POST COVID-19 LEADERS SHOULD INSPIRE AND GET THINGS MOVING

POST COVID-19 LEADERS SHOULD INSPIRE AND GET THINGS MOVING ?(just telling what to do, is not good enough!)

The leadership of European organizations has been challenged to the edge in the unprecedented covid-19 times. In the core the qualities needed by senior leaders in the past weeks were in the area of ‘reacting’ to the pandemic and to ensure employees and the organization are as safe as possible.

Economies are opening up again and the senior leadership needs to define a route card how to reinvent yourself as company! Survey Company ‘Spring Today’ indicated that close to 70% of the companies has been seriously impacted in a financial way by the covid-19 pandemic. We need to reinvent ourselves again to overcome the economic down turn. As always there is a need to become better again and for senior leaders to lead on this path!

As Advantech Europe we have (in a way) used our time well during covid-19. First of all by keep on serving our customers and partners. Next to this we gave a strong focus to training and learning for all our employees and also attention via webinars for our Advantech leaders. It made me proud to see that so many of the Advantech Europe leaders joined the HR webinars on leadership and worked on becoming even better leaders themselves. I would say it is in the DNA of Advantech Europe leaders (and employees) to see the promise of growth of tomorrow and to start working on it today.

I really enjoyed listening recently to our inspiring Executive Director/ Advantech founding father, Chaney Ho when he conducted a webinar regarding leadership during covid-19 times. The presented line of thinking was that there is a change in leadership from ‘transactional leadership’ to ‘transformational leadership’. Transactional leadership stands for leading by pressure, KPI/OKR/process driven and results strictly measured! Transformational leadership stands for leading by example, people first/ task second and sympathy & understanding. Our founding father could not be more right if you follow international press regarding leadership.

To be effective as leader and/ or employee you need to have a ‘co-creation spirit’. The best co-creation leaders and/ or employees are in the middle of their organization, the world outside and they are born as ‘team workers’ with collaboration skills. They are knowledge and solution driven and not department driven. Cross-functional collaboration will bring agility and innovation (IDS survey results). Traditional hierarchical structures will mostly not work in the best way possible. The 21st century leaders need to understand this principle or they will declare themselves obsolete!

As we move slowly outside the most heated phase of the covid-19 pandemic and our public life is restarting, senior leaders need to change their focus and actions in the coming weeks. I liked a lot a recent research of the Deloitte Insights academy. They described a needed change for resilient leaders from ‘reacting’ to again ‘reinventing’ and from ‘inward looking’ again to ‘facing the markets and develop new scenarios for the future’.

I have always been a big fan of management guru Ricardo Semler. He wrote a beautiful book with the title ‘the weekend of seven days’. Imagine what could happen if work doesn’t feel like work, but feels like you are one with your passion. It is truly insightful to read that Semler implemented a system in his company that employees could decide on their own annual salary raise. His philosophy is that if you provide people with the right management information, they will make the right decisions.

When it came to the decision about deciding yourself of your salary raise, he provide employees with general information about the financial performance of the company and with information what employees in comparable functions could earn elsewhere. Always surprising to read in the book or hear him say himself that in general the consumed budget is lower than the original predictions or market trends. It teaches us that if people have adequate management information, even about a sensitive topic as their individual salary raise, they make wise decisions. Plus next to this it leads to a strong engagement between people and the company!

Next to Ricardo Semler I am also inspired by management guru Jim Collins. The book 'from good to great' is almost the official gospel of the Advantech company. It is inspiring to read how Collins defines the so called 'level 5 leadership'. The highest form of leadership. A leader who is very determined but also a leader who is humble and not ego driven. In the core he states that often ego hinders leaders to jump from level four leadership to level five leadership.

Inside Advantech I feel privileged with inspiring corporate leaders/founding fathers like KC Liu (CEO/President) and Chaney Ho (Executive Director). They have a proven track record of more than 35 years, having a fifth sense for the ‘signs of the times’ and leading the company with vision and in an inspirational way.

Last year we received full trust from our mother company to lead Advantech Europe to the next phase of maturity. In my eyes we have strong managing directors who understand what 21st century leaders need to bring and they work in a more organic way with questions that reveal the truth, promote the open debate and this all leads to better answers for the next line of challenges.

The world, technology and markets have become more complex. More often leadership at local negotiation tables is needed to do the right things. It is important to agree on principles of doing business and the role of ethics. The world has a pace that makes difficult to put in the rigidness of the traditional hierarchical lines.

It is always interesting to debate what gets an organization moving in the right direction when it comes to (senior) leadership? Does it help more if you spend time in structuring the organization with detailed organization charts, detailed function descriptions, guide lines what to do in specific situations and leaders who know everything better (the best) and provide you with detailed guidance how to move further. Or should leaders try to inspire, ask the right questions, make you think on a deeper level how to solve challenges, have no intention conduct ‘micro-management’.

As Advantech Europe we are truly an Internet of Things company and we believe that with the right information, with given trust and a climate of an open debate, people with make the right decisions in all our 14 sites in 10 countries @ so many negotiation tables. As Advantech Europe we are ready for the future. It is not something like a marketing slogan, but I see it happening every day inside our European offices.

Roel van der Poort

(This article is written on a personal title)