Why Next-Generation Leadership is Important Now

Premise

I claim no merit in publishing this article beyond adapting the original piece in german by Torben Lohmüller , Partner at Dark Horse, a Berlin-based Innovation Management Consulting company with which I collaborate.

I felt it was important to extend the reach from the German audience to the English-speaking community, as the article is both inspiring and well-written. Not only do I find it extremely relevant, but I also strongly believe in the overarching message it conveys.

I've frequently encountered leadership issues, whether stemming from myself or those around me, and each instance has been a learning opportunity. Upon reflection and analysis, I've realized that fear of losing control or a lack of trust were often at the core. Leaders often believe that the burden of decision-making rests solely on their shoulders and that they inherently know more or better than others. In reality, change happens so quickly that the concept of "knowing something" becomes increasingly fleeting. Additionally, leaders often mistakenly think that their teams work for them, when in fact, it's the opposite—they work for their teams by establishing the right framework and culture, providing coaching, and removing obstacles.

I experienced my first lesson in Agile leadership in China in 2002 when the team driving one of my projects managed to be much more effective than me by adopting a "do and fix" approach instead of my rigid "linear planning." It was my first wow moment. I later discovered the full power of agility while working in software environments.

In this article, you will uncover several intriguing leadership transitions, either mentioned directly or implied:

FROM ====> TO

• FROM Delegation + Control => TO Empowerment
• FROM Leaders think > Team executes => TO Distributed expertise & competence
• FROM Approval process => TO Decentralized decisions
• FROM Expert knowledge => TO Lifelong learning
• FROM Information tightly controlled => TO Information transparently shared

.......ENJOY THE READING ?? !!

Lorenzo

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Why The New Leadership Is Important Now

The traditional leadership model of a manager who delegates and controls has come to an end. New leadership approaches are required for the evolving landscape of Work 4.0 - now more than ever.

Our era of exponential change demands a new kind of leadership: post-heroic management that fosters creative knowledge work, leverages the positive effects of team diversity, and empowers effectively organized teams.

Beyond competence in agile methodologies, it necessitates self-awareness and a foundational systemic understanding to transition from a paternalistic boss to an enabler of New Work. In short, a new attitude is essential for a new era.

No more heroes!

As early as the mid-1990s, sociologist Dirk Baecker heralded the end of the predominantly male, lone-warrior leadership style. With his insights on post-theoretical management, he highlighted the complexities of an increasingly networked and globalized world, advocating for a different systemic understanding of leadership.

A quarter of a century later—after several waves of digitalization, economic crises, and a pandemic—the need for effective leadership is more urgent than ever. In this context, a new term is gaining traction in management magazines, staff development programs, and leadership conferences: New Leadership, or Leadership 4.0.

This term defines leadership for the fourth industrial revolution. It offers guidance in navigating the uncertainty of a more complex and ambivalent world.

New Leadership encompasses a range of seemingly contradictory concepts. It includes maximizing productivity, fostering innovation, and enhancing employee autonomy, alongside promoting a culture of trust, empathy, and a focus on employee empowerment.

Let's take a brief look at how these elements come together and what we mean by New Leadership.

Agility as a response to the challenges of our time

Digitalization, globalization, and ecological, economic, political, and technical upheavals—our time is rife with disruptions that render business-as-usual and reliance on proven methods impossible.

In this context, agility and organization are buzzwords frequently cited as solutions to a work and management culture that no longer functions effectively.

Distributed expertise and competencies, as opposed to the Tayloristic separation between thinking (above) and executing (below), rapid decentralized decision-making instead of lengthy official channels, and a more holistic view of individuals rather than perceiving employees as mere order recipients are some characteristics of the "new" form of working.

The fact that a long-established company like Daimler has embedded such values into its leadership agenda and aims to promote "swarm intelligence" demonstrates that new leadership has undoubtedly entered the mainstream of business.

Some may ask, why do we need leadership at all when agile teams are coached by a Scrum Master but otherwise work independently through orders from the backlog?

What kind of leadership is necessary when, in the age of COVID-19, so-called knowledge workers are working in an organized—and for some, unexpectedly productive—manner from home offices? What role does leadership play now that the era of heroic leaders is hopefully behind us?

