21st Century Leadership

Leadership is a much used and much abused subject as most interesting topics are. I got some interesting tidbits from several articles, which concurred, with my take on leadership. Leadership is an important ingredient of Management however there is a mammoth difference between Leaders and Managers per se. Most often, people use the terms 'Leaders' and 'Managers' interchangeably, much to my chagrin.

Without much ado, lets check out some interesting insights on 21st century leadership.

Today's successful business leader is decisive, insightful and constantly challenging company conventions to keep ideas flowing, says management consultant Mark Stevens, author of Your Management Sucks. This Enlightened Warrior is the model of the 21st century leader.

Enlightened, Stevens says, in the sense that a modern leader identifies opportunities before the competition, taking in information from all sides to spot possible new directions. The warrior side symbolizes a passion for achieving a goal and also a willingness to go on the attack--against the competition, and against weaknesses in yourself and the organization.

Courtesy:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/21stleader/index.html

So today, when one peruses the list of management tomes, one sees more and more books about teamwork and team management. Cross-functional teams have been one of the most important concepts of Late 20th Century Management. Empowerment is a given, and leadership has to be understood in that context.

By the last decade of the 20th century, team management and cross-functional teams were clearly best practice concepts. Researchers even suggested that the best teams might be those that used rotating leadership or no leaders at all.

In addition, a revolution in the concept of leadership has taken place, beginning with Robert Greenleaf's 1976 Servant Leadership. This landmark work “inverted the pyramid” and made for a new paradigm: the leader at the top works for those in the lower ranks, not vice versa.

In 1993, Peter Block, who had already “invented” empowerment, published Stewardship. This book, one of the greatest ever written on management, in effect carried the concept of servant leadership further, advocating “accountability without control or compliance”

But the following seem the best predictions as to how the concept of leadership will develop:

Leadership is for everyone – Equal Opportunity

Leadership involves learning – Constant Skill Up-gradation

Leadership is team based – Equal Contributor

Leadership is not authoritarian – Support, Facilitate, Lead to Change

Leadership includes followership – Listen, Empower

Courtesy:

http://www.manage2001.com/21l.htm

Surely 21st century leadership calls for a new type of leader who understands him/herself well and can call others into a higher state of being, rather than the old style leader who simply knows how to manage finance, sales and marketing processes. It calls for leaders who can engage the hearts and minds of all members within the organization, facilitating the psychological contract, so important for winning the market wars.

Courtesy: http://www.mbamatch.com/Knowledge_Base/Leadership/EI%20SA%20and%20the%20Enneagram.htm

So time to kick old habits, become self aware, redefine work and the workplace…