Leadership Disrupted 

Chapter One

Why our current approach to leadership is going to be disrupted - whether we like it or not! 

For the last nine years, it’s been my privilege and challenge to work in leadership development, in corporate, SME and public business as well as personal and spiritual development environments. 

It’s been a privilege because I have worked with some of the brightest, most visionary people in these fields, whose desire is to fulfil a mission, empowering their people to grow and become the most successful, fulfilled version of themselves. Fuelled by the desire to leave a legacy for everyone involved in the creation of the vision’s and for the generations that will inherit it, these leaders have inspired, motivated and stretched me through their passion and commitment, which is compelling and infectious. 

It has also been a challenge because one of the saddest statistics about leadership and management is still that the majority of people leave a role, not because of the company or a difficult co-worker - but, according to statistics from Gallup, because of their manager. 

To clarify, this isn’t necessarily due to the historical caricature of the unreasonable, autocratic boss who isn’t prepared to listen and perpetuates the attitude of ‘my way or the highway’, although that is still a common story. “Please can you get my boss on this course?” is the most frequent request from delegates, when I am facilitating middle management development programmes. 

The most current employee engagement statistics report that an employee’s decision to leave a role is less about their leader’s behaviour; it's more about their inability to support and develop each individual team member, to maximise the benefits of their unique perspective and skill sets. 

Being a leader has always been a challenging role but the changes that businesses are facing as we move more fully into the Agile age, are unprecedented. It’s a time of massive shake up, which has both extraordinary benefits and but also unaccustomed challenges.

One of the great benefits is that change is happening so quickly that the out-dated leadership attitudes of past decades are clearly unfit for purpose for the current climate. If leaders don’t update their mindset and practices, they will find themselves obsolete. 

According to research conducted by Deloitte, the half-life of a skill is diminishing rapidly. What was learned 10 years ago is obsolete and much of what was learned 5 years ago is irrelevant. While people are still people, with the same needs, drives, passions and fears which have the essence of the human condition from time immemorial, how we lead them has to be radically different: far more inclusive, collaborative and fluid. 

It’s a time where the foundations of many businesses, built on old, hierarchical systems, need to be renovated. In the workplace of the future, which is just around the corner, we will need agile leaders, who will embrace innovation, take risks and have the mindset to succeed in the face of ambiguity. In past generations, it was a few great leaders, like Steve Jobs, who embodied this attitude and created unparalleled success for their companies. Jobs is a good example of what happens when a more conventional, cautious approach is threatened by a visionary who is prepared to take the risks necessary to create extraordinary success. The story of the Founder of Apple being ‘relieved of operational responsibilities’ by his own Board and returning in 1997, to rescue a sinking ship. Not that he didn’t learn some valuable leadership lessons from his 12 years in exile but, in the new paradigm we are going to need more visionaries like Steve Job and learn to create effective processes that support managed risk taking, instead of allowing fear of the unknown to cause companies to play it safe. Safe will synonymous with out-dated and irrelevant in the Agile age. 

Historical business models have been dysfunctional for decades. 

For generations, employees, the best resource a company has, have been under-utilised, demoralised and under-developed. 

In the old model of business, based on hierarchy, there was a clear delineation between leadership teams and employees. It’s not uncommon, when reading the management literature of the 1960’s and 70’s (of which many models are still used) it is not uncommon for non-management employees to be referred to as ‘subordinates’. This was the working environment experienced by the ‘baby boomers’ generation who, having in a world still recovering from the ravages of war that many of us couldn’t imagine, were grateful to live in a calmer, safer world. Although feminism was shaking up attitudes (the introduction of contraception, promoting women’s rights to work and fighting sexual discrimination and harassment), its impact on business and working conditions was still in its infancy. Employees might not like their conditions, pay, bosses, jobs but there was a mindset that you ‘put up and shut up’, worked hard (during your 9-5 hour day) and took a pay check home at the end of the month. Most people who wanted to work, worked. 

Whether he job was a good fit for your personality, natural abilities or passions (or you, for the company) wasn’t even a consideration. The wrong people could stay in the wrong jobs for their whole career. The global recession didn’t hit until the 1980’s but when it did, it shattered the expectation of ‘a job for life’ as employees, who had been in role for 20 years, were made redundant. A painful time for many, but it woke people up to the dangers of complacency and forced them to explore possibilities they never would have considered, otherwise - whether they were directly affected by the restructuring of the work place, or saw its impact on colleagues or family members.

