ENCORE! 2.5 INSIGHTS

  Great leaders are committed to developing other people as leaders, which often means putting them in positions where they might fail. This also involves encouraging people to step outside their comfort zone and helping them learn from setbacks and mistakes as opposed to punishing them for setbacks and mistakes and blunting personal growth. Being coached helps a leader understand that to have the greatest impact as a leader, is not by doing more by everyone else but by empowering other people to do more and motivating them to do their best. This means letting go of certain responsibilities and recognizing the limits of one’s expertise. A dynamic leader does not need to have all the answers… you just need to ask the right questions. In short, effective leadership looks a lot like coaching.  Follow Through on Company Values Great leaders also internalize the responsibility to embody the culture and to walk the talk. It's a truism in organizational life that the "values plaque&q

The digital economy has radically changed the way many of us now work - including organizational leaders. The top-down, ‘hero’ approach of leadership that worked in the industrial age is no longer fit for purpose and digital leaders need different methodologies. Today, fostering collaboration and encouraging innovation are now core competencies of effective leaders. Relying on traditional leadership structures, processes and behaviors in modern digital-native businesses can lead to a whole range of issues, from lost revenue and higher employee turnover, to decreased customer satisfaction. This new work paradigm requires an updated model of leadership based on six new truths: Leaders work in agile teams — Teams have become the new normal in corporate workplace culture. Legacy hierarchy has been replaced by agile, cross-functional teams that assemble around a project or initiative that may last weeks, months, or even years. Instead of static groups of direct reports who merely execu

Scenario planning is a must-use process for functional leaders to drive immediate actions, decisions and longer-term strategic planning.  The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a wide range of strategic planning activities. As the focus turns largely to recovery and renewal, functional leaders are increasingly pulled into enterprise conversations about likely outcomes when the way forward is neither clear nor certain. They also have to plan for a range of potential outcomes for their own functions. Scenarios are compelling descriptions of possible futures — not necessarily the most probable ones, but plausible, coherent and substantially different ones driven by the unavoidable barriers facing the business. Business models are evolving frequently, particularly as executives consider which pandemic-related trends will become permanent. This requires a prompt shift in the strategy that defines how the enterprise will play and win — and requires all functional leaders to be p