Know 21st Century Perspective on Corporate Leadership Training Program
Jammu Navani
December 08, 2022. 5 minutes Read
Leadership is as old as the human civilization and the earliest that corporate leadership appeared on the horizon can be envisaged to be along with the onset of the first industrial revolution in the 17th century, although the modern-day corporate leadership and management development started somewhere in the middle of the last century.
- Table of Content
- Evolution of The Industrial Revolutions
- Disruption: The new normal
- The new corporate leadership challenges
- Corporate Leadership in the 21st Century
- Evolving the Leadership model for 21st-Century Corporate Leaders
- Organizational Leadership Competencies
- Functional Leadership Competencies
- Corporate Leadership: The young leaders of tomorrow
- Developing the corporate leaders of tomorrow
- Corporate Leadership Training: Leadership Excellence & Beyond
Evolution of The Industrial Revolutions
Throughout history, Humans have tried to bring perfection to almost everything, including its industry, and benefited from qualitative advancements. This qualitative advancement has sometimes been so ingrained in a specific period and has had such an overwhelming impact that we have dubbed them “industrial revolutions” The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam as a power source to mechanize production. The Second used oil, gas, and electricity as a source of power to create mass production. The Third used the computing power of an atom and developed electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by a fusion of technologies, is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological domains; put, “it is all about connecting the internet to the physical world.”
Although, like its predecessors, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has one thing in common: DISRUPTIVE. Fourth, Industrialization is turning upside down the tables of the prevailing industries before them; what sets it apart from the earlier ones is its massive impact on the world, given its speed of technological advancements that have no precedents. And also, its pace of evolution is more exponential than linear, disrupting every business across the globe.
Disruption: The new normal
From what I see is that in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the following are the key factors causing everyday business disruptions;
- Globalization of world markets, technologies, and innovations.
- A massive shift from a decaying industrial economy to a knowledge-driven entrepreneurial economy.
- Relentless competition, customer-driven economies,
- Speed of technology is the leading market driver.
- Accelerating the pace of technological advancement.
- Relentless innovation.
Consequently, for leaders, the implications of thriving in such a changing environment entail coming to an understanding of the following;
- The only thing sure is “uncertainty.”
- Agile, extreme, and adaptive are the new leadership traits.
- “Unpredictable” is the only level playing field for leaders.
- Business changes will be very complex and fluid.
- High change, high speed, and high stress will be the norm rather than an exception.
As the fourth industrial revolution intensifies, rewriting the business rules and technology is fast becoming more than a business enabler.
It is becoming a provider of what can be called the heart of every business in a contemporary context, with massive and rapid scalability and efficiency?
No business, big or small, will be immune to such unprecedented disruptive forces and for businesses to stay relevant and resourceful in such choppy waters of rapid technological and industry changes. All current/running businesses will have to adopt a very different style of Leadership that can embrace and addresses all the complexities, uncertainties, and vagaries that will come with everyday business disruptions.
Expression of Anger is of Three Types
- Aggressive
- Passive
- Assertive
Anger is expressed in three ways;
- Passive Aggression
The first one is Passive Aggression, where sometimes a person doesn’t admit that they are angry but are annoyed and expresses their Anger in silence, sulking, or by pretending that “everything is okay.”
- Open Aggression
The second type is Open Aggression, where a person expresses Anger and rage and may lash out at other people. They can be physically or verbally aggressive.
- Assertive Anger
The third type is Assertive Anger which is a healthy way of dealing with Anger where a person communicates their feelings without hurting themselves and keeping others’ feelings in mind. They will be open to talking, listening, and finding solutions.
The new corporate leadership challenges
Along with the fourth industrial revolution will come new leadership challenges. Corporate leaders will have to learn to deal not only with the complexities arising out of human factors at work but also those arising out of technological factors.
Furthermore, future business challenges will be nothing less than life in a super-fast lane, featuring significant change, high speed, and high stress.
To succeed in disruptive times, what will be necessary is a total overhaul of the outdated corporate leadership model and replace it with a leadership strategy in the contemporary context, beginning with a shift in the leadership paradigms of organizations.
