 Articles Making
Successful Transitions
| Capacities
for Transformation in the 21st Century | Developing Tomorrow's Executives Today Everybody understands that the 'cycle times' for creating a new product from concept to market have fallen significantly in the past 10 years. Car manufacturers have cut the manufacturing cycle from 7 years to sometimes 2 years. Semiconductor manufacturers and computer manufacturers have done similar reductions in cycle times. What many people do not recognize is that cycle times for strategy to action have gone through similar reduction and companies need different kinds of executives in the 21st century. In this article I attempt to identify the role of executives in the3rd millennium organizations, and suggest ways to develop them by integrating and transcending both leadership and management perspectives currently prevalent in the management literature. Think of strategic planning that was big in the 1980s and before. Strategic planning of the past was design to produce a product - the "strategic plan" that was to be implemented. As such, it was an event - a product to be produced. However, that "product" is quickly obsolete because the conditions upon which it was premised often changes rapidly, and is no longer relevant. We are beginning to see some resurgence of strategic planning focused tightly around processes like Six Sigma or Balanced Scorecard and I believe it is the right direction. Strategic thinking included with strategic planning must evolve as a process - not a product, thereby enabling the ongoing incorporation of real time changes. While this step seems evolutionary, it requires a change in attitude, mindset on the part of senior managers and only a few are beginning to grasp the significance and act accordingly. In 1990, Peter Senge wrote
the landmark book The Fifth Discipline in which he made a strong
case for approaches based on dialogue, reflection and vision to
build 'learning organizations.' During the same time, scenario based
planning (which emphasizes both shared vision and systems thinking
that Senge discussed) and large scale change programs have become
more important, as everybody in the organization has a role to play
in thinking, sharing a vision and executing it to bring success
in the 90's and into the new century. The effects of these changes are critical to the concepts of leadership and management. What is leadership? Do people have it in them or can it be developed? These questions are being asked again by CEOs of start-up companies as well as their older, larger cousins as the distinctions blur between the two and as they become more concerned about effectiveness of an executive. In addition, with renewed focus on entrepreneurship and dot-com explosive growth (and rapid bust), developing people has taken on new criticality and this short article is aiming to clarify some of these issues. Indeed, some CEOs of corporations
are offended by the implication that they are in leadership positions
but not leaders (some of you might nod your heads!). Some others
feel that these tough economic times require us to focus on 'tangible'
'meat and potato stuff' like cost control, market expansion, new
product development and shareholder value --- the hard stuff of
business and it requires different kind of management performance,
and they want to enhance it through management development (and
postpone leadership development because it is optional in terms
of producing results this quarter and they don't have time to worry
about the long term investment into building the next cadre of leadership).
Many executives I talked with believe that managing has to do with
dealing with hard issues of organizations like structure and governance
(and meeting identified metrics like cost control, share value and
revenue growth etc.) whereas leading has to do with fuzzy but critical
issues like vision, inspiration and direction. One CEO recently
told me that he would like his people to be good executives and
he does not care whether they lead or manage. These comments led me to believe
that we need a new framework and this paper presents one such framework
for your consideration and review. In an ideal scenario, leadership
is the tacit side of management whereas management represents explicit
behavior side of leadership. Leadership represents the spirit and
management represents the physical body that has arms, legs, ears
and eyes etc. Leaders manage the qualitative side and create the
future whereas the managers take care of the quantitative side and
provide the foundation for that future to take roots in the present.
One without the other is incomplete and ineffective and an effective
executive learns to weave the two strands together. Addressing
another question, whether the leadership belongs to the individual
or the collective, I say that leadership is demonstrated through
individuals (some times individual groups or teams speaking with
one voice) in the context of the collective. We also understand that management
has collective and individualistic components. The collective management
represents a system, an explicit boundary that is recognized inside
and outside the system. An organization within an industry represents
a system. For example, a Schedule C corporation has one set and
K-1 Partnerships have another set of management boundaries. Each
company structure requires different policies, procedures and operational
principles that are mandated by local, state or federal rules. The
system still allows for different behaviors for individuals to 'manage'
the corporation. These four components - individual leadership, Leadership context (culture), manager's behavior and organization - cannot exist by themselves and are interconnected and indivisible part of a larger system. These four are interdependent, and together represent a 'holon' a la Arthur Koestler and Ken Wilber. If we represent them on a 2 by 2 matrix proposed by Ken Wilber, it looks like this:
To view this in another way,
I see leadership and management as two strands of an executive DNA.
