Commentary
Leadership in today's economy
Maria Pia Chircop CEO, FHRD
The face of the world's economy continues to change through the mixed blessing of globalisation, which one can dare also to describe as messy and uneven, considering the extreme in its immediate impact.
In addition, the fast revolution in technology has engulfed us and confused us. We see big companies and their leaders crashing. There is a shift from corporate responsibility to individual responsibility, where no sensible person expects to spend a lifetime in a single corporation anymore. Job opportunities continue to shrink due to a number of factors among which outsourcing, automation and harsh competition mostly from the East. Job mobility, on the other hand, is on the increase as people continue their search for self-actualisation.
There is a cry for work-life balance not only for mothers but for every human being and this is an extraordinary opportunity to take charge of one's own life. These and many other realities, like starvation, poverty, global warming, dumping of waste, Third World debt, worldwide riots and terrorism and stock market crashes, continue to be the highlights of each day.
The role of leaders in such an uncertain economic environment becomes more critical. The command-and-control model of leadership, which often yields arrogance and ignorance, no longer accords the dynamic and revolutionary economy in its wide definition.
Instead we are in continuous search of a model of leadership that is loose, open, innovative and participative; a model that inspires confidence and trust, and that embraces spiritual, moral and people's values. We expect leaders to be assertive, risk-takers, creators of blame-free cultures, be talent fanatics and produce other leaders and not followers.
Leadership is not a position; it is not a title. But it is all about the behaviour, knowledge and skills that a person portrays, especially in difficult situations.
A survey completed by 462 executives, conducted by the American Management Association, shows that 56 per cent of these executives ranked ethical behaviour as one of the characteristics required for today's leaders, followed by sound judgment (51 per cent) and being adaptable/flexible (47 per cent).
The survey emphasises the importance for leaders to set professional standards for themselves first, constantly keeping their actions above reproach. However, they are to ensure that their people are trained in their company's ethics through hypothetical scenarios so they know what to do and how to act when faced with an ethical dilemma.
Unethical behaviour often springs from and is reinforced by destructive and painful mind states, such as anger, fear, greed and jealousy. Ethical behaviour, on the other hand, springs from and is reinforced by respect, support and understanding, generosity and optimism.
Ethics only happen when good beliefs lead to good behaviours. Without action, there are only good intentions.
Leaders take decisions about people, markets, products, processes and policies. Sound judgment and right decisions at the right time are key for business success.
Sound judgment often embraces the challenge of risk-taking, which can be developed through a number of means, among which, through broad and diverse direct experiences which also provide a wide portfolio of knowledge.
Scholars like H. Hogan, J. Hogan and others, provide 11 derailers of leadership failure and their implications for judgment. Among these derailers, three stand out: approval dependence, where a leader seeks and needs praise or reassurance from the top, which often leads to an inhibition to address the hard but necessary issues; argumentative, where the leader shows scepticism, is tense, perhaps even paranoid or suspicious, leading to a decision process overly directed towards competition with others; and risk-averse, where inaction and analysis paralysis are key risks for leadership failure.
This short commentary on Leadership in Today's economy is the theme of the FHRD annual conference, scheduled for November 9. The conference has been inspired to bring together leaders and specialists in the field of leadership, learning, training, education and organisational development with the aim of improving our workplaces.
Our keynote speakers are Michael McDonnell, director of the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD), Ireland, and president of the European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM), and Sergio Vella, general manager of Actavis Ltd in Malta.
More thoughts on leadership will be shared with our readers in our next monthly column in The Sunday Times on October 29. However, what the keynote speakers are going to present on D-day is still to be discovered.
As in previous years, along with our annual conference, a number of local providers of HR services and products will help us put together an exhibition. Some innovations will be introduced in the conference to render it also an enjoyable event. So we hope to have as many of our colleagues, friends and readers with us on d-day.
Sources: hrmonthly, April 2006, American Management Association, NY.
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