In the future, the most challenging task for any corporate leader will be “How to succeed .” Economic uncertainty, market consolidation, and the need for growth through innovation will render the best of organizations to survival pressures and make it imperative for corporate leaders to manage multifaceted business challenges. For business leaders, dealing with the pressures of Leadership will be accompanied by its challenges, with leaders now having to drive performance in a rapidly changing, complex, global business environment — one that constantly places new demands on their organizations and the capabilities of the workforce.
By any measure, it’s a tall order for even the highest-performing leaders, which brings us to a point where we need to address a few burning questions:
- What kind of Leadership will effectively steer organizations to success through such economic volatility and chaos?
- What are the critical skills required for such Leadership?
- How can one build and sustain an effective leadership strategy?
The harsh realities of a chaotic and volatile environment that we may have to deal with a daily call for the need for a new leadership mindset based on the presupposition that radical change and uncertainty will be the new norm. Not the exception, encompassing a worldview compatible with change and unpredictability, recognizing that although goals are achievable, how we get there is unpredictable. Hence, adaptability is more important than predictability.
Corporate Leadership in the 21st Century
But from my vast experience of over 38 years, I envisage the evolution of a leadership model that is a refreshing and practical approach to extreme challenges, acknowledges the complexity and fluid nature of business change, and is profoundly thoughtful. A useful approach to managing in a chaotic environment is a radical thought that provides a sounding board, frame of reference, and guide when faced with tough and demanding leadership situationsAs I look back over the years, I see that by itself, Leadership has not evolved; what has developed is our understanding of it and the fact that leadership styles are personality-driven. Different leadership styles can be effective simultaneously, whereas the same technique may be ineffective in different situations.
People working within the organizations expect from Organization to adjust continually to sudden disruptive changes, competitive threats, new technologies, rapidly changing markets, business environment, and customer needs, and therefore developing such a radical leadership approach then necessitates a new leadership paradigm that addresses the following;
- Reinventing the leadership model in a contemporary context
- Shifting our perceptions of realities and how we relate to it
- Being comfortable leading at the edge of chaos
- Having the foresight to anticipate rapid changes
- Having an ability to reach out and develop enduring bonds.
- Having the courage to steer the Organization through volatility and chaos.
- Having the competency to see patterns in chaos and take control.
- Having the ability to take bold actions and safeguard the Organization’s interests.
- Being prepared to alter strategies.
- Having the agility to stay ahead of the volatility curve.
- Having the ability to spot opportunities through rapid upturns and downturns.
- Having the ability to adapt to ever-changing internal and external factors while maintaining the strategic focus and core vision.
Given the leadership challenges of tomorrow, it is not an easy task to understand or define a leadership model that will help businesses remain relevant and resourceful in the turbulent and chaotic business environment.
Evolving the Leadership model for 21st-Century Corporate Leaders
In my three decades of following Leadership and its evolution in time, I have never seen such a struggle to reach a consensus on the ideal leadership style for the future. The pressure of the current business environment is so enormous that any strategy or course of action we decide today is highly susceptible to what may surface tomorrow.
Having accepted the fact that in the future, we have to operate in a bewildering and rapidly changing environment, what is needed is a business leadership model that is
"
Highly Strategic In Action, Dwells On A Well-Developed Mindset For Gauging Technological, Social, Political, Market And Economic Realities Of The Environment In Which Businesses Operate
and for which following are the critical must-have competencies;
The ability to prepare for multiple scenarios, think innovatively, deal with complexity and manage paradoxes.
Seek and leverage new technologies and understand the ever-growing virtual nature of the workplace.
shifting from command and control to more inclusive, collaborative working and problem-solving.
mean having the competencies to manage a workforce composed of people from diverse backgrounds, the sensitivity to deal with cultural differences, and a profound understanding of the dynamics of international markets.
inspire confidence and trust in the Organization’s direction and promptness in addressing employee concerns.
Embrace and drive change in response to or anticipating business needs and effectively master the change process.
