Forster N. - Maximum performance (2005)(en)

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challenges that we may face as leaders and managers today are the same as they always have been. For example, in Chapter 1 we cited the advice that Socrates gave to prospective leaders. He suggested that leaders required Ethos (the ability to convince their followers that they are trustworthy, reliable and fair), Pathos (the ability to appeal to their followers’ values, emotions and motivations) and Logos (knowledge and expertise). These principles worked for Egyptian, Greek and Roman leaders, they worked for many 19th-century industrialists, and they continue to work for the leaders of the world’s most successful modern organizations. Most of the skills we associate with present-day leadership and management, such as communication, cooperation, negotiation, teamwork, the effective use of power and influence, and the ability to envision the future, were essential for the survival and evolution of our ancestors over thousands of years, and these primal leadership skills are as relevant today as they have always been. While the contexts in which leadership and people management have changed, particularly over the last 200 years, the fundamental principles underpinning these have not, because they are timeless.

Crazy ways for crazy days

Having said this, today’s world is very different from that of our ancestors, and new leadership and people management skills are required to cope with this fast-changing environment. Because of the scientific revolutions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, we have come to understand a great deal more about our environment, the natural world and the origins and evolution of the human race. In turn, these revolutions have transformed the way that people work and the nature of organizations during the 20th century. Today, these are more fluid and have less formal, bureaucratic and hierarchical structures. They have ‘flatter’ cultures and fewer status distinctions between employees (at least in the private sector), compared to a decade ago. They also have far more diverse workforces, compared to times past.

Almost all organizations now have to change rapidly, and are being constantly buffeted and reshaped by new technologies, new competition and the forces of globalization. Organizations have to think faster and smarter, and be more adaptable, than at any other period in human history. Consequently, leaders and managers not only have to be quicker and smarter themselves, they also have to find better and more effective ways of getting more out of the employees, departments or organizations that they head. Above all else, this means that they have to have the capacity to lead, inspire, motivate, mentor and empower their people in more time-efficient ways, because, as we have

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seen on numerous occasions throughout this book, it is always employees who ultimately determine the performance, productivity and profitability of the organizations they work for (not overpaid fat-cat CEOs and company directors).

The pace of change these days also means that leaders have to routinely question common-sense ways of doing things. We saw in Chapters 1, 8, 9 and 11 that leaders of the future will have to rely increasingly on uncommon sense. Why? Because the pace of technological, economic, social and organizational change means that relying on what we do now, or even on what has worked well for a while, will not guarantee success for any organization in the future, particularly those in the private sector. The name of the game these days is change, and unrelenting, perpetual and continuous evolution in all businesses. In this environment, leaders and managers only have two options: create change for others to follow or play a constant, and very uncomfortable, game of perpetual catch-up with the most innovative and fast-chang- ing organizations in the sectors or markets they operate in.

We also saw that transformational leaders are people who constantly question ‘the way we do things around here’ and, while they all possess solid and practical business acumen, they always have one eye on the future. They gather strategic intelligence and scenario-map effectively. They constantly seek out or create new business opportunities that others are unable or unwilling to see. They are creative and able to think laterally. They are individuals who may not know everything but are adept at surrounding themselves with loyal people who can fill the gaps in their knowledge or expertise. They can see the future and create visions, and are able to lead their followers on journeys down new ways, roads or paths to this future. The ability to cope with this environment demands that leaders be able to look into that which does not currently exist, and then imagine, ‘What if we . . .?’

Vive la différence

The emergence of women in organizations over the last two decades also has important implications for leadership and people management, now and in the future. In Chapter 6, we saw that, while women have made remarkable advances, in all professions and occupations, during this time, there is still some way to go before they achieve true equality with men. It was suggested that most organizations should review how they treat their women employees, for the simple reason that, if they don’t, this will have a negative effect on their performance, productivity and profitability. Examples were cited of companies that

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effects on humanity over the next 20 years and beyond. However, the best leaders, and the best organizations, only use existing technologies in ways that add value to their core business activities. They understand both the potential, and the limitations, of new and emergent technologies as strategic business tools. They have learnt the painful lessons of the dotcom collapse of 2000–2002, and realized that technology cannot be used as a substitute for the five factors that continue to drive all successful businesses: great leadership/management, great employees, great ideas, great products and great services. They have realized that it still requires creative and innovative employees to make the best use of new technologies. They know that even e-business is not just about electronics, computers or the Internet. These are simply portals, or add-on devices, that can help their businesses to do what they have always done, namely to bring into being that which was not in the marketplace before, and/or getting value products and quality services to their customers and clients, quickly and cost-effectively. They also understand that, while technology – even in high-tech companies – has its limitations, their organizations must stay technosavvy for the foreseeable future. Of equal importance, they also understand the importance of keeping an eye on new technologies that may come onto the market two or three years down the track.

