People; Leadership :The Revolutionary Messiah

GENERATION 21X SPEAK : LEADERSHIP
Piper at the Gates of Dawn

By S. Sankalp

Everyone wants to be a leader. Not all, obviously, can be one. In the arena of leadership too Darwinism prevails. Organisations will struggle to survive this millennium; so will leaders. Today, employees, who are more aware and confident than ever before, have begun questioning the very principles of leadership. Add to this, changes in the environment which affect the roles and responsibilities of leaders. Thus, this millennium we are certain to witness a re-definition of the basic tenets of leadership.

Leadership styles can be transformational and transactional. Transactional leadership is a balanced approach which tailors actions to situations and the maturity of followers and is result oriented. Transactional leaders rely on practical guidance. They also clarify the roles and tasks of followers and maintain a reward and reinforcement system, by allowing subordinates to know what is expected of them and what they can receive in return.

Transformational leaders, on the other hand, are capable of changing the values, beliefs and vision of their followers. They pay individualised attention to their followers and inspire and motivate them to transcend self-interest and work towards the greater common good or a shared vision. Such leaders can successfully deal with complexity and uncertainty. Both will be defining-characteristics of this millennium. Transformational leaders can help followers develop confidence and faith in the outcomes of their actions.

The corporate leader will have to be a transformational one. In a survey conducted by the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, 83 per cent of the 165 senior managers surveyed voted in favour of a transformational style of leadership. This is only to be expected. For, in pre-liberalisation India, corporate leadership flourished in a protectionist license-raj. Vision, inspiration, and empowerment were not required. This led to the prevalence of authoritarian leadership styles.

But post-liberalisation India is a different story. At the start of the millennium, companies not only have to grapple with changes that have come about in the wake of globalisation; they have to deal with globalisation, the convergence of technologies, and customers and employees who are becoming more mature. Firms have to be lean and mean; as a consequence, the dismantling of hierarchies, and, empowerment have become key leadership issues. With power distributed across the organisations, decision-making can only be participative. And the new leader can only inspire and not command. All these makes a transformational style an imperative.

The organisational lifecycle is also a key determinant of leadership style. Lawrence Miller in Barbarians To Bureaucrats, talks of a strong relationship between the lifecycle of a company and the nature of its leadership. According to Miller, the organisation experiences a steady rise to peak health followed by a gradual decline. Typically, leadership roles like the prophet, the barbarian, the builder and the explorer are enacted while a company is on its way up the bell curve. At its peak, the organisation is led by the synergist or the facilitator. And leaders act as administrators and bureaucrats only when the organisation is on a downhill ride.

Millennial leaders will not be transactional managers but transformational leaders who will work with, and through, their people, using tools such as self-directed teams, rotating team leadership, and participative decision-making. Empowerment will be a moving spirit behind this team-based leadership. Teams will have to be empowered to be able to perform without direction from the top. They may be drawn across a range of age groups, areas of interest, and experience. The team may have a formal leader or one chosen by the team. At times, a natural leader will emerge, based on his charisma. This self-direction, followed by the decimation of hierarchy, will be essential for the flat structures that most companies will possess this millennium.

What should be the key attributes of such transformational leaders? Renee Lerche, the Workforce Manager of the Ford Motor Company, outlined some when he presented Ford's Leadership Behaviours, at the Learning First Alliance Summit, in Washington, D.C. in February, 1998. These are: integrity, or doing the right thing; courage, at taking action in the face of challenge; durability, or persevering despite hardships; people development, or nurturing and developing employees; communications, or exchanging information and ideas that influence others; desire to serve, or demonstrating personal commitment; drive for results, or getting the job done; systemic thinking, or seeing beyond the details; business acumen, or understanding the essential requirements of the business; innovation, or applying learning for competitive advantage; and quality methods, or understanding what it takes to do quality work.

The millennial leader should also possess the capability to translate a vision into reality. He has to be a visionary. There are many hurdles that the millennial leader will have to scale. The millennium will witness globalisation, rapid technological changes that will make existing definitions of businesses and industries irrelevant, and an increased need for speed and flexibility. The major issues facing the millennial manager will be developing organisational capabilities, maximising shareholder value, and integrating horizontal capabilities. He or she will also have to face challenges posed by e-commerce activities, virtual offices, and the development of extranets. Leaders will also have to retain and grow talent through the innovative design of compensation, and knowledge management, and emotional intelligence. And they will also have to ensure that their organisations remain fleetfooted enough to respond to the continuously-changing business environment. A tall order-but perfect for the generation of transformational CEOs of this millennium.

S. Sankalp is a second-year MBA student at the Xavier Institute of Management

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