Functional Leadership Competencies
Corporate Leadership: The young leaders of tomorrow
Today, the world is witnessing relentless change at an increasingly rapid pace. Consequently, the youth of tomorrow will be subjected to various unique and complex challenges and have to perform in an environment characterized by high-speed, significant change, and high stress. Some modern-day challenges have already appeared on the horizon, like acute income inequality and job loss due to automation. What is essential and critical today is to develop the youth of tomorrow in advanced leadership competencies by enabling them to be well-equipped to manage the complexity, paradox, non-linear stresses, ambiguity, and a multitude of challenging perspectives.
One of the most critical challenges today is the insufficient academic and institutional resources to churn out dynamic leaders. We need Dynamic Leaders with advanced capacities who can adaptively lead themselves, others, and the Organization through multiple complexities to achieve desired outcomes for themselves, others, and others in the Organization. It then falls upon today’s youth to instill in themselves the leadership skills of the 21st Century. So here is an opportunity for the budding leaders of tomorrow to undergo self-development by training and coaching in the essential leadership skills of the 21st Century.
Developing the corporate leaders of tomorrow
Business success in the modern-day volatile and rapidly changing environment will be consequential to the corporate Leadership’s ability to:
- Foster a new way of thinking and taking action appropriate to the extremeness of the situation at hand to maintain control and deliver value in the face of volatility and uncertainty.
- Adopting a mindset compatible with and thrives on constant change and innovation, is in sync with chaos and unpredictability, and emphasizes people and interactions.
- Gain and sustain a commitment to the operations under extreme, turbulent, and complex conditions.
- Constantly shift leadership requirements in response to internal and external changes.
- Move forward at high speed given the constantly changing requirements, rapidly evolving technologies, and an ever-changing competitive business landscape.
- Alter strategies to fit situations as and when they arise or change.
- Foster a culture based on the premise that people are crucial to the Organization’s success and therefore puts people in control of the process and not the other way around.
Corporate Leadership Training: Leadership Excellence & Beyond
Few things are necessary for the ecosystem to address challenges in the Leadership of the next era of global business. It is essential to develop professionals for success in an environment of strong market forces, changing people issues, and shifting leadership competencies by forging training & coaching models. This model will link the knowledge, skills, and concepts relevant to the leadership competencies of the 21st Century to the practice of Leadership within actual work organizations
Final Thoughts
As a professional trainer & coach, I help executives, budding corporate leaders, and CXOs. I help to build their physical resilience, accelerate their professional & business growth and help make an extraordinary impact by training the mind to achieve mental strength and physical well-being. I also help them to get away from the problems of the past and focus on future practical solutions; by enabling them to tap into one’s resources. These Practical Solutions will help them improve not only their skills but also their physical & mental wellbeing by helping, through personal choices, become strong, competent, and well-adapted to control their life and career.
The objectives of my corporate leadership training and coaching are to help prepare excellent corporate leaders of tomorrow by enabling them to;
- effectively navigate a path to success in the face of economic volatility
- acquire the emerging skills required for the next generation of corporate Leadership
- build and sustain effective corporate Leadership through an integrated leadership development strategy
To reshape the global business environment, the convergence of various market, social and technological forces- calls for a new context of Leadership and management. Success in managing and corporate Leadership will be determined not by accumulated knowledge but by the speed of acquisition of latent leadership skills and competencies critical for success in the 21st Century.
Managerial excellence will not be a matter of possessing traditional skills and tools but demonstrating a high degree of flexibility and adaptability in dealing with technology and people. And it is also staying constantly meaningfully connected to others in the ever-changing world.
Jammu Navani
Jammu is an ex – c-suite executive, a thought leader, passionate about
learning and sharing, with an insatiable appetite for helping individuals,
institutions and organizations pursue “EXCELLENCE” – be the best they
possibly can by the means of coaching, training & consulting.
As a professional trainer & coach he coaches leaders, entrepreneurs and
executives to help them build their physical resilience, accelerate their
professional & business growth and make an extra ordinary impact.
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