What makes a great leader today? Many of us carry this image of this all-knowing superhero who stands and commands and protects his followers. But that's kind of an image from another time, and what's also outdated are the leadership development programs that are based on success models for a world that was, not a world that is or that is coming.
Šta je danas dobar lider? Mnogi od nas imaju u glavi sliku sveznajućeg super-heroja koji stoji i komanduje i štiti svoje sledbenike. Ali to je slika iz davnih vremena, a ono što je takođe zastarelo su i programi za razvoj liderstva zasnovani na modelu uspeha u svetu koji je nekad postojao, a ne svetu kakav je danas ili kakav će biti.
We conducted a study of 4,000 companies, and we asked them, let's see the effectiveness of your leadership development programs. Fifty-eight percent of the companies cited significant talent gaps for critical leadership roles. That means that despite corporate training programs, off-sites, assessments, coaching, all of these things, more than half the companies had failed to grow enough great leaders. You may be asking yourself, is my company helping me to prepare to be a great 21st-century leader? The odds are, probably not.
Ispitivali smo 4 000 kompanija, i tražili da vidimo efekte njihovog programa za razvoj liderstva. 58% kompanija je navelo da imaju priličan manjak ljudi sposobnih za kritične funkcije lidera. To znači da, uprkos treninzima u korporacijama, na terenu, procenama, podučavanju, svemu ovome, više od polovine kompanija nije uspelo da stvori dovoljno dobrih lidera. Možete sebi postaviti pitanje, da li me moja kompanija priprema za velikog lidera 21. veka? Velike su šanse da ne.
Now, I've spent 25 years of my professional life observing what makes great leaders. I've worked inside Fortune 500 companies, I've advised over 200 CEOs, and I've cultivated more leadership pipelines than you can imagine. But a few years ago, I noticed a disturbing trend in leadership preparation. I noticed that, despite all the efforts, there were familiar stories that kept resurfacing about individuals. One story was about Chris, a high-potential, superstar leader who moves to a new unit and fails, destroying unrecoverable value. And then there were stories like Sidney, the CEO, who was so frustrated because her company is cited as a best company for leaders, but only one of the top 50 leaders is equipped to lead their crucial initiatives. And then there were stories like the senior leadership team of a once-thriving business that's surprised by a market shift, finds itself having to force the company to reduce its size in half or go out of business.
Provela sam 25 godina svog profesionalnog života proučavajući šta čini lidere dobrim. Radila sam u Fortune 500 kompanijama, savetovala sam preko 200 izvršnih direktora, i radila na više procesa stvaranja novih lidera nego što možete da zamislite. Međutim, pre nekoliko godina, primetila sam zabrinjavajući trend u pripremanju lidera. Primetila sam da, bez obzira na sav trud, jedne iste priče o pojedincima su se stalno ponavljale. Jedna je bila o Krisu, omiljenom lideru velikog potencijala, koji je prešao u novu jedinicu i podbacio, nepovratno uništivši ugled. A bilo je i priča kao ova o Sidni, direktorki koja je bila toliko frustrirana jer je njena kompanija važila za najbolju kompaniju za lidere, ali je samo jedan od 50 najboljih bio sposoban da predvodi njihove najvažnije inicijative. Zatim imamo priču kao što je ona o višem liderskom timu u nekada uspešnom poslu koji je, iznenađen promenama na tržištu, doveo kompaniju do toga da otpusti polovinu ljudi ili da prestane sa radom.
Now, these recurring stories cause me to ask two questions. Why are the leadership gaps widening when there's so much more investment in leadership development? And what are the great leaders doing distinctly different to thrive and grow? One of the things that I did, I was so consumed by these questions and also frustrated by those stories, that I left my job so that I could study this full time, and I took a year to travel to different parts of the world to learn about effective and ineffective leadership practices in companies, countries and nonprofit organizations. And so I did things like travel to South Africa, where I had an opportunity to understand how Nelson Mandela was ahead of his time in anticipating and navigating his political, social and economic context. I also met a number of nonprofit leaders who, despite very limited financial resources, were making a huge impact in the world, often bringing together seeming adversaries. And I spent countless hours in presidential libraries trying to understand how the environment had shaped the leaders, the moves that they made, and then the impact of those moves beyond their tenure. And then, when I returned to work full time, in this role, I joined with wonderful colleagues who were also interested in these questions.