All the world’s a stage

The inexorable globalization of trade and commerce means that many leaders and managers are becoming more international in their outlook because, even if their organizations operate primarily within one country, they are often competing in someone else’s international market (regardless of the events of 11 September 2001 and subsequent terrorist acts around the world). Global leadership and management development in the future will require organizations to offer their employees more opportunities to acquire and develop global skills and competencies. The most successful international companies of this decade will be those that have created internal structures, business systems and cultures that are both fluid and dynamic. These will enable them to achieve the optimum balance between global integration and coordination, alongside local responsiveness, flexibility and speed. The ability to develop these competencies rests upon the vision and learning capabilities of these organizations, their leaders and their managers. Sustainable global advantage also depends on the ability of employees across organizations to learn quickly within this fast-changing environment. Hence the main challenge facing human resource managers in the future will be to develop policies that will foster the selection and retention of employees who can prosper within this environment.

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The development of international leader/managers in the future will involve more frequent cross-border job swaps, short assignments or assignments to multicultural project teams. This does not mean that these employees will relocate with their families to these jobs. In fact, traditional expatriate postings of male employees and dependent spouses are becoming less frequent. Recent research has shown that the issues of dual-career couples, family relocations and children’s educational needs have already diminished the desire of some employees to go on international assignments. We also know that employees who spend long periods of time abroad can have considerable difficulties when they return home. This means that more employees will find themselves working for short periods of time in different areas of a company’s overseas operations, without the necessity of moving their families as well. There is certainly strong anecdotal evidence from airlines that this is happening, but this development is almost totally underresearched. International leader/managers of the future will be younger, as likely to be female as male and culturally diverse. Generations X and Y, and the emergent Generation T, already have mind-sets that transcend international boundaries and cultures. They are much more amenable to learning about other cultures and many have travelled abroad. Most are tuned into the global learning possibilities of the Web and many are, technologically, highly literate. If organizations want to develop global operational cultures, these are exactly the kind of people they will have to recruit in greater numbers. Some of these will become the next generation of global leaders, comfortable dealing with cultures and contexts they did not grow up in and capable of dealing with the avalanche of information, knowledge and intellectual capital now being generated by a hypercompetitive global economy.

Thus the challenge facing organizations is threefold. They must first develop global mind-sets, including a deep understanding of the new world economic environment, and the uneven and erratic growth of this global economy, particularly after the events of 9/11 and other recent terrorist acts. Then they must align their core international strategic objectives with their human resource policies. Last, they will have to anchor their policies dealing with the development of international leader/managers within this framework. This will mean developing employees with international competencies, without traditional longterm country-based assignments. The development of new forms of real-time three-dimensional video conferencing and other communication technologies, such as augmented reality systems, may to some extent diminish the need for this type of continual ‘hands-on’ assignment. Having said this, there is no doubt that cross-border transfers will remain an important part of international human resource strategies in

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many companies for the foreseeable future, as well as the primary means for developing the global leader/managers of the future. Only those organizations that are truly committed to learning quickly in this area of strategic human resource management will succeed in the turbulent international business environment of the first two decades of the 21st century (developed from Forster, 2000c: 153–4).

The dark side

Throughout this book, we’ve focused on what can be broadly described as ‘good’ leader/managers, who by their words, actions and deeds leave the organizations they lead, or the environments they operate in, better places than they were before they arrived on the scene. They have a passion for the jobs they do and often regard themselves as being servants to their employees and their organizations. In Chapters 1 and 12, we cited several examples of people and organizations that have succumbed to the temptations of the dark side in politics and business, and the many negative consequences of their toxic, discriminatory, unethical, immoral or illegal conduct. Abundant evidence was provided to show that these individuals damage companies and often destroy the jobs and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. Unethical leaders are bad for organizations, bad for business, bad for capitalism, bad for industrializing countries and bad news for you and me. Good leaders understand that the best reason for embracing ethical principles in business is self-interest. Individuals, organizations and countries with higher ethical and legal standards thrive and prosper. Those with poor ethical standards, sooner or later, run into serious problems. When individuals and organizations are allowed to operate without ethical and moral guidelines, they are at best unpleasant and, at worst, truly monstrous. This means that ethical considerations can no longer be divorced from the main business activities of organizations, or from the actions of the leaders and managers who work for them.

