Peter Drucker’s wisdom and experience endures both through the current crisis and the rebuilding going forward. The world is in a period of great uncertainty, and although being caught in the eye of the storm feels like a unique experience, there is always another one brewing.

Leaders will have recognised that the leadership style that may have supported their company surviving and hopefully thriving through the first phase of the pandemic will be different from the one needed to lead them out of it.

Drucker Forum 2020

This article is one in the “shape the debate” series relating to the fully digital 12th Global Peter Drucker Forum, under the theme “Leadership Everywhere” on October 28, 29 & 30, 2020.
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Five-year strategies and plans are no longer relevant to the challenges we now face. In a crisis, time is of the essence. Falter or delay and you can be rapidly lost and left behind. 

Agile action on a ‘what’s next’ basis and frequent communication with the team while keeping a calm head and focus will be imperative to leading well.

In her book Leading through Uncertainty, Jude Jennison notes that “It takes an exceptionally skilled leader to balance the energy of driving results with the softness of nurturing in complete harmony”.

What leadership skills, then, do we need to navigate through periods of uncertainty? 

Hal Gregersen, a speaker well known to Drucker Forum audiences, believes executives should be talking less and questioning more. In his self-explanatorily entitled book Questions are the Answer, Gregersen describes humans as complex systems with potential just waiting to be released. A coaching approach – asking questions rather than telling – can unlock the answers by enhancing capacity for original thinking and problem solving.

Leaders need to embrace new operating models. Agility is vital, and the key to success will lie in adapting leadership styles to the stage and rate of change. As American academic Leon Megginson observed in Lessons from Europe for American Business, “According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

As many have commented, Covid-19 has concentrated years of economic and social change into a few short months. For example, remote working is helping companies to thrive. Surprised executives note that working relationships are not adversely affected, while employees reap the unexpected benefits of much reduced travel costs and the ability to spend more time with their families. Companies benefit from reduced overheads, the planet from a drop in travel.

Change breeds further change, and perhaps with changes to home working policies vacant office blocks could be repurposed to fill the shortfall in housing. Travel companies will need to develop new pricing models for those commuting to the office two days a week instead of five.

Yet the heart of leading into the post-covid recovery must be a focus on investing in the quality of human relationships for a better working world.

Recovery is the third phase of crisis leadership, writesMerete Wedell-Wedellsborg, executive adviser and clinical psychologist, in Harvard Business Review, in which the human dimension of trust, transparency and autonomy must be paramount.

Understanding and sharing purpose and values both inside and outside an organisation help to create an environment of psychological safety, allowing people to take risks and feel supported. In this new world order, leaders must recognise and be grounded by common humanity.

Margaret Wheatley puts it this way: “We need leaders who recognise the harm being done to people and planet through the dominant practices that control, ignore, abuse and oppress the human spirit. We need leaders who put service over self, stand steadfast in crisis and failures, and who display unshakeable faith that people can be generous, creative and kind.”

About the Author:
Gina Lodge is CEO of the Academy of Executive Coaching. She has more than 20 years’ experience in management and is an accredited executive coach.

[Link: –Leading into the Post-Covid Recovery]

This article is one in the “shape the debate” series relating to the fully digital 12th Global Peter Drucker Forum, under the theme “Leadership Everywhere” on October 28, 29 & 30, 2020.
#DruckerForum

When James F Moore published his seminal The Death of Competition in 1996, he described being asked by several business executives ‘how they could increase their capacity to cope in a corporate world where change showed no signs of slowing down’.

Much of the strategic guidance offered by the book still holds weight, but what we’re still seeing is the need for a profound management shift. Fast forward to 2019 and executives are still asking the same questions.

Drucker Forum 2019

This article is one in the “shape the debate” series relating to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum, under the theme “The Power of Ecosystems” taking place on November 21 & 22, 2019 in Vienna, Austria.
#GPDF19 #ecosystems

Competition is so fierce that ecosystems have evolved to the point where delivering value creation for the customer is central to businesses winning or losing. As Moore notes, better tools are needed for business development and market creation. However, these tools, such as coaching, are not always being deployed because some bosses are too scared to let go of the reins.

As we move into the digital economy, the biggest challenge facing organisations is not from technology, but from workplace culture and the need for managers to adopt new ways of leading.

A recent Harvard Business Review article argues that an alternative to the command-and-control style of leadership has failed to emerge. It highlights leadership research carried out by MIT analysing how two long-established companies have identified and adapted three leadership styles, described as ‘entrepreneurial’, ‘enabling’ and ‘architecting’.

Investigating the role each plays in the organisation’s performance, it identified ‘a shared belief that leadership should rest with whoever is best positioned to exercise it, regardless of title’.

In organisations run on such a collective leadership footing, coaching becomes a major element in cultural and organisational design. A coaching approach is favoured by many high-performing businesses that understand its contribution in managing change and developing competitive advantage.

Traditional coaching has emerged as a key tool and talent where leaders are equipped with coaching skills for everyday use. Under their influence, cultures become more open and employees gain the space, time and support to overcome self-limiting beliefs, free up their imagination and maximise their potential.

In the age of automation, companies must rely more on their employees’ innate human qualities such as lateral thinking and creativity to unlock performance. Liberating our people creates new knowledge and gives the capability to lift entire organisations and enable leaders to cope in volatile environments.

In our new sharing economy, where individuals, businesses, services and products are more connected than ever, there is no room for isolation at the top of business. Purpose, values and the importance of community and wider society are becoming ever more fundamental in their influence on ecosystems.

Business leaders’ own ecosystems will need to better serve the wider world; and a systemic approach to management where all the connections are coached will be crucial if organisations are to continue innovating and creating best value for stakeholders. Our leaders need self-awareness, commitment, humility, trust and purpose to enable their workforces and ecosystems to work for the greater good of all.

Perhaps it’s fitting to give Moore the last word: “We need a range of voices – a diversity of inputs – and the skills to listen, appreciate and respect each other.’’

About the Author:

Gina Lodge is CEO of the Academy of Executive Coaching. She has more than 20 years’ experience in management and is an accredited executive coach

This article is one in the Drucker Forum “shape the debate” series relating to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum, under the theme “The Power of Ecosystems”, taking place on November 21-22, 2019 in Vienna, Austria #GPDF19 #ecosystems