Redefining New Leadership Traits
I have always asserted that for the most part companies focus too much on certain leadership traits over others. You know, the hard skills over the soft skills, the deep analytical skills over intuitive skills. This is not to say that these skills are not valuable; they really are. But - I know, the use of " but" is passe and should not be used - the fact is that all organizations needs all skills at all levels. This is one the core learnings from Innovation Management. For a succesful Innovation practice to flourish, you need to create an intersection of diverse traits and skills.
So, what prompted me to write this entry? The fact that I am sensing that there is a new awareness out there about these issues as I am reading many articles in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), for example, that seem to be searching for new answers regarding leadership, collaboration and innovation.
Could it be that we are reevaluating how we define leadership and how we find new leaders? If HBR is writing about this stuff then it must be gaining considerable currency in the rest of the business world, right? I certainly hope so because it feels good to be validated after years of speaking about it.
Two weeks ago I spoke about it tangentially during my keynote speech at a Frost and Sullivan conference. The essence of my speech was that we must engage the World for all it offers: creativity, leadership, best practices, knowledge centers, etc...
One of the lessons of global leadership is that traits such as humbleness should not be dismissed - as we do in the USA - as merely weak traits. I see this all the time. Instead of embracing these traits and the people behind them, we dismiss them and cast them aside. A wonderful treatise on this subject is an interview with Linda A Hill, a professor at Harvard and an expert in Leadership, where she talks about new ways to find Global Leadership.
The January 2008 issue of HBR has some additional interesting nuggets to consider. The one article that I would like to site is titled: Learning the Fine Art of Global Collaboration by Alan MacCormack and Theodore Forbath. The title says it all. One particular passage that I would like to address talks about People being one the critical four components of succesful global collaboration with the other three being processes, platforms and programs. In any case, in the dissection of what is important in people they write: "succesful firms alter their recruitment, training, evaluation, and reward systems to focus on "soft" skills such as communication."
Need I say more...
So, what prompted me to write this entry? The fact that I am sensing that there is a new awareness out there about these issues as I am reading many articles in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), for example, that seem to be searching for new answers regarding leadership, collaboration and innovation.
Could it be that we are reevaluating how we define leadership and how we find new leaders? If HBR is writing about this stuff then it must be gaining considerable currency in the rest of the business world, right? I certainly hope so because it feels good to be validated after years of speaking about it.
Two weeks ago I spoke about it tangentially during my keynote speech at a Frost and Sullivan conference. The essence of my speech was that we must engage the World for all it offers: creativity, leadership, best practices, knowledge centers, etc...
One of the lessons of global leadership is that traits such as humbleness should not be dismissed - as we do in the USA - as merely weak traits. I see this all the time. Instead of embracing these traits and the people behind them, we dismiss them and cast them aside. A wonderful treatise on this subject is an interview with Linda A Hill, a professor at Harvard and an expert in Leadership, where she talks about new ways to find Global Leadership.
The January 2008 issue of HBR has some additional interesting nuggets to consider. The one article that I would like to site is titled: Learning the Fine Art of Global Collaboration by Alan MacCormack and Theodore Forbath. The title says it all. One particular passage that I would like to address talks about People being one the critical four components of succesful global collaboration with the other three being processes, platforms and programs. In any case, in the dissection of what is important in people they write: "succesful firms alter their recruitment, training, evaluation, and reward systems to focus on "soft" skills such as communication."
Need I say more...
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