A Better Breed of Leaders

With the younger generation shunning the reins of power, it’s not enough to sit back and wait for the fittest to survive. CEO, John Connor and Managing Partner, Ron Strieker, Ph.D. from CMI International, an Atlanta-based consulting company specializing in leadership development, executive coaching and other talent management solutions, shed some light on the approaches necessary to build the next line of destiny-makers.

In the new corporate sphere where most young execs prefer to play in a team instead of blazing the trail as a maverick, leaders need to be aware and practise two essential skills. First, they must be adaptable and flexible with their staff and in meetings so people feel a part of the process.

Secondly, they need to be collaborative and inclusive, allowing the team members to lead at times, struggle and then solve problems with a common mindset that forges forward to a common goal. In many ways, they are conducting and orchestrating through a collaborative model.

Usually, ‘high-potentials’ are intellectually the smartest people in the room and have a long history of doing things on their own. They have been rewarded over and over again for this behaviour and it has become a major ingredient of their success profile.

With the dearth of such personalities, an early development is key. If a team player is to be groomed to be a future leader, the cycle of individual contributor can be broken with role modelling, project assignments outside of their areas of responsibility, project management where they ‘manage’ others who do not report to them, and finally, building trust at the peer and upper management levels through social networking techniques.

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