Ove priče koje se iznova dešavaju navele su me da postavim dva pitanja. Zašto su praznine u liderstvu sve veće kada se sve više ulaže u njegov razvoj? I šta to veliki lideri rade drugačije zbog čega su sve uspešniji? Jedna od stvari koje sam uradila, pošto su me ova pitanja toliko mučila i ove priče me toliko frustrirale, je da sam napustila posao, da bih mogla sve vreme da proučavam problem, i putovala sam godinu dana u razne delove sveta da proučavam uspešne i neušpesne liderske prakse u kompanijama, državama i neprofitnim organizacijama. I tako sam, recimo, otputovala u Južnu Afriku, gde sam imala priliku da shvatim kako je Nelson Mendela bio ispred svog vremena u predviđanju i upravljanju svojim političkim, društvenim i ekonomskim kontekstom. Takođe sam upoznala puno lidera neprofitnih organizacija koji su, uprkos nedovoljnim finasijama, imali veliki uticaj u svetu, često okupljajući naizgled ljute protivnike. Provodila sam sate i sate u bibliotekama pokušavajući da shvatim koliko je sredina uticala na lidere, na poteze koji su pravili, a zatim i uticaj tih poteza van njihovih radnih mesta. A onda, kada sam ponovo počela da radim, u ovoj ulozi, udružila sam se sa divnim kolegama koji su takođe bili zainteresovani za ovaj problem. Iz svega ovoga, izdvojila sam
Now, from all this, I distilled the characteristics of leaders who are thriving and what they do differently, and then I also distilled the preparation practices that enable people to grow to their potential. I want to share some of those with you now.
karakteristike lidera koji su uspešni i ono što oni rade drugačije, i takođe sam izdvojila prakse u treninzima koje tim ljudima omogućavaju da nadograđuju svoj potencijal. Podelila bih nešto od toga sa vama.
("What makes a great leader in the 21st century?")
["Šta čini dobrog lidera u 21. veku?"]
In a 21st-century world, which is more global, digitally enabled and transparent, with faster speeds of information flow and innovation, and where nothing big gets done without some kind of a complex matrix, relying on traditional development practices will stunt your growth as a leader. In fact, traditional assessments like narrow 360 surveys or outdated performance criteria will give you false positives, lulling you into thinking that you are more prepared than you really are. Leadership in the 21st century is defined and evidenced by three questions.
U svetu 21. veka, koji je globalan, digitalizovan i transparentan, sa većom brzinom protoka informacija i inovacijama, i gde se ništa značajno ne može uraditi bez neke vrste složene matrice, oslanjati se na tradicionalne prakse razvoja onemogućiće vaš napredak kao lidera. U stvari, tradicionalne procene, kao na primer, evaluacija "360 stepeni" ili zastareli kriterijumi učinka, daće lažne pozitivne rezultate, i vi ćete se opustiti, misleći da ste pripremljeniji nego što zaista jeste. Liderstvo u 21. veku je definisano i dokazano trima pitanjima.
Where are you looking to anticipate the next change to your business model or your life? The answer to this question is on your calendar. Who are you spending time with? On what topics? Where are you traveling? What are you reading? And then how are you distilling this into understanding potential discontinuities, and then making a decision to do something right now so that you're prepared and ready? There's a leadership team that does a practice where they bring together each member collecting, here are trends that impact me, here are trends that impact another team member, and they share these, and then make decisions, to course-correct a strategy or to anticipate a new move. Great leaders are not head-down. They see around corners, shaping their future, not just reacting to it.
Na koji način ćete predvideti narednu promenu u svom poslovanju ili životu? Odgovor na ovo pitanje nalazi se u vašem kalendaru. Sa kim provodite vreme? O kojim temama razgovarate? Gde putujete? Šta čitate? I na koji način ovo izdvajate da prepoznate potencijalna nepodudaranja, i donesete odluku da nešto u ovom trenutku preduzmete da biste bili pripremljeni? Postoji tim lidera koji upražnjava okupljanje svojih članova, gde svaki od njih iznosi trendove koji na njih utiču, zatim oni te ideje razmenjuju i donose odluke da pravilno usmere strategiju ili da predvide sledeći korak. Veliki lideri ne gledaju ispred sebe. Oni gledaju izvan okvira, i ne samo da prihvataju svoju budućnost, već je i oblikuju.