Contemporary leadership needs agile methodologies and reflective competence.

More and more industries and organizations, far removed from startup clichés, are taking notice. User-centricity, feedback-led project development through iterative loops, and learning from inexpensive prototypes may not yet be standard practice everywhere, but they have already found their way into many automotive suppliers, food companies, banks and insurance companies, health insurance companies, and public administrations.

With digitization and the exponentially increasing speed of change, the half-lives of information and knowledge are shrinking dramatically. Expert knowledge, once acquired, is increasingly being replaced by the ability and willingness to engage in lifelong learning.

This is especially true for leaders. Metacognitive competencies, or the ability to think about one's own thinking, evaluate it, and, if necessary, change it, are becoming much more important.

Organizations that are seriously embarking on transformation are recognizing that agile working necessitates a fundamental rethinking of the impact of leadership. In agile projects, it is no longer the leader alone who controls the project with their technical expertise; rather, it is user behavior or the collective intelligence of cross-functional teams that takes precedence.

Skills traditionally associated with leadership, such as assertiveness, decisiveness, and task delegation, become dysfunctional in this environment. Other personal competencies are required. But what are they?

A Question of Attitude: The Leader as Enabler

We found an answer in Roger M. Schwarz's book, which is actually aimed at facilitators. The English term "facilitator" is inadequately translated as "moderator," since it literally means facilitator or enabler.

There is hardly a better term to sum up the essence of new leadership. We see its most important task as bringing out and fostering the potential and creativity of those who make up our organizations—namely the employees.

The qualities of the skilled facilitator described by Schwarz can also be excellently applied to leadership in the dimensions of attitude, behavior, and results:

• Transparency and curiosity are just as much a part of New Leadership as the self-critical questioning of one's own assumptions and convictions.
• An open approach to information and transparency about one's own goals and intentions are some of the behavioral characteristics that lead to better decisions, more innovation, a more open learning and error culture, and ultimately, more satisfied and motivated employees.

Recognising the complexity in people

This is no longer just about managing the complexity outside the organization but also about managing the complexity within.

As consultants, we are frequently asked what can be done to intrinsically motivate employees. This question reveals a worldview that relies on linear cause-and-effect mechanisms, applying this machine logic to management as well.

People can be stimulated to behave predictably only to a very limited extent, such as through extrinsic rewards. However, if we create an environment where individuals can develop according to their potentials and talents, they will motivate themselves to act, even if their actions are not always predictable and controllable.

Gregory Bateson succinctly captured the difference between dealing with inanimate objects and living systems. He noted that it is, in principle, possible to calculate the trajectory of a ball after it has been kicked with a certain force at a certain angle.

However, when trying to apply the same procedure to a dog, the result remains uncertain. We cannot know in advance how the dog will process the kick—whether it will run away, bite us, or take advantage of an unnoticed moment afterwards to seek revenge.

What is true for the dog can also be applied to the people in our organizations: living systems react to outside stimuli according to their individualities and not in the way we calculated in advance. Goodbye command and control!

What works in the agile world as a strategy for dealing with external complexity—the step-by-step, feedback-driven approach of build, measure, learn, or develop hypotheses, test, and learn from the difference to reality—also helps in dealing with our employees.

The new leader shines through the Not-knowing and Self-leadership

This requires a very special kind of courage from leaders: the courage to deal with uncertainty and ignorance.

Being able to endure both while still taking responsibility for oneself and one's actions is a quality in which leaders can serve as role models for their employees. If leaders are internally clear in their attitudes and orientations, they can also offer guidance to others, even when the situation becomes unclear.

Leadership begins with self-leadership.

Those who are at ease with their own self-organization can also value it at the team and organizational levels, thereby promoting creativity and productivity. The prerequisite for this is confidence in the employees' ability to solve their own urgent issues.

Through authentic relationship building and sincere questioning, leaders can help employees develop solutions that are meaningful and workable for them. If leaders then manage to communicate their expectations and goals clearly and transparently, they will have achieved what New Leadership is all about on a personal level when combined with knowledge of agile methods. This approach paves the way for better decisions, increased innovation, and greater trust and satisfaction among employees.

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