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 But that's kind of an image from another time, and what's also outdated are the leadership development programs that are based on success models for a world that was, not a world that is or that is coming.
是什麼造就了當代的卓越領袖? 很多人腦海裡浮現的是 無所不知的超人 立場中立、指揮、 保護他的擁護者。 但那是過去某段時間塑造出的形象, 而且領袖培訓計畫 早已過時, 因為那是出自於 過去世界的成功典範, 而非出自現在的世界, 或未來的世界。
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.
我們針對四千家公司做了一項研究, 我們要求他們,讓我們看看 貴公司領袖培訓計畫的效益。 58% 的公司 提到重要的領導階級 有很大的人才斷層。 那意謂著僅管公司有培訓計畫、 遠距、評估、訓練,所有的這些事, 半數以上的公司 都沒能培養足夠的領袖。 你也許會自問 我的公司有協助我準備 成為 21 世紀的傑出領袖嗎? 很可能是:沒有。
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.
至今,我花了 25 年的職業生涯 觀察成為傑出領袖的因素。 我在財富 500 強公司裡工作, 提供超過 200 名執行長建議, 建立的領導補給線 比你想像中的還多。 但是幾年前,我注意到 一種讓人困擾的趨勢 出現在領袖培訓養成中, 我注意到,即使做了所有的努力, 類似的故事不斷再次上演 在個人身上。 有一個關於克里斯的故事, 他是有高潛力的巨星形領袖, 調到新的單位之後卻失敗了, 摧毀無法挽回的價值。 還有一些像是執行長悉妮的故事, 悉妮很挫折, 因為她的公司被表揚為 擁有最佳領袖的企業, 但是 50 名頂尖領袖中, 只有一位有能力 帶領他們的重要領導會議。 因此有許多故事 像是生意轟動一時的 資深領導力團隊, 他們訝異於市場轉變, 讓他們必須強迫將公司規模 縮減為一半, 或是結束營業。
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.
而這些一再重覆發生的故事 讓我開始思考兩個問題。 為什麼領袖的斷層會擴大, 即使投資更多 在培養領導力上? 傑出領袖在激勵和培養上的 哪些作為顯然不同? 我做的其中一件事, 我很著迷於這些問題, 但這些故事也讓我深感挫折, 因此我離職了, 如此一來我就能全心研究, 而且我花了一年時間走訪 世界各地, 了解有效與無效的 領導力實踐,在企業、 國家和非營利組織之中。 因此我也去探訪了南非, 在那裡我就有機會能了解 曼德拉過去如何 預期和探索 他的政治、社會和經濟脈絡。 我也和一些非營利組織的領袖見面, 儘管他們擁有的經濟資源很有限, 對世界仍造成很大的影響, 也經常將看似敵對的人們聚在一起。 我花了無數時間在各個總統的圖書館, 試圖了解環境是如何 引導、改變領袖, 他們採取的舉動, 以及那些舉動 在他們任期之後的影響。 之後當我回到全職工作, 在這個職務上,我加入許多優秀的同事, 他們對這些問題也很好奇。
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.
從這之中,我分析出 活躍領袖的特質, 以及他們做了什麼不同的事, 後來我也分析了 能促使人們發展潛力的 預先準備。 我想和大家分享一部分。
("What makes a great leader in the 21st century?")
(「是什麼造就了 21 世紀的卓越領袖?」)
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.
21 世紀的世界更為國際化、 數位化,且透明化, 以更快的資訊流通和革新速度, 所有的大事要完成都必須 有某種複雜的矩陣, 仰賴傳統發展的實務操作 將會阻礙身為領袖的你。 事實上,傳統的評估 像是縮減 360 度調查, 或是過時的執行標準 會讓你有錯誤的實例, 讓你誤以為自己比實際上 準備得更好。 21 世紀的領導力以三個問題 來定義與證明。
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.
你期待自己 下一個商業模式或人生的轉變 在哪裡? 這個問題的答案在你的日曆上。 你都花時間和誰在一起?做什麼事? 你去哪裡旅行?你讀什麼? 你怎麼把這個濃縮成 了解潛在的不連續性, 然後決定馬上做一件事 讓你能準備就緒? 有一組領導力團體做了一個練習, 他們聚集每一位成員, 這裡有一些趨勢影響我, 有一些趨勢影響另一位組員, 他們分享這些, 然後做一些決定,修改某項策略的方向, 或是期待新的措施。 傑出的領袖不會低頭。 他們會到處去看, 塑造他們的未來, 而不只是對未來做出反應。
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.
第二個問題是, 你個人和專業財產保管人網絡的 多元化程度? 我們常聽到精英分子圈 (good ol' boy), 他們真的存在,而且在 某些機構活得好好的。 但是在某種程度上, 我們都有一種人際網絡, 處在那之中能讓我們感到自在。 因此這個問題是關於 你和那些與自己非常不同的人 發展人際關係的能力。 那些差異可以是生理、 身體、職務、政治、文化 和社會經濟等各個方面上。 然而,儘管有這一切的差異, 他們仍與你連繫, 他們信任你到能夠 與你合作 達成共同目標。 傑出的領袖了解 有更多元的網絡 意謂著擁有 在更高層模式識別的資源, 以及解決方式的資源, 因為你擁有 和你抱持不同想法的朋友。
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.
第三個問題是:你是否夠勇敢 能拋棄過去曾讓你成功的習慣? 有種說法是:隨遇而安,逆來順受。 但是如果你跟隨這項建議, 身為一名領袖你可能 只打算做你熟悉和自在的工作。 傑出領袖勇於與眾不同。 他們不只是談冒險, 他們真的去冒險。 其中一名領袖與我分享, 最有影響力的發展來自於 當你能建立情緒耐力 來抵抗別人告訴你,你的新想法 很天真、魯莽,或就是非常蠢。 有趣的是,會參與你的人們 往往不是你在網絡中所預期的人。 他們通常是有不同想法的人, 因此他們願意與你一起 勇敢地跳一大步。 是跳一大步,而不只是跨一小步。 更勝於傳統領導力課程的是, 回答這三個問題 能決定你是否 能成為真正的 21 世紀領袖。
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.
因此,是什麼造就了 21 世紀的卓越領袖? 我已見過許多,而且他們十分傑出。 他們可能是男是女, 他們為自己做好準備, 不是為了舒適、可預測的昨日, 而是為了現實的今日, 以及那些所有充滿未知可能的明日。
Thank you.
謝謝!
(Applause)
(掌聲)