The traditional path of management development path prescribed that people worked hard and either achieved academic qualifications or worked their way up through the ranks - and then stayed there. If you were in charge, in most cases your decision was law, whether it was a good decision, or not. WhileThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,Stephen Covey (1989) was becoming a best seller, it was considered a self help book, not a manual to be adopted for business development. The concept of emotional intelligence was alien for most people, until Daniel Goleman wrote his book of the same name, in 1995. It wasn’t focused on the business environment until its sequel, Working With Emotional Intelligencewas published in 1998. While a few visionary leaders embraced its ideas, the structures, systems and attitudes of many traditional businesses meant that the status quo remained the same.

A different ‘revolution’ by Generation X, has incidentally had a monumental impact on the expectations the current workforce. Rebelling against the more austere attitude to parenting from their Baby Boomer fathers and mothers, they lavished emotional support and a belief that they ‘deserve the best and can be anything they want’ on their offspring, the Millennials, resulting in a very different expectation of the employee experience. Much maligned, the Millennials have been accused of having an attitude of entitlement and, in the extreme, this is evident. Conversely, a positive impact they have had, influencing the workforce in general, is a desire to be part of something that has purpose, can influence decisions about the work they are involved in, and their working culture and environment.

In the past, the perceived idealism of the Millennials and the Generation Z, who follows them, would probably been extinguished by an uncomfortable dose of reality, within the first six months of work, unless they were lucky enough to join a company like Zappos. As it is, these generations are suffering from a disturbing level of depression, feeling let down by their parents who they feel, despite the best of intentions have set them up to fail. They have realised they don’t get a prize for coming last in the real world - and it has severely undermined their confidence. This disillusion has motivated those who are resilient to create to look for better options.

In this era, the resource of the internet has not only allowed the workforce to research opportunities with companies who are more of a match for their expectations but has given rise to a new generation of entrepreneurs. The relatively low costs of starting a business (a laptop and a website - or just a Facebook account) and the level of connectivity that allows people to run their companies from almost anywhere in the world, has meant that many disillusioned, bright, ambitious young people have decided not to buy into the idea that you need to have a job. They are creating businesses which fulfil their skills set, passions and creativity, with a work life balance that is a release from the drudgery of full-time employment, for someone else.

We should be grateful to these generations for turning the spotlight on work practices and expectations that are just not sustainable, fulfilling or even generating the desired end results. According to statistics collated over the last five years, productivity has only gone up by 1% despite the fact employees work much longer hours, rarely take a lunch break away from their desks and are answering emails during the evenings, weekends and holidays. 

A headline from the UK’s Guardian newspaper, from January 2018, asked the question, “Do you work more than a 39 hour week? Your job could be killing you.” It goes on to present statistics from research collated by American, British and Australian universities that illustrate how the stress of working more than 39 hours is directly correlated to premature death and the risk of heart-attack increasing five-fold. It also highlights the findings that, even if the working week is 39 hours or less, if morale is low and the work is disenfranchising, productivity, engagement and fulfilment won’t increase notably. When a report by YouGov states that 37% of the British workforce thinks that their job is meaningless, it’s time to take action.

Norway is ranked as the second most productive workforce in the world and, according to research the 2nd happiest (being knocked off their number 1 ranking by Finland, according to the World Happiness Report, 2018). With a 27 hour working week and compulsory minimum leave of 21 days per year (compare to America, where the leave entitlement is often only 10 days), they have something to be happy about. Their productivity also increased by 9% in 2017, which clearly illustrates the correlation between a healthier working environment and the success of a company.

A major concern raised by the WHR indicates the increase of three major challenges to health, directly related to people’s happiness levels: obesity, the opioid crisis and depression. The US was identified as having a greater, more rapid increase in these problems than anywhere else in the world. A third of Americans state they work longer hours than the standard 40 hour week.

Millennials and Generation Z, have been more vocal in their desire for greater satisfaction from their work and its environment and we should be thankful for their outspokenness, challenging the rest of us to dare to believe there might be an alternative to this ‘slow death’. That expectation of being able ‘to have and be what they want’, may just pay off for all of us.

And of course, the generations born from the mid 1980’s onwards have a powerful advantage in business. They are highly fluent in IT; it is second nature to them and they have the neural agility to keep up with the speed of innovation that is a constant feature of our modern world. As around 50% of the workforce will be made up of the Millennials and Generation Z by 2020, we need to know how to lead them in a way that that engages and motivates them.

The workplace is going to have to manage another massive shift by 2020. According to Forbes Business Magazine, in three year’s time, 50% of the US workforce will be freelance, with the rest of the western world close behind. Not all of these freelancers will be full-time but they will be providing a service in addition to their regular employment, with the intention, for many, of making the transition to running their own full-time business.

