With the development of self-organization, hierarchical leadership roles will be reduced. Leadership will not disappear, but it will significantly change: It will become part of the team activities. Defining who takes leadership responsibility within the team and how that leadership is exercised will be part of the team’s self-determination. This video outlines how teams will self-organize leadership. Could this be a next step in YOUR leadership development journey?
Companies are changing their organization structures to become more agile and to allow teams to be self-organized. That requires very different leadership. Most leaders are aware of this but find it difficult to adjust their leadership style. Why? This video shows that we need to reduce the power of leaders in order to allow leaders to change their behavior and be fit for the future.
Studies show that the stress level among leaders is increasing all the time, because the pace of change is accelerating. Leaders have to provide a lot of energy to respond to this, but that is expected to be done in a calm and determined way. This can be perceived as a paradox: How to stay perfectly calm in a storm? In this article we will use examples from the philosopher Heraclites to illustrate how to combine high energy and great serenity in order to mater stress.
Servant leadership means that leadership is exercised as a SERVICE to the organization, because the leader has a permanent concern for the needs of the teams. He/she feels responsible to create the conditions that will allow employees to be successful in any given situation. That is a big shift from the traditional top down perspective where leadership is seen as a prerogative to set direction and to hold other accountable for their achievements. Such decisive decision making is part of a service oriented leadership and should be exercised when required to provide clear direction. But leaders should also be inspirational, create great working conditions and be able to coach team members when needed. This is a much broader understanding of leadership and can be seen as the black belt we should strive for during our lifelong leadership learning journey.
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We are in the daily race for higher objectives and strive to over-achieve. Ambition is good, but is sometimes overshadows what we truly aspire to. Aspiration is related to our deeper desire. The closer we get to our aspired state the more fulfillment we experience. We should be careful not to miss this in the rush. That article might help to connect to what we truly aspire to.
In this article I would like to discuss the controversial question, if employees should be informed about the way their potential has been rated. Assessment of potential is a highly complex topic. I will outline here why superficial discussions on potential can be quite damaging. My recommendation is therefore to rather focus on career perspectives, which is what employees really need to know about.
Many studies have shown that people today prefer videos to text, especially among the younger generations. This is a clear trend. The incredible richness of content on YouTube is a result of this. But from what I can observe, leaders are still not always very familiar with this tool and sometimes even reluctant to stand in front of a camera. I hope that this article can help overcome some of these barriers and make your communication more efficient and more powerful. I will outline here the 4 key steps to shoot YOUR video. You will find practical advice on content creation, shooting, post-production and on the publication of your video. Get started, now! (more…)
During this conversation Rolf Peiffer (Managing Partner at Leadership Choices) and Sven Sommerlatte explore the benefits of making succession planning more transparent. The idea is to establish an open exchange between the current incumbent of a role and his/her identified successors. This might make our succession planning process more robust and more meaningful.
Employees are not always comfortable to speak about diversity, because they are not sure what words to use. They are worried that inappropriate terms could offend others and then prefer to hold back. Establishing a language of diversity is therefore an important step on our journey towards creating a more inclusive work environment.
The purpose of the WOW HOW series is to provide examples of great leadership behavior. In this article Ricardo describes his experience of the Mexico earthquake in September 2017. In fractions of seconds everything started to move and buildings collapsed. His priority was to protect his team and ensure that everyone was OK. Discover here what went through his mind in this dramatic moment.