leadership attributes what can we expect in our dynamic global economy?
TRANSCRIPT
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2011 Women’s Leadership Conference
“Go Where There Be Dragons”
Leadership Essentials for 2020 and Beyond
Sophia A. Muirhead
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
The Conference Board, Inc.
April 13, 2011
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Business needs
leadership correction,
calibration, and change.
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So Says The Conference Board Councils
Asia-Pacific Talent, Leadership Development and Organization
Effectiveness Council
European Council of Human Resources Executives
European Council on Learning, Leadership, and Organizational
Development
European Council for Diversity in Business
Leadership Development Council
Council on Learning, Development, and Organizational
Performance
Executive Council for Talent and Organizational Development
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Why leadership change is not
happening naturally? What kind of language do we use about
leaders and leadership?
How does the media portray leaders?
What does leadership look like based
on these descriptions?
Decisive, courageous, visionary, inspiring,
moving team toward goal, great in adversity.
Men, firm, heroic/the lonely hero, beautiful
people, charismatic, lions
and elephants, aggressive, bigger than life.
Decisive, bias for action, engaged, able to
execute, gravitas,
deploy the troops, figurehead
B
I
A
SThis material is based on a May 2010 presentation to a joint Council session by Professor Binna Kandola, senior partner and co-founder of
Pearn Kandola, a leading practice of business psychologists, specializing in assessment, development, diversity, and well-being, with offices in
the United Kingdom and France. Kandola’s most recent book, The Value of Difference: Eliminating Bias in Organizations, was published by
Pearn Kandola Publishing in 2009.
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In a world that can seem as if it is spinning out of control, leaders will
need new skills and behaviors to manage new drivers that include
increased speed, complexity, and customer sophistication
Perspective #1
The speed of change is changing.
Changing expectations of the workforce.
Globalization has given way to complexity.
Government oversight and regulation is growing
in all regions of the globe.
Corporate social responsibility is becoming a
key component of doing business.
Managing polarities – continuity vs. change;
being global but acting local; continuous
improvement vs. fundamental innovation.
You can no longer control the conversation.
Shareholders (from employees to customers,
to board of directors) have access to
information, not all of it necessarily accurate
or flattering.
AND
Greater access to information at greater speed
actually means more ambiguity, not less.
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Human Capital risk is #1 in significance
(% respondents)
Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
Perspective #2
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Human Capital risk is managed LESS effectively than
almost everything except terrorism and climate change.
(% respondents)
Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
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Source: Best practice in risk management: A function comes of age. (An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by ACE, IBM and
KPMG) February 2007 (Data are an average measure taken from surveys over the previous two years)
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Perspective #3
A.C. Nielsen study:
2/3 of respondents
believe the
looming talent
shortage will cost
them at least USD
$50M.
1/3 of survey
respondents with
revenues of more
than $1B believe
the hit will top USD
$100M.
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2011 CEO Challenge Survey
Perspective #4
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Talent is ranked second among the top challenges faced
by CEOs around the globe for 2011
# of observations: 704, number of observations for each challenge varies.
Top 3 Global Challenges
GLOBAL
1.65
.74
.72
.70
.59
.42
.40
.37
.29
.09
.00 .50 1.00 1.50 2.00
Business growth
Talent
Cost optimization
Innovation
Government regulation
Corporate brand and reputation
Customer relationships
Sustainability
International expansion
Investor relations
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Regional results show significant variation in top 3-
challenges for CEOs across regions
Global United States Europe Asia Rest of World
1 Business growth Business growth Business growth Talent Business growth
2 TalentGovernment
regulationCost optimization Business growth
Government
regulation
3 Cost optimization Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
4 Innovation TalentCustomer
relationships
Corporate brand
and reputation
Corporate brand
and reputation
5Government
regulationCost optimization
Government
regulationSustainability
Customer
relationships
6Customer
relationships
International
expansion
International
expansionCost optimization Cost optimization
7Corporate brand
and reputation
Customer
relationshipsTalent
Government
regulationTalent
8 SustainabilityCorporate brand
and reputationSustainability
Customer
relationshipsSustainability
9International
expansionSustainability
Corporate brand
and reputation
International
expansion
International
expansion
10 Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations Investor relations
GLOBAL
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Business needs
leadership correction,
calibration, and change.
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LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
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Importance of Leadership Development
(1) # of observations: 258, # of observations for each strategy varies. (2) # of observations: 74
Top 3 Global Strategies for Talent1
GLOBAL
1.03
.81
.53
.49
.46
.45
.43
.37
.36
.34
.25
.23
.13
.07
.02
.00 .50 1.00 1.50
Improve leadership development programs,grow talent internally
Enhance effectiveness of thesenior management team
Provide employee training and development
Improve leadership succession planning
Hire more talent in the open market
Promote and reward entrepreneurship and risk taking
Raise employee engagement
Increase diversity and cross-cultural competencies
Flatten organization; empower leadership from the bottom up
Redesign financial rewards and incentives
Manage multi-generational workforce
Invest in education system to improveworkforce readiness
Invest in automation and technology to reduce exposure to the scarcity of talent
Other, please specify:
Redesign benefits, e.g. health care and retirement
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CAUTION!
The old way of developing leaders – to clone an
organization’s current leaders – is outmoded. Do that now
and you are at risk of being irrelevant. Leadership
programs you develop for high potentials now
may not be relevant when they
are ready to lead.
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Tomorrow’s leadership developers must
Stop looking in the rearview mirror
Question conventional wisdom
Get middle managers on board
Develop a leadership brand
Don’t assume managers know how to
draft development goals
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NEW C-LEVEL MINDSET
The C-suite should understand that
leadership development is not an event; it
is a commitment, and the C-suite is
accountable. Leadership development is
time intensive and requires the
commitment of senior leaders. This
responsibility cannot be relegated.
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Leadership Development – C-Level Strategies
Take an active role in internal development; become involved in teaching, mentoring
and coaching
Provide leadership in emerging leader/ HI-PO programs that reach employees
earlier and advance them faster than the organization is used to doing
Think through the opportunities you have to provide developmental opportunities
(both formal and informal) for the next generation of leadership
Insure that all programs link to talent management actions including rewards,
mobility programs and succession planning
Participate in candid discussions about the leadership behaviors necessary for
success now and in the future; work for a collective vision that can be articulated
and acted upon
Hold each other accountable for the upholding “ground rules”
Seek feedback as an individual and as a team so that you can continue to address
current and future challenges as a high-performing team
Communicate often about what matters and why
Speak about your own developmental journey
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Questions & Answers