This is a serious concern for big business, as, if they don’t look after their up and coming talent, they will lose them. A high turnover of staff is expensive and bad for the reputation. With the introduction of websites like Glassdoor, employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction is easily accessible. With an increasing level of transparency around business practices, working conditions and progression opportunities, companies are finding it harder and harder to hide true levels of performance, despite expensive PR and marketing campaigns.

There is no doubt that organisational change is a challenge. Even if we are naturally predisposed to enjoying variety and new experiences our survival responses are triggered when we are concerned about a potential change, making us cautious and resistant. The success rate of change programmes has historically been around 30%, which means there can already be a notable lack of enthusiasm before they are even embarked upon. These programmes, motivated by the desire to increase margins and generate revenue, have often focused on operational strategy, neglecting the most important asset a company has: its people. 

It doesn’t matter how efficient your strategy is, if it doesn’t consider the human factor, it is going to fail. It is not enough to pay tacit attention to the Change Curve model, based on the work of Elizabeth Klubber-Ross, and try to motivate people into accepting changes which they don’t consider to be in their best interests. Within a situation as stressful as organisational change, motivation can quickly turn into coercion and end up as forced compliance. An unhappy situation for the majority and often doubly stressful for middle managers, who are having to implement changes that they don’t agree with. They are often ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’, needing to satisfy their stakeholders, galvanise and supporting their teams and manage their own concerns and fears, without receiving adequate support, themselves.

Not a crisis, a much needed catalyst.

I appreciate that the picture I have painted, so far, is gloomy and not a surprise to any of us who have been involved in the corporate world. I have reiterated it to emphasis the level of dysfunctionally that the majority of the workforce experiences on a daily basis. This is not to depress anyone but to wake us up to the fact that the system is well and truly broken and it’s futile to keep trying to fix it by putting sticking platers over compound fractures. 

We know what happens in nature: if an organism doesn’t adjust to changes in its environment, it becomes extinct. If organisations don’t want to end up the same way, they need to acclimatise to the Agile age. We have already well established companies like Blockbuster go into receivership in 2010, due to the innovation of on demand movies by Netflix and similar companies, followed by HMV in 2013, who could no longer compete with the digital music industry. The benefits to the consumer were vast.

Whilst these innovations improved processes, increasing convenience and reducing costs, one of the most welcome advantages created was that customers could enjoy products and services tailored to their individual needs. Spotify, the digital music service, has enabled music lovers to listen to an endless variety of music, for a minimal monthly fee, or no cost at all, if you don’t mind hearing the occasional advert. There is no need to purchase a whole album and discover you only like one or two tracks; you can create your own, unlimited playlists, comprising only the songs you love.

This desire for bespoke experiences and the technology to create them has influenced our expectations of the workplace. Employees live in a world catering for their individual personalities and desire unique experiences. It’s not only the Millennials and Generation Z who are raising the question of why this can’t be applied to the workplace.

The familiar argument that cost prohibits innovation in creating a bespoke workplace experience is losing its credibility. Not only is the cost of the development of technology rapidly decreasing, it is allowing more effective products, services and systems to be created less expensively. Thankfully, the practice of working from home is one of the innovations that is becoming more and more common, freeing employees from the drudgery of commuting and giving them a greater sense of collaboration in creating an effective work/life balance.

So, what else is making us resistant to change?

According to the Heartmath Institute, who measure the effects of emotions on our electromagnetic field, 70% of us operate in survival mode most of the time, because of the high degree of stress we are constantly subjected to in modern society.  Often, we are more influenced by the emotions of anxiety, fear, doubt, worry, hostility, judgement, competition, anger, sadness, guilt and insecurity than the more inclusive emotions of trust, kindness, generosity, patience, peacefulness and happiness. We are addicted to stress, even though it is so bad for us. These survival emotions constantly ‘on standby’ in the back ground and we are constantly on the alert for potential danger. This is why, when we go on holiday (even if we make the decision to unplug from emails and social media), it can take us days to unwind; once we do relax, we often become ill or have marathon sleeps, as the body makes the most of the opportunity to reset.

Because of this ‘survival mode’ conditioning, when plans for change are presented to us, we are not always able to see possibility, because we are unconsciously looking for signs for potential danger (job loss, increased responsibility and work load, less resources). When we are in this mode, our tendency is to cling to the status quo because it feels familiar. We effectively freeze - the third flight/fight response to danger. 

It’s understandable, then, that if you have worked your way up to a senior role through gaining good qualifications that were a prerequisite for your position or worked hard, gaining years of experience in your company or field, you may feel that you have already proved your worth and are entitled to your success. You are, quite rightly, proud of your achievements and feel they have earned your position. Your expectation may be, consciously or unconsciously, that for people to succeed, they need to follow the same trajectory. This is a very traditional model of progress. You study/work hard. Put in the years, demonstrate your abilities over a significant period of time then reap the rewards of your work.

While this approach to leadership develops the desirable characteristics of discipline, patience and a strategic mindset, it is a ‘slow progress’ model. Attached to this mindset there is often the assumption that, after all the hard work, you can feel satisfied with your achievements and relax your efforts. Extreme cases of this mindset result in complacency and identification with past performance, rather than current relevancy. To prepare ourselves for the Agile age we need to examine whether, because we are so used to considering ourself as the expert, that we may not be open to new ways of thinking. if we are not, the process of cognitive dissonance will provide us with all the excuses we need to maintain our unconscious bias and our position, repressing new thought and creativity.

In his excellent book, “What’s Your Moonshot?” Trend specialist and Business Innovation Strategist, John Sanei talks about many innovations in industry that were discounted because business leaders weren’t imaginative enough to consider new possibilities. One of the examples he refers to is the digital camera. The original digital camera was invented by an employee at Kodak, who couldn’t see the potential of his idea and dismissed it. At that time stakeholders could not perceive that the large, clumsy prototype held secrets of the future of their industry.  Digital photography brought about the demise of Kodak, who filed for bankruptcy in 2012. They could have significantly expanded their industry, instead of destroying a large part of their market share.

If you have realised that you may fall into this category, I applaud you. Self-awareness is the start to making a shift and it takes humility to admit that you - not the system, not your colleagues, you - need to change. Having this realisation is the first step because engrained behaviour patterns aren’t easy to change: it will take commitment, adjusting habits, learning new and different leadership approaches that may be outside your comfort zone, coaching and, brace yourself - perhaps even some mentoring from a Millennial or Generation Z. You don’t have to call it that, of course, but it would be a very smart move to take the time to really listen and be open to what makes these generations tick. 

It’s not enough to read reports; although they provide valuable insights, they are generic. You need to speak to people in your company, who are facing the specific challenges of your business and be prepared to consider the information, insights and potential opportunities they are sharing with you. Becoming comfortable with taking risks is going to be a necessary adjustment to living in the Agile age. A good start is to put the ego aside and have the humility to respect the expertise in knowledge and skill of your employees born after 1985: the Millennials and Generation Z.

Your resistance to change may come in another guise. You may be a forward-thinking leader with a desire to implement better practices and create a healthier working environment but are concerned about the reaction to these ideas from the hierarchy; you may be concerned about experiencing backlash as a result of challenging the status quo, or you’ve become so jaded by having your ideas or feedback negated that you have lost enthusiasm for your vision.

Prospects are good: we’ve reached the tipping point.

If you fall into the latter mindset, you can start to feel optimistic about the future. Because the work system is so broken and transparency of information is increasing any excuses to maintain old, outdated systems and mindsets in business, that can’t be validated, will be seen for what they are those that try to maintain them will be removed, or the businesses will crumble. That may sound like an idealist point of view, but with the speed at which IT and AI are advancing, it will come to fruition quicker than you may think. As a future-focused leader, who keeps yourself current by yourself by researching new trends within your industry and innovation within a wider sphere, you will ensure that you are prepared and agile enough to move effectively into this new era of working and living.

There have, of course, always been thriving companies with great leaders at the helm. Those leaders who are clear about their mission and whose values for excellence permeate their company culture, creating loyal employees who feel their work is purposeful and their contribution is appreciated. Long established companies like Berkshire Hathaway, Walt Disney and General Electric and more recently Apple, Google and Zappos have pioneered a better way of working but they have been the exception, rather than the rule.

In the past, even with case studies examining the principles and practices of these companies, excuses were given that these giants were the exception to the rules and that there was almost some magic ingredient that couldn’t be uncovered or that it was too difficult to replicate in established companies. “We can’t do that: it’s too hard, too expensive,” was the unspoken mindset. 

It has always been possible and with the tools available to measure and analyse results we are beginning to be able to create clearly duplicable models for success. In the following chapters I will share my insights and experiences from working with engaged, effective, successful teams, so that you can begin to create the mindset, strategies and adaptability to not only survive, but to thrive in the Agile age.

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