Gaia and other issues

One of the more difficult parts of writing a book on contemporary organizational life was deciding which topics and issues should be left out. This one might have included some discussion of leadership and management in entrepreneurial and small companies, or dealt in greater depth with leadership and people management in a global economy. It could have included more on macro-organizational issues, such as organizational structure, design and culture, strategic human

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resource planning, e-business strategies and sustainable environmental management. These and several other topics could have been included, but it was clear that these were not central to the principal objective of the book: identifying the generic qualities, attributes, skills and competencies of effective and successful leader/managers in North America, the UK and Australasia. The length of the book also had to be taken into account, and the inclusion of these topics would have doubled the number of chapters. However, all of these are important aspects of organizational leadership and management and will be covered in the sequel to this book, Creating Intelligent Organizations: the Secrets of Long-Lasting Business Success.

Back to the future

In the Preface, I indicated that this book would not try to sell you instant answers, fads or quick-fix solutions, and emphasized that becoming a more effective leader/manager of others requires selfbelief, time and commitment. Anyone who claims that you can become a better leader/manager in a few days or weeks is misleading you. Perhaps the most difficult part of this process is not learning new skills, but unlearning: giving up leadership and people management techniques that we may have used for years, but which may be well past their sell-by dates. The ability to do this stems from two elements we have touched on throughout our journey: self-awareness and honest self-reflection. These represent the starting point, because if we cannot see ourselves as we really are (and how others see us), no amount of ‘training’ is ever going to help us become better leader/managers. But, having come this far, you should have an enhanced sense of selfawareness and, perhaps, a more complete leadership and people management tool-kit. As long as this is kept up-to-date, you can dip into it as and when needed, regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in, the quality of the people you are leading or the type of problems you deal with at work, now and in the future.

The book has provided many opportunities to reflect on the things you do as a leader or manager. By embracing an action-focused, selfdirected learning approach to these, you should have developed a set of personal goals that will help you to achieve your objectives, and enhanced the skills and competencies that will enable you to put these into practice on a daily basis at work. Athletes, actors and musicians spend most of their time developing their skills through focused learning and a lot of practice, while leaders and managers usually spend very little time on these and almost all of their time performing. This means that you should try to take periodic time-outs to reflect on your

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leadership and people management practices. You should also remain committed to converting newly acquired skills and competencies into your daily work repertoire, and spend some time using these until they become second nature. This won’t happen overnight, but more effective ways of leading and managing others will become ingrained in time if you make use of them at work. In the final analysis, this approach will always be far more effective and long-lasting than being ‘trained’, which, as we noted in the Preface, is for dogs and circus animals, not people.

This brings us to the end of our leadership and people management journey, and I hope you found it an enjoyable and rewarding one. Whatever way, road, path or journey you choose to take in the future, keep learning (and unlearning), embrace every opportunity for selfdevelopment that comes your way, work on those leadership and people management techniques that work well, and discard the ones that don’t. If you have been doing these things for some time, you already have a deep understanding of what differentiates inspirational leader/managers from ineffectual ones. You also appreciate what really makes the difference at work these days, and what ultimately differentiates successful organizations from unsuccessful ones, and that is of course the motivation, loyalty, creativity and performance of the people who work for them.

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worldwide suggests that about one-third of this difference is due to technical skills and cognitive ability, while two-thirds is due to emotional competence. In top leadership positions, over four-fifths of the difference is due to emotional competence.

5At L’Oréal, sales agents selected on the basis of certain emotional competencies significantly outsold salespeople selected using the company’s old selection procedure. On an annual basis, salespeople selected on the basis of emotional competence sold $US91 370 more than other salespeople did, with a net revenue increase of $US258 360. There was also 63 per cent less labour turnover amongst salespeople recruited on the basis of emotional competence, compared to those selected using traditional selection criteria.

6In a national insurance company, insurance sales agents who were weak in emotional competencies (such as self-confidence, initiative and empathy) sold policies with an average premium of $US54 000. Those who were very strong in at least five of eight key emotional competencies sold policies worth $US114 000.

7In a large beverage firm, using standard methods to hire division presidents, 50 per cent left within two years, mostly because of poor performance. When the firm started selecting staff on the basis of emotional competencies such as initiative, self-confidence and leadership, only 6 per cent left in two years. Furthermore, the executives thus selected were far more likely to perform in the top third (based on salary bonuses) for performance of the divisions they led: 87 per cent were in the top third. In addition, division leaders with these competencies outperformed their targets by 15 to 20 per cent. Those who lacked these competencies underperformed by almost 20 per cent.

8Research by the Center for Creative Leadership in the USA has found that the primary causes of derailment in executives involve deficits in emotional competence. The three primary ones are difficulty in handling change, not being able to work well in a team, and poor interpersonal relations.

9After supervisors in a manufacturing plant received training in emotional competencies such as how to listen better and help employees resolve problems on their own, lost-time accidents were reduced by

50per cent, formal grievances were reduced from an average of 15 per year to three per year, and the plant exceeded productivity goals by $US250 per employee. In another manufacturing plant where supervisors received similar training, production increased by 17 per cent.