Leadership in the 21st century: Approach in Leading a company identifying the topics necessary to meet 21st century challenges

1. Leadership in 21st
century
Leading innovation, culture and collaboration
Approach in Leading a company identifying the topics
necessary to meet 21st century challenges
N.R. Koka

2. Signs you are CEO Material
 1. You get results.
 2. You know how to communicate well.
 3. You’re always challenging yourself.
 4. You inspire and motivate others.
 5. You know how to surround yourself with the right people.
 6. You are confident and humble.
 7. You’re thinking ahead.
 8. You are curious.

3. Are right people in the right jobs?
 Each person is uniquely capable of performing their job: the company spokesperson
is a gifted public speaker; the administrative assistant is a master multi-tasker;
 It takes a team with many different talents to bring the ideas to fruition. Hence
getting the right people into the right seats on the bus is essential to a company’s
success.
 The right person feels a sense of ownership over his or her position and be
equipped to fulfill what the role demands. – ownership culture
 When the right person is in the right job, the benefits are (a) increases retention (b)
increases productivity (c) attracts more good people.
 In the Leadership positions, if the person doesn’t show ownership culture, replace
with the right person.

4. Adopt a 21st century approach to
Communication
 The best corporate leaders make it a priority to communicate effectively as they
navigate this hyper-connected, Twitter era. They realize that every word and deed is
vulnerable to public scrutiny and intense criticism.
 The CEO-Communications Director relationship has a crucial strategic importance
for both the communications function and the organization as a whole.
 CEO’s effective communication should be a key strength of his/her leadership.
 Chief executives need to focus on communications as a management capability
much more seriously than they typically do.

5. Encourage effective collaboration
 1. Cultivate openness and transparency - employees be expected to collaborate
with others throughout the organization.
 2. Establish an idea-sharing culture - establish a creative and judgement-free
workplace culture where new ideas and discussions are consistently welcome
 3. Encourage collaboration across departments - combination of differing
objectives, people types and skillsets can lead to the most effective idea generation.
 4. Offer positivity and rewards - This is crucial in encouraging future
collaborations, as employees will realize the benefits of working together.
 5. Have the right technology in place - a cloud-based idea management platform
can help your employees collaborate more and develop novel concepts at scale.

6. Motivate people in a particular direction
 Hit the goal, not the target - In the fast-paced world business objectives often
move faster than we can hit them. Instead of driving teams toward a specific
outcome, try focusing them on the result, you want them to achieve.
 Pull on the same end of the rope - You need to get your people pulling on the
same end of the rope, drive them toward accomplishing an organizational goal
instead of an individual one. This way, if the company wins — so do they. If they’re
individual performers before, it’s an opportunity for them to contribute their know-
how for everyone’s benefit.
 Paint a picture with results - To align teams and make them more successful, it
helps to know exactly what success looks like. Get your teams aligned by giving
them a shared objective that paints a clear picture of what this result will do in terms
for them and the organization.

7. Engaged Board of Directors
 Today’s boards must prepare for the challenges of the 21st century. As
directors think about strategy for the future, they should be taking a new
approach that represents the values of the company and communities
they serve. Boards need to be more transparent, more trusted, and
more connected and engaged.
 The best place to start is by creating a skills and identity matrix that
includes all of the competencies and constituencies you need to have in
the boardroom to drive the strategy and prepare for the future.

8. Develop people to think differently to
handle 21st century challenges
 Leaders today face new challenges due to the speed of technological, social, and
economic changes. Due to these new challenges, we need new breed of leaders.
 Traditional leadership expectations and outcomes still have a place in today’s new
world of work, but they should be combined with a set of new competencies and
recognition of a new context to round out how leadership is defined for the 21st
century.
 Developing leaders with new competencies requires more than an evolution in the
competencies themselves. Equally paramount is for the organization to have the
culture, the structure, and the management processes to cultivate these leaders.

9. Changing direction is difficult to do, but
needed in 21st century leadership
 No business ever stays exactly the same throughout its lifetime. As market
conditions, customer demands and technology change, companies need to
adapt to stay relevant and keep growing.
 But sometimes, continuing along the same trajectory with a few minor tweaks
isn't enough. In certain cases, a company may need to completely switch
directions and revamp its business model in order to survive.
 During periods of change and transition, employees will turn to their company's
leadership team as an example of how to react to and handle the situation. Now
more than ever, you need to motivate your staff and show them that this is the
right move for the business.

10. Innovation is more important than it’s
ever been in the 21st century
 Expert mindset innovation process is, the process operates with a belief that
they, as designers or engineers, have the expertise required to best address
the innovation objectives, while doing the research in user interests and
behaviors.
 Close collaboration, means that a group goes into a process with no
predetermined idea of the outcome, but a shared purpose for what they hope to
achieve. Participants engage in empathetic listening, to understand the
perspectives of others. And the group together shares control of the process
and the outcome.
 Its up to company design group to decide which innovation works better for
their company. The closed collaboration approach worked well for a company
like IDEO and expert mindset innovation worked well for a company like Apple.

11. Execution is all that matters
 If you don't get execution right, nothing else matters. Strategies, plans,
investments, all of them come to nothing if you can't deliver in the end.
 A business leader's job is to successfully move the organization forward and
improve business performance. This requires a continuous process of
reflection, analysis, planning and execution. There is no better way to
learn/practice these skills than “by doing”.
 Successful strategy execution counts on a simple and clear articulation of what
matters most. Priorities that shift frequently based upon reactions to outside or
emergent events typically lack a solid direction as guidance.
 As Steve Jobs once said, “To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed ...
Execution is worth millions.”

12. Private life undermines the Professional
life
 Public companies’ boards are responsible, of course, for monitoring the
performance of their chief executives. While the majority of their focus is—and
should be—on the CEO’s on-the-job performance, directors can’t ignore aspects of
the CEO’s personal lives that can have a real impact on the company’s bottom line
and stock price.
 a CEO’s personal life can influence company culture and ethics and set the tone for
corporate behavior. In addition, risky behaviors or poor health can affect a
company’s results.
 CEO misbehavior can short company goals and culture. Risks posed by poor
conduct and reckless behavior can't be mitigated or properly reported without
measures in place to monitor a CEO’s personal life.

13. Why company culture so important?
 The culture at your organization sets expectations for how people behave and
work together, and how well they function as a team. In this way, culture can
break down the boundaries between siloed teams, guide decision-making, and
improve workflow overall.
 Culture is vital to your organization because it shapes your corporate identity
and therefore your growth, paving the way for success and a lasting legacy. If
you can see that you’re making a positive impact within your team and in your
community, then you know it is working.
 We want to create a culture where we can celebrate our successes, where
people look forward to coming to work every day and don’t want to leave at
night. We want a high-energy, fast-growth, innovative, fun company that’s a
great place to work, and we want other people to notice.

14. Conclusion
 Evaluate yourself before you accept a Leadership role
 Are the Right people in the Right jobs
 CEO’s effective communication should be a key strength of his/her leadership.
 Encourage collaboration across departments
 drive them toward accomplishing an organizational goal instead of an individual
one.
 include all of the competencies and constituencies you need to have in the
boardroom.
 Develop leaders with new competencies that think differently.
 Innovation is more important in this 21st century.
 Execution is all that matters. Getting things done.
 Culture paves the way for success and a lasting legacy