“When the environment changes dramatically, which it has and will continue to do as the fourth revolution unfolds, actions and thoughts need to adjust similarly. The leadership mind switch portrays a radical change to the way you think about your leadership behaviors and qualities. It is more than a shift to your mindset. It is a jolt to the way you think and act.” Debra Benton and Kylie Wright-Ford chalk out a game plan for becoming an effective future-proof leader.
Could you offer a peek into the premise of the book—the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the demands it places on leadership?
The premise of the book is that a field guide is needed for the savvy leader to navigate the unusual era in which we live. As an executive coach and COO duo, we co-authored The Leadership Mind Switch because we sensed—from leaders we spoke with—fear, excitement, and too-often some resistance to adapting to the fast pace and changing demographics of the workplace. We are entering the fourth industrial revolution which surpasses the third (digital revolution) and brings with it a blurring of the lines between the physical, biological, and digital. It is a time when ability to lead across generations and styles is paramount and digital fluency essential.
Leadership today is about character and communication, not corner offices. Could you elaborate on this observation?
With rising generations of workers and customers alike demanding transparency, there is nowhere to hide as a leader today. No longer can you be a remote and aloof conveyor of orders without context. In most industries, the power has shifted to the talent you wish to hire, both now and in the future, and leaders need to show they have backbone, humor, honesty, and confidence. They need to be enlightened and have character, embrace flexibility in the way we work, and look to the sunrise and not the sunset (the day that is gone) for inspiration.
How difficult is it to lead across the generations? What approach is to be adopted to engage with a multi-generational workforce?
Esta historia es de la edición November-December 2017 de The Smart Manager.
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Esta historia es de la edición November-December 2017 de The Smart Manager.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
