The Changing Needs of Leadership
Often it is customary for corporations to rotate people they are grooming for leadership positions. The rotation gives them exposure and experience to various aspects of the business, and while it does that it also means that companies are 'selecting' for leadership traits that may not be in their best interest.
If managing a budget is important and what gets rewarded, than people learn that they can beat the numbers for about two years if they don't repair, train or invest. If percentages of increase in production or sales are important, then people learn they can beat other department’s numbers by driving their people and forcing them to 'get creative.' Unfortunately these actions serve the individual, but they decimate the company.
The most important action that makes leadership have an impact is its alignment with strategy.
Take our leadership/culture assessment and discover your leadership style and the strategic approaches it supports.
Understand more about Sustainable Leadership if you are ready to take advantage of nature’s wisdom.
Develop a strategic approach that will enable you to see the future and your place in it.
Conscious leadership makes emergence possible – start NOW!
Employees learn that shipping bricks and sub standard product is a good way to get the numbers! By the time the dust settles the boss has moved on and tracking the source of the issue can be moot. What gets measured is what gets done, but if the measures push unintended consequences, then they can do more harm than good.
End game measures; how much, what cost, when, are all subject to distortion and provide no feedback for improvement. Percentage of improvement, on the other hand, is a 'living' measure that drives results.
Are your measures selecting for leaders who are heavy-handed, manipulative, and punitive? Are you relying more on force, cleverness or fear to drive your company than curiosity, learning and collaboration?
If you are choosing to reap the benefits of sustainability then you need to pay attention to your leadership. Because being Green is new territory, there is no one answer to an issue. In most cases the solutions to vexing problems actually have to be invented, as they are specific to each organization and industry. This level of innovation means it is not possible to achieve lasting success using old fashioned and top-down tactics. For innovation to work, force has to be replaced with meaning and commitment; fear with curiosity and experimentation; and manipulation with collaboration.
These are hard changes to make if fear is the primary management tool. The creation of a flexible and resilient culture is essential to creating a sustainable business. The solutions are sometimes apparent but even then they will not be achieved by traditional methods.
Shifting the leadership and culture to generate the appropriate answers for each unique business requires time and practice - lots of practice. Because these kinds of changes take time, the longer a company waits the more pressure there will be, and the fewer options that will be available. Waiting also means that the market leader status gained by being an early adopter goes to someone else. Start-ups and those with an entrepreneurial mind have a unique opportunity here. All of these profound changes are easier at the beginning.
The most important action that makes leadership have an impact is its alignment with strategy.
Take our leadership/culture assessment and discover your leadership style and the strategic approaches it supports.
Understand more about Sustainable Leadership if you are ready to take advantage of nature’s wisdom.
Develop a strategic approach that will enable you to see the future and your place in it.
Conscious leadership makes emergence possible – start NOW!
I spent some time chatting with Scott Tibbits, the founder of Starsys Research and he shared with me that he spent hours thinking of how he would interface with employees before he even started his company. That is a remarkable statement from an entrepreneur, but he was able to build a business that put rockets into space and that was acquired in 2005 by SpaceDev. True to form he paid considerable attention to the cultures of both companies before agreeing to the merger, something that few CEO's do in any field. Now Scott may be an unusual man, but the lessons he teaches can be learned by anyone, and they are particularly germane for companies going green.
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