Modern-day leadership: What Will it Take to Lead in the Future?

How do we gear up for the next decade where rapid and continuous disruption will be the order of the day? I believe we need to strengthen and capitalize on the value equation as leaders, so that we can lead diverse, globally complex, and interrelated organizations.

Modern leadership demands universal and global competence and a proactive management style. Does that mean we need to recode our leadership style completely? Or simply bundle several practices, traditional and modern, and tailor a dynamic style suited to manage the ever-evolving business landscape?

At its core, I reckon, the fundamental elements of leadership remain unchanged. It is popularly defined as – “a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.” As leaders, we do that based on our personal value system, beliefs, emotional intelligence, culture, skill, knowledge, and competence.

The idea here is to explore varying leadership styles – the established as well as the emerging ones and see how we can adopt, adapt, and blend these to guide and inspire the modern workforce and millennial evolution. 

Transactional leadership works through the effort-reward paradigm. While this type of leadership has worked for years, it is based on management by exception. In other words, it is more responsive than proactive. It also inherently assumes that workers are not self-motivated and rely on defined structure/hierarchy and incentives to drive and motivate the workforce to deliver and perform.

On the other hand, transformational leadership is more ‘inspiring than telling.’ It helps build relationship capital, collaborate, ideate, engage at a deeper level and advance each other towards a common goal. A terrific example of transformational leadership is of the Auto legend Sergio Marchionne, the ex-CEO of Fiat Chrysler, who transformed the struggling car manufacturer into a profitable company through effective change management strategies.   

Many studies have posited that transactional leadership, due to its limitations and hierarchical management style, is passive and ineffective in meeting current and future leadership requirements. In a hypermobile landscape where digitization continues to create and destroy business value, talent management and engagement are vital to predicting, understanding, and solving unpredictable and unusual problems. Plus, transformational leadership in progressive (forward-looking) in nature that helps better manage the multi-generational workforce and keep the organization fluid and adaptable to changes.

That said, we need to run a profitable business while leveraging the disruption to our advantage.  This means, adopting both the leadership styles in the right measure is essential in order to sustain and scale through innovation. 

Democratic and bureaucratic leadership frameworks comprise essential aspects of a leadership model, and both transformational and transactional styles can be seen as subsets. While many may have a slightly unfavorable view of bureaucratic style, it is important to note that this is the oldest framework that has undergone a massive change over the years. In reality, everything works under the realm of a bureaucratic framework where systems, rules, and regulations underpin order, accountability, and functionality. Although, this rule-based hierarchical style of leadership can stifle flexibility, creativity, and innovation.

Whereas, democratic leadership is more inclusive and radical that allows greater collaboration. Under this leadership, employees feel more engaged and empowered, resulting in better productivity and employee satisfaction.

However, we are aware of the fact that to skillfully navigate the next wave of technology disruption, we need speed, agility, efficiency as well as creativity. Both these styles have distinct merits; therefore, they should be adopted based on the nature of the business to achieve both qualitative and quantitative goals.  

In an increasingly global economy, we need to develop a better and more in-depth understanding of the role diversity can play in fostering innovation and gaining a competitive advantage. As we continue to operate in multiple markets, target varied demographics with different cultures and demands, a diverse set of perspectives, experiences, and multi-market backgrounds are crucial to developing new ideas. Building and nurturing diverse and inclusive workforce can help us amplify creativity, enhance and leverage collective intelligence and build relevant strategies to meet increasingly complex, competitive, and sophisticated market demands successfully.  

Lastly and most importantly, in my perspective, employees respond to authenticity, and how you treat others outside of the office reflects the authentic self. While it is important to develop and re-engineer our leadership style to keep pace with the changing imperatives, one cannot find any success without authenticity. You cannot build trust if you are not yourself. As leaders, we cannot have a different set of value systems, guiding our personal and professional lives. Simply put, for me, how a person treats their loved ones is a window into how they are as a leader. 

An authentic leader is aware of their limitations, vulnerabilities, strengths, and emotions; self-awareness is critical to driving successful outcomes. They are empathetic and can communicate with their employees at a deeper level and in a more productive manner. Being true to ourselves also helps continuously reflect, introspect, and nurture our emotional intelligence to better engage with the world around us.

I live by my values both inside and outside of the workplace – a practice that has helped me gain a greater understanding of self and my surroundings and navigate paradoxes, complexities, and practical dilemmas in a modern organization meaningfully.