By clicking here or at the picture bellow the summary you can launch the Leadership Lessons package. In this collection you will learn that:
By knowing well the business you are in you avoid a lot of surprises. (Stuart Lawson)By saying people "No" candidly you help them to better understand their business. (Patricia Cloherty)Sharing passion and energy with your team will multiply your strengths. (Blake Salle)By treating people like adults you make them stronger. (Chris Huggett)By creating a clear vision for the future you faster overcome obstacle on your way to get there. (Dennis Hopple)If you know and trust your people you can scale your force by delegating. (Robert Agee)By explaining your people how the first small step is linked to the larger goal you can help them start moving the right direction. (Birger Steen)Courage is required from leaders in the battlefield and business alike. (Gene Klann)
Following review of anti-crisis leadership competencies is based on our competencies and values based interviews with 75 business owners and top executives conducted in 2008.
Even before the current crisis hit Russia many of our profiled leaders were referring to their experience in crisis situations which best illustrated their leadership strengths. Recently we started to ask them about specific anti crisis competencies and didn't find any.
Even more importantly we heard: "We don't need any special anti-crisis leaders. We need leaders who can work normally in crisis and under stress - leaders who don't panic, take decisions thoroughly, keep long term perspective in sight".
Ability to create and communicate a clear vision for the future (Patrick Aghanian, Sanofi-Aventis), high level of personal energy and ability to energize others (Philip Kegels, Danone), commitment to the goal (Steven Fisher, Citi) and resilience in execution (Michael Crow, GlaxoSmithKline), ability to listen (Robert Agee, Cisco) and to communicate bad news candidly (Chris Huggett, 3Com), ability to take strategic decisions in line with principles and tactic decisions by deadlines (Rene Shlegel, Robert Bosh), high learning capacity (Stuart Lawson, HSBC) delegation and team work (Johan Rosenberg, Oriflame) - for leaders it is the way to manage their companies through good and bad times alike.
But emphasis may change a bit. It is not just about delegation and teamwork. It is about how to combine much more hands on style of leadership with high level of initiative, authority and accountability of reports. To do this leaders should know how to say ‘no' respectfully (Patricia Cloherty, Delta Private Equity Partners) and how to create atmosphere in which people feel comfortable to express their views and ideas (Blake Salle, Cisco). They need to lead by example and bring emotion into a team (Philippe Delpal, BNP Paribas Cetelem). In crisis times you just pay more for mistakes.
Our findings are:
Strong personal values and leadership traits
The fundamental personal traits and values (principles) of successful business leaders don't change from good times to bad times and vice versa. These traits and values are the foundation for emotional stability enabling leaders to perform well under stress and to deal with uncertainties.
Right balance between hands on management and commitment to vision and strategy
Leaders should excel in the art of balancing very hands on approach and attention to details with bold commitment to their vision and the long term objectives. This art is about revising and adjusting tactics to changes all the time in order to stay en course of achieving strategic goals which remain clear and unchanged. One outlier in this equation is micromanagement that inevitably leads to abandoning of strategic goals. Another one is arrogance that leads to failure through a chain of unspotted changes, missed opportunities and obsolescent tactics. These two extremes always have deep negative impact on long term results of any business but in good times they may be conceived by the positive overall market dynamics. In crisis both come to the surface immediately and should be treated as unforgivable sins.
Understanding of the agenda and modus operandi of the state system to enable trust and collaboration
Competent business leaders from highly competitive market oriented companies should learn to understand how the system works - the needs, the deeds and the ways of doing things of the government authorities. They need to establish the new level of trust and collaboration with state authorities. They also need to develop much broader understanding of the big political and economic picture to be able to propose better ways of curtaining the crisis which will represent viable alternative to the state support to loss making and uncompetitive companies with incompetent leadership.
Ability to give people meaning and purpose in their work
In hard times retention becomes less of a problem. On the contrary improving motivation and productivity is a king. People need to be more motivated to stay productive in hard times. They will work for salary for sure but if they will work only for salary they will be productive like slaves. They will raise productivity only if they feel their job is important and has meaning beyond just earning money. There might be very creative ways of doing so. Bill Gates on Harvard Business Summit encouraged companies instead of giving money for charity to commit 5% of time of their most talented employees to resolution of crucial problems of humankind. Such a move will improve the morale dramatically and furthermore will contribute greatly to the establishment of the new order of trust between business, governments and society.
Creating transparent entrepreneurial organization
Companies, which can achieve the most powerful mix of entrepreneurial vision, drive and values with high degree of transparency and compliance, will be uniquely positioned to attract investments to secure growth against the odds of the crisis. They need to prove depth and quality of their leadership to make investors confident about succession. By following this route they may take significant edge while the giants will still be under recovery. "The world was shaken when the colossus of Lehman Brother collapsed, - a speaker from India said on the Harvard Summit, - but many in the emerging markets thought - now we can take their place".
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Our project is based on four very optimistic assumptions: Some people wish to learn. Some people can learn. Some people can learn something about each other. Some people can learn something from each other. In the year of Ox that begins today we'll keep introducing to you some people to learn about and to some people to learn from. According to Chinese belief, the Ox is a symbol of wealth and success through hard work and resilience. It sounds like the right formula of success for 2009.