The second question is, what is the diversity measure of your personal and professional stakeholder network? You know, we hear often about good ol' boy networks and they're certainly alive and well in many institutions. But to some extent, we all have a network of people that we're comfortable with. So this question is about your capacity to develop relationships with people that are very different than you. And those differences can be biological, physical, functional, political, cultural, socioeconomic. And yet, despite all these differences, they connect with you and they trust you enough to cooperate with you in achieving a shared goal. Great leaders understand that having a more diverse network is a source of pattern identification at greater levels and also of solutions, because you have people that are thinking differently than you are.
Drugo pitanje je šta je ono po čemu razlikujete svoje privatne i poslovne veze? Znate kako često slušamo o dobrim, starim poslovnim vezama, a one svakako još uvek postoje u mnogim institucijama. Mada, donekle, svako od nas ima poslovne veze sa ljudima među kojima se oseća prijatno. Dakle, ovo pitanje je o vašoj sposobnosti da razvijete odnose sa ljudima koji su različiti od vas. A te razlike mogu biti biološke, fizičke, funkcionalne, političke, kulturološke, društveno-ekonomske. Pa ipak, uprkos tim razlikama, oni ostvaruju kontakt sa vama i veruju vam dovoljno da bi sarađivali sa vama u postizanju zajedničkog cilja. Veliki lideri razumeju da su raznovrsne poslovne veze izvor prepoznavanja šablona na višem nivou, kao i rešenja, jer imate ljude koji razmišljaju drugačije od vas.
Third question: are you courageous enough to abandon a practice that has made you successful in the past? There's an expression: Go along to get along. But if you follow this advice, chances are as a leader, you're going to keep doing what's familiar and comfortable. Great leaders dare to be different. They don't just talk about risk-taking, they actually do it. And one of the leaders shared with me the fact that the most impactful development comes when you are able to build the emotional stamina to withstand people telling you that your new idea is naïve or reckless or just plain stupid. Now interestingly, the people who will join you are not your usual suspects in your network. They're often people that think differently and therefore are willing to join you in taking a courageous leap. And it's a leap, not a step. More than traditional leadership programs, answering these three questions will determine your effectiveness as a 21st-century leader.
Treće pitanje: da li ste dovoljno hrabri da prestanete da radite ono što vas je učinilo uspešnim? Postoji izreka koja kaže: budi dobar sa svima. Međutim, ako poslušate ovaj savet, šanse su da ćete, kao lider, i dalje raditi ono što vam prija i što vam je poznato. Veliki lideri se ne plaše da budu drugačiji. Oni ne samo da pričaju o preuzimanju rizika, oni to i rade. A jedan od lidera mi je rekao da najznačajniji razvoj dolazi onda kada postaneš emotivno jak da podneseš da ti ljudi kažu da je tvoja nova ideja naivna ili traljava ili jednostavno glupa. Ono što je zanimljivo je da su ljudi koji će biti na vašoj strani obično oni od kojih to najmanje očekujete. To su vrlo često ljudi koji razmišljaju drugačije i zbog toga su i spremni da vam se pridruže u skoku sa litice. A to je skok, a ne korak. Više nego tradicionalni programi liderstva, odgovori na ova pitanja će utvrditi da li ste sposobni za lidera 21. veka.
So what makes a great leader in the 21st century? I've met many, and they stand out. They are women and men who are preparing themselves not for the comfortable predictability of yesterday but also for the realities of today and all of those unknown possibilities of tomorrow.
Dakle, šta čini dobrog lidera u 21. veku? Upoznala sam mnoge, i svi se oni ističu. To su žene i muškarci koji se pripremaju ne za ono što je poznato od juče, već za sadašnju realnost i sve one nepoznanice koje donosi sutra.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)