Leaders will need outstanding cognitive skills to balance the competing demands of financial success, social responsibility and environmental custodianship, and must act as change agents, advocating environmentally responsible business practices.

The future of leadership

BY Mohinish Sinha


To keep up with the changes in the business environment, leaders too will have to evolve. Here’s a look at the five key areas.
 
Leaders of the future will need to be adept conceptual and strategic thinkers, have deep integrity and intellectual openness, find new ways to create loyalty, lead increasingly diverse and independent teams over which they may not always have direct authority, and relinquish their own power in favour of collaborative approaches inside and outside the organisation.

These are just some of the challenges that leaders of tomorrow will have to grapple with. Our research has identified and narrowed these down to five key areas that leaders must work on today for a better tomorrow.

Institutionalising leadership development

In today’s business context, there is a shortage of leadership skills, therefore, the immediate need to build a leadership pipeline in organisations to avert a leadership crisis. As India Inc goes global, leaders will have the additional responsibility of building leaders equipped to lead global businesses. Organisations will need to address top teams to decide who should and should not serve on a team; how to manage, motivate and coach a senior team; and, how to provide direction and context.

Next-gen leaders need to understand themselves at a deeper level — who they are, what energises them and what doesn’t, and then understand the demands of leadership. Senior leaders will have to not only create a pool of high-potentials, but also chalk out a framework to accelerate their growth to leadership.

Hay Group has been conducting research on the best companies for leaders, and we feel that pragmatic exposure to the real work and context will give steam for tackling this leadership challenge.

Employee engagement and talent retention

India must reap the benefits of its demographic dividend, which lies in the country’s young workforce, compared to the baby boomers in various others parts of the world. Leaders will have to learn to manage this generation through influence, rather than authority. The challenge lies in understanding their issues and addressing them empathically, through flexibility and adaptability at all levels.

The generation of new ideas must become the new currency, and the onus will be on leaders to create an environment that will embed the principles of innovation and creativity into the corporate culture, thus, leading to increasingly enabled and engaged employees.

Towards strategic leadership

Strategic leaders are the need of the hour in the new world order — those who understand how to effectively leverage their leadership to navigate the organisation over troubled as well as calm waters. As we witness troughs and ridges in the global economy with greater frequencies, it will be paramount for leaders to unlock their potential to continue to remain effective.

Good implementation and execution are no longer enough — a leader needs to be a strategic thinker to drive the business of the future. Hay Group research has showed that Asian management practices will become more influential in the years to come, an imperative that tomorrow’s leaders will need to understand and adapt. To thrive in the future, leaders will have to become more nimble and adaptable, guiding organisations to revolutionise their cultures, structures, systems and processes.


Globalisation

As globalisation accelerates, the new business world will be characterised by increasingly diverse teams and declining loyalty between organisations and employees. The balance of power will shift to Asia, a global middle class will rise, and greater inter-connectedness will result in greater volatility in the economic markets.

Companies will need to be more agile and collaborative to manage the global/local divide; their leaders will need to be flexible, internationally mobile and culturally sensitive, and they must have strong conceptual and strategic thinking capabilities in order to manage risk and cope with the dangers and uncertainties associated with globalisation.

Towards sustainable business

Rising emissions and temperatures will be further aggravated by growing residential and industrial waste in developing nations. The scarcity of strategic resources like water, minerals and fossil fuels could trigger price hikes and violent conflict. Organisations will be forced to lower their eco-footprint, adapt to rising operational costs and restructure along sustainable lines.

Leaders will need outstanding cognitive skills to balance the competing demands of financial success, social responsibility and environmental custodianship, and must act as change agents, advocating environmentally responsible business practices.

(The author is Leadership & Talent Practice Leader, Hay Group SAPA)