There are 3 very daunting challenges for many organizational leaders in today’s economy:
  1. Owners or Boards who expect more value to be created with the same or less headcount
  2. A faster marketplace where competitors seem to emerge out of nowhere and anywhere with innovative value offerings
  3. A workforce that expects to be able to “make a difference” in their work while enjoying all the world has to offer in their personal lives
What we see the most effective leaders doing is following the wise council that “what got you here, won’t get you there” (Marshall Goldsmith). To address each of these 3 issues, using yesterday’s leadership strategies is a recipe for disaster. 
 
As you put the final touches on your 2012 organizational plans, are you really going to expect your members of the “frozen headcount brigade” to work any harder? No wonder employee engagement scores continue to plummet in most organizations:

“Research has shown a drastic decline in employee engagement since the start of the economic downturn, with the number of disengaged employees having risen dramatically from just 1 in 10 in 2006 to over 1 in 3 in 2010. 25% of high-potential employees plan to leave their current companies within the year, compared with just 10% a few years ago.”
                                                                Corporate Executive Board
 
So what to do, what to do…..
 
How about hugging the hearts and squeezing the minds of your team members?
 
It makes great business sense, since data has shown that “highly engaged” employees can deliver as much as 2.5 times the value of less engaged colleagues. As an alternative to “turning up the speed on the production line”, think about creating the following elements of a high-performance environment for your organization; countless interviews with high-performance employees reveal the ingredients to the
secret sauce of high employee engagement” as follows:

  • They are clear about the organizations direction and goals going forward and trust their senior leaders know how to lead (hint: listen to the high-performance employees)
  • They see how their work matters to the bigger goals (alignment)
  • They have a direct “boss” who cares about them, their ideas and their future
Over the past couple of years, our global team at Leadership Management International (LMI) has been documenting the significant shift in effective leadership behaviors emerging in this 21st Century economy. You may want to peruse the “Top Ten” list below and take stock on what you can do to shift your organization and yourself away from the remnants of the now largely ineffective “Transactional” leadership style that served us well in the 20th Century “Manufacturing” economy, to the rigour of Transformational Leadership required to succeed in the 21st Century “Knowledge” economy:
 
“Transformational leadership recognizes that in a service-oriented economy, unless one can engage an employee’s values and beliefs, they cannot and will not deliver customer value, much less engagement. In today’s turbulent world, leaders must learn to influence people’s inner values and beliefs if they want to be effective.”

James G. Clawson
Level Three Leadership
  

Factor
20th Century Transactional Leadership
21st Century Transformational Leadership
Economic Engine
Manufacturing
Knowledge- Value-Added Services
Dominant Leadership Quality
Control through close Supervision
Trust through collaboration and empowerment
Common Leader Activity
Budgeting, Directing, Controlling, Maintaining, Allocating Resources, Problem Solving;
Competing for Today
Aligning, Coaching, Motivating, Developing, Collaborating, Innovating, Thinking, Visioning, Empowering, Evaluating
Preparing for Tomorrow
Value Driver/Employee
Production (Do!)
Innovation (Think!)
Motivation Methodology
Fear and Incentive (External “Carrot and Stick)
Attitude (Internal and unique to each employee)
Motivation Focus
Managing behavior
Understanding and tapping into Individual Emotions, Beliefs and Values
Training/Development Focus
Training – focused on competencies, skills and techniques
Development – with attention to shifting employees’ views about themselves, their values and their sense of purpose
Training/Development Methodology
Largely event and classroom based on “book knowledge” of many topics
Largely action learning over time with internal mentorship, specific and measurable goals/ROI and focused on one key driver of improved leadership performance
Who primarily “Owns” the Training and Development
The company and/or “boss”
The employee or team member with alignment with the employer
Measuring Effectiveness of Training/Development
Can they describe it
Get the certificate?
Can they do it
Demonstrate new attitudes, a higher sense of purpose, values, behaviors and results (ROI)

 
We have seen many leaders grab hold of their organizations or departments and boldly venture down the path of creating this Transformational corporate culture. The results are very impressive. This quote does a good job of framing up the success philosophy of effective 21st Century leaders.
(taken from Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s recent book “Credibility”):
 
“Leadership is personal. It’s not about the company, the community, or the country. It’s about you. If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won’t believe the message. If people don’t believe in you, they won’t believe in what you say. And if it’s about you, then it’s about your beliefs, your values, and your principles.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pz8f36OEGw