board, not what you tell them.
Engage trusted lieutenants in the organization, who wholeheartedly subscribe to Corporate Governance as a living concept. Keeping in mind that there are always few team members, who prefer to work in an environment where Corporate Governance is not enacted; those have to be identified as their agenda might not align with the company’s agenda towards transformation.
Keep front and central as you go through the process of defining the right governance structure for your company, that every time you engage in the process of negotiating the relevant policies and principles that it is less about you and more about your organization. Aim to set up a structure that will enable the organization to manage three key objectives:
First, succession at the top; Second, the quality and consistency of decision making; and Third, the checks and balance in the decision making process.
Indeed, we should tick the boxes on all of the above without compromising speed and response time in a highly competitive world.
That should be the aim as you engage in this building block exercise with far reaching ramifications think more about the organization’s longevity, and less about your present time status and to what degree your authority will change. We need to agree to a certain given from the beginning; that the organization’s long-term survival should be our primary goal.
We should not expose the company to the risk of rolling a dice, day in day out, when it comes to transition at the helm, and decision making. Gambling with a company’s future for the sake of just managing for the present is a bad trade off.
I will close with this, the practice of good Corporate Governance starts with the right mindset, and ends with rigorous execution.
What is Authentic Leadership?
Real leaders are true to their principals, willing to admit mistakes and accept responsibility and capable of emerging whole and sound when tested. Authenticity is a particular signature of real leaders – a connecting thread that makes every step in their life journey into a unified whole. It brings all the other qualities of leaders together in a satisfying combination, just as a special spice or a distinct herb can create harmony among the various ingredients that give a meal a memorable flavour. Authentic leaders are able to connect with others so the other are eager to embrace the message and vision.
When we think of leaders who have inspired millions to join great causes, we usually think of men and women of deep authenticity – leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, with his profound personal commitment to Indian independence and non-violent resistance; Nelson Mandela, who sacrificed 27 years in prison before seeing his vision of a free, multiracial South Africa realised; and Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal, who in the sixties selflessly championed the early modernization of the Kingdom.
When I interview job candidates, I like to ask, “Tell me your life story. Explain how one experience led you to the next and what it all means.’ I am often surprised by the number of candidates who are unable to explain how the various things they have done fit together; sometimes they are unwillingly to acknowledge mistakes or to take responsibility for their choices.
By contrast, true leaders welcome having their decisions scrutinised and tested. They understand that a failure of decision is not necessarily a failure of character, and that every mistake is an opportunity to learn and grow. This understanding, too, is an aspect of the authenticity that is a hallmark of the leader.
Authenticity is closely intertwined with integrity and ethics. People who are authentic are unafraid to reveal their true selves – and this can be the case only when they feel sure that they have done what is right according to their best lights, rather than fudging the truth, cutting moral corners or taking advantage of ambiguity to benefit themselves at the expense of others. We often describe people of integrity by saying ‘They have nothing to hide’. And the expression highlights the transparency that goes with integrity and depends upon it.
Until our next blog where I will speak on ‘nurturing’, please be assured that I welcome your comments and discussions.
The Unknown Leader – Best Leadership Training & Development Books in UAE, Saudi Arabia. Find more information to https://theunknownleader.com
Regards
Hussein A.Al-Banawi
Author, The Unknown Leader