The demands of the marketplace are changing the requirements for leadership across our business enterprises, large and small.  When the primary strategic driver of business operations was repetition—the same Model T with the same color, features and quality every time, as was the case when scientific management (Taylorism) was born—then, it made sense for leaders to be charged with command and control responsibilities.  Today, the Strategic Drivers of business—speed, innovation, connectivity and mass customization—are much more complex, dynamic and fast-paced, requiring new leadership roles, qualities, and capabilities.  Now, the focus of formal leadership must be on building culture, commitment, communication and collaboration within internal organizations and across the entire alliance network.

The timing and location of work also are changing the requirements for leadership.  Gone are the days when senior leaders at the site or corporate level could gather their “troops” together at one place and time, or rely on “managing-by-walking-around” (MBWA) techniques as their primary means of exerting control, giving direction or building an aligned workforce.  Today, the people whom a formal leader might be leading could be working from home, working in India or working on the Night shift—or even all of the above!

Regardless, the frequency of face-to-face interactions is significantly less than it used to be, even with technologies like webcams and videoconferencing.  So, new capabilities are needed for imparting information and direction, and for generating organizational alignment and energy on a day-to-day basis.

And, even more importantly, companies cannot move at the speed and unified direction required in today’s marketplace with a small number of leaders controlling information and resources, and commanding large groups of employees.  The days of supervising—critical watching and directing—also are gone, or should be going fast.  While this trend has been occurring in our most successful enterprises for some time, now it is imperative for all enterprises to shift their focus from building the capabilities of just a few formal leaders to building their organizational capacity for leadership—the quality of being a leader.  Businesses today must challenge their whole workforce, at every level, including the front lines, to acquire leadership capabilities. 

 After all, if I’m working from home 80% of the time, who’s going to lead me, other than me?  And, if we really mean it when we say that everyone needs to be engaged, working together and moving in the same direction to achieve success, then we have to shift our enterprises past empowerment and towards collective leadership—starting with leading oneself and moving to collaboratively leading with others.  To achieve this end, enterprises must invest in the development opportunities [and time] to build this broader organizational capacity for leadership.  Done right, a leadership system that encompasses the whole workforce can be the key to unlocking full organizational potential.  Real and sustained innovation will only come when distributed, collaborative leadership systems are utilized across the enterprise, enabling everyone to feel capable and free to create and lead toward the collective vision at any time of the day or week and from any place they are working.

Tags: Always-On World, Asynchronous, Employee Engagement, Organizational Leadership, Pace of Work, Sustainable Performance, Work Time