Read time: 4 mins
Leading a Business in a Changing World
Leadership in the 21st century requires continuous learning and adaptation to new technologies and shifting customer preferences. Organizations functioning on traditional principles of bureaucratic leadership are discovering the benefits of a multi-layered leadership structure.
Find out more about the need for distributed leadership environments with Deborah Ancona, Faculty Director in the MIT Sloan School of Management Leadership in an Exponentially Changing World online short course.
Transcript
The world is changing. We are moving to the, what I called beyond VUCA world the VUCA on steroids world. That is not only is the world volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, but it is now changing at an ever-increasing rate. And so that’s the world that we need to think about as we think about leadership and the kinds of leaders that we want to be.
Second is that given that changing world the way in which our organizations are structured and the way in which we have to lead is also changing. So we want to leave behind the rigid formal bureaucracy and move toward a more distributed leadership organization. And that means that moving toward a more networked, more nimble, a more agile, a more learning organization.
In addition, leadership has to change from that command and control telling people what to do to leadership at every level to an organization and a leadership format where everybody feels that he, or she has an opportunity to lead.
Two actions to take as a leader
This is actually a call to action. So there are some to do’s here.
Know and communicate leadership signature
First one is to know and communicate your leadership signature. Let people know who you are, what kind of leader you are, so they know what to expect. So they, uh, know that you, because of who you are, are a bit of stability in that external world of chaos.
Build a distributed leadership organization
Try to build a distributed leadership organization, try to think about leaving some of those bureaucratic chains behind and start to give people a little bit more autonomy and freedom of action. Uh, not only at the top, but at multiple layers in the organization, it will make for a more adaptive organization and happier people, uh, in the end.