Leaders manage the qualitative side and create the future whereas
the managers take care of the quantitative [sometimes merely more
measurable] side and provide the foundation for that future to take
root in the present. An executive is a person who integrates strategic
thinking with dynamic sensing of the market place and customer needs
and acts appropriately. I feel strongly that we need to focus on executive development at different levels of the organization instead of artificially separating and focusing on leadership or management development. As an executive becomes more comfortable with one side or the other, conscious attention has to be paid to 'unlearn' unworkable patterns and let go of rigid mindsets that limit development. I know of Fortune 500 executives who move from job to job, blaming the organization and people whom they just quit, each time hoping that the situation would be different. When executives pay little attention to their own dysfunctional patterns, the future becomes the continuation of the past. Without self-awareness and a strong intention to break out of old patterns and mindsets, executives continue to fail and blame others. Self-awareness is the critical
competence that needs to be developed in tomorrow's executives today.
The more that executives know about who they are, and who they are
not, the better they'll be able to grow and develop themselves and
also find others to complement their skill-sets. The predictable
alternative is that they'll hire people who are similar to themselves,
and a healthy diversity of thought, ideas and culture won't penetrate
the management team. Executives do not work alone and are consciously
creating a team or working as part of a larger team. The effectiveness
of an executive is enhanced when he/she is appropriate to the collective
context both explicitly (by paying attention to boundaries, rules
and needs of the organization) and implicitly (by being sensitive
and appropriate to the culture). So the leadership development
literature, models, paradigms and practices of the 90's addressed
only part of the executive development that is needed and wanted
in the Third millennium organizations. We need to address both hard
and soft aspects of an executive and do it in a way that executive
development takes place in the culture not just in the individual
and produces results in the system and not just promotions or kudos
for individuals. Summarizing, executive development includes and
transcends functions of management as well as leadership and in
effect, subsumes leadership, corporate governance, strategic thinking,
business model development, shareholder satisfaction, decision making,
intellectual capital and people development. We have been researching, piloting
and developing programs for the past eleven years for companies
like Boeing, Ford, BMS, BAE Systems, Mastek, Cisco that address
the four quadrants of executive development. Our approach is fully
consistent with the five disciplines of Peter Senge and it also
incorporates elements of CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel's work from
the book Competing for the Future. Part II: DNA Approach to Personal Mastery for Executives Working with these companies
we have developed and tested a revolutionary design for executive
development. It has three components: Learning and operationalizing
new skills and competencies, developing responsibility and accountability
for the larger corporate ecosystem, and executive self-awareness.
While the first two components are reasonably well articulated by
others in the management field, the third component is getting more
and more attention as that is the foundation for what executives
do and who they are. In this section, we present
a framework that addresses our approach to developing executive
self awareness or personal mastery. The methods and activities we
developed focus on bringing clarity to participants and helping
them develop a personal strategy for themselves. In other words,
we help executives to identify and map their own personal DNA so
that they can develop 'personal mastery.' Improvements in effectiveness
can be dramatic when executives are able to make concrete connections
between their unconscious thought patterns and their behaviors.
Making such connections involve they dispassionately examining those
patterns and resulting behaviors and see if the old mental models
are still valid. It requires awareness, attention, action and reflection. SelfCorp has developed effective
methods for 1) bringing autopilot patterns to the level of awareness/
consciousness, 2) structuring the patterns in ways that dramatize
their effects (and bring it to their attention), and 3) identifying
behavior triggers that short circuit them thus allowing conscious,
effective, intervention (action). A structural framework (available
through secure web pages) keeps the results of the program in existence
allowing integration of the reflections and insights into personal
and work-related issues. The program is structured as follows: o The key to success of an
executive development program is helping executives make concrete
connections between their unconscious thought patterns and their
behaviors. The 'knowing-doing' gap develops as they mistake 'knowing'
something for their ability to execute on it. Executives, like anybody
else, are known to operate on 'autopilot' a significant percentage
of their waking time. They keep doing the same things expecting
different results in an 'unthinking way.' The knowing-doing gap
reduces when executives become more aware of their own feelings
and automatic thought patterns, and the roles they play in teams
or meetings. When designed and executed appropriately, individuals
develop and integrate both their leadership and management capabilities. o A component in this "DNA"
is revealed when executives gain greater clarity about their larger
visions and purposes. When they are in touch with their purpose,
it becomes easier for them to analyze the gap between current reality
and the desired future. It's easier for people to backtrack from
the desired future than to track into the future by looking at past
experiences. Having a larger purpose also opens them up to dig deep
into finding ways to move toward it. This also allows them to stretch
beyond the culture and the context in which they live and work.
That is critical for identifying their own unique aspirations and
ambitions. o Another component is explored
when executives get in touch with their "core incompetence"
(CI). CI is the point at which executives lose their capacity to
think and act rationally and logically and instead react out of
past memories and dysfunctional patterns. Many executives know their
strengths but they may not have clarity about this core incompetence.
By looking at where they get stuck repeatedly and where their feet
are nailed to the floor, they can begin to identify their CI. Once
they identify their CI, executives can partner with others with
strengths and capabilities in the area of their own incompetence.
CI replicates autopilot, or vice versa. o CI is like a hook: it's an
often unconscious addictive pattern. We encourage executives to
pay attention to how, when, and under what circumstances their CI
hooks them. We facilitate executives to create strategies for unhooking
themselves. The larger purpose and the Core Incompetence are two
sides of the same coin. An executive can only be present to one
of them at any one time. When executives consciously shift their
attention to a larger purpose and explore why they are doing what
they are doing, they can learn to unhook themselves. This is the
beginning of personal mastery journey. o Executives identify what
activities energize them and what activities drain them. Emotional
energy and passion are two factors that distinguish successful leaders
and form the reminder of the basic DNA elements. Many executives
are unaware of activities and practices that rejuvenate them reliably
and repeatedly. By identifying activities or practices that reliably
rejuvenate them they reduce chances of burn out. Similarly by identifying
"warning behaviors" that precede unproductive, stressful
patterns, stress can be reduced and burn out avoided. Their energy
drain is reduced. When consciously identified and applied, similar
alarm systems can be developed for managing projects and inspiring
people around them. o An executive's ability to
lead, coach, manage and teach others depends upon empathy and openness
to accept other people. Accepting others, of course, is directly
related to self-acceptance and is the next step to self-awareness.
o Executives share their transformation
stories with each other and with the select audience. o The focus of this program
is to help executives identify their own unique "DNA".
The four "DNA" components include the purpose, core incompetence,
energy drain and energy trigger. These four components are structured
into a unique framework that reveals how the components interact,
the effect of their interactions and ways that counterproductive
patterns can be identified and altered. After the program, the framework
is available on-line in interactive form and may be used for identifying
and developing competencies that effectively move the executive
in the direction that he/she wants to go.
I am interested in your thoughts, ideas, and insights provoked by this article. Let me know and we can dialogue! Prasad Kaipa is the CEO of
SelfCorp, inc., managing director of the Mithya Institute for Learning
and an adjunct professor at Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco.
He can be contacted at pkaipa@selfcorp.com or 408 871-0462. Acknowledgments: I gratefully acknowledge Art Lerner, Jim O'Toole, Russ Volckmann, Andre Delbecq, Phil Metzler, Sudhir Chadalavada, Tom Milus and Ed Haskell for their thoughtful comments and reflections. |
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