The world we live in today has changed unrecognisably since the 1980s and 1990s. Leaders needs to modernise for better results.
Back then, organisations got away with being controlling, greedy, flexible with the truth – driving for results at all costs.
The unspoken remit as an employee was do as you were told, work really hard, move up the ladder, and accept whatever your organisation and leaders did. Many bosses got away with poor leadership behaviour.
“This new world is demanding that our leaders change how they lead. Leaders must operate from a higher level of consciousness”
But the world has long changed, and there are still many leaders and stakeholders who need to catch up with the change.
Today’s world
Globalisation and the internet – along with other world influences – have brought new values that are demanding we run organisations differently.
Honesty, transparency, caring for and being in service of our employees, customers and our world is of primary importance.
It’s no longer acceptable to mistreat staff, to conceal information from the customer, to avoid paying tax or to abuse suppliers or the environment. Profitability and growth are of course important, but they cannot be the sole focus.
This new world is demanding that our leaders change how they lead. Leaders must operate from a higher level of consciousness. They can’t be myopically focused on profit.
If they run CSR initiatives or have vision missions and values statements, they need to mean it – it can’t just be a tick-in-the-box exercise. If it is lip service, the world knows it.
The retail world, and the world in general, is sniffing out and exposing this kind of leadership. Notice what’s happening to Mike Ashley, Sir Philip Green, Sepp Blatter to name a few.
There are many, many more who are leading in a way that is suboptimal for today’s world.
This style of leadership isn’t just about fitting into the world today. It is not just about being nice. There is significant research to suggest that a broader style of leadership is also what creates the optimum business results in the long-term.
Finding the right level
Leading from a higher consciousness requires that leaders develop a higher level of personal understanding and maturity.
At lower levels, when they’re unconsciously gripped by their ego, they’re focused on themselves – how they make the most money, how they get promoted most rapidly, how they control their future, how they increase their power and authority. It’s all about ‘them’, which is old world leadership.
“There is significant research to suggest that a broader style of leadership is also what creates the optimum business results in the long-term”
When leaders operate from a higher level, they realise that their psychological (ego) needs are largely met, so they learn to operate from helping and making a difference to others – employees, customers and wider society.
Leadership teacher Jim Collins called this ‘servant leadership’. It fits well in today’s world, it creates great results and it’s extremely rewarding.
Servant leadership requires a shift in worldview, a transformation in thinking that can be brought about through development, or sometimes just through life circumstance.
The question is… do you work on this yourself to be the best you can be, or wait for something or someone to expose you?
- Martin Palethorpe is founder of The Pragma Group, a UK-based performance consultancy
No comments yet