The Future Of Leadership

4.2.1 Future of Leadership: An introduction Leadership although an important component of business, is very difficult to define. Leaders must be open to change and must constantly work at developing their skills at managing people and also at evaluating these people. The managers and leaders must possess the right mind-set and organisations must build structures and systems which are designed to develop leaders. It is important for leaders to have belief in individual excellence and collaborative effort. Organisations today, must invest in leadership development and develop an environment where learning is a norm. Just like at GE, Crotonville Center, the leaders of tomorrow are developed in their global learning centers across the world.

However, in today’s complex and volatile environment, leadership at all levels are as important as it is at the top.

Organisations must build teams which are founded on trust and accountability as they operate in highly competitive environment. The new organisations which have evolved over a period of time can see higher levels of delegation and decision-making at all levels. Leaders must focus on guiding and communicating the vision and finding new ways to develop their staff. Managers are provided with new leadership responsibilities.

For companies which are agile and complex, flatter structures are important and leaders must be developed in a manner which encourages them to take lead, make the mistakes and learn from it. Today’s organisations are not bound by the rules and the hierarchical structures of the yesteryears.

The systems and cultures which are designed to develop new leaders is the key to success for new organisations . These organisations have more people leading at lower costs and the leaders are focussed on their vision than the day to day management of the business. This type of an environment leads to easier succession-planning in the long run as the leaders are prepared to go the extra mile for the

In the older companies, the corporate structure is such that the employees perform in order to satisfy the requirements of the management and they wait to be provided with the necessary direction.

How to create leaders in the organisation at all levels:

As a leader one can do the following in order to ensure that the organisation exists at all levels,

1. Create a vision and share it so that it inspires people to contribute more to the organisation.

2. Individuals are driven by purpose and they like to align themselves with leaders who are capable of making a difference

3. Creating a collaborative mind-set is important to an organisation and it helps align the business and is instrumental in aligning the purpose of the organisation and its goals.

4 Create a team, trust them and allow them to step into their leadership role. A leader’s responsibility is to create an environment where people and their talents flourish

When a team is provided with purpose, they are capable of creating an infrastructure and establish a culture which has the ability to bring